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Geneva Staff

Jonathan Woolley Director

Jonathan Woolley joined QUNO Geneva in June 2011. He brings to QUNO more than thirty years’ professional experience of agricultural research, development and capacity building in some fifty countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Starting as a volunteer teacher in Kenya, he then worked directly with poor farmers in Nigeria, Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico. Later, through a wide range of consultancies for multilateral and bilateral agencies, private firms and international organisations, he focussed on the preparation and review of projects that addressed farmer participation in agricultural services. From 1999 to 2009, he led two research networks directed at institutional reform, building cohesive small teams and strengthening innovative partnerships: a ground-breaking agricultural research fund in Ecuador, and the first phase of the "CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food" based in Sri Lanka and active in nine river basins around the world. Jonathan holds an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Applied Biology from the University of Cambridge, UK. He originally joined Friends in the UK some forty years ago, and is a member of Mexico City Monthly Meeting. To read Jonathan Woolley's statement on taking up his post as Director of QUNO Geneva please click here.

Rachel Brett Representative for Human Rights and Refugees

LLB, LLM in International Human Rights Law with Distinction. She has been the Human Rights representative at the Quaker UN Office since 1993. She is the author of numerous publications – chapters in books, articles etc on human rights, the role of non-governmental organisations, child soldiers, etc as well as co-author of the books, Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight and Children: the Invisible Soldiers. She is a Fellow of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex, and previously taught law and international human rights law there as well as initiating and acting as principal researcher for the Essex Project on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (then 'The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe'). She worked at the Quaker UN Offices in both Geneva and New York in the 1970s.

Caroline Dommen Representative for Global Economic Issues

LLM in Law and Development, London University. Caroline brings long experience in both international trade, environmental law and policy, as well as human rights and development to this position. Prior to joining QUNO she was with the NGO 3D => Trade - Human Rights - Equitable Economy, where she was founder and Director. She has also worked for the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD, Geneva) and the International Service for Human Rights. Caroline is a member of several professional bodies including the International Advisory Network of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the IUCN-World Conservation Union Commission on Environmental Law, and the CUTS Geneva Resource Centre Stakeholder Forum. Since joining QUNO, Caroline has reshaped the programme to focus on food & sustainability, and human impacts of climate change.

Oliver Robertson Programme Officer

As Programme Officer, Oliver is responsible for managing QUNO’s contribution to the EU-funded COPING project investigating mental health and children of prisoners. He brings to this role experience of the issue gained through writing two QUNO publications on children of prisoners and having studied for an MSc in criminology at Oxford University, where his dissertation focused on babies living in prison with their mothers. Oliver is also jointly responsible for QUNO’s work on migration and climate change, to which he brings understanding of Quaker attitudes to sustainability and awareness of refugee/migration issues in personal and policy terms. Oliver has also worked as a news reporter for the Friend, the weekly Quaker magazine in Britain, and was a Programme Assistant at QUNO Geneva in 2006-7.

Diane Hendrick Programme Officer, Peace and Disarmament

Diane Hendrick has been active in the field of peace and conflict for more than 25 years. For 16 of those years she worked as a freelance consultant, trainer and researcher in conflict transformation and has worked on peace related projects in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Albania. She has also co-directed a number of international peace education projects. Diane has lectured in peace studies at various universities in Austria, Ireland and England and has had extensive experience as a trainer in peacebuilding and conflict transformation working with a broad range of groups from Austrian police trainers to Israeli and Palestinian young adults to the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe. She most recently worked with Peace Brigades International in Indonesia. Diane has a First in Peace Studies from Bradford University, an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University and a PhD in Conflict Resolution also from Bradford University. She has been carrying out research on complexity theory and its application to conflict transformation and on psycho-spiritual approaches to peace work and peace training and was invited to contribute several articles to the Oxford University Press International Encyclopaedia of Peace. Diane is a member of Manchester and Warrington Area Meeting in the UK.

Lynn Finnegan Programme Assistant, Global Economic Issues

Lynn is from Northern Ireland, and has a background in Geography, outdoor education and International Environmental Law. She studied BA Geography at Oxford University, with a dissertation  focused on Indigenous Peoples rights and conservation strategies in South Australia. This allowed her to live with the Nepabunna Adnyamathanha community, and she has also lived with the Karen Hill Tribe in North West Thailand. Last year she completed an LLM in International Environmental Law at Edinburgh University, focusing on REDD, natural resource law and ecological economics, whilst also conducting research in biomass and large scale land acquisitions with the International Institute for Environment and Development.  This year Lynn hopes to explore possible opportunities to integrate wider concerns into the multilateral trade agenda, and work constructively in global economic issues and climate change. Lynn is an Attender of Quaker meeting, and is also delighted about QUNO’s proximity to the Swiss Alps.

Helen Kearney Programme Assistant, Human Rights and Refugees

Helen has a double first-class honours in Modern Languages (Politics and Philosophy) from Cambridge University and a Masters in Human Rights (as a SYLFF scholar), with a dissertation that focused on human rights and environmental justice. After her undergraduate degree, Helen worked as a Sports teacher at an international school in the UK. Then she went to Guatemala to work as Fundraising and Communications Officer for an educational charity, guiding multi-day adventure hikes for tourists at the weekend. From November 2008, she worked as Tour Director for the National Educational Travel Council in France, Italy and Spain. Alongside her postgraduate studies, Helen worked with young people at Vauxhall City Farm in London. She also did an internship with Advocates for International Development. Helen is particularly interested in children’s rights, migration and environmental justice. Outside work, she hopes to receive her accreditation in community mediation, to spend as much time as possible in the mountains and to learn to snowboard.

Steven Heywood Programme Assistant, Human Impacts of Climate Change

Steven is originally from Birmingham, and received a BA in English from the University of Birmingham in 2007. Since then he has taken on a number of roles, including teaching English in Guangzhou, China; working on economic justice issues including corporate lobbying and tar sands for Friends of the Earth Europe in Brussels; and writing and editing sustainable development publications for Peace Child International in the UK, his most recent role.

David Atwood Consultant, Armed Violence and Development

Ph.D. Political Science, University of North Carolina. On completing his degree, David taught political science at the University of North Carolina and at Earlham College in the USA. From 1978 to 1988, he was Tutor in Peace Studies at Woodbrooke College in Birmingham, UK. In 1988, he became General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, headquartered in the Netherlands where his duties included policy development, staff management and direction of the Fellowship programme on non-violence education and training. David was Peace and Disarmament Representative of the Quaker UN Office in Geneva from 1995 - 2011. He was also Director of QUNO Geneva from 2003 - 2011.

Sylviane Trousseau Office Manager

Sylviane Trousseau joined QUNO in August 2009, with responsibility for office administration. Amongst her many essential day-to-day tasks, she coordinates upkeep of Quaker House and its accounts, manages meeting room bookings, organizes lunches and evening receptions, makes travel arrangements, and organizes seminars. Sylviane holds a degree in law from Lausanne University. Before joining QUNO she worked in different industrial companies as assistant to the management and brings her experience as multi task collaborator.

René Lejeune  Finance Officer

René studied at the International School of Geneva before starting his career in international banking in Geneva and Johannesburg. He has worked as management consultant for an American company, as a coffee and cocoa trader in Africa and Madagascar, and in administration and finance with international companies in Geneva. He completed his studies as Swiss specialist in finance and accounting in 2006 and is now member of the Board of a dozen SMEs. He also works as a consultant in finance, human resources, fiscal issues and organization with both small and large companies. René joined QUNO Geneva as Finance Officer (on a part-time basis) in June 2008.