Co-Managing Director

Rez Gardi is an international lawyer and human rights advocate . Being born as a refugee in Pakistan, Rez sought to use her difficult start in life as motivation to help others. She became New Zealand’s first female Kurdish lawyer andthe first Kurd to graduate from Harvard Law School, where she graduated as a Fulbright Scholar with a Master of Laws.

Co-Managing Director

Prior to joining at R-SEAT, Mustafa Alio was a co-founder and former Managing Director of Jumpstart Refugee Talent, an organization devoted to the economic inclusion of refugees. In 2017, Jumpstart pioneered the Economic Mobility Pathways Program (EMPP), currently supported by IRCC to help resettle Ukrainian refugees.

Partnerships and Stakeholders Advisor

Since 2015, Marisa has worked on policy and advocacy on migration, refugee, and human rights issues extending from the multilateral sphere to the national, regional, and city levels. At the national level in the United States, she lobbied Congress to promote regularization pathways for undocumented migrants, halt discriminating travel bans, and increase refugee resettlement numbers.

Program & Policy Lead

Hannah Loewith has been working with R-SEAT since its inception. She is a graduate of the Master of Migration & Diaspora Studies program at SOAS University, where she wrote her thesis analyzing responses towards different refugee crises. She is also a graduate of the Master of Global Affairs program at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto.

Latin America Regional Coordinator

Daniela Maria Perez Obando was born in Sincelejo, Colombia, and has lived in Ecuador for the past 13 years. Since 2016, she has actively participated in initiatives for refugees, including 'Jovenes Quito' by RET International in Ecuador, as part of the inaugural cohort of the Global Youth Advisory Council of UNHCR (GYAC), and as a panelist at international events such as the ECOSOC Youth Forum 2019 in New York, and in dialogue with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Latin American Regional Co-Lead

Juan Carlos Viloria Doria isa Venezuelan medical doctor. He has more than 10 years of experience in editorial management of scientific health journals. He has published 10 investigations, 3 of them presented at international conferences. He speaks Spanish, English, and Italian.

East Africa Regional Lead

Jean Marie’s journey is deeply rooted in his own experiences as a refugee in Kenya. Having faced numerous challenges in his early education, including a language barrier and struggling to afford school fees, as well as lacking refugee identity documents, he understands firsthand the hardships endured by refugees and their families, especially with regard to the lack of Identity Documents.

LERRN Project Director

James Milner is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Carleton University. He is currently Project Director of LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network, a 7-year, SSHRC-funded partnership between researchers and civil society actors primarily in Canada, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon and Tanzania.