Meet our team

Prior to joining 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. In 2019, Mustafa became the first refugee to formally represent Canada at the Global Refugee Forum. In 2021, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Decorations (Civil Division) from the Office of the Governor General in Canada. Mustafa sits on multiple national and international advisory boards. He has worked closely with multiple government partners, international refugee networks, UNHCR, civil society actors from around the globe, and other stakeholders to address gaps and improve programming that meets refugee needs internationally, and especially within Canada.

Mustafa has authored several articles on refugee issues, and his work can be found in The Independent, The New York Times, The Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Apolitical, The New Humanitarian, and Forced Migration Review.

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 discriminatory travel bans, and increase refugee resettlement numbers. Most recently, at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva as part of the Human Rights and Refugees Programme, Marisa engaged with a wide range of stakeholders from across states, civil society, and the UN system. In her work with QUNO, she supported the development of engagement strategies, including meaningful migrant participation, for core migration multilateral processes, particularly the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF).

At the city level, Marisa worked to advance and strengthen sanctuary practices and migrant-friendly policies in Chicago, following the lead of directly affected communities. Marisa is from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and began her career with a focus on human rights issues related to U.S. foreign policy and military spending in Central America. Marisa has a master’s degree in Global Affairs, International Peace Studies concentration from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies, International Development, and French from Salve Regina University.

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. There, she studied Human Rights and Global Justice, and Global Policy and Asia. She received her Honours Specialization in Political Science which focused on International Policy and Regional Politics from Western University, where she also holds a Minor in Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction.

During her studies, she had the opportunity to study at the National University of Singapore, which fostered her interest in South East Asian politics. Some of her interests include refugee rights, food sovereignty, anticolonialism, and the intersection between power and accountability.

Ishimwe is a journalist and refugee advocate with over seven years of experience in the humanitarian sector, advocating for refugee leadership and inclusive policies across East Africa.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of Nairobi and contributes to various media platforms to challenge refugee responses and plans that advance “savior” approaches instead of refugee- and community-centered solutions. His journey is deeply rooted in his experiences as a refugee in Kenya. Having faced numerous challenges in his early life, including a prolonged lack of refugee identity documents, he understands firsthand the hardships refugees face in accessing identity documentation. Prior to joining R-SEAT, Ishimwe served for nearly five years as the Executive Director of Youth Voices Community (YVC), where he helped guide the organization to become a leading refugee-led organization advancing advocacy, particularly around socio-economic inclusion and self-reliance in Kenya.

He is also a board advisor at YVC and Inkomoko Kenya. A believer in Pan-Africanism, Ishimwe holds that Africa’s collective consciousness in viewing refugees as brothers and sisters offers one of the strongest pathways to genuine inclusion of refugees across the continent. He currently serves as the East Africa Regional Lead for Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table (R-SEAT), where he works to institutionalize meaningful refugee participation and leadership at the state level across the East Africa region.

Maria is an experienced professional with a robust background in open innovation, startups, and community-led ecosystems across Latin America.

Before joining R-SEAT, she helped launch one of the first startup accelerators in southern Brazil and worked for more than 15 years with governments, companies, universities, and local communities to design innovation programs with social impact. She has extensive experience using hackathons and challenge-based methods to bring people together and create practical solutions to complex problems. Maria holds a degree in Political Science and International Relations, with a specialization in conflict resolution and local and regional governance. Her academic background provides her with a deep understanding of the political and social dynamics that affect displaced populations and the importance of inclusive governance structures.

As R-SEAT’s Latin America Regional Lead, Maria works to build bridges between refugee leaders, governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and the private sector. Her role focuses on strengthening meaningful refugee participation across Latin America by co-designing Refugee Advisory Mechanisms and supporting refugee leadership ecosystems throughout the region. She brings a unique combination of technical expertise in innovation methodologies and deep knowledge of Latin American political contexts to advance refugee participation in policy-making processes.

Gabriela holds a degree in Government and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and a postgraduate degree in Peace Culture from Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.

Originally from Colombia, she has built her career in international environments, contributing to peacebuilding initiatives and the impact investment ecosystem. Her profile combines a strategic mindset, strong organizational skills, and a commitment to generating positive impact.

James Milner is a 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.

He has been a researcher, practitioner, and policy advisor on issues relating to the global refugee regime, global refugee policy, and the politics of asylum in the global South. In recent years, he has undertaken field research in Burundi, Guinea, Kenya, India, Tanzania, and Thailand, and has presented research findings to stakeholders in New York, Geneva, London, Ottawa, Bangkok, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and elsewhere. He has also worked as a Consultant for the UNHCR in India, Cameroon, Guinea, and its Geneva Headquarters.

He is the author of Refugees, the State and the Politics of Asylum in Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), co-author (with Alexander Betts and Gil Loescher) of UNHCR: The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection (Routledge, 2012), and co-editor of Refugees’ Roles in Resolving Displacement and Building Peace: Beyond Beneficiaries (Georgetown University Press, 2019) and Protracted Refugee Situations: Political, Human Rights and Security Implications (UN University Press, 2008).