Margaret Abam-DePass, CPJ’s deputy director of finance, has worked in not-for-profit organizations for 15 years. Prior to joining CPJ in 2010 as the Business and Accounting Manager, she worked as a staff accountant at both the PEN American Center in New York and at Friends of Firefighters, a Brooklyn-based organization. She also spent eight years as the office manager for the New York-based Association for Business Communication. A native of Cameroon, Abam-DePass received her bachelor’s in accounting from Kean University in New Jersey.
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Mohamed Abdelfattah joined CPJ as deputy director of communications in December 2023. He oversees efforts to expand the organization’s global reach by leveraging a wide range of integrated communications strategies. Abdelfattah began his career as a journalist in Egypt, where he covered the Arab Spring uprisings, broke stories of police abuse and produced coverage that challenged the entrenched authoritarian government’s hold on the free flow of information. He was the Cairo correspondent for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle in 2012, where he reported on the aftermath of the Arab Spring. In 2011, Abdelfattah was recognized by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression for his role in covering police brutality. During the 2011 Egyptian uprising, he was the field producer for CNN International, helping the team produce effective coverage despite government harassment, mob violence, and an internet shutdown–an experience that showed him firsthand the real dangers correspondents face while doing their job. Prior to CPJ, Abdelfattah helped advance innovative solutions to criminal justice reform in his role as senior communications manager at Impact Justice, where he led media outreach and social media strategy during a time of rapid growth. From 2017 to 2022, he led Northwestern University’s global media strategy in his roles as Global Editor and Associate Director of Global Communications, where his work included helping faculty members draft, edit, and place op-eds in publications such as Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. Abdelfattah grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, where he graduated with a BA in English from Alexandria University.
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David C. Adams is a CPJ’s Caribbean correspondent based in Miami where he works as a freelance journalist for several media outlets. He has covered Latin America and the Caribbean for the last 36 years and was previously a senior editor at Univision News and Miami bureau chief for Thomson Reuters. Before that he spent 15 years as the Miami-based Latin America correspondent of the Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest newspaper. A dual British-American citizen, Adams began his career in the U.K. and worked as a freelance journalist in the 1980s covering the civil wars in Central America and the U.S. invasion of Panama. After moving to Miami in 1992 he expanded his regional coverage of Latin America, including the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, the drug war in Colombia, and other historic events in Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti. He is a winner of the Paul Hansell Award for Distinguished Achievement in Florida Journalism, the top journalism prize in Florida, as well as the prestigious Maria Moors Cabot prize by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism for outstanding reporting on Latin America. He has also co-produced three documentaries: “Failing Haiti,” about the fall of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, “JDF16,” about the life and death of Cuban-born baseball player, José Fernández, and “#IamVanessaGuillen,” about sexual abuse in the U.S. military. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Emell Derra Adolphus joined CPJ in December 2023. Born and raised in Detroit, he is a New York City-based journalist, writer, and multimedia editor whose long-form essays, columns and international investigative reports have appeared in numerous publications, including The Daily Beast, Queerty, Edge Media Network, USA Today, Crain’s, Engineering News-Record, and many more.
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Samir Alsharif, a Jerusalem-based local journalist and production manager, joined CPJ in 2023. Working in Arabic, English, and Hebrew, he has supported foreign journalists from a variety of international outlets for more than 12 years. He has overseen logistics, administration, and coordination efforts on multiple projects with National Geographic magazine, and has worked with book authors and on various films.
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Diana Alsip joined CPJ in November 2023 as manager of digital communications. Prior to CPJ, she was a communications associate for online presence and outreach at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), managing the production of content across social media channels and driving user engagement strategy online. Before ICTJ, she was a data and design coordinator at Hunger Free America, worked on internal and external communications at The New School, and facilitated community building projects with rural communities in Colombia. She holds an MA in International Development from The New School and a BFA in Photography from Arizona State University. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Cassandra Barragan joined CPJ as a grants officer for institutional giving in June 2023. Prior to joining the development team, she worked as a grants officer at the National Endowment for Democracy, managing a portfolio of projects in North Africa. She has previous experience at the Jesuit Refugee Service, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, and International Rescue Committee. She holds a master’s degree in global development from the University of Sussex and a bachelor’s in international affairs and history from Florida State University. Barragan speaks Arabic and some Spanish. She is based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Casey Bauer joined CPJ in 2023. Before joining the development team, she worked with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a nonprofit legal organization that fights for health, disability, and environmental justice for New York communities. She also served as the development coordinator at the Center for Reproductive Rights from 2018 to 2021, a period during which several significant cases in the fight for abortion rights were decided at the Supreme Court. Prior to relocating to New York, Bauer spent a year teaching English in Ansan, South Korea. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theater with a minor in communications, and studied at the University of Oxford as part of an honors semester. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Beh Lih Yi oversees CPJ’s research and advocacy in Asia. Beh has more than 20 years of journalism and media experience in Asia, with her reporting focusing on human rights and social justice issues. She started her career at the award-winning independent Malaysian news website, Malaysiakini, before going on to work for international news outlets Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Hong Kong, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. She speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay, Indonesian and English. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Ananya Bhasin joined CPJ as the Emergencies Associate in April 2023. Prior to joining CPJ, Ananya worked with survivors of gender-based violence as a Senior Advocate at Sakhi for South Asian Women, where she provided culturally sensitive safety planning, crisis response, and economic empowerment services. She has previous experience in poverty law and food insecurity at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and Project Bread. At the University of Massachusetts, Ananya studied political science, the Middle East, and creative writing. She speaks Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and some Arabic.
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Micheal Blasini joined CPJ’s Human Resources department as the People and Talent Management Administrator. Currently engaged in a temporary position, Micheal will focus on providing comprehensive support to the Director and Deputy Director of HR, as well as being a resource to CPJ staff for general HR matters. With a strong background in HR administration, Micheal brings years of experience and is adept at managing a wide range of HR functions. Micheal is skilled at fostering a collaborative work environment and creating inclusive workspaces, and will assist in smoothing operations within the HR department. In his previous role at a major nonprofit organization, Micheal was the Labor Relations & HR Operations Specialist; he processed and managed benefits for all U.S. employees, including creating, managing, and implementing key projects and initiatives related to organizational restructuring, labor, and operations. In addition, he was responsible for assisting in the management of the relationship between HR and non-union and union employees, including contract negotiations.
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Anna Brakha joined CPJ as a Europe and Central Asia researcher in 2022. Prior to CPJ, she worked in different structures at the crossroads of media and international relations. She holds a master’s degree in international relations and post-Soviet studies from INALCO University and a Master of Science of Management and Media and Digital industries from ESSEC Business School. She speaks French and Russian.
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Joan Chirwa joined CPJ in April, 2021, bringing 17 years of journalism experience. She is the founder of the Free Press Initiative Zambia, a non-profit media organization. Previously, Joan worked as managing editor of Zambian independent newspaper The Post, which the government shut down in June 2016 and liquidated in November the same year. At The Post’s successor, The Mast, she served as editor-in-chief and CEO until November 2018, when she left to concentrate on building the FPI Zambia. Chirwa holds a master’s degree in mass communication from Leicester University in the U.K., a diploma in journalism from Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka, and is completing law studies at the University of Zambia.
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Catalina joined CPJ in June 2019 as a Journalist Assistance Program Coordinator, and in April 2024 became CPJ’s Deputy Emergencies Director. She has more than 15 years of experience providing humanitarian and emergency assistance to journalists in crisis. Prior to joining CPJ in 2019, she was Senior Programme Officer for Safety and the Americas at the London-based Rory Peck Trust, managing the organization’s training and operations in support of freelance journalists in distress. A native Spanish speaker, Catalina studied law and holds a master’s in International Politics and Human Rights from City University in London. She is based in the U.K.
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Crystal Chunnu joined CPJ in 2024. Prior to joining CPJ, she worked with volunteers at Minds Matter, a college access nonprofit for low-income high school students. Chunnu also worked at the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the office of the Queens Borough President, connecting constituents to vital resources and educating them on their rights. Chunnu holds a bachelor’s degree in public affairs from CUNY Baruch College, where she contributed to the university’s student newspaper as a writer and editor.
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Shawn W. Crispin has worked as a journalist and editor for over 15 years based in Thailand. He was bureau chief for the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review in Bangkok from 1999 to 2004, where he wrote on a wide range of political, business, and social issues. From 2001, Crispin also served as bureau chief for the Review‘s sister publication, The Asian Wall Street Journal. His coverage of Asia’s AIDS epidemic was part of a package recognized in 2004 for the “Excellence in Magazines” award of the Society of Publishers in Asia. From 2006 to 2015, Crispin served as Southeast Asia editor at Asia Times Online, where he wrote a regular political column and edited a team of over 20 regular contributors to the news site. Crispin is currently Southeast Asia columnist at The Diplomat. His journalism has also appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Institutional Investor and Yale Global Online, among others. In 2005, Crispin served as an investigative consultant with Human Rights Watch (Asia), where he researched press freedom issues in Thailand. for the past decade, he has served CPJ as advocate, researcher and spokesperson on Southeast Asia. He has conducted research missions and published special reports on Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Crispin has a master’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, where he received a prestigious Freeman fellowship. He speaks fluent Thai. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Doja Daoud is CPJ’s MENA representative. Before joining CPJ in March 2022, Daoud worked for the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed as a writer and news editor, focusing on press freedom and media monitoring. She also contributed to Lebanese news outlets, and co-founded the Alternative Press Syndicate, a local union group for journalists. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Somi Das joined CPJ as a Delhi-based correspondent in July 2024. A journalist with a decade of experience in the industry, she has held various editorial positions at prominent publications, including Indian Express, Rajasthan Patrika, Yahoo News, India Legal, and Newslaundry. Das’ writing portfolio spans a wide range of topics, including politics, culture, media commentary, legal matters, current affairs, rural health, elections, and gender issues. She played a key role in shaping the opinion section of the Indian Express’ youth website and holds a Master’s degree in clinical psychology. Das specializes in writing on mental health issues and health policy in India and authors a bi-monthly column, “The Millennial Pilgrim,” which explores themes of personal growth, relationships, and mental well-being.
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Office Manager and Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer
Gari De Ramos
Gari De Ramos joined CPJ as the office manager and executive assistant to the president in February 2023. She oversees the operations of the New York office and assists the president with day-to-day functions including calendar management, meeting and event planning, and general administrative support. Prior to joining CPJ, she worked as a social media manager for Action for the Climate Emergency. She also served as an intern and contributing writer for Worcester Magazine and studied journalism at the School of International Training in Rabat, Morocco. In her spare time, she works on Radical in Progress, an educational website she founded that provides free study guides of must-read social justice literature. She graduated from Clark University with a BA in Political Science and an MSc in Communication. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Sonali Dhawan joined CPJ as an Asia researcher in 2021. Previously, she served as a program officer with the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights and worked with Save the Children, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International USA. Dhawan holds a bachelor’s degree in government and Arabic and Islamic studies from Georgetown University. She speaks Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic.
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Madinah Diallo joined CPJ in 2020. Prior to joining CPJ, she worked for Grizzlies Prep, a school supported by the NBA team Memphis Grizzlies. She has also worked for the Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF, and Attajdid Journal, Morocco’s national newspaper. Diallo has a bachelor’s degree in international relations & journalism, media, and communications from Mount Holyoke College. She speaks Arabic, Hindi-Urdu, and French.
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Embaló joined CPJ in 2021. She is the director of newspapers Valor Económico and Nova Gazeta and is on the board of Radio Essencial, where her weekly column airs. She was a co-founder of the first economics-focused newspaper in Angola and previously hosted an economics program on Channel 2 of public television. An Angolan, Embaló counts 12 years of journalism in the country. She holds a master’s degree in institutional communication from Rome Business School and a degree in media and political economy from University of East London in the U.K. She splits her time between Lisbon, Portugal and Luanda, Angola.
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Amelia Evans joined CPJ in December 2023. An international human rights lawyer by training, she spent more than a decade as the executive director of The Shifting Power Project (formerly known as the Institute for Multi-Stakeholder Integrity), a nonprofit human rights organization focused on rectifying power imbalances and abuses caused by corporations. Over the last 15 years, she has investigated and reported on business and human rights-related issues in a number of countries, particularly in the Central African and Asia-Pacific regions. Previously, she was a clinical supervisor at Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, and has received numerous fellowships focused on economic justice and human rights. Evans obtained her LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and LL.B. (Hons.) and B.C.A. (Economics and Finance) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. In her other life, she is a documentary filmmaker.
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Loghman Fattahi joined CPJ as the U.S. advocacy manager in January 2023. Based in Washington, D.C., Fattahi leads CPJ’s advocacy efforts with the U.S. government to shape press freedom policies, legislation, and initiatives, and collaborates with other stakeholders and allies in D.C. to advance press freedom and journalist safety globally. Prior to joining CPJ, he worked as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State for nearly a decade. Fattahi’s assignments included the U.S. embassies in Cairo, Paris, and Baghdad, as well as the Office of Iranian Affairs. He also worked as an advocacy advisor at SEED Foundation in Iraq, advancing the organization’s goals on a range of human rights issues. Fattahi holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School. He speaks fluent Kurdish and Persian (Farsi) and is proficient in Arabic and French.
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Andrés Fernández Carrasco joined CPJ in 2019. He guides the organization’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning efforts, manages various cross-departmental tools and projects, and helps to enhance organizational strategy and impact. Prior to joining CPJ, Fernández’ experience included research and program management experience at various nonprofit and academic projects, including UCLA Law School’s COVID BEHIND BARS, Democracy Works, the Association for the Recuperation of Historical Memory (ARMH), the Latino Family Engagement and Language Development Lab at NYU, and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA). Fernández is a graduate of Wesleyan University and has also studied at the University of Salamanca and the University of Buenos Aires. He is fluent in Spanish and English.
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Valentine Gavard joined CPJ as a Journalist Assistance Manager within CPJ’s Emergencies team, and in May 2024 became CPJ’s Journalist Assistance Program Coordinator. Before joining CPJ, she was the Assistance Manager at the London-based Rory Peck Trust, in charge of the organization’s operations in support of freelance journalists in distress globally. She also has professional experience in migration policy and refugee law with the French Refugee Protection Agency and the European Union Asylum Support Office. Gavard has a Ph.D. in Geopolitics from Royal Holloway, University of London. She holds a master’s degree in Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law from the University of Panthéon-Assas in Paris. She has published several articles on migration and freedom of expression, including in The Conversation and academic journals. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Arlene Getz is in charge of CPJ’s editorial team and oversees its news, data, and special reports. A writer and editor specializing in politics and international relations, she joined CPJ in 2021 from CNN. Previously, she was as an editor-in-charge at Reuters, where her roles included running Reuters Commentary, managing the Reuters 2016 “American Voter” election magazine and helping to launch the Reuters America news service. Prior to Reuters, Getz was a managing editor at Newsweek Online and editorial director of Newsweek’s worldwide editions, serving as the top editorial executive for publications in Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Poland, Mexico, Kuwait, South Korea and Japan. She has reported from countries including Saudi Arabia and her native South Africa, where she wrote for Newsweek and Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald. Getz is an adjunct professor at the USC’s Annenberg journalism school; editor of “Secrets from the Cockpit,” (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2021); a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, a Fulbright Specialist; a former Wolfson Press Fellow at Cambridge University (UK); a two-time recipient of Gatekeeper Fellowships to the Middle East from the International Reporting Project and the winner of several awards for reporting and commentary. She has degrees in journalism and law. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Tom Gibson joined the Committee to Protect Journalists in January 2017 and is CPJ’s lead advocate in Brussels covering the institutions of the European Union. Between 2014 and 2016, Gibson managed Protection International’s Burundi and Congo desks, advocating for stronger state accountability for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists as well as developing emergency responses and protection measures. Previously, he worked in Amnesty International’s Africa program from 2005 to 2014, based in London and Nairobi. He worked as a campaigner on the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa regions, and then as a researcher on the Great Lakes. In both roles, he was responsible for leading the international response when journalists were harassed, intimidated, detained, or killed, engaging with state authorities in the region as well as with governments and multilateral organizations in Brussels, Geneva, London, Paris, and Washington. He is the author of numerous Amnesty International reports and publications on human rights abuses including crimes under international law and violations relating to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. He is fluent in French and is a graduate from the University of Sussex.
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Jodie Ginsberg is the chief executive officer of the Committee to Protect Journalists. A journalist by profession, Ginsberg joined CPJ in 2022 from Internews Europe, where she was the chief executive officer. Ginsberg began her career as a graduate trainee with Reuters news agency, working as a commodities reporter before taking up a posting as a foreign correspondent in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she focused on the region’s financial sector. She subsequently worked as Reuters’ chief correspondent in Ireland, based in Dublin, and then bureau chief for the U.K. and Ireland. As bureau chief, Ginsberg managed coverage of the 2008 financial crisis, U.K. riots and 2010 general election, as well as overseeing the merger of the Thomson and Reuters U.K. newsrooms. In 2014, Ginsberg was appointed chief executive of London-based freedom of expression group Index on Censorship, which she led until 2020. An internationally respected campaigner on issues of media freedom and freedom of expression, Ginsberg is a regular speaker on journalist safety and issues involving access to information. From 2020 to 2022, she was chief executive of Internews Europe, a media development non-profit, and has served on the boards of the Global Network Initiative and The Trust for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and as a Council member of IFEX, the international network for freedom of expression organizations. Ginsberg has a BA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge and a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism from City, University of London.
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Gypsy Guillén Kaiser joined the Committee to Protect Journalists as advocacy and communications director in 2021. A specialist in advancing structural change to ensure freedom of the press, defend human rights, and secure social and economic justice, Guillén Kaiser has worked nearly two decades with international non-governmental organizations and as a journalist. She has participated in missions to more than a dozen countries, including Argentina, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Peru, Singapore and South Africa. Most recently, she led strategic outreach to promote progressive family policies and to propel the Women, Peace and Security agenda at UN Women. Previously, she served as director of communications at the International Women’s Health Coalition and at Eisenhower Fellowships, after fighting corruption as the media and public relations manager at Transparency International’s secretariat in Berlin. She served on the boards of the Human Impacts Institute and Friends of Transparency International. Guillén Kaiser returned to CPJ after heading the organization’s advocacy and communications department from 2010 to 2013. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University and a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. A native of the Dominican Republic who grew up in New York City, Guillén Kaiser is fluent in Spanish and German. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Ishani Gupta joined CPJ in August 2022. She previously worked for the State of Connecticut, as their audit analyst. She is also the founder/lead trainer of the Go-getters Academy for International English Language Testing Systems, which provides a variety of flexible and effective prep services to candidates at international schools. She graduated from Punjabi University with a Bachelors in Accounting and holds an MBA in Finance & HR from Punjab Technical University.
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Eric Helms joined CPJ in August 2022. As deputy director of development for institutional support, he is responsible for driving the organization’s institutional giving strategy. Prior to joining CPJ, he served as senior development officer at Freedom House and director of development at Human Rights First. Helms previously worked in eastern and central Europe with the European Roma Rights Centre and Roma Education Fund in Budapest, Hungary, and the Arete Youth Foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria. From 2006-08, he served as a community and organizational development volunteer in Bulgaria with the Peace Corps. He has an M.A. in International Human Rights from the University of Denver, and a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Colorado. He speaks English and Bulgarian. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Monica Ho joined CPJ’s staff as a junior accountant in January 2023. She brings to CPJ six years of experience working as a bookkeeper, and eight years of experience as a professional actor. She holds an MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theater.
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Jan-Albert Hootsen joined CPJ in 2016. He has worked as a freelance journalist in Mexico City since 2009 for publications in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, writing on subjects such as press freedom, politics, organized crime, human rights, and environmental issues. He also regularly contributes to Dutch public radio and Dutch television broadcaster RTL Nieuws. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg and a bachelor’s degree in language and culture studies from Utrecht University. He speaks Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Iris Hsu joined CPJ in 2017. Prior to joining CPJ, she interned at Human Rights Watch, Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, and the Atlantic Council. Hsu obtained her master’s degree in international affairs from American University. She speaks Mandarin and French and lives in Taipei. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Katherine Jacobsen has been CPJ’s U.S. and Canada program coordinator since 2021. She joined CPJ in 2017 as the news editor. Previously, Jacobsen wrote for The Associated Press in Moscow where she reported on nuclear waste dumping, climbing HIV rates among drug users, and Russia’s air campaign in Syria. She has also worked in Ukraine where she covered the Maidan protests, Crimea’s annexation, the separatist takeover of Donetsk, and reform efforts in Kiev for outlets including Businessweek, U.S. News and World Report, Foreign Policy, and Al Jazeera English. Jacobsen has a bachelor’s degree in Slavic languages and literature from Northwestern University and a master’s of science in journalism from Columbia University. She speaks Russian and is proficient in French. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Kathy Jones joined CPJ as deputy editorial director in September 2023. For more than two decades, she has helped shape and tell stories with data, reporting and visuals for news organizations including Reuters, Bloomberg, and Newsweek. She has produced groundbreaking data-based stories on topics from the financial crisis to film awards, launched global content and polling programs, won awards and recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists, National Magazine Awards, and the American Society of Photojournalists, and managed teams of writers, photographers, videographers, and designers. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Florida. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Stephen Kafeero has worked as a journalist for over 14 years, mostly based in Uganda. His journalism has appeared in Daily Monitor, Quartz, The East African, New Frame, and the Global Investigative Journalism Network, among others. Stephen has a particular interest in human rights, the media, politics, and the law. Stephen has a master’s degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he received the Open Society Foundation fellowship for Investigative Journalism. He is completing law studies at Makerere University, Kampala. He has reported, coordinated, and edited investigations for the Kleptocracy Project in Zambia and Uganda.
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Nick Lewis joined CPJ as a Central Asia and Caucasus correspondent in April 2021. Prior to CPJ, he worked as editor of the Central Asia-focused Fergana News Agency’s English website. He speaks Russian and French and has extensive experience working with sources in a range of Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and Caucasian languages.
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Mohamed Mandour joined CPJ as a Middle East and North Africa researcher in 2023. He holds a master’s degree in human rights with a minor in law and a concentration in national security and accountability from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School. Mandour previously worked as a Bassem Sabry research fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, where his article on Egyptian exile activism ranked among the top 10 articles of 2022. His academic article on the criminalization of minority free speech received an honorable mention for the 2022 Graduate Student Paper Award from the American Sociological Association’s Human Rights Section. Mandour has been recognized as an emerging expert by the Forum on the Arms Trade, focusing on U.S. military assistance to the MENA region and arms and emerging technology trade policies. His research interests include exile activism, transnational repression, and digital repression in the MENA region. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Carlos Martínez de la Serna joined CPJ as program director in 2018. Prior to CPJ, he worked as a reporter and digital journalist in the U.S., Spain, and Japan, covering issues including current affairs, biomedical research, and North Korea’s nuclear program. He is a founding member of the mapping startup Carto, co-founder of the nonprofit organization porCausa, and a former director of digital innovation at Univision News. Martinez de la Serna is a research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and a former John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Scott Mayemba Bila researches, monitors, and documents attacks on press freedom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also provides advice to improve press freedom in the DRC. Mayemba joined CPJ in May 2022. Before that, he was the principal researcher at Journalist in Danger (JED), which advocates for press freedom in the DRC. A trained journalist, Mayemba also worked as a correspondent for the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom organization and as a reporter in the capital Kinshasa for various media outlets. Mayemba speaks French, Swahili, and Lingala, and is learning English.
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Katy Migiro joined CPJ as a senior editor in 2023. Prior to joining the organization, she worked at the Thomson Reuters Foundation for 13 years, most recently as global planning editor based in London. Before that she lived in Kenya for 15 years and reported from a dozen African countries for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Voice of America and Inter Press Service. She has also worked for the United Nations and Christian Aid. Migiro has a master’s degree in international relations from USIU-Africa, a postgraduate diploma in journalism from City, University of London, and a bachelor’s degree in politics and sociology from the University of Bristol. She speaks French and Swahili. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Attila Mong is CPJ’s Berlin-based Europe representative. A freelance journalist and a consultant for German media development organization DW Akademie, he is also a supervisory board member of atlatszo.hu, a crowdfunded investigative journalism platform in his native Hungary. Mong has worked as an investigative journalist, radio broadcaster, and columnist for 20 years. In 2013, he completed a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University, a program focused on leadership and innovation in journalism. In 2011, he was a visiting research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Mong is the author of several investigative books in Hungary and was awarded the Pulitzer Memorial Prize for Best Investigative Journalism in 2004 and the Soma Investigative Journalism Prize in 2003. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Muthoki Mumo joined the Committee to Protect Journalists as East Africa Correspondent in June 2017. She was named CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative on August 1, 2018. She previously worked for six years as a journalist with the Nation Media Group, covering a variety of beats from East African Community integration and regional trade to technology and telecommunications for the Business Daily and Daily Nation. In 2017 she served as an alternate digital editor for the Business Daily. Mumo has a bachelor’s degree from the United States International University in Nairobi and a master’s degree jointly awarded by Aarhus University and the University of Hamburg.
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Moussa Ngom joined the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2023 as French-speaking Africa correspondent based in Senegal. Since 2018, Ngom has coordinated the independent, award-winning and publicly funded investigative media network La Maison Des Reporters and regularly collaborates with various international media. He is also a fact-checking trainer at the Dakar-based university journalism school, CESTI (Center for the Study of Information Sciences and Techniques).
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Özgür Ögret is a Turkish freelance journalist and CPJ’s Turkey representative. He was lead researcher for the 2012 CPJ special report, Turkey’s Press Freedom Crisis.
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Evelyn Okakwu joined the Committee to Protect Journalists as a Nigeria consultant in August 2019. She was appointed CPJ’s West Africa correspondent in January 2021. Okakwu previously worked for four years as a judiciary correspondent for the Premium Times online newspaper and for two years as a general assignment reporter with the Peoples Daily newspaper in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Okakwu has a Higher National Diploma from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi, Adama State, Nigeria.
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Pereira serves as CPJ’s chief strategist on journalist safety. For more than 15 years, he has worked to shape the risk management model for journalists operating under threat. He is a Director at HP Risk Management, a consultancy assisting companies and media organisations operating in fragile environments. Previously he was head of security for ITN and Deputy Head of BBC High Risk Team. Pereira has advised teams of journalists covering wars, natural disasters, terrorism and riots globally, and has worked on high risk investigations. Colin Pereira was also a journalist for BBC Newsnight and BBC Current Affairs.
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Before joining CPJ in 2016, Angela Quintal worked as an editor and journalist for more than two decades in South Africa. She was the editor of Mail and Guardian, one of South Africa’s leading investigative newspapers. She also edited The Witness and The Mercury newspapers and held several senior positions in South African newsrooms, including group political editor at the Independent Newspaper Group and parliamentary editor for the then-national news agency, the SA Press Association. Quintal changed direction from a career in human rights and constitutional law to become a journalist in 1992 during South Africa’s transition to democracy. She was presidential correspondent during Nelson Mandela’s term as South Africa’s first democratically elected president. She has served as the secretary-general and treasurer of the SA National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and before joining CPJ was media freedom committee chair in South Africa for Wan-Ifra’s program on strengthening media and society. Quintal is a recipient of SANEF’s Steve Wrottesley Award for her commitment to media freedom in Africa and is one of 50 recipients of Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies’ distinguished alumni awards to mark its 50th anniversary. Quintal holds a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Laws from Rhodes University. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Soran Rashid joined CPJ as a Kurdish consultant in February 2022, before becoming a MENA correspondent in June 2024. Rashid continues working in journalism, contributing as an editor to multiple media outlets in Iraq. Before joining CPJ, Rashid served as the newsroom manager at NRT TV, one of the most-watched channels in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, until 2018. He also held the position of editor-in-chief at NasKurd and led digital media operations at Zoom News TV. With a focus on politics, wars, conflicts, and environmental issues, Rashid has built a reputation for delivering in-depth coverage of complex topics across the region.
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Waliullah Rahmani joined CPJ as an Asia researcher in 2021. From 2016 to the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, he was founder and director of Khabarnama Media, one of the first digital media organizations in Afghanistan. Before that, Rahmani has served as senior adviser to the chief executive office of the national unity government of Afghanistan. He also served as the founding director of Kabul Center for Strategic Studies from 2007 to 2014. In his research, Rahmani has focused on terrorism, insurgency, radical Islamic movements, Afghanistan, and the broader South Asian region for over a decade.
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Yeganeh Rezaian is an Iranian journalist living in Washington, D.C. She previously worked as the communications director at the World Affairs Council-Washington, D.C. and has written pieces for The Washington Post and The Lily. While living in Iran, Rezaian covered Iranian political, social, and economic news for Bloomberg News and The National until she and her husband, the former Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian, were detained by Iranian authorities in 2014. Rezaian was jailed for 72 days, and then fought for her husband’s freedom, which was not granted until January 2016.
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Hilda Romero joined CPJ in 2021 as chief operating officer. She is responsible for CPJ’s financial and operational management including financial planning and budgeting, auditing, and HR and IT management to ensure CPJ’s growth and stability. A native of Guatemala, Romero has more than 15 years experience driving financial growth and stability at nonprofits in Philadelphia and New York as well as overseeing HR, technology, and legal operations. Before joining CPJ, she was the CFO for STRIVE International, a national job training and career development nonprofit. Romero has also lived in Brazil and is fluent in Portuguese in addition to her native Spanish.
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Jonathan Rozen reports, conducts advocacy, and coordinates emergency responses across Sub-Saharan Africa. Since joining CPJ in February 2017, he has led research and advocacy trips to Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Liberia. His investigations have tracked impunity for crimes against journalists, harms associated with surveillance, efforts to control information during conflict, and the criminalization and censorship of journalism online. In 2021, he led CPJ’s project mapping the use of commercial spyware to target journalists and those close to them around the world. Previously, Rozen worked in South Africa, Mozambique, and Canada with the Institute for Security Studies, assessing Mozambican peacebuilding processes. He also wrote analyses for the Germany-based think tank adelphi on links between climate action and conflict prevention in Mali, Liberia, and Kenya. Rozen was a U.N. correspondent for IPS News and has written for Al-Jazeera English, Daily Maverick, The Continent, Africa Portal, International Peace Institute, and The Washington Post’s Press Freedom Partnership newsletter. Rozen has a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from McGill University and a master’s degree in global affairs from the University of Toronto, where he also served as a crisis responder. He speaks English and French. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Gulnoza Said is a journalist and press freedom advocate with over 20 years of experience in New York, Prague, Bratislava, and Tashkent. At CPJ, she has conducted several missions to countries in Europe and Central Asia, and advocated for greater press freedom and the release of jailed journalists at forums including the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and the OSCE. Before joining CPJ in 2016, she was a journalist and covered issues including elections, politics, media, religion, and human rights with a focus on Central Asia, Russia, and Turkey. She also worked in communications for the United Nations Secretariat and the UNDP. Her op-eds, reports, and comments have appeared in CNN, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, PBS, NBC, Voice of America, RFE/RL, Fergana, Eurasianet, and other outlets, and she authored the Uzbekistan chapter in a book on the study of social entrepreneurship. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Esha Sarai joined CPJ in 2021 as a video producer. Previously, she was a reporter for Voice of America, where she served as the acting West Africa correspondent from Dakar in 2019. Stateside, she covered Black Lives Matter protests from Charlotte to Minneapolis, and the 2020 presidential election from Philadelphia. Esha holds a master’s in political science from UNC Chapel Hill and BAs in Music and French. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Zoe Simbolon joined CPJ as senior communications associate in October 2022. Prior to CPJ, she served as communications specialist at Turning Point, an addiction research center based in Australia, leading communications on the advocacy campaign Rethink Addiction. Simbolon has also worked for Grameen America in the U.S., where she was responsible for media and communications, and has contributed to campaigns for organizations advancing asylum seeker and refugee rights and mental health policy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Victoria University and a graduate certificate in human rights from the University of Sydney.
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Charlie Spicer joined CPJ as the news editor in October 2021. Previously, he reported on climate change in the Great Plains through the Report For America program with The Wichita Eagle, Kansas’ largest newspaper. An award-winning investigative journalist, he has a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in Spanish and English literature from Emporia State University. Follow him on LinkedIn.
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Ela Stapley is CPJ’s digital security adviser working with the Emergencies team as part of HP Risk Management. She supports journalists worldwide with their digital security needs as well as writing all digital security resources produced by the team. A former freelance journalist, Ela has worked in digital safety support for the media for the past nine years. She is the founder and director of Siskin Labs, a consulting company that works with organizations and individuals in high-risk digital security situations. She holds a master’s in International Journalism from the University of Cardiff, UK. She is fluent in Spanish.
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Anastasia Tkach joined CPJ’s Emergencies team as emergencies administrator in March 2023. Prior to joining CPJ, Tkach was certification manager at WBEC Metro NY. She has previous experience in nonprofits and human rights and has interned at UN Women Kosovo, Civil Rights Defenders in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Freedom House. Tkach holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Eastern European Studies from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Eastern European Regional Studies from Columbia University in the City of New York. She conducted her master’s thesis research on public space and protest in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Theresa Vargas joined CPJ as deputy director of human resources in October 2022. Prior to joining CPJ, she worked for a software company as a key member of the leadership team and played an integral role in aligning and driving business results and supported employee relations, talent management, workforce planning, organizational development, and employee engagement. Vargas has worked in various industries for rapidly expanding companies and HR departments and is well versed in all areas of Human Resources including employee relations, performance management, benefits, recruitment, and training and development. Vargas is a member of the Society of Human Resources Management and is recognized as a certified professional in Human Resources. She attended National University and is a graduate of the Human Resources Management program through the University of California, Irvine. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Dánae Vílchez is a Nicaraguan multimedia journalist with interest in human rights, feminism, migration, and politics. She has a Mundus Journalism Master’s Degree with a specialization in politics from the University of Amsterdam. She was a fellow for the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) at AJ+ and an International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) fellow in Guatemala. Her work has in appeared, among others, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Pikara Magazine, eldiario.es, Distintas Latitudes, Confidencial, and AJ+.
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John Weis joined CPJ in April 2004. He directs all fund-raising activities of the organization, both annual support and campaign contributions. He has a long and successful record as a fund-raiser, having most recently served as the deputy director of development at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). Weis has held fund-raising positions at WNYC Radio, the New York Public Library, and the University of Pennsylvania. He has a B.S. in Commerce from Rider University.
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Lucy Westcott became director of CPJ’s Emergencies Department in October 2021. She oversees CPJ’s assistance and safety work worldwide. Westcott joined CPJ in 2018 as the James W. Foley Fellow. During her fellowship, she focused on safety issues for women journalists in non-hostile environments and assisted with the creation of safety resources for journalists globally. In 2021, she played a prominent role in CPJ’s response to the Afghan crisis, including helping Afghan journalists and their families evacuated to Qatar. Prior to joining CPJ, Westcott was a staff writer for Newsweek, where she covered gender and immigration. She has reported for outlets including The Intercept, Bustle, The Atlantic, and Women Under Siege, and was a United Nations correspondent for the Inter Press Service. As a fellow with the International Reporting Project in 2016, Westcott wrote about gender and development in South Africa and Lesotho. She has reported from Egypt, Jordan, Cameroon, and the U.S. She has a master’s in multi-platform journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Sandra Williams joined CPJ, bringing extensive expertise in strategic leadership and HR management. In her previous role at Cascade Consulting, she led complex HR operations and drove strategic initiatives. Prior to that, Williams was associate director of Employee Services and co-head of HR Operations at a leading nonprofit, where she restructured HR operations to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, overseeing employee programs, benefits management, labor relations, and compliance. Williams’ expertise spans employee relations, performance management, benefits and absence administration, and training. With a degree in business management, she has completed professional coursework at the Yale School of Management, eCornell, Amsterdam Strategy and Culture School, and Harvard Business School. A Certified Diversity Professional and an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management, Williams also holds advanced HR certifications.
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Cristina Zahar joined CPJ in 2023. An experienced journalist and manager, she previously served as the executive director of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) from 2018 to 2023, where her role included spearheading the implementation of Abraji’s UNESCO-funded project to monitor gender violence against journalists in 2021 and reporting on violence against Brazilian journalists to the pre-sessions of the U.N.’s Universal Periodic Review of Brazil in Geneva in 2022. She also participated in the coordinating committee of IFEX-ALC, a Canadian network dedicated to defending freedom of expression from 2019 to 2023, was a member of the provisional board of Voces del Sur, a Latin American network that monitors press freedom violations in 17 countries in the region, and was a speaker at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day in Punta del Este, Uruguay, (2022) and New York City (2023).
Zahar began her career at Brazil’s Folha de S.Paulo newspaper and her other roles include editorial director of Abril Coleções and CEO in Brazil of the British publishing house Eaglemoss. She holds a DEA in Communication from Michel de Montaigne University (Bordeaux III), France, and an MBA in Business Management from FIA-USP. Follow her on LinkedIn.
Zahar began her career at Brazil’s Folha de S.Paulo newspaper and her other roles include editorial director of Abril Coleções and CEO in Brazil of the British publishing house Eaglemoss. She holds a DEA in Communication from Michel de Montaigne University (Bordeaux III), France, and an MBA in Business Management from FIA-USP. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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Naomi Zeveloff joined CPJ as features editor in July 2020 and was named senior editor for features and analysis in 2023. From 2014 to 2020 she reported from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, producing stories on Israeli settler youth, Trump’s Middle East policy, and solar panel use in Gaza for outlets such as NPR, PRI’s The World, The Atlantic, and others. She previously worked at The Forward as Middle East correspondent and deputy culture editor. Originally from Ogden, Utah, she began her career in journalism in the American West, reporting for newsweeklies in Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, Denver, and Dallas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from The Colorado College and a Master of Arts in political journalism from Columbia Journalism School. Follow her on LinkedIn.