WHO
WE ARE
Genocide Watch is the Founder and Coordinator of the Alliance Against Genocide. Our team manages and coordinates alliance operations, member recruitment, and member relations.
Alliance
Coordinating Team
Lauren Salim
Manager, Alliance Operations
Vanessa Cardenas
Chief Operations Officer
Irene Soteriou
Member Engagement Coordinator
Twyla Frid
Alliance Coordinator
Twyla Frid
Alliance Coordinator
Nora O'Rear
Campaigns Coordinator
Kylie Henry
Alliance Coordinator
Lauren Salim
Manager, Alliance Operations
Lauren has a BA in International Development Studies from Dalhousie University and a MA in Human Rights from the University of London. Her research interests include monitoring Uganda, rights to participation, digital rights and access to information. During her undergraduate degree, she spent some time in Uganda where she was inspired by the people and their stories of resiliency. Lauren is also the Leader, Special Projects and the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies where she helps to implement projects on a variety of topics at the intersection of human rights and technology.
Alliance
Coordinating Team
Lauren Salim
Manager, Alliance Operations
Lauren has a BA in International Development Studies from Dalhousie University and a MA in Human Rights from the University of London. Her research interests include monitoring Uganda, rights to participation, digital rights and access to information. During her undergraduate degree, she spent some time in Uganda where she was inspired by the people and their stories of resiliency. Lauren is also the Leader, Special Projects and the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies where she helps to implement projects on a variety of topics at the intersection of human rights and technology.
Vanessa Cardenas
Chief Operations Officer
Vanessa has a B.A. in Global Affairs and B.A. in Conflict Analysis & Resolution from George Mason University and a Masters in International Law & Diplomacy from the American University of Paris. She has also studied at the University of Oxford, taking tutorials on Feminist Political Theory and law clinics in International Human Rights Law and International Criminal Law. Since 2019, Vanessa has served as Board Member & Treasurer at the ACLU of Northern Virginia. She has maintained membership in the Carnegie New Leaders Program (CNL) since 2018. Previously, Vanessa was a Research Fellow at the Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights, and Conflict Prevention, focusing on genocidal rape & survivor testimony in Rwanda. As a researcher, her areas of interest include international criminal law, rape and sexual violence, and victim testimonies & narratives. As Chief Operations Officer at Genocide Watch, Vanessa manages day-to-day operations while overseeing all research projects and website improvements.
Irene Soteriou
Alliance Coordinator
Irene is a student at the University of Connecticut pursuing a double major in Statistics and Cognitive Science and a minor in Communication. Having founded an organization committed to human rights coalition building, Irene is working to facilitate opportunities for collaborative problem-solving at the intersection of conflict prevention and victim empowerment.
Kylie Henry
Alliance Coordinator
Kylie Henry is a senior at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she is pursuing a B.A. in International Affairs and minors in Economics and German Language & Literature. Her studies focus on legal accountability for atrocity crimes as a mechanism of transitional justice. Previously, Kylie worked as the Outreach and Partnership Building Intern at Darfur Women Action Group, a member organization of the Alliance Against Genocide. There, she focused on outreach campaigns to raise awareness about the Darfur genocide and organized a virtual conference on the importance of accountability in genocide prevention. In addition, Kylie recently published a law review note, Impossible to Determine: Inferring Dolus Specialis at the Ad Hoc Tribunals in The George Washington University Undergraduate Law Review. The piece examines how international courts, past and present, determine specific intent in genocide prosecutions and advocates for a more comprehensive understanding of genocidal intent by the International Criminal Court. As an Alliance intern at Genocide Watch, Kylie will be establishing and supporting partnerships with member organizations that are dedicated to creating a world without genocide. She will also be monitoring Bulgaria, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and South Sudan. After completing her undergraduate degree, Kylie hopes to pursue a law degree with a specialization in international criminal law in order to advocate for victims of genocide in court.
Twyla Frid
Alliance Coordinator
Twyla Frid is a high school student from Bowen Island, a small island off the coast of Vancouver, BC, Canada. She spent her early years in a rural community of the Yukon, with caribou, boreal forest, and a river out her door. She will be graduating from high school in the spring of 2022. For university, she plans to major in International Relations (with a focus on Global Public Health) and to minor in math.
As a descendent of Jews who left Eastern Europe barely ahead of the Holocaust, she has a deep interest in genocide prevention. That interest has recently expanded to include public health. Her interest in these topics was catalyzed by her love of reading and constant appetite for knowledge. She hopes to do her part to, in the words of Paul Farmer, “repair the world”.
Natalie Westrick
Alliance Coordinator
Natalie is a senior at Brandeis University, double majoring in International and Global Studies, and History, with a minor in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. Her studies focus on war and conflict resolution, especially through history. Natalie plans to write an honors thesis next year chronicling the experiences of a small Eastern European town prior to, during, and after the Holocaust. Natalie is a firm believer in the importance of genocide education and looks forward to both learning and teaching others in an effort to prevent future atrocities. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she hopes to earn a doctoral degree focusing on conflict deterrence and resolution, in an effort to prevent conflict before it starts, inspired by Genocide Watch’s emphasis on prevention. As an alliance intern at Genocide Watch, Natalie looks forward to working with member organizations of the Alliance Against Genocide to prevent genocide.
Margaux Dandrifosse
Alliance Coordinator
Margaux Dandrifosse is 22 years old and from Belgium, so her native language is French. After graduating from high school in 2016, she spent six months in Vancouver, Canada to learn English in an international school. In the second part of the year, she went to Bali for two months to volunteer as an English teacher in a primary school. In 2017, she started her 3-years Bachelor's Degree in European Studies at Maastricht University, in the Netherlands. Margaux wrote her final thesis on the Guatemalan Truth Commission and its influence on human rights practices in the country. Working on this thesis has deepened her understanding of the Guatemalan Genocide and the politics surrounding genocide. Finally, after graduating with her Bachelor's in June 2020, Margaux started a Master's in International Security at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals in Barcelona, Spain. During the Master, she has focused on the study of genocide, ethnic conflicts, and state-sponsored mass killing during civil wars. She will finish the Master in September 2021 and continue for a second year in the same institute in a Research Master in International Studies. She is currently writing her final thesis on the relation between the location of natural resources and the likelihood of state massacres during civil wars in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the future, Margaux would like to conduct a Ph.D. on the study of genocide or mass-killing during civil wars.
Krista Jones
Alliance Coordinator
Krista Jones is a junior studying in the Honors College at Southern Connecticut State University with a focus in Political Science and English. On campus as the new Vice President for the Board of Academic Experience in the Student Government Association and the managing editor for the undergraduate research journal focusing on social justice, Krista strongly believes in the power of using one’s voice. After taking an honors seminar on the artistic responses to genocide that explored the international community’s failure to prevent the genocides of the twentieth century and the subsequent effect it had on the survivors of genocide, Krista became determined to learn more about the far-reaching effects of genocide and contribute to restitution, justice, and the prevention of further harm. Starting last semester, Krista began research on social media’s effect on personal judgment and metacognition, which she hopes to expand in the future to explore its effect on groupthink and the early stages of genocide. Following her graduation in 2023, she wishes to pursue further education in global affairs and international law to cultivate her voice for the service of others. Krista works on the Alliance and Advocacy teams at Genocide Watch, communicating with alliance organizations as a means to further the genocide prevention cause. She will be monitoring China, Togo, Romania, Australia, and Afghanistan. She hopes learn more about and grow in this field at Genocide Watch and contribute to the acquisition of justice and the restoration of the best of humanity.
Giada Corsoni
Alliance Coordinator
Giada Corsoni is about to graduate in International Relations and European Studies (LM) at the ‘Cesare Alfieri’ School of Political Sciences at the University of Florence (Italy). She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Sciences and International Studies in 2018, by presenting a dissertation on human rights violations and alleged acts of genocide committed against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar. In 2019, Giada interned at The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) in The Hague, in the context of which she participated in supporting the organization of the 18th Session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute and also contributed to the organization of CICC’s events. During her stay in The Hague, she participated in several meetings of the Hague Working Group at the International Criminal Court and she attended one of the hearings in the case The Gambia v. Myanmar at the International Court of Justice. Previously, Giada carried out an internship at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean in St. Julians (Malta), within the Erasmus+ Traineeship Program. As an intern in Genocide Watch, Giada’s work will be focused on maintaining contacts with the Alliance members and on providing legal advice on ongoing and past international crimes.