Our Advisory board

Our members include:

Julie Broome

Julie Broome is the Director of Ariadne, a network of European funders supporting social change and Human Rights. She has over 20 years of experience in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors, with a particular focus on human rights and transitional justice. She served as Director of Programmes at the Sigrid Rausing Trust, where she oversaw grantmaking to human rights organisations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, and previously managed technical rule of law assistance programmes in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia with the CEELI Institute in Prague and the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. She holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, an MA in International Studies from the University of Washington, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. She has an interest in bridging research and practice and is currently the chair of the advisory board of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group.

Wale Osofisan

Wale Osofisan is senior director – Governance Technical Unit at the International Rescue Committee (IRC).  He leads the unit’s team of directors, senior advisers, technical advisers, and specialists overseeing program support to over 30 IRC country offices. Wale has over two decades of professional experience researching and working on governance, humanitarian, development, conflict prevention and the intersection between climate change, conflict, and displacement. Prior to joining the IRC, he worked with Plan UK, HelpAge International UK, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Nigeria in various roles from technical assistance to research and evidence, policy influencing and advocacy. Wale holds a PhD in Post-war Recovery Studies from the department of politics, university of York, UK. 

Mareike Schomerus

Dr Mareike Schomerus is Vice President at the Busara Center in Nairobi and Research Director of the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium at ODI in London. Prior to that she was ODI’s Director of Programme Politics and Governance. At Busara, she heads the Center’s work that links behavioural science, fragility and violent conflict (including the Atelier on Collaborative Transformation in Fragile Settings), as well as trust in authority and information for societal pandemic preparedness. She is a widely published researcher; her most recent work is The Lord’s Resistance Army: Violence and Peacemaking in Africa, Cambridge University Press 2021.

Adam Wright

Adam is Head of Public Policy at the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. He has had previous senior policy roles at the Royal Society and the National Union of Students. Adam completed his PhD at Essex in the Department of Government, and has published on a range of topics including education and skills, science and technology policy, democratic systems, and the research-policy nexus. He is also an external member of Council of the University of Essex and Chair of Governors at nearby Hazelmere Junior School.

Dr Comfort Ero

Dr Comfort Ero was appointed Crisis Group’s President & CEO in December 2021. She joined the organisation as West Africa Project Director in 2001 and rose to become Africa Program Director and then, in January 2021, Interim Vice President.

Dr Ero has spent her entire career working on or in conflict-affected countries. In between her two tenures at Crisis Group, she served as Deputy Africa Program Director for the International Centre for Transitional Justice (2008-2010) and, prior to that, Political Affairs Officer and Policy Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, UN Mission in Liberia (2004-2007). She has a PhD from the London School of Economics, University of London. Dr Ero is also the Chair of the Board of the Rift Valley Institute and sits on the editorial board of various journals, including International Peacekeeping.