Our Team
Using vision and compassion to help others help themselves
Board of Directors
Jennifer Hill
President and Executive Director
Jennifer Hill founded RPI, where she serves as President and Executive Director. Jennifer has strengthened and managed international humanitarian programs for refugees and IDPs since 2001. Prior to RPI, she was based in Sudan, Chechnya/Russia, Haiti, Geneva, Romania, and Kosovo with IOM - The United Nations Migration Agency and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). She has also served Health Equity International (St. Boniface Haiti Foundation) and taught International Human Rights at the graduate level. Jennifer holds a M.Ed. from Harvard University, where she focused on refugee education, and a B.S. summa cum laude in International Studies and Government from Colby College. Jennifer is a member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council. She is driven to aid people in acute crisis and has delivered aid to southern Ukraine on half a dozen trips with community volunteers.
Nadine Walicki
Board Director
Nadine Walicki works for United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and is based out of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland, where she previously worked for UNHCR coordinating the multi-stakeholder GP20 Plan of Action on Internally Displaced Persons. Previously, Nadine spent 11 years with the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) focusing on urban internal displacement caused by conflict and development projects. Over the past decade, Nadine researched and published on internal displacement with IDMC, NRC, IOM - the UN Migration Agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Nadine has also assessed socio-economic impacts of development projects for the Canadian Government. At RPI, Nadine works closely with Jennifer on humanitarian programming.
Eliza Petrow
Board Director & Secretary
Eliza Petrow spent over a decade living and working in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and rural China. With a Masters Degree from the Harvard School of Public Health, Eliza is currently Chief Business Officer at The Possible Zone, where she develops and leads TPZ's social enterprise strategy. Eliza has been an advisor to JC Flowers Foundation, World Education, Izumi Foundation, and Mothers2Mothers. In 2008 Eliza founded PATS, a non-profit that supported HIV-positive children living in rural China. She has also co-founded Chain Reaction and founded Bolster. She has been a member of NEID Global - Network of Engaged International Donors, and a Board member of the Watertown Community Foundation. At RPI, Eliza is Board Secretary and contributes to philanthropic engagement.
Aleesha Nunley Benjamin
Board Director & Treasurer
Aleesha joined RPI’s Board as Treasurer in August 2020. She serves in a CFO capacity, overseeing the non-profit’s finances, financial statements, financial review/audit and tax returns. Aleesha brings over a decade of financial management experience. She is the Finance Director of Marblehead, Massachusetts and previously served as Finance Director of Littleton, MA and as Finance Director/Auditor at the City of Medford, which received a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Aleesha holds an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Salem State University and is a Certified Government Accountant (CGA) by the Massachusetts Municipal Accountants and Auditors Association.
Kathryn S. Hintz
Board Director
Kathryn attended Princeton University, then graduated from Wheelock College with a degree in Social Work. Four years later, after working in the field, she received an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Boston College. Her compassion for the less fortunate led her to manage a halfway house for adolescent boys. Her quest for knowledge led her to continue to take graduate courses in psychology at Harvard Extension. Volunteering at the Cole Resource Center at McLean Hospital satisfied a need to connect with peers, while volunteering also at McLean Hospital, though in research, sated her desire for intellectual discovery. Through this volunteering she co-authored several papers. Later, she worked at Boston University’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, again in research, where she also co-authored papers. Most recently, she began a jewelry and other crafts cottage industry. She featured her creations on two Etsy websites. She has a kind heart, and is interested in assisting refugee populations.
Advisory Board
Dr. Annie Sparrow
Advisor on Programming and Partnerships
Annie Sparrow, a pediatrician and public health expert, is Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Human Rights Program at the Arnhold Global Health Institute at Mount Sinai in New York. Her extensive public health work has taken her to Afghanistan, Chad, Sudan, Kenya and Somalia. Since 2012, her focus has been on the humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in Syria. She has published widely on the public health crisis and has travelled repeatedly to the Syrian border to document the health crisis and to train Syrian doctors in critical care and infectious disease.
Rashin Khosravibavandpouri
Advisor
Internally displaced during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Rashin Khosravibavandpouri moved to the United States in 2006 and received her Masters degree in International Relations from Suffolk University. She has a network of contacts in the Middle East from her time reporting in the region. She is conversational in Kurdish and Arabic, as well as fluent in Farsi. Rashin works as a Director at United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of MetroBoston, where she enjoys advocating for people with disabilities. In 2019, Rashin received the Gerry Wright Direct Service Employee of the Year award of excellence from the Providers' Council.
Gabrielle Goodfellow
Advisor on Post-Conflict Operations
Gabrielle Goodfellow is an international law and development expert with over 15 years of experience. Her early career was spent with IOM - The UN Migration Agency in Haiti and Afghanistan tackling at-risk community stabilization and refugee reintegration issues. As a consultant for clients in the extractive and energy industries over the past decade, Gabrielle assessed social impacts and supported compliance with international social safeguard standards. Her assessments informed World Bank and IFC-financed projects. Gabrielle is now the Director for Projects and Partnerships at One Drop, a private foundation focused on global water, sanitation, and hygiene initiatives. She holds a B.A. from Yale University, an LL.M. in International Public Law from the University of Kent, and an MBA from Concordia University.
Dr. Marianne Lindahl Allen
Advisor on Development and Planning
Marianne Lindahl-Allen is the co-founder of LEAS Lab, providing remote lab instruction to young adults. Previously, she was a lab instructor at Harvard Medical School’s MEDScience Simulation Lab for high school students. Marianne holds a PhD in Biomedicine from King’s College London and a MSc in Molecular Medicine. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School where she published numerous papers in high impact peer reviewed journals. Marianne has a strong passion for humanitarian aid and has spent time working for the Red Cross in Japan.
Staff
Jennifer Hill
President and Executive Director
Jennifer Hill founded RPI, where she serves as President and Executive Director. Jennifer has strengthened and managed international humanitarian programs for refugees and IDPs since 2001. Prior to RPI, she was based in Sudan, Chechnya/Russia, Haiti, Geneva, Romania, and Kosovo with IOM - The United Nations Migration Agency and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). She has also served Health Equity International (St. Boniface Haiti Foundation) and taught International Human Rights at the graduate level. Jennifer holds a M.Ed. from Harvard University, where she focused on refugee education, and a B.S. summa cum laude in International Studies and Government from Colby College. Jennifer is a member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council. She is driven to aid people in acute crisis and has delivered aid to southern Ukraine on half a dozen trips with community volunteers.
Volunteers and Interns
Dan Goldan
Program & Logistic Support
Dan is a Romanian humanitarian worker who has volunteered with RPI since April 2022. He helps RPI purchase evacuation vehicles, food aid, shelter supplies (beds, linens, winter blankets, flashlights) and other urgent relief items in Romania and transports them into Ukraine. RPI director Jennifer Hill and Dan Goldan have made the Issaccea-Orlivka crossing into southern Ukraine multiple times over the past year rushing supplies to border tents, displaced orphans, children with disabilities, hospitals, and RPI community partners in Odessa and Kherson regions. Dan also volunteers for Romanian NGO "Magic Association" and received an award for having driven 200,000km to bring pediatric cancer patients to medical centers. In 2022, Dan came in 7th among nominees for one of Ashoka Romania's changemaker prizes.
Dr. Corina Popa
Program Support
A Romanian pediatrician, Dr. Corina Popa is mother to one of the first surrogate newborns evacuated from war-torn Ukraine in March 2022. Corina now assists RPI's Jennifer Hill to urgently identify medical equipment in Romania for RPI's purchase and cross-border delivery to war-affected Ukrainian children's and maternity hospitals. Corina is a pediatric doctor at the Children's Clinical Emergency Hospital of Brasov, Romania. She has presented at national and international events and specializes in Pediatric Pneumology and Allergology, as well as Clinical Immunology. Corina has a passion for children and charity work.
Iryna Piotrowska
Development and Program Support
Iryna, half Polish half Ukrainian, grew up in Ukraine. She received her Master’s degree from the University of Warsaw. Additionally she finished the European Academy of Diplomacy with the International Institutions major. Working as Program Manager at Google, she is passionate about improving processes, finding solutions to problems, and making things happen. Iryna lived in 5 countries and always promoted Ukrainian culture and language through organization of Ukrainian meet-ups and events. Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine she has been collecting humanitarian aid and sending it to Ukraine and participating in locally organized awareness events.
Deema H. Darwish
Program Support
A qualified engineer from Syria, Deema H. Darwish moved to Gaziantep, Turkey early on in the Syrian war. She has worked tirelessly to help Syrian refugees locate shelter, education, and healthcare. Deema founded the Ulfah House Initiative, setting up a collective shelter and livelihoods program for Syrian widows and children. RPI supported Ulfah House to identify and subsidize urban housing rentals for newly arrived Syrian refugees, with Deema leading implementation. She has since resettled with her family to the United Kingdom, where she is a UNHCR trainee. Deema now volunteers remotely for RPI's refugee self-reliance initiative with local partners.
Jonathan Scheidegger
Program Support
Jonathan has a longstanding passion for helping at-risk youth reintegrate in society. He has an MA in Peace and Justice Leadership from The School for International Training and a BA in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire. He works at UTEC in Lowell, MA helping disengaged young adults ages 17-25 to trade violence for well-being and economic success. He aspires to apply these efforts to countries in conflict to support peace. Jonathan has worked on Yemen anti-war campaigning with Massachusetts Peace Action and homeless outreach in NH. At RPI, he assists refugee self-reliance by selling gifts produced by conflict-affected Syrian women in the Middle East in collaboration with RPI's training partners.
Rula Jaber
Program Support
Rula has a bachelor's degree in child development from the University of Jordan. She currently works at UTEC (Lowell, MA), a nonprofit that supports young adults to trade violence for societal reintegration. Rula directs UTEC's preschool for children of young adults going through UTEC's programs. Rula was born and raised in Jordan and moved to the United States in 2011. She is very passionate about children's education and has enjoyed working in this field for over a decade and a half. At RPI, Rula assists refugee self-reliance by selling gifts produced by conflict-affected Syrian women in the Middle East in collaboration with RPI's training partners. Rula will also help to review relief efforts related to early childhood education for refugees and provide Arabic interpretation & translation.
Christina Khalil
Program Support
Christina is of Syrian and Egyptian descent and has a passion for supporting refugees. For three years, she served as an English Tutor with Paper Airplanes, providing weekly virtual one-on-one English lessons to Syrian refugee students. Christina holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and an M.S. in Biotechnology from Northeastern University. She currently works as a Newborn Hearing Screener and Researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital. At RPI, Christina helps to sell refugee-made crafts to support women's livelihoods in camps across the Middle East.
Rasha Isa
Program Support
Rasha Isa studied English Literature in Damascus University, Syria. Rasha has many years of experience in interpretation and teaching languages. She has advocated for women’s rights since 2005 and has served women who experienced gender-based violence in Syria. Rasha is also a strong advocate for refugees’ rights and refugee children’s right to education. Rasha has worked with refugee women and children in Syria, Turkey, and the US. She has been working in refugee education programs in the US for 5 years serving students in tutoring and after-school programs, in addition to educating and supporting refugee families to navigate the US school system and engage with their community. Rasha has provided interpretation during RPI site visits to the Syrian-Turkish border region.
Skyler Hoffman
Development and Program Support
Skyler is a student at Babson College. He has volunteered in the past with the Quick Response Team at Casa Base in Greece that taught refugee girls skills and hosted social cohesion activities. He also has experience volunteering with Art4humanity on refugee assistance and other organizations as an Eagle Scout.
Camille Neidhardt
Child Protection Intern
Camille assists RPI with desk research, among other programming support related to child protection and displacement. Camille has previously interned with UNRWA in Jordan, the International Social Service in Geneva, and the Thanh Hoa Fund for Poor Women in Vietnam. Camille is pursuing her Masters in International Affairs and Development, with a concentration in Peace Studies, from the Université Paris Dauphine & PSL Paris Sciences et Lettres. She is passionate about the nexus between grassroots humanitarian work and improved child protection, and holds a particular interest in the Middle East.
Jessica Childs
Development and Program Support
Jessica has a B.A. from Earlham College with a double major in Politics and International Studies and a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. She has volunteered with Save The Children in the Zaatari camp of Jordan, conducting interviews with families to evaluate their refugee status eligibility. Jessica also developed an independent initiative implemented with a team of Jordanian volunteers, which facilitated access to humanitarian aid for nearly 100 Syrian refugee families in northern Jordan. Having previously worked at the Parent/Professional Advocacy League, Jessica is currently employed by Experian Data Quality
Victoria Zimmermann
Communications and Media Support
Victoria has a passion for working with underserved and at-risk communities. She has a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Human Rights from Trinity College in Connecticut. As part of her 3-year independent study project, she planned and facilitated an arts-based group supporting the societal reintegration of formerly incarcerated women with Community Partners in Action Resettlement House Program. Victoria has also interned with The Governor’s Prevention Partnership, Horizons for Homeless Children, and the United Nations Association of Greater Boston.
Jahnavi Kodali
Program Support
Jahnavi works in biotech in Greater Boston and is passionate about helping others in her spare time. At RPI, Jahanvi helps to sell refugee-made crafts to support women's livelihoods and children's education in camps across the Middle East.
Tony Dowers
Graphic Design
