DARA's staff is based in Spain and the US. The organisation consists of six departments:
Director's officeGood Humanitarian Donorship/Humanitarian Response IndexDisaster Risk Reduction Initiative/Climate Vulnerability InitiativeEvaluationsCommunications and FundraisingAdministration and logistics
Ross Mountain - Director General
Ross Mountain (New Zealand) took up the post of Director General of DARA in January 2010. Previously he served the United Nations for over 36 years in various senior capacities, managing and coordinating humanitarian, development, peacekeeping and peace building programmes. His final assignment was Deputy Representative of the Secretary General/Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Mountain carried out similar functions in Iraq where he also acted as Special Representative of the Secretary General following the murder of Sergio Vieira de Mello in Baghdad. He has also held senior positions based in Iraq, Jordan, Geneva, Lebanon, Haiti, the Eastern Caribbean (Barbados), Liberia, Afghanistan and the South Pacific (Fiji). As Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator with OCHA in Geneva, he was also deployed to humanitarian crises in the DRC, Timor Leste, Iraq, occupied Palestinian Territories, Mozambique and Liberia.
Lucía Fernández - Coordinator of the Director’s Office
Lucía joined DARA in 2005. She is now DARA’s Coordinator working within the Executive on management issues. She combines these functions with work on evaluations and provides backstopping within DARA. She has evaluated interventions in post-disaster contexts such as tsunami hit areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and floods in Bolivia. Her experience covers various sectors that link relief, recovery and development. Lucía has carried out field work in Afghanistan, Colombia, Morocco, Myanmar, Niger, and the occupied Palestinian territories. Prior to DARA, Lucía worked at Grupo DEX planning, managing and evaluating co-funded projects of the European Union. She has worked for CARE International and the Delegation of the European Commission to the United Nations in New York, and Human Rights Watch in Washington D.C. Lucía holds an MA in Evaluation and a BA in Journalism from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York.
Daniela Mamone - Executive Assistant
Daniela Mamone is Secretary of the Board. She joined DARA in 2007 and has worked as assistant to the directorate. During the last two years, she has actively worked on the Humanitarian Response Index at various levels and provided support and research assistance in several evaluations. She has participated in assessment missions in Sri Lanka, the occupied Palestinian Territories and China. Daniela holds a Degree in Law from the University of Buenos Aires with a specialisation in International Public Law. She is trained in International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid Evaluation.
Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD)/Humanitarian Response Index (HRI)
Philip Tamminga - Head of HRI
Philip Tamminga has more than 20 years practical and research experience in international development and humanitarian assistance. He specialises in governance and accountability issues, policy and strategy development, programme design, management and evaluation, and communications. As former Head of Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, he played a key role in shaping the federation’s strategic policy framework. Before this, he was Head of Delegation for the Canadian Red Cross in Nicaragua and Honduras, managing Hurricane Mitch recovery, housing reconstruction, and community health programmes in those countries, and researching community development programmes in Latin America. He holds a BA in Latin American Studies and an MA in Communications and International Development from Simon Fraser University, and continues to research and teach in the fields of development and humanitarian assistance.
Team
Fernando Espada - Field & Report
Fernando Espada is the Mission Coordinator for DARA’s Humanitarian Response Index. Until 2008, he was Communications Director of DARA, as well as of the think tank FRIDE (Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior). Prior to that, Fernando Espada was Managing Editor of the Spanish edition of Foreign Policy Magazine, published by FRIDE under an agreement with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. From 2002 to 2006, he was Deputy Director of FRIDE, where he had been working since 2001. Fernando Espada is co-author, with Silvia Hidalgo, of the policy paper ‘Towards a New Spanish Cooperation Policy’ (FRIDE, 2006). Since 2007, he has been a member of the Humanitarian Response Index field teams to Chad, Colombia (as team leader in 2008 and 2009), Somalia (in Nairobi) and Sri Lanka. He holds a BA in Political Science (Political Theory and Political Sociology) from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Philippe Benassi - Field & Report
Philippe joined DARA in August 2008 as Humanitarian Response Index Operations Coordinator. Prior to DARA, he worked as Project Coordinator in ILO and in the French Agency of Cooperation in Indonesia and Timor Leste. He later became the Coordinator of the Cooperation Department of the Spanish NGO, FUNDESO. He also worked as a consultant for several NGO’s and research centers. Philippe holds a Degree in Political Sciences from the Institute of Sciences Po Toulouse, and an MA in International Administration from the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). As a part of DARA’s team, he has participated in assessment missions in Sudan, Haiti and DRC.
Marybeth Redheffer
Marybeth is editor and research assistant at DARA, where she has worked since 2007. She has been active in the publication and editorial process of the HRI for the past three years. Prior to joining DARA, she worked for several NGOs and think tanks in the environment and conflict resolution fields and was also a visiting researcher for UNESCO: Territory and Environment. She holds a BA in Spanish (University of Richmond) and two Master’s degrees in Spanish (Middlebury College) and International Policy (Monterey Institute for International Studies). As a trained evaluator, she has participated in field missions for the Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) to Colombia, Ethiopia, Georgia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Magda Ninaber
Rebbeca Moy
Quantitative Analysis
Daniela Ruegenberg
Daniela Ruegenberg joined DARA in 2007 as a researcher and quantitative analyst. She has worked on projects such as the “Thematic Study on Aid Effectiveness and Development Effectiveness” of the Paris Declaration, is actively involved in the development of the Humanitarian Response Index, and gives support to the Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative. She has also participated in assessment missions in Bangladesh, and Somalia/ Kenya. Prior to DARA, she worked in the area of economic development, monitoring and tracking systems of different projects in her country (Bolivia). Daniela holds a BA in Economics from Universidad Católica Boliviana (La Paz), an MA in Development and International Aid Studies in (Madrid), and is trained in humanitarian aid evaluation (Brussels).
Covadonga Canteli
Beatriz Asensio
Frank Vollmer
Jesper Rudiger
Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative (DRRI)/ Climate Vulnerability Initiative (CVI)
Matthew McKinnon - CVI Coordinator
Yunuen Montero Salcedo
Yunuen works as Researcher in the Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative. She holds an MA in International Cooperation and Development from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where she specialized in gender issues and climate change. She has 15 years of experience working on poverty and development issues. In DARA, she has participated in Evaluations in Mexico, Egypt and in an HRI field mission to Colombia.
Emily Wilkinson
Riccardo Polastro - Head of Evaluations
Riccardo Polastro heads the evaluation department of DARA. He has worked in humanitarian assistance and development aid for 17 years and in more than fifty countries for the International Movement of the Red Cross, the United Nations, NGOs and donors. Riccardo lectures in several university MA programs on development related topics.
He has carried out policy and operational evaluations for the Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid of the European Commission, the Inter Agency Standing Committee, the International Committee of the Red Cross, OCHA, UNICEF and the Swedish International Development Agency. He is an MPhil in Peace and Security, Master in International Relations, and Maîtrise of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
Jock Baker - DARA Associate
Jock Baker began working as an independent consultant in 1999 following a career of over fifteen years in a series of field-based assignments with the United Nations, including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Program (WFP), and the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA). Mr. Baker works part-time as CARE International’s Programme Quality & Accountability Coordinator at the CARE International Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland where he is the focal point for humanitarian accountability, program quality, disaster risk reduction and transition programming. Mr. Baker has led a number of thematic reviews of organizational policy in addition to participating in and leading a number of assessments, appraisals, participatory reviews and evaluations. He is skilled in workshop design and facilitation. He holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc degree in Economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science.
Albertien van der Veen - DARA Associate
Albertien van der Veen has more than 20 years of experience in humanitarian aid and development assistance. As an epidemiologist with a background in nutrition and public health, she has worked extensively in the field and at headquarters in many different positions including programme manager, evaluator and trainer. She has worked with and for NGOs, UN agencies and donors. She has been employed by OCHA and has carried out evaluations and technical support missions for UNICEF, WHO and WFP. She worked at ECHO Brussels for two years and later carried out evaluations for ECHO in Sudan, Thailand, the Middle East, Bosnia and the Caucasus.
Albertien worked for more than seven years for MSF in the field and at headquarters in various management functions. Ten years after leaving MSF as an employee, she was elected president of the Board of Directors of MSF Holland, a position she held until 2007.
Nicolai Steen
Nicolai Steen joined DARA as an Evaluation Officer in September 2007. Nicolai has 13 years of experience from international development and humanitarian aid in Africa, Asia and Latin America for UNICEF and for private consultancy firms. He has been a consultant on evaluations, reviews, programme formulation, appraisals and thematic studies for bilateral and multilateral organisations as well as for international NGOs. He brings a great deal of experience to his role, especially in the fields of education, governance and humanitarian assistance. Nicolai Steen holds an MA in International Development Studies and Education, and is currently working on a PhD in International Relations and Development at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Soledad Posada
Soledad works as Evaluation Researcher. She has conducted a number of assessments and evaluations in Haiti, Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Ms. Posada has expertise in development and implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation systems and methodology in the development project context. Before joining DARA, she worked as a consultant focusing on Social and Human Sciences at the UNESCO Human Rights and Development Section. She holds a BA in Philosophy from the Paris University (St. Denis) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She also holds an MA in Contemporary European Studies from the University of Bath (UK), the Charles University of Prague (Czech Republic), and the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, as well as an MA in Evaluation of Programmes and Public Policies, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Belén Camacho
Belén has an MA in Development and International Aid from the ICEI (Institute for International Studies of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a double degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has field experience in development projects in Central America as well as in development and awareness projects in Spanish NGOs. She has also worked in the Spanish Foreign Office for 3 years. Belén has worked for DARA since 2007 as a research assistant. She has expertise in disaster risk reduction as part of the Risk Reduction Index core team, and in evaluation. She also participated in the Humanitarian Response Index project of 2009 with a mission to Colombia.
Belén Díaz - Fundraising and Development Officer/Researcher
Communications and Fundraising
Amalia Navarro - Senior Advocacy and Communication Manager
Fiona Guy - Communications and Website Officer
Valentina Ferrara - Fundraising and Institutional Relations Officer
Eva Cervantes - Finance Administrator
Susana Vicario - Executive Secretary
Miguel González - Finance Department Assistant
Ignacio Wilhelmi - Logistics and Web
Nacho Wilhelmi joined DARA in 2004, launching DARA’s website. After that, he focused on logistics and is offering support to the Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) and the Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative (DRRI) projects. He holds a BA in Law from the Universidad de Barcelona. Prior to joining DARA, he worked in a law firm for one year. He has participated in HRI field missions to Lebanon, Colombia, Ethiopia and Pakistan.
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