Meet the Speakers

Janot mendler de suarez

Visiting Research Fellow, Boston University and Technical Advisor, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

  • Janot Mendler de Suarez is a climate policy advisor, humanitarian practitioner, game designer and expert facilitator. A Visiting Research Fellow with Boston University’s Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Technical Advisor with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, she has worked in over 75 countries.

    Janot spent over a decade developing GEF-IW:LEARN, the Global Environment Facility’s International Waters knowledge-sharing platform, and as a Senior Lecturer in Geography at Royal Holloway University of London piloted the first internet-mediated MSc program targeting young developing country environmental professionals. With a BA at Mt. Holyoke College in Biological Sciences and Political Science and Master’s from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Janot has studied at the Ecole du Louvre, University of Nairobi and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.  She serves on the Town of Wayland Human Rights, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, Wayland Housing Partnership, and Wayland Interfaith Leaders Association.

Prof. Iain Stewart

Professor of Geoscience Communication, Sustainable Earth Institute, University of Plymouth, UK

  • Iain Stewart is the El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair at the Royal Scientific Society (Jordan) and Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth (UK), where he also holds the UNESCO Chair in Geoscience & Society.

    The founding director of the University of Plymouth’s ‘Sustainable Earth Institute’, Iain’s broad research interests spandisaster risk reduction, climate change, and Earth science communication. His Earth science communication work has built on a 15-year partnership with BBC Science television presenting popular documentary series, including specialist coverage of earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and landslides.

    A co-author of the ‘Risk Communication’ chapter of the 2022 UNDRR Global Annual Report, he was Communications Lead for the UKRI Tomorrow’s Cities Urban Disaster Risk Hub and has published widely on disaster risk communications.

Prof. Carina Fearnley

Professor of Warnings and Science Communication, University College London

  • Carina Fearnley is Professor of Warnings and Science Communication at the Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL, and Director and Founder of the UCL Warning Research Centre (WRC), the only such dedicated facility in the world. Carina is an interdisciplinary researcher, drawing on relevant expertise in the social sciences on scientific uncertainty, risk, and complexity to focus on how natural hazard early warning systems can be made more effective, specifically alert level systems.

Bettina Koelle

Senior Learning Specialist, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

  • A geographer by training and passionate about exploring linkages within complex systems and helping people navigate challenges by designing and facilitating interactive processes of dialogue. She leads the Climate Centre’s learning portfolio and is the Southern African focal point for the organisation.

Lisa robinson

Communication specialist, formerly with BBC Media Action

  • Lisa Robinson is a specialist in strategic media and communication that inspires positive change at scale, with nearly 25 years of experience in over 30 countries across five continents.

    She unites diverse professionals and leads strong teams to address public issues with creative, evidence-based approaches, focusing on disaster risk, climate action, and emergency response.

    At BBC Media Action she led the Advisory Team, which influenced excellence across the organisation, reaching 100+ million people per year on issues spanning governance, information integrity and media ecosystems, gender equality, social inclusion, and health.

    In parallel, she conceived and directed the "Risk Communication for Early Action" (RiCA) initiative, leading teams across four countries to advance risk communication with a focus on early warning and early action. RiCA delivered global guidance on strategic design and research and forged relationships among different sectors to collectively improve disaster risk communication in a variety of contexts.

    Lisa has been invited to sit on boards for the UCL Warning Research Centre, LRF Institute for Public Understanding of Risk, and the UNDRR Global Risk Assessment Framework. She co-chaired REAP's working group on Risk Communication, led co-authors on the Risk Communication chapter in UNDRR's GAR22, and is on the Editorial Board for the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Natural Hazard Science. She co-founded the Communication with Disaster Affected (CDAC) Network.

Prof. terry cannon

Institute for Development Studies (Sussex), teaching in the MSc Climate Change, Development and Policy course

  • Terry Cannon has been teaching and researching in development studies for many years, and until 2009 was Reader in Development Studies at the University of Greenwich and Principal Scientist at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI at University of Greenwich). He recently retired from the Institute for Development Studies, where he taught in the MSc Climate Change, Development and Policy course. He also taught at King’s College London (on both development studies and on climate change and disaster vulnerability), in the MSc Disaster Management at University of Copenhagen and lectures annually at Reading University, Free University Brussels and Catholic University Leuven (Belgium).

    His main research focus is on rural livelihoods, disaster vulnerability and climate change adaptation, especially at the local level. He is one of the co-authors of ‘At Risk: natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters’ (1994 and 2004, 2nd edition), which has become one of the most widely cited and used books in the field.

Regie Gibson

Poet and actor

  • Regie Gibson, has lectured & performed in the U.S., Cuba & Europe. Representing the U.S., In Italy, Regie competed for & received both the Absolute Poetry & the Europa en Versi Awards. Himself & his work appear in "love jones”: a feature-film based on events in his life. He is a former U.S. National Poetry Slam Champion, has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, several TED X events & has been nominated for a Boston Emmy. He’s received multiple Mass Cultural Council Awards & the Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation. He has served as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts & the “Mere Distinction of Color”: an exhibit at James Madison’s Montpelier examining the legacy of slavery & the U.S. constitution. Regie has performed with & composed texts for, The Boston City Singers, The Mystic Chorale & The Handel+Haydn Society. He’s an actor & creator of The Shakespeare Time-Traveling Speakeasy— a theatrical, literary-concert focusing on the life & works of William Shakespeare & has received two Live Arts Boston Grants to develop his first musical-play, The Juke: A Blues Bacchae. 

    He’s worked closely with Pablo Suarez of the Red Cross-Red Crescent Climate Center (Boston University) to craft language regarding issues of climate change and disaster preparedness; & is the Co-Artistic Director of Arts for Social Cohesion- an organization that harnesses the power of moving performing arts — informed by best practices in social psychology — to help civic, business, educational & cultural communities navigate complex communal challenges with greater creativity & resilience. Regie is on faculty of the Creative Writing department of Clark University & the Liberal Arts department at Berkeley College of Music.

Daniel stephens

Filmmaker, artist, designer

  • Daniel is particularly inspired by the verisimilitude of the unpredictable and feels these moments are the foundation of exceptional storytelling.

     

    Daniel is deeply passionate about our planet's resources, both environmental and human. He is particularly engaged in the field of social justice and often works with organizations specializing in this area to document their work through film, multi-media, and art. His work with the United Nations, The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and independent filmmakers has taken him across the globe, from Nairobi to Haiti and from Iceland to the streets of Chicago to document and create stories of social change, social justice and environmental activism and action. Much of Daniel’s work in this area has been greatly enhanced by the creativity and subject-area expertise of Dr. Pablo Suarez whom Daniel had the honor to work with for over a decade. Together the two explored lyrical storytelling with Regie Gibson, data visualization through stop motion animation and data sculptures, crowdsourced ideation through gamification, digital game design among many other creative, personally fulfilling pursuits. Daniel continues to work in these areas to explore new methodologies for communicating critical information and improving understanding through play and collaborative storytelling.

Nicolas Cassinelli

Musician, filmmaker

  • Nico Cassinelli is a multidisciplinary professional with extensive experience in both music and technology. Born in La Plata, Argentina, he has created and performed music across various genres, drawing on influences from Argentine rock, Jazz, Brazilian rhythms, and other Latin American traditions. As an electronic engineer with over two decades of experience, he has led and participated in numerous research and development projects, earning support from institutions such as the European Commission and the Spanish Government. For 15 years, he headed his own company, designing and crafting scientific instruments for nanotechnology researchers. 

    Since relocating to Zaragoza in 2007, he got involved in comedy and improvisational theatre, and worked as a music producer at La Cafetera Atómica Studio, crafting original compositions for audiovisual projects, including a long list of creative audiovisual work with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, driven by intellectual curiosity, a passion for innovation, and a decades-long collaboration and friendship with its then Innovation Lead, Pablo Suarez.

Belina raffy

Transformational workshop designer and facilitator

  • Belina Raffy is part US-American, part French, and lives in Berlin, Germany.  She loves supporting people who work on climate and social challenges to co-create with more inspiration, navigate complexity with more wisdom, and communicate with more love, humour, and engagement.  Belina met Pablo in Montreal at a DeGrowth conference in 2012 and since then he remains one of her favourite humans ever.

Eugenia Rojo & Ham KhaN

Cartoonists and story-tellers

  • Eugenia Rojo was born in and resides in Argentina. She is a Cartoon Ideationist, Actor, Director, Scriptwriter, Facilitator, Dancer and Yoga Professor. She has been an external contractor for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre since 2022. She has also worked in a crea�ve capacity for the World Bank, Tufts University USA, Cambridge University UK, Exeter University UK, University College London UK, The World Economic Forum, The European Investment Bank,The Planetary Health alliance, The Child Mind Centre, amongst others.

    Ham Khan was born in the UK. He is Anglo-Pakistani and has resided in Argentina since 1986. He is a Cartoonist, Actor, Director, Facilitator, Scriptwriter, Object Designer and Constructor. As a cartoonist he has published in newspapers and magazines in the USA, UK and Argentina. He has also worked in a creative capacity for the World Bank, Tufts University USA, Cambridge University UK, University College London UK, Exeter University UK, The World Economic Forum, The European Investment Bank, The Planetary Health alliance, The Child Mind Centre, amongst others.

    In 2015 Eugenia Rojo and Ham Khan founded the Hamishibai Cardboard Theatre Group combining theatre, story-telling, creative workshops and cartooning. They have worked in most of Argentina, festivals in Mexico and Chile and events in the UK, Kenya, Malaysia, south Africa, USA, UK and Azerbaijan (COP29).

dr. Bruno haghebaert

DRR Summer School co-organiser, Independent consultant

  • Bruno studied International Politics (1982) and Development Studies (1987) at Ghent University in Belgium. In 2002 he obtained a Ph.D. in disaster risk reduction (DRR) with a dissertation “Perspectives on pro-active management of natural hazards. An enquiry into technocratic, behaviouristic, structural and neo-populist approaches”.

    During that period, he worked as a research assistant and assistant professor at the Centre for Third World Studies (Ghent University), worked for UNESCO as DRR expert and for Belgian Red Cross as Coordinator for Development and DRR Projects. From 2002 to 2008, he was Senior Officer at ProVention Consortium in Geneva. From 2008 to 2014, he was DRR/climate change adaptation adviser for the Netherlands Red Cross in The Hague.

    Bruno has been closely involved in the setting up of the Partners for Resilience alliance, which explored the interlinkages between DRR, climate change adaptation and ecosystem management and restoration. In 2015, he started working as learning coordinator for the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations on Disaster Reduction (GNDR) in London. In 2016, he returned to Belgian Red Cross-Flanders as their humanitarian coordinator. From 2017 to 2020, he worked as Lead of the Risk and Vulnerability team at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva. Currently (pre)-retired, Bruno conducts consultancies for UNDRR and USAID, amongst others.

patrick Bolte

DRR Summer School co-organiser, Director Banyaneer Consulting

  • A political scientist and a paramedic by training, Patrick has been working on DRR for the past 20 years. As a Red Cross Delegate in Indonesia, he helped establish an emergency services network and was involved in two earthquake response operations.

    In 2010, he founded Banyaneer Consulting and has conducted or supported over 100 studies since (evaluations, baselines, impact studies). Patrick’s interests include ways to strengthen and measure community resilience, the use of nature-based solutions in DRR, and ways to enhance risk communication.

    Patrick hosted the German DRR Conference 2022 and has facilitated a wide range of training courses and workshops. Based in Adelaide (Australia), Patrick also volunteers with the Country Fire Service (CFS), where he has been exploring new approaches to communicate bushfire risk and promote preparedness.