Who We Are
SJAC is a Syrian-led organization made up of 40+ team members around the globe. While our team of lawyers, human rights activists, and IT experts is majority Syrian, many of our team members cannot be publicly associated with the organization, as it may put themselves, their families, or the objectivity of their work at risk. The staff listed below live in both the United States and Europe and are able to respond to questions or requests for information.
For press inquires, contact SJAC's Communications Coordinator at [email protected]
Staff
Board of Directors
Mohammad Al Abdallah
Executive Director
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Mohammad is the founding Director of the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre where he supports developing and leading the organization's strategic vision, and works with project leads to support project implementation. Mohammad is directly involved in SJAC's transitional justice projects and the missing persons portfolio. He also represents SJAC in media and provides managerial oversight for the organization.
For questions about SJAC’s transitional justice or missing persons work, contact him at: [email protected]
Roger Lu Phillips
Legal Director
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Roger is the Legal Director of the Syria Justice and Accountability Center where he manages OSINT and closed source investigative teams. He also oversees SJAC's legal analysis teams, trial monitoring in universal cases and responding to requests of investigative bodies and prosecutors.
He regularly provides commentary to the media on the application of universal jurisdiction as well as international humanitarian law, including the law of occupation. He can be reached at: [email protected]
Hannah Grigg
Senior Program Officer
Hannah is a Senior Program Officer at SJAC where she oversees SJAC's missing persons program, leads the drafting and publication of reports on human rights and transitional justice, and provides organization wide support on development and compliance. You can reach out to Hannah with questions regarding SJAC's missing persons program at [email protected].
Jomana Al-Salman
Project Manager
Jomana is an activist in the field of gender-based violence related to the Syrian conflict and is the Project Manager for SJAC’s missing persons program in Northeast Syria. She leads a team of documentation coordinators who meet with families and survivors to collect information on persons disappeared by ISIS and facilitates relationships with local organizations and activists in Northeast Syria to support community-led efforts in the search for missing persons.
Alan Haji
Team Lead - Case Building
Alan is an International Lawyer and Team Lead for SJAC’s Case-Building project. In addition to providing legal analysis and advice on various international legal matters, he manages SJAC’s Europe-based team in support of the domestic accountability processes within different jurisdictions for international crimes committed in Syria. His team focuses on identifying potential suspects of such crimes who are present in Europe, while also connecting witnesses and survivors of these crimes to the relevant domestic authorities.
Micki Gallien
Program Officer
Micki focuses on tech and human rights programming at SJAC. She currently manages a project to enhance Bayanat, an open source data management tool that SJAC created to document and analyze evidence of human rights violations. She can be reached at [email protected].
Teresa Quadt
Trial Monitor
As a trial monitor, Teresa attends court sessions on universal jurisdiction cases to ensure the availability of documentation for victims and families and to compile a historical record. She currently monitors the trial against Alaa M. before the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt, Germany, and creates trial reports, explanatory blog posts, and analytical reports on the proceedings. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate researching and writing on crimes against humanity against migrants and refugees. To learn more about SJAC's trial monitoring, email [email protected].
Michael Ader
Communications Officer
Michael is a communications Officer at the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre where he helps facilitate SJAC’s external communications with journalists while also managing the organization's social media accounts, newsletter, and website. He also provides logistical and technical support for the SJAC team, including video production and animation, GIS mapping, and graphic design. For questions about SJAC’s communications or website contact him at: [email protected]
Madeline Hart
Program Associate
Madeline Hart focuses on missing persons work and capacity building for SJAC. She assists in general project implementation, as well as provides logistical and operational support for the teams. Madeline also supports research needs, and contributes to SJAC's blog publications, as well as drafts content for SJAC's website and social media pages.
Benjamin Schmida
Program Associate
Benjamin is a Program Associate at the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre where he
supports SJAC’s Universal Jurisdiction, Capacity Building, and Open-Source Investigations
Programing. He also provides administrative, logistical, and communications support for the
SJAC team.
Gabriel Young
Missing Persons Investigator
As Missing Persons Investigator, Gabriel leads SJAC's investigations into the fate and whereabouts of people who disappeared in formerly ISIS-held areas of Syria. To identify the sites and incidents most relevant to the search for the missing, Gabriel works between field staff collecting testimony from survivors of ISIS detention and families of missing persons; forensic teams gathering documentation from former ISIS detention facilities and mass graves; and database analysts storing and cataloguing documentation. Gabriel can be reached at [email protected].
Board of Directors
The SJAC Board of Directors establishes organisational policies and guides institutional strategy. Members include:
Jill Miller
Director, Center for Applied Learning and Impact, IREXJill Miller is an international development professional with 18 years of progressive experience in democracy and governance, education, gender and youth. In her current capacity leading the Center for Applied Learning and Impact at the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), Jill heads a team that develops cutting-edge new program approaches, fosters learning across the IREX portfolio and beyond, and assesses IREX’s impact. Jill received her master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) with a concentration in Social Change and Development and her bachelor’s degree from Seattle University in Political Science and Economics.
Erica Razook
Director, Titania Returns, LLCErica Razook sits on SJAC’s Board of Directors and is a Syrian-Lebanese American anti-corruption lawyer and certified fraud examiner living in New York. She participated in the 2014 Arab Forum on Asset Recovery and supported civil society efforts to repatriate stolen assets to Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and Ukraine in her former role at the Open Society Foundations, including coordination of the civil society-led event on the topic at the 2015 UN Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa. Erica is the Treasurer of the Board of Directors of SJAC.
Daniel Serwer
Academic Director of Conflict Management , Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International StudiesDaniel is a Professor of the Practice of Conflict Management, director of the Conflict Management Program and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Serwer is also a research scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. Serwer served as a minister-counselor with the U.S. Department of State. He was deputy chief of mission and charge’ d’affaires at US Embassy Rome from 1990 to 1993 and from 1994 to 1996, special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation. During this posting, Serwer mediated between the Croats and Muslims and was the negotiator who brokered the first agreement reached at the Dayton peace talks. Serwer is the author of Righting the Balance: How You Can Help Protect America (Potomac, 2013). Serwer holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University, an M.S. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Haverford College.
Mark Smith
Director for Government Affairs, Clorox CompanyMark Smith is the Director for Government Affairs at the International, Glad and BRITA for the Clorox Company. He leads the company’s government affairs strategy in the over 110 markets outside of the U.S. where Clorox does business as well as the global business for the Glad and BRITA brands. Prior to joining Clorox, Mark was President and Founder of Claren Power, a waste-to-energy developer focused on maximizing the electrical energy output of sugar mills in Brazil. Before embarking on this entrepreneurial venture, Mark served for 11 years as the Managing Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where he led successful industry coalitions that helped pass the CAFTA, Chile and Peru-U.S. Free Trade Agreements. At the Chamber, Mark also served as the Executive Vice President of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council, an organization representing the largest Fortune 500 investors in Brazil. Prior to his stint at the Chamber, Mark worked as a trade analyst at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, focusing on promoting Brazilian software and manufactured goods exports to the U.S. He holds a BA in Government from the College of William & Mary and a MBA from Georgetown.
Clint Williamson
Distinguished professor of practice, Sandra Day O'Connor College of LawWilliamson also serves as Senior Director for Global Rule of Law, Governance and National Security at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at ASU. From 2011-2014, he served as Lead Prosecutor for the European Union Special Investigative Task Force. Prior to that role, Williamson was the third United States Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, serving from 2006 to 2009. Before the ambassadorship, from 1994-2001, he worked as a Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, where he supervised investigations and field operations in the Balkans, compiled indictments, and prosecuted cases at trial.