Staff
Rachel Taylor
Executive Director
Rachel has worked as a researcher and advocate in the human rights sector for over twenty years. Before joining Every Casualty Counts she was the Director of Programmes at Child Soldiers International, where she led the launch of a global database on child military exploitation. Previously Rachel was a Europe and Central Asia Researcher at Amnesty International, with responsibility for Spain, Portugal and the French-speaking countries of Western Europe. She has worked on issues ranging from asylum to torture, counter-terrorism, women’s prisons, and child soldiers. In 2018 she co-authored ‘Why 18 Matters’, which challenges the legality of the military recruitment of minors in countries including the UK and USA.
Rachel’s work has frequently focused on engaging with UN member states, human rights bodies and humanitarian agencies to seek change in international law. She has also worked directly with government ministers, security agencies and the judiciary to improve national practice in various states.
Federica Riccardi
Network Director
Federica holds an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Before joining Every Casualty Counts in 2022, she had been working in the humanitarian and development sector for over 15 years, of which over a decade was spent working with the International Committee of the Red Cross mostly in the field, but also at HQ. She has been working in several contexts around the world, notably Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Afghanistan, Armenia, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Kosovo, Italy, France, Brussels, Geneva, Jerusalem and Gaza. Over the years, she has focused her work on programmes supporting missing people or the dead, and their families, joining forces with all relevant stakeholders including governments and other decision-makers, to encourage them to uphold their obligations under International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.
Bilan Mohamed
Network Manager
Bilan Mohamed is an international law and human rights professional with broad experience in programme management, development, and the rule of law. She has worked across the non-profit and international development sectors, contributing to initiatives that strengthen institutional capacity and promote rights-based approaches.
She has also engaged in academic and policy-oriented legal research in the field of international human rights law, with a focus on accountability, access to justice, and remedies in contexts affected by conflict.
Bilan holds a master’s degree in International Human Rights Law and is committed to advancing protection and accountability through legal and policy frameworks in conflict-affected settings.
Craig Grant
Senior Operations Manager
Craig has been in the non-profit sector since 2018, beginning in fundraising roles for major global charities before shifting focus to create and lead global capacity building and grant-making programs, as well as major annual conferences in Dalian, Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi. In doing so he has built and supported large global networks of NGOs and used his depth of experience in NGO operations to inform the capacity building service he established.
Mohammad Youssef
Cybersecurity Advisor
Mohammad is a senior cybersecurity and infrastructure leader with over 20 years of experience spanning information security, network engineering, risk management, and digital transformation in complex and post-conflict environments. He has directed multi-million-dollar programs, advising government institutions and high-risk human rights activists. Mohammad supports ECC and the Casualty Recorders Network members in ensuring their staff, work and data are secure.
Board
Our Board of Trustees is responsible for the good governance of Every Casualty Counts. It holds routine meetings quarterly, with additional meetings as required. The Board approves our strategies and budget, monitors cashflow, and supervises the Executive Director.
Professor Michael Spagat, PhD
Chair of the Board
Mike Spagat is a Professor of Economics at Royal Holloway University of London. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University and earlier held faculty posts at Brown University and the University of Illinois. Professor Spagat’s papers on armed conflict have been widely published, including in Nature, Scientific Reports, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Peace Research, the Journal of Conflict Resolution and PLoS Medicine. His current research addresses universal patterns in modern war, fabrication in survey research, the possible decline of war, the impact of drone strikes, civilian casualties in the Iraq and Gaza conflicts and problems in the measurement of war deaths.
Professor Spagat’s blog is War, Numbers and Human Losses, tweets and he periodically offers two free online courses with FutureLearn – “Accounting for Death in War” and “Survival Statistics“.
Janet Anderson
Trustee
Janet H. Anderson is a journalist and communications expert focused on accountability and justice, especially the courts and tribunals of The Hague and beyond. As a trainer and mentor, she supports NGOs and campaigning journalists in making impact via the media and developing their advocacy skills on a range of human rights subjects. Janet co-founded and co-presents the Asymmetrical Haircuts podcast featuring women commentators on international criminal justice.
Professor Benjamin Valentino
Trustee
Professor Benjamin Valentino is the Chair of the Department of Government at Dartmouth College, NH, and Vice Chair of the Board of Vistors at Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth. He has a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Professor Valentino is an internationally recognised expert on genocide and mass atrocity crimes. He has published extensive research on this topic, and is a Senior Fellow at the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Previously he has served as a member of the Genocide Prevention Task Force and the State Department/CIA Forum on Genocide Prevention.
Harriet Scott
Trustee
Harriet Scott has nearly 10 years of experience in the third sector and is currently the Head of Philanthropy and Partnerships at Medical Aid for Palestinians. With expertise in diverse income streams, Harriet specialises in major donor fundraising, driving impactful partnerships and funding strategies for meaningful change. Prior to this, Harriet worked for climate change charity Friends of the Earth, and Cyrenians, a homelessness prevention charity based in Scotland.
Negah Angha
Trustee
Negah Angha is a Global Fellow with the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. With two decades of experience spanning government, the private sector, and academia, Ms. Angha has advised senior U.S. government leadership on policy development, strategic communication, and global partnerships. She has also served in leadership roles on several nonprofit boards and remains deeply committed to advancing democracy, human rights, and conflict resolution. Ms. Angha holds a Master of Arts in International Peace and Conflict Resolution and an MBA from American University and is a Ph.D. candidate at King’s College London.
Elisabeth Pramendorfer
Trustee
Elisabeth Pramendorfer is an atrocity prevention expert with extensive experience in advocating at the United Nations for populations at risk of atrocity crimes. She is the Geneva Representative at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, where she leads strategic initiatives to institutionalise atrocity prevention efforts within the wider UN human rights system. She regularly publishes articles, commentaries and book chapters and contributes as a guest speaker on R2P, human rights, multilateralism, and atrocity prevention at academic institutions globally.
Fiona Lloyd Davies
Trustee
Fiona Lloyd Davies is the founder of STUDIO 9 FILMS and has over 3 decades of experience in developing and producing content for documentaries and storytelling. Previously Fiona has worked as a producer at Channel 4, and BBC. Her most recent film for ITV – The Grave – tells the story of a mass grave in eastern Ukraine, and the relatives searching for their loved ones. She is currently working on a feature documentary entitled Goražde – City of Heroes that tells the story of a handful of extraordinary individuals who risk everything to save thousands of lives in the enclave of Goražde during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. She holds an MA in Graphic Design from the Royal College of the Art and an MSt in International Relations and Affairs from the University of Cambridge.
Image: The Hall of Names – Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum by Adam Jones, licensed under CC BY 2.0.