FOUNDER Christine Williams worked as an urban warfare expert and instructor during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2002 to 2006. After observing the effect of war on innocent civilians and particularly children, she saw that despite best efforts by other organizations, children were still being harmed and exploited in conflict. More needed to be done.

Enter the social media revolution. The explosion of online networking meant that even by the smallest organizations in developing countries could connect with each other. Christine decided it was time to get everyone talking. Organization to organization, individual to educator, student to researcher, people to people. Sharing ideas, strategies, lessons learned. And have it all in one place where people could access the data, discuss and collaborate. In 2008 it started as an idea, which morphed into a blog and two years later Child Soldier Relief Foundation was born.

Christine graduated from Columbia University with a Master of Science in Urban Planning in 2001, where she won the Gitelson/Meyerowitz Human Rights Award from the Center for the Study of Human Rights and the Charles Abrams award for Best Thesis for her graduate thesis. Christine worked with the Center for International Earth Science Information Network and IFPRI – The International Food Policy Research Institute after she graduated. Before Columbia, she worked at Harvard University for the Center for Urban Development Studies.

MANAGING DIRECTOR Leslie Giamo has an MA in Education and Human Development from The George Washington University. Her studies focused primarily on finding solutions to help marginalized youth populations. She has done extensive research on DDR programs for child soldiers and would one day like to run a program dedicated to the protection, education and reintegration of child soldiers. Prior to taking on this position she spent a year in Rwanda teaching English and designing curriculum at Akilah Institute for Women, a non-profit organization committed to educating impoverished women and providing them with the skills to work in the hospitality industry. She has also taught in Indonesia and China and has traveled throughout Indonesia and East Africa.

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH PROJECTS Kate Davey is Co-founder of findingDulcinea.com, a free educational and reference website, where she worked since August 2006. Prior to that, Kate worked for The International Criminal Court in The Hague, The Netherlands, where she focused on legal research and news analysis. Kate has also worked as a reporter for The Branford Review and performed research for the Center for the Study of the Presidency. Kate has a B.A. in Political Science from Providence College and a Masters in International Human Rights Law from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her thesis focused on the need for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration programs specific to the needs of former girl child soldiers.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST Chanel Ruiz-Bricco is a graduate student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies where she is studying for a Master’s degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in Security and Development. She graduated from the University of Redlands with a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Psychology. In 2009, she worked on a project for the United Nations to improve access to water for people in Rwanda. Chanel spent six months in Peru in 2008 volunteering at a residential facility for street children addicted to drugs. The majority of her research in graduate school has focused on how to improve DDR programs for child soldiers. Chanel has an international background having been born in Nairobi, Kenya where she lived for the first ten years of her life. She has an American mother and a Peruvian father and has traveled extensively in Africa, Europe and Latin America.

RESEARCH INTERN Melissa Tong graduated from Cornell University and has spent time as a teaching assistant for classes taught in a maximum-security prison as well as teaching at-risk youth in a prison re-entry program. She is interested in marginalized groups in society and would like to continue to work with organizations that bring the needs of these groups to the public eye. Melissa is currently a researcher at CSRF; her primary responsibility is writing up the background information for countries that use child soldiers.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT INTERN Jacob Locke is the Research and Education intern working to produce lesson plans around multimedia resources. Before working with Child Soldier Relief Foundation, Jacob interned with Greenpeace, the Center for International Study and Development, and spent a year teaching English in China. He received a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the School of International Service at American University.

COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH INTERN Kathryn Rendon is a recent graduate of George Mason University with a degree in International Development and a minor in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. While at George Mason, she studied abroad in the Philippines where she focused on trauma healing and rehabilitation from a Southeast Asian perspective. It also gave her the opportunity to work with Dumaguete Foster Care, an organization that assists children whose parents are deceased. She most recently completed a six-week summer, work program that places at-risk youth from Baltimore City in the Maryland Park Service, giving them the opportunity to learn job skills and appropriate work place behavior. In the future, she hopes to work with more organizations that focus on youth issues and empowerment.