Leadership Teams

Executive Team

Our Executive Team is responsible for developing organizational strategy and policies; overseeing the legal, fiscal, and financial health of the organization; reporting to the Board of Directors of SFCG; managing and supervising departments and programs; setting organizational policy around financial management and key personnel issues; ensuring policy compliance; engaging with key donors and partners; stimulating  innovation and development across the organization; and deciding where and how to engage globally.  They are also members of the Global Leadership Team.

	John Marks Founder and President

John Marks is Founder and President of Search for Common Ground and Common Ground Productions. He wrote and produced The Shape of the Future, a four-part TV documentary series that was simulcast on Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab satellite TV. John also serves as executive producer of The Team, a TV and radio series in 16 countries, as well as numerous other TV and radio programs. John is a Skoll Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Peace in Costa Rica. He served as a US Foreign Service Officer and as Executive Assistant to the late US Senator Clifford Case. A graduate of Cornell University, John was a Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. He is an award-winning author and a Senior Ashoka Fellow.

	Susan Collin Marks Senior Vice President

Susan Collin Marks is Senior Vice President of Search for Common Ground. A native South African, she worked as a peacebuilder during her country's transition from apartheid to democracy. Her book about that process, Watching the Wind: Conflict Resolution during South Africa's Transition to Democracy (US Institute of Peace, 2000) was also published in Arabic in 2004.

For over 20 years, Susan has facilitated dialogues and offered one-on-one coaching for political, institutional and civil society leaders worldwide. In 2006, she launched the Leadership Wisdom Initiative at SFCG. She serves on numerous boards, including the Advisory Council of the Woodrow Wilson International Center Project on Africa and Leadership, and the Abraham Path Initiative. She was portrayed in the PBS documentary Peace X Peace: Women on the Frontlines. Her honors include a Jennings Randolph Peace Fellowship at the United States Institute for Peace, the Institute for Noetic Science's Creative Altruism Award, a Skoll Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She speaks, teaches, coaches, writes, facilitates, and supports peace processes and conflict resolution programs internationally. Susan believes that our common humanity binds us together more than our differences divide us. She works to make it so.

	Sandra Djuvara Melone Executive Vice President

Sandra Djuvara Melone has worked at Search for Common Ground since 1995 and has served as our Executive Vice President since 2007. Prior to moving to Washington, Sandra founded the Women's Peace Centre in Burundi; and established and ran SFCG's European headquarters in Brussels. Sandra is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT); of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO); and of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI), on all of whose Steering Committees she served. She also served on the Board of the International Federation of Associations in Belgium (FAIB); and as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP). Before working in conflict transformation, Sandra worked in human rights advocacy with Amnesty International, and in international education. She has given numerous presentations and led workshops and trainings in conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation, consensus-building, team-building, facilitation, cross-cultural communication, fundraising and NGO management. She has appeared on CNN, BBC, and VOA and has written articles published in a variety of international outlets, on the media and conflict resolution; the role NGOs can play in Track II diplomacy and reconciliation; the complementarities of governmental, non-governmental, intergovernmental and private sector initiatives; and civil-military cooperation. Sandra studied at the University of Chicago and Ludwig-Maximilian Universitat in Munich; speaks English, French, German and Romanian; and has worked in Africa, America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

	Steve Utterwulghe Vice President, Global Affairs & Partnerships & Europe Director

Steve Utterwulghe, a Belgian and Canadian citizen, is Vice President, Global Affairs and Partnerships, in which capacity he manages the European Office, oversees operations in Asia and Europe and manages the Sustainable Business Practice (work with the extractive industry) in Africa and Latin America.

He was SFCG Angola Country Director during and after the civil war. He then became the Executive Director of the European Headquarters in Brussels where he also served as President of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office, the largest alliance of peacebuilding organizations in Europe. Prior to that, he worked at the United Nations in Geneva; in Sudan for the Office of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General; and at the European Commission in Brussels where he managed post-genocide rehabilitation funds for Rwanda. Steve has led fact-finding missions to Colombia, Nepal, Yemen, Sudan, Timor Leste, Burma, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, etc. He is an Advisor to the Australian Government's Agency for International Development.

Steve earned Master's degrees from the London School of Economics (UK) as well as jointly from Tilburg University (The Netherlands) and Louvain University (Belgium). Steve holds a Post-graduate Certificate from Cambridge University in Sustainable Business and attended an executive management program at Harvard Business School. He speaks French, English and Portuguese fluently. He has lived in 8 countries and worked in or traveled to more than 70.

	Robert Miller Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer of Search for Common Ground, Robert is responsible for overseeing accounting, finance, grants and contracts activities. He has been a Certified Public Accountant for 20 years working at both national and international non-profit organizations. Robert has held senior financial management positions at many well-known non-profit organizations such as the National Research Council, Children's Defense Fund, Advocates for Youth, American Psychiatric Association, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and World Vision. While at World Vision, he was the Vice President of Finance and Administration for International Programs supervising grant activities in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Prior to joining SFCG, Robert had a consulting business for three years, and served as interim-CFO and financial consultant to Women for Women International, National Children's Museum, and National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. An expert in data mining to create unique financial reports, Robert's accounting expertise is informed by his scientific background. He holds a BA in biology from Hiram College and an MS in medical genetics from Indiana University.

	Pamela (Pam) O'Connor Chief Administrative Officer

Pamela O'Connor is a strategic best-practice Human Resources Executive for both domestic and international organizations in fast paced, multi-cultural, quick changing environments. She is responsible for Search's global Human Resources, Information Technology and Operations. She strives to build teams that support the overall organization mission.  Her passion is leadership, organizational development, talent acquisition including Executive search, employee training, executive coaching, ERP systems, compensation structures and global safety and security. She is a proven strategist and creative problem solver, who has supported large global organizations with  500 locations.  She has worked with planning optimization, financial systems and HRIS. Pam also directs Searches global security and safety initiatives, health and welfare insurance programs and global legal compliance.  She is a thought- leader, visionary and published author.  She has served on major university boards to develop HR Masters program curriculums. She is a key member of the Executive management and a member of the Global Leadership team.  She is a vital part of our strategic planning team.  Pam is a Board Certified Licensed professional Executive and Career coach and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University.

	Lena Slachmuijlder Chief Programming Officer

Lena Slachmuijlder has lived and worked in Africa for 21 years as a journalist, editor, human rights defender, director, producer, performing artist, cultural facilitator, trainer, and project manager. Born in New York, Lena graduated from Stanford before heading to South Africa in 1990 where she worked and lived in African townships as a journalist and human rights monitor. Since 2001, she has worked with SFCG, heading Studio Ijambo while being the Great Lakes Media Manager based at Search Burundi. In 2005, she became Country Director in DR Congo, growing the project to be Search's largest, with seven offices around the country working on repatriation, sexual violence, governance, elections, security sector reform, and regional cohesion. In the DRC, Lena pioneered tools such as participatory theatre, a reality TV show, and innovative approaches to army and police reform. She has trained journalists and peace builders on all continents, has been an invited speaker to more than a dozen international conferences, wrote and produced a documentary film about Burundi's 'Heroes' and has supported Search's work in Nepal, Indonesia, Cote d'Ivoire, Rwanda and Krygyzstan. Lena is fluent in English, French, and Zulu and has working knowledge of Swahili, Lingala, and Kirundi.

	Leena El-Ali Vice President, Strategic Development

Leena El-Ali is the Vice President of Strategic Development. Most recently, as our MENA Director, Leena managed regional strategy for country programs in Morocco, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Yemen, and Tunisia. Since 2005, Leena has been designing and implementing SFCG projects that promote understanding and collaboration between Muslim and Western individuals and groups, with special attention to the use of print and digital media, through the Common Ground News Service (CGNews). She is the founder of SFCG's programs in Lebanon and Pakistan, and was instrumental in setting up its program in Yemen. Leena grew up in Lebanon, England and Sierra Leone, and studied Economics at the American University of Beirut and Oxford University. In 1989, she began her working life in London where she spent over a decade as a fund manager and debt strategist in the City before turning to an entrepreneurial career, and in 2005 joined the world of "social" entrepreneurship through SFCG in Washington. She is bilingual in English and Arabic and also speaks French, Spanish and the pidgin English of Sierra Leone (Krio).

Global Leadership Team

Our Global Leadership Team brings together the leadership and expertise from across our organization in all the areas that are keys to our success.  Our Global Leadership Team tackles global issues - including challenges and achievements; organizational policy and how it affects the field; global trends; programmatic innovation; information for and recommendations to the Executive Team.   Members include the Executive Team.

	Rebecca Besant Director, East Africa

Rebecca Besant is the East Africa Director for Search for Common Ground.

	Abou Fassi-Fihri Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Programs

Based in Tunis, Abou El Mahassine Fassi-Fihri is Regional Director, MENA, with over nine years’ experience with NGOs and multilateral agencies, including SFCG, the World Bank and the European Commission.  Abou brings extensive experience on designing and managing conflict prevention and institution-building programs focused on mediation, alternative dispute resolution, youth and media.  Abou headed SFCG’s European office, where he was responsible for overseeing country programs and serving as  SFCG’s representative in Brussels. He is a former board member of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), the largest alliance of peacebuilding organizations in Europe.  Abou began working with SFCG’s office in Rabat, Morocco in 2004 and served as Morocco Country Director from 2005 to 2008.  Abou holds Master’s Degrees from George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) in International Humanitarian Assistance.  He has published articles on international affairs and mediation in newspapers in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Abou is a dual Moroccan-Belgian citizen and speaks French, English and North African Arabic.

	Deborah Jones Executive Producer, Common Ground Productions (CGP)

As the Executive Producer for Common Ground Productions, the media arm of Search for Common Ground, Deborah is responsible for the development and production of television series worldwide.  Since joining the organization in 2006, she has developed and/or produced TV pilots or the awarding winning series called The Team in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Pakistan, Angola, Indonesia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Yemen and Tanzania.   Prior to her joining Search for Common Ground, Deborah had a long career in television production on episodic series for the major commercial networks in Hollywood.  As a writer/producer, she created and produced the NBC television series, Amazing Grace and has written numerous movies for Paramount, NBC, CBS, ABC and the cable networks.  She holds a MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

	Dirk-Jan Koch Director, West & Central Africa

Dirk-Jan Koch is the West & Central Africa Director for Search for Common Ground. He is a former Dutch diplomat and has joined SFCG in 2011 as the country director for Search’s biggest program, the DR Congo program. He holds a master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and  an award-winning PhD from the Radboud University in the Netherlands, where he is from. He has written various books on international cooperation, such as ‘Aid from International NGOs’ and ‘Cooperation Internationale et Développement’ (in French) and is a part time professor at the Catholic University of Kinshasa. Before joining the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Search for Common Ground, he was amongst others working for the European Commission in Nigeria. He works out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has been living since 2008.

	Susan Koscis Director, Communications

Susan Koscis has been with Search for Common Ground since 1994 and has served as Vice President of Operations; Vice President of Arts & Culture; and as Director of Communications.  Susan has been a certified mediator in the State of Virginia courts and has served as an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau.   She has been grants panelist for the U.S. Institute of Peace and for the National Endowment for the Arts.   As VP of Arts and Culture, Susan was responsible for the development of arts-based initiatives involving visual art, drama, music, dance and film, promoting peaceful coexistence, and created the Common Ground Film Festival and Series.

From 1989-1994, Susan was the Director of International Projects for the American Management Association in New York, designing and implementing management training programs and products for organizations and corporations world-wide. Susan has held a variety of positions in arts management, including: the San Francisco Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, London Records, and CBS Masterworks (now Sony).  While at CBS Records, she produced a classical music radio program heard in the NYC metropolitan area.   She has an undergraduate degree from the Hartt College of Music at the Univ. of Hartford, and an MA in Psychology from George Washington University. 

	Juliette Schmidt Director, Partners in Humanity for Muslim-Western Understanding

Juliette Schmidt is Director of the Partners in Humanity program for Muslim-Western understanding. A member of the programme since 2003, she manages an international team and has significant experience designing and leading programming and training workshops in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South Asia. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the Common Ground News Service. Juliette's prior non-profit experience includes the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies and the Forum for Development, Culture and Dialogue, both in Beirut, and she has private sector marketing and public relations experience in Canada and the UK. Juliette holds an M.A. in International Affairs and Conflict Resolution from the Elliot School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

	Michael Shipler Regional Director, Asia

Michael Shipler is the Regional Director of Asia Programs at Search for Common Ground where he oversees program offices in Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Timor Leste. Michael has been working in peacebuilding for thirteen years, developing a range of programs focused on youth, media, civil-military affairs, and governance. He previously served as Senior Program Advisor for SFCG, providing support to peacebuilding and democratization initiatives in a number of countries, including Yemen, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Angola, and others. He supported SFCG programs in methodology and strategy development. He co-led technical assistance on a 17-country communications initiative, The Team, using sport, television drama series, and community-based activities to build peace. He previously served as Director of Programs for SFCG Nepal where co-started and directed a national, multi-pronged media and community program in support of the peace process. He is the founder and former director of the global Children and Youth Division of Search for Common Ground. In that capacity he co-founded the Washington Network on Children and Armed Conflict and co-created The Child Soldiers Initiative – a global project aimed at eradicating the use of children as soldiers – done in partnership with Lt. General Roméo Dallaire and other institutions. He served as an advisor for the Nigerian television series, The Station, and supported children and youth-focused peacebuilding programs around the world. He authored Youth Radio for Peacebuilding: A Guide, as part of Radio for Peacebuilding Africa. Previously, while working for Youth for Peace, a youth-led organization in Cambodia, he developed a youth leadership development division that helps youth find ways of avoiding violence and contributing to reconciliation in their own communities. Michael is currently pursuing his MA in War in the Modern World at Kings College in London. He is the author of The Dancing Country and Other Stories.