Meet The Team
Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., Brendan Cahill, Peter Hansen, H.E. Nassir Abdulaziz al Nasser, Larry Hollingworth, Alexander van Tulleken, Rene Desiderio, Laura Risimini, Jenna Felz, Kasia Laskowski
Kevin M. Cahill, M.D.
University Professor and Director
Kevin M. Cahill, M.D. is University Professor and Director of the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs. He also serves as President of the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation (CIHC), Director of the Tropical Disease Center at Lenox Hill Hospital, Clinical Professor of Tropical Medicine and Molecular Parasitology at New York University School of Medicine, Chief Medical Advisor for Counterterrorism, NYPD, Professor of International Humanitarian Affairs at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Senior Consultant to the United Nations Health Service and President-General of the American-Irish Historical Society. Dr. Cahill has served as Chief Advisor on Humanitarian Affairs and Public Health for three Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly.
Dr. Cahill received degrees from Fordham University, Cornell University School of Medicine, The Royal College of Surgeons in England and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He holds numerous fellowships, distinguished awards, and several dozen honorary doctorates.
Dr. Cahill served as Director of Clinical Tropical Medicine in Egypt and Sudan while in the U.S. Navy and continued active medical research for the next forty years in Africa, Latin America, the Near and Far East, with long-term programs in Somalia, Sudan, India and Nicaragua.
From 1975-81, Dr. Cahill served concurrently as the Special Assistant to the Governor for Health Affairs, Chairman of the Health Planning Commission, and Chairman of the Health Research Council of New York State. From 1981-93 he was a Senior Member of the New York City Board of Health.
He has written and edited thirty-one books and more than two hundred articles on subjects ranging from tropical disease to humanitarian and foreign affairs, Irish literature, and public health.
Brendan Cahill
Executive Director
Brendan Cahill is the Executive Director of the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) and its partner organization, the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation (CIHC). As such, he is directly responsible for all worldwide administrative and financial issues pertaining to those organizations. He has run programs in New York, Geneva, Cairo, Dublin, Istanbul, Barcelona, Penang, and Nairobi. He received his BA from Colby College and his MBA from Fordham University. Besides his work for the IIHA and CIHC, Brendan sits on the boards of the American Irish Historical Society, the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and the Point Lookout Civic Association. He is a Trustee of The Helen Hamlyn Trust in London and a Director of the KMC Foundation in New York. He is married with four children and lives in New York City and Point Lookout, New York.
Phone: 212 636 6294
Email: brcahill@fordham.edu
Peter Hansen
Diplomat-in-Residence
Peter Hansen is Diplomat-In-Residence at Fordham University's Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs. He retired from the United Nations after 28 years of service, the last nine as Commissioner-General of UNRWA. The 22,000 employees of UNRWA provide education, health, relief and social services to more than 3.2 million registered Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Hansen had been Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator as well as Executive Director of the Commission on Global Governance, Geneva (1992-1994). He has also served in numerous other senior positions within the UN.
Mr. Hansen studied in Denmark and the United States. He completed his graduate and post-graduate work at Aarhus University in 1966. He is the author of several books and numerous articles in scholarly journals.
H.E. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser
Diplomat-in-Residence
H. E. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser has recently been designated as High Representative of the Alliance of Civilizations, after serving as President of the sixty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly. From 1998-2011, Mr. Al-Nasser served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, as well as presiding over three of the subsidiary bodies of the Council. During this term, he served as non-resident Ambassador to numerous countries in the Americas, such as Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, and Uruguay. From 2002-2003, he was the Vice-President of the fifty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly. Earlier, Al-Nasser worked as a Qatar’s resident Ambassador to Jordan, and was appointed to his first United Nations position, Minister Plenipotentiary in 1986.
Mr. Al-Nasser has received numerous decorations and awards: three honorary doctorates, including an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Fordham University, national awards from a wide range of countries, and in 2009, Mr. Al-Nasser was made an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association in New York.
Larry Hollingworth
Visiting Professor of Humanitarian Studies
Larry Hollingworth is a Visiting Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the IIHA and the Humanitarian Programs Director for the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation (CIHC). Over the past few years, he has served as Humanitarian Coordinator on CIHC-sponsored missions for the United Nations in Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Pakistan.
After serving as a British Army officer for thirty years, Larry joined UNHCR and held assignments in Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. He was appointed UNHCR Chief of Operations in Sarajevo, during the siege of the city in the Balkan conflict.
He is a frequent lecturer on relief and refugee topics in universities and is a commentator on humanitarian issues for the BBC.
Alexander van Tulleken
Helen Hamlyn Senior Fellow
Alexander van Tulleken, M.D. is the Helen Hamlyn Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA). As such, he is directly responsible for teaching all undergraduate courses that comprise the International Humanitarian Affairs Minor, and serves as the Academic Director for the Masters in International Humanitarian Action. Dr Alexander van Tulleken has worked for MDM, Merlin and the World Health Organizations in humanitarian crises around the world. His most recent mission was in 2010 in Darfur running health clinics in the embattled Jebel Marra Region. He has a diploma in Tropical Medicine, a Diploma in International Humanitarian Assistance and a Master's in Public Health from Harvard. He is an Honorary Lecturer in Conflict and Migration at University College London and is currently editing the first edition of the Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine.
Rene Desiderio, Ph.D.
Visiting Research Scholar
Rene Desiderio, Ph.D. is a Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA). He received doctoral and masteral degrees from Cornell University in the field of international development. He was a Fellow of the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell and an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina’s Center for Population Policy. Dr Desiderio served for more than 10 years with the United Nations Secretariat and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in New York, Nairobi and Bangkok.
Dr Desiderio served as Technical Expert in the UN-World Bank Joint Needs Assessment for Somalia. As UNFPA’s Humanitarian Response Coordinator, he managed emergency and humanitarian response operations, including preparation of a humanitarian assistance strategy and plan of action. He also managed a global survey covering over 160 countries on population policies and sustainable development.
He has written and published articles on various topics, including population, environment and poverty, demographic trends, international migration, gender equality and harmful practices. He is currently collaborating with UNFPA in documenting good practices in integrating gender, human rights and culture, including those in humanitarian settings.
Laura Risimini
International Programs Coordinator
Laura Risimini is the International Programs Coordinator at the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA) and the Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation (CIHC). She has coordinated courses in Dublin, Geneva, Goa, Barcelona, Rome and Kuala Lumpur in addition to upcoming courses in Pretoria. Laura also acts as the Course Administrator for the all IIHA courses in New York. She facilitates and maintains contact with the ever-increasing alumni network and is the liaison for current participants and MIHA students. In addition, Laura coordinates and manages the student internship programs at both the IIHA and the CIHC. Laura received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from Fordham University in 2010. She is currently pursuing her Master of Arts in International Politics from Fordham University.
Phone: 212 636 7646
Email: Risimini@fordham.edu
Jenna Felz
Program Officer
Jenna Felz is the Program Officer at the IIHA. Jenna works to expand humanitarian knowledge and action at Fordham University. Working in concert with students, faculty and staff, Jenna has organized many educational events and extracurricular activities at Fordham, as well as further developed a student internship program.
She serves as Fordham's Institutional Coordinator of the Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network (JUHAN), a humanitarian consortium of all 28 Jesuit Universities in the United States. Jenna has worked to increase communication, education, and collaboration on humanitarian initiatives among all Jesuit Universities. She organized the first inter- University service project, the Gulf Coast Disaster Relief Project, which was attended by Georgetown and Fordham students in May 2009. She continues to work to increase the engagement of the Fordham community in humanitarian awareness through creative initiatives.
Jenna received her Bachelor's of Science in Psychology from Fordham University in 2008. She is currently a student at Fordham University School of Law.
Phone: 212 636 7745
Email: felz@fordham.edu
Kasia Laskowski
Course Administrator
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Kasia Laskowski is the Course Administrator for the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA). She is the on-site administrator for all IIHA programs worldwide and provides administrative support to the Humanitarian Field Director, course staff, and participants. In addition, Kasia provides logistic and curricular support for all courses and serves as the liaison between the IIHA office and the adjunct faculty and participants. Kasia joined the IIHA in 2010 and has since traveled to and helped coordinate courses in Goa, Geneva, Rome, Barcelona, New York, Nairobi, and Kuala Lumpur.
Kasia received her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Political Economy from Fordham University in 2010.
Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs
33 West 60th St., Suite 804 New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212 636 6294 Fax: 212 636 7060 Email: iiha@fordham.edu
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