ABOUT ME
I have spent a decade studying a problem most organisations discover in the middle of a crisis: what to do when citizens show up before the system is ready for them.
Since then, I’ve spent a decade interviewing volunteers, collaborating with grassroots humanitarians, and partnering with aid organisations. My research explores how volunteers navigate complex crisis settings and how their contributions challenge the perception that they are merely disruptive or peripheral.
That question took me from the beach on Lesvos - where I coordinated hundreds of spontaneous volunteers during the 2015 refugee emergency - to a PhD, to a book published by Palgrave Macmillan. Now I do consulting work with municipalities and humanitarian organisations across Europe.
I work at the intersection of formal emergency response and informal civic action. My job is to help organisations build the bridge between those two things — before the next incident forces them to improvise.
A Journey to Expertise
I came to this field through activism, first in animal rights, later through volunteerism, and eventually through policy and academic work.
Along the way, I’ve developed evidence-based insights to support a more ethical, sustainable, and human-centered approach to crisis response - one that recognises the needs of both those in crisis and those who step forward to help.