Biographies (English)

Jean-François Corty is a doctor, anthropologist, and associate researcher at IRIS (Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques). He has been involved in humanitarian action for over twenty years, and worked for eight years with Médecins Sans Frontières, before taking up the position of Director of Operations at Médecins du Monde between 2009 and 2018, where he is now Vice-President. He is the author of several books, including Profession solidaire, chroniques de l’accueil (published in June 2020 by Steinkis/Les Escales), La France qui accueille (published in 2018 by Éditions de l’Atelier) and Pratique et éthique médicales à l’épreuve des politiques sécuritaires (co-edited by Sciences Po Les Presses in 2010).

Director of the H.I Impact, Information & Innovation division. Pierre is agronomist but was keen to enrich his curriculum with complementary training in management (IAE), epidemiology (CESAM) and strategic foresight  (CNAM). During his 25-years experience in the humanitarian field, he held many technical (technical coordinator, Head of Knowledge Management division) and operational (geographical manager, mission director) positions for Action Against Hunger, Solidarités International and Humanity & Inclusion. This eclectic experience in humanitarian action has allowed him to better understand the specific constraints of the different positions, but also to underline the importance of cross-sectoral approaches.

Valérie Gorin has been a lecturer and researcher at the Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Studies, a joint centre of the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, since 2011. Since 2020, she has been responsible for the Master’s programme in continuing education in humanitarian action. A historian by training, she obtained her doctorate in Communication Sciences from the University of Geneva in 2013. Her research interests focus on humanitarian history and communication, with an interest in the visual culture of international solidarity organisations and advocacy practices. Her recent publications focus on the links between emotions and images in communication (Making Humanitarian Crises: Emotions and Images in History, 2022) and inequalities in media representations of humanitarianism (Media Representations of Humanitarianism, in Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality, 2024).

Vincent Leger is a research officer at the French Red Cross Foundation. PhD in anthropology (University College London) and holder of a Master in demography (IDUP), he is responsible for monitoring and promoting research supported by the Foundation on humanitarian and social action.

Editor-in-chief of Humanitarian Alternatives, he manages and leads its editorial board. After studying law and legal anthropology, Boris Martin became involved in academic research, writing and humanitarian action. He was editor-in-chief of the review Humanitaire at Médecins du Monde from 2000 to 2015. He has published several books on humanitarian action, including La France de la solidarité (Cesno, 2002), Critique de la raison humanitaire (dir. with Karl Blanchet, preface by Rony Brauman), published by Le Cavalier Bleu in 2006 (translated into English by Columbia University Press/Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd in 2011 under the title Many Reasons to Intervene: French and British Approaches to Humanitarian Action) and L’adieu à l’humanitaire. Les ONG au défi de l’offensive néolibérale (Éditions Charles Léopold Mayer, 2015). He is also the author of stories (Chronique d’un monde disparu, 2008 and « C’est de Chine que je t’écris… », 2004) published by Le Seuil and short stories (Hong Kong, un parfum d’éternité, 2010) published by Elytis. His latest story – L’iconoclaste. L’histoire véritable d’Auguste François, consul, photographe, explorateur, misanthrope, incorruptible et ennemi des intrigants – was published in May 2014 by Éditions du Pacifique. In 2020, he wrote the biography of Médecins du Monde, La belle histoire.

Frédéric Meunier is the Director of Le Group’, a consultancy transformed into a cooperative and participative company (Scop) in 2024. He is also the coordinator of the RIACE France Endowment Fund. He has been involved in the national and international solidarity sector for over 25 years, working with UN organisations, non-governmental organisations and state cooperation agencies on international emergency and recovery programmes in Africa, Central America, the Middle East, Asia, and Central Asia. Co-founder of Le Group’ in 2014, he has carried out numerous research, support, and training projects in France and abroad on humanitarian issues, precariousness and the integration of new arrivals.

Stéphanie Stern is the Head of Learning and Knowledge Development at Action Against Hunger, France. After studying business at EDHEC, Stéphanie Stern worked for 15 years in communications and advertising. She then chose to put her expertise at the service of humanitarian action. After gaining a Master’s degree in humanitarian project management, she worked for Save the Children International as a strategic analyst, then for the think tank IRIS as a researcher on the development of the humanitarian system, before joining Action Against Hunger as head of learning and knowledge development. She works closely with Action Against Hunger’s research team to disseminate scientific findings and support their use by operational teams. She also works with teams in the field to document and capitalise on informal and local knowledge, so that it continually enriches the organisational knowledge of Action Against Hunger.

Clara Egger is an Assistant Professor of Global Governance at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology from the Erasmus School of Behavioural and Social Sciences of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Before this, she was an Assistant Professor of Globalization Studies and Humanitarian Action at the University of Groningen, where she also served as the Director of Studies of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree in International Humanitarian Action (NOHA). She worked as a research coordinator for the Centre of Humanitarian Studies Geneva where she led the research aspects of the Humanitarian Encyclopedia project. Clara holds an MA degree in Political Science from Sciences Po Grenoble and a PhD in political science from the University Grenoble Alpes. Her research was awarded the French Red Cross Fund for the best research on humanitarian action and was shortlisted for the ECPR Jean Blondel PhD Prize for the best thesis in politics. She is Editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Humanitarian Action and a board member of Alternatives Humanitaires.

Anne-Lise Lierville is Director of the Institute for operational ethics at Handicap International / Humanity and Inclusion. She joined the humanitarian sector in 2002, working for NGOs, international organisations, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Her career has also led her to work in psychiatry and the legal and medico-social sectors. She has a degree in History (Maîtrise) and International Law (Master’s), and a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) – with a major in applied ethics – from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration Publique du Québec in Canada. Anne-Lise Lierville is a qualified member of the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights.

coming soon

He is the General Secretary of the One Sustainable Health for All Foundation, launched in June 2020 under the guardianship of the Bullukian Foundation (Lyon). He has been a member of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) since May 2021 and chairs the Bioport association (humanitarian and solidarity logistics) and Earthwake (plastic recycling). He is a member of the think-tank Santé Mondiale 2030, the think-tank (Re) Sources (water and sanitation), the Board of Friendship (Bangladesh) and co-founder of the bilingual review Humanitarian Alternatives. He chaired the French Centre for Funds and Foundations (CFF) (2015-2022) and headed Fondation Mérieux (2007-2017) before becoming Director of Public Health at Institut Mérieux (2018-2020). Honorary Chairman of Action contre la Faim (ACF), an association which he chaired (2010/2013) and directed (2003/2006), after having been Director of the Institut Bioforce (1997/2002). He was a member of the Board of VOICE (European Network of professional humanitarian NGOs).

Dr Richardier co-founded Handicap International in 1982 to provide practical assistance to Cambodian refugees with disabilities and lacking specific care. He then coordinated the development of the Handicap International network in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, which became a federation in 2009, of which he was Executive Director until 2014.

He then set up the Handicap International Foundation. He also helped launch the Humanitarian Alternatives review to encourage debate between practitioners and researchers in the human and social sciences on the issues facing humanitarian action.

He is a founding member of United Against Inhumanity (UAI).

Her commitment in the social non-profit sector began in Chile with the CONIN Foundation, which works in favour of child nutrition in disadvantaged and precarious sectors.

Some time after her arrival in France as a political refugee and settling in Lyon, it was quite natural for her to become involved alongside the founders of Handicap International, as head of accounting and financial management and then Director of Finance. Maria will work for Handicap International for 30 years until her retirement in 2017.

Holder in Chile of diplomas in Accountancy and Commercial Engineering, completed by a Master’s Degree in Economics and a DESS in Management Information Technology in France, she has put her skills and motivation to work in humanitarian action for the benefit of the most disadvantaged.

Her long experience in this sector has enabled her to understand the challenges and constraints of financial management of international solidarity organisations, a management that is torn between the search for efficiency demanded by funders and supervisory bodies, and on the other hand, action in the field at the service of the most underprivileged in countries below the poverty line and often in unstable contexts.

Jean-Christophe Rufin is a medical doctor and a writer. Starting with an essay (The Humanitarian Trap – Le Piège humanitaire –, 1986), he went into novel writing with the Abyssinian – L’Abyssin – in 1997, obtained the Goncourt prize in 2001 with Red Brazil – Rouge Brésil – and was elected to the French Academy in 2008. His writings have been translated into numerous languages. He accomplished his first humanitarian mission in Eritrea in 1976 and was, in particular, advisor to the Secretary of State for human rights (1986-1988), Cultural and cooperation Attaché in Brazil (1989-1990), Advisor to the minister of Defence (1993-1994) and French Ambassador to Senegal and Gambia (2007-2010). He has also been Vice-president of Médecins Sans Frontières (1991-1992) and President of Action against Hunger (2003-2006) being today its President of honour. As a member of the Action against Hunger Foundation, he is on the Steering Council of the Humanitarian Alternatives review.

Philippe Ryfman is a specialist in non-governmental and humanitarian issues on the international scene. A barrister at the Paris Bar, he is also an Honorary Professor and Research Fellow at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. His latest work, codirected with Sandra Szurek and Marina Eudes, is Droit et pratique de l’action humanitaire (Paris, LGDJ, 2019). He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the review Humanitarian Alternatives.

Audrey was involved in the creation of the Handicap International Foundation and the Vivre Debout Foundation and accompanied the founders of the Humanitarian Alternatives review from the early stages of the project. She was in charge of coordination and communications for the association Alternatives Humanitaires from 2014 to 2022 and is now a co-opted member of the Board of Directors. Audrey holds a master’s degree in “Theory and practice of human rights” from the Institut des droits de l’Homme in Lyon. She currently works at Amnesty International France where she coordinates the implementation of the organisation’s strategy.

Virginie has been involved in developmental aid and humanitarianism since her first professional experience with a local NGO in India. After eight years of managing international projects in biotechnology in the private sector in Germany, she shifted her focus towards the humanitarian sector as a volunteer activist for human rights with NGOs and social service organizations.

In 2004, she was put in charge of developing “business” partnerships with bureaus of the Handicap International (HI) network. In 2007, she joined the regional platform of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where she headed the fundraising and partnerships department. Upon her return to France in 2011, she resumed her studies in political science. Her research on “image and international aid” led her to accept an assignment with the French Development Agency lasting several months. In 2013, with Jean-François Mattei, she helped in the creation and development of the French Red Cross Fund as General Delegate. Virginie was appointed Director of the French Red Cross Foundation for humanitarian and social research in 2018.

Virginie holds a Master’s degree in management from ESC Toulouse, a Master’s degree in political science from Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a degree in ethics from the Faculty of Medicine of Aix-Marseille University. She is a researcher and administrator of Handicap International France and a member of the board of Alternatives Humanitaires.

Joël Weiler began working in the humanitarian sector in 1992. After graduating from Bioforce, he joined various NGOs, such as Enfants du Monde-Human Rights (EMDH) and Santé Mali Rhône-Alpes (SMARA), as Head of mission in the Darfur, Vietnam, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, and Madagascar.

After this experience in development and emergency programs, his career with Médecins du Monde began in November 2010 when he joined the association as General Coordinator. He held this position for three years, during which he covered emergencies in Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Zimbabwe.

Upon his return to France at the end of 2013, he assumed the position of Crisis Manager and then Deputy Director of International Operations. He has been the Director General of Médecins du Monde since April 2017.