Shanti Sattler is the Director of VenEsperanza, a large humanitarian cash assistance program currently in operation in the Americas led by Mercy Corps with the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and World Vision and funded by the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. The program has delivered emergency multipurpose cash and complementary nutrition support to nearly 400,000 Venezuelan migrants and refugees, Colombian returnees and host community members affected by the Venezuela regional humanitarian crisis in Colombia. She previously supported Mercy Corps' teams across the Americas region as Senior Program Officer based in Portland, Oregon as well as Mercy Corps’ teams in Syria and Palestine (West Bank/Gaza) as a Program Officer on the Middle East Regional Program Team. Before joining Mercy Corps, Shanti was the Director of Operations for Amazon Frontlines, an indigenous rights and conservation organization based in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Prior to that, she acted as a strategic development consultant serving diverse clients in a variety of capacities including leading the facilitation of negotiations between the US and Mexico that successfully achieved bilateral cooperation regarding joint action to confront transboundary environmental issues in the Gulf of Mexico. She also supported programming in Southeast Asia and the Great Lakes region of Africa earlier in her career as an international relief and development practitioner.
Shanti also served in a part-time capacity as the Assistant Director for the University of London-based research and advocacy project that made United Nations War Crimes Commission records publicly available for the first time, allowing access to valuable legal precedent for ongoing humanitarian legal initiatives. As part of the project, she co-authored and co-edited numerous publications on the work and legacy of the United Nations War Crimes Commission.
Shanti graduated with a B.A. in International Relations and Peace and Justice Studies from Tufts University and later earned an M.A. in International Studies and Diplomacy from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
At the Institute, Shanti was a superb member of the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program: Oil and Water. As an IGL student, she diligently prepared for a summer internship with an Institute INSPIRE Fellow, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela in Cape Town, South Africa. She later conducted a self-directed research project in Gulu, Northern Uganda that investigated the role of war-affected youth in the transformation of the Northern Uganda conflict.
Given her accomplishments I had no hesitation in recommending her to serve as an International Fellow at the Cambodia office of the International Center for Conciliation.
Shanti is a native of Humboldt County, California and has lived in Cambodia, Mexico and England and currently resides in Bogota, Colombia.