Gabriel Tobias is the founder of Justice Travel. He has worked for over 10 years with NGOs, governments, and local communities across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and South Asia, as well as political campaigns in the US. He is a massive map nerd, and loves to eat street food in every country he visits. His dog Django is objectively the most adorable puppy in the world.

Juan has a Masters in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (UK); a postgraduate degree in Development, Social Responsibility and Organizations from Universidad de Los Andes; and a B.A. in Government and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia. He has over nine years of professional experience working for UNDP, International IDEA, the Pacific Alliance, the Colombian national government and local NGOs. 

Adalberto is a Mexican human rights lawyer, having joined Justice Travel from his position as Director of the Disability Division at the National Commission of Human Rights of Mexico. He has participated in different human rights projects in Mexico and abroad, including electoral observation in the United States and Honduras, as Human Rights Observer in the Western Sahara, and as a human rights trainer for the judiciary in the Dominican Republic. He obtained his law degree from Universidad La Salle, a pre-master degree at the Istanbul Bilgi Universitesi in Turkey, an LLM degree from American University, and is currently completing his PhD at the Institute of Critical Studies.

Denise, originally from Germany, has spent the past 10 years working in International Development in Guatemala and Peru. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Sciences, Sociology and Spanish from the University of Mainz, Germany. She believes that you can make a real difference by empowering people through education. She loves to travel the world, learn about different cultures and meet new people. One of her biggest passions is being in the outdoors, especially skiing and rock climbing.

Elana has spent her career bridging the gap between citizens and government. As a Senior Governance Officer at the International Republican Institute (IRI), Elana managed anticorruption related programming, developing new anticorruption assessment tools and methodologies. In that role, Elana trained government officials and civil society leaders in accountability and transparency practices. Prior to IRI, Elana served as the Manager of Digital Engagement at AmericaSpeaks, a citizen engagement non-profit. Elana has also worked at the intersection of the private sector and public good through work with the Advisory Services Team at Business for Social Responsibility. Elana holds a BA in political science from Brown University and is currently pursuing an MPP at the University of Chicago.

Karen has over thirty years of experience representing individuals, media companies and arts institutions on a wide range of entertainment related matters, particularly in motion picture, television, theatre and publishing.  She has been an Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing at Fordham Law School since 2014.  Previously, she was of counsel to John Silberman Associates in New York City for twelve years and prior to that, for a period of ten years, she was Vice President of Business Affairs at Home Box Office, with responsibility for East Coast original programming, especially HBO NYC motion pictures.  Before working at HBO, she was an associate in the Entertainment Department of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison for seven years.  After graduation from Harvard Law School, Ms. Levinson worked as a law clerk to Judge Edmund L. Palmieri of the Southern District of New York. Karen received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1982, an M.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1978, and a B.A. from University College, London in 1972.  

Originally from the state of Michigan, Lisa Taylor is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and holds a degree in Peace Studies and Political Science. After living in a Colombian community in Buenaventura as an international human rights accompanier for several months, she worked with Witness for Peace in Colombia from 2015 to 2017, accompanying local communities and also organizing delegations to help U.S. citizens build transnational solidarity. In addition to her work as a freelance interpreter and translator, Lisa currently works with equilo, an international development start-up that seeks to provide better, faster, and more cost-effective gender analysis and project management tools with a new disruptive technology. In her free time, Lisa loves rock climbing and talking about feminism.

Maclane, originally from Chicago, is the Co-Executive Director of Planting Seeds International, an organization that works to educate children, strengthen families, and empower communities throughout Guatemala. Working in Guatemala since 2010, Mac has witnessed first hand the suffering that so many Guatemalan communities face due to violations of human rights. Being a part of Justice Travel provides an opportunity to support organizations and communities to bring awareness and much needed resources to these fights for justice. In 2017, Mac graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with his Masters in School Leadership. 

Mauricio’s professional engines are justice and sustainability. He spent various years working on social mobilization next to a broad spectrum of changemakers, from community based organizations to international NGO’s focused on Mexico. In the process he wrote a thesis in participation, as part of his M.A. in applied sociology at the University of Bordeaux.  He has spent the last few years in Central America in the greentrepreneurship arena as a social business developer. Mauricio is a trained psychologist and still thinks sports, animals, family and friends are the best therapies. In a sustainable planet northern India’s food will conquer the world.

Michael is founder and CEO of mebl / transforming furniture, a social enterprise dedicated to  expanding the marketplace for beautiful, high quality furniture made from reclaimed wood and metal. From 2008-14, Michael served as Executive Director of the International Human Rights Funders Group.  Previously, he served as Executive Director of Coro New York Leadership Center; as Executive Director of the Literacy Assistance Center; and as Deputy Executive Director of Educators for Social Responsibility Metro. Michael was an Assistant to the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools and, from 1998-2003, served as the “Visiting Non-Profit Executive” at the Yale School of Management, where he advised MBA students interested in non-profit, public, and non-traditional private sector management. Michael serves on the boards of several local and national human rights, media and education-focused non-profits, along with chairing the board of the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation.  He holds a BA from Yale University (1981) and an MBA and MSW from Columbia University (1989). Michael lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Jimena and their pesky but amazing 14-year-old twins.

Dr. Richard Carver is Senior Lecturer in Human Rights and Governance at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom. He has been an active human rights researcher since the early 1980s, working at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and ARTICLE 19. He has also carried out many consultancies for United Nations agencies and NGOs.

Richard’s main area of geographical interest for many years was southern Africa. More recently much of his work has focused on south-eastern Europe. His main interest is in the effectiveness of institutional measures in protecting and promoting human rights. His latest book, with Lisa Handley, is Does Torture Prevention Work? (Liverpool University Press, 2016).

Sharon is the CEO of sb LiftOff, with a career at the intersection of law, public policy, and innovation. An attorney with a deep reverence for justice issues, she heads a company helping lower midmarket business owners successfully sell and lift off to a new goal in life. 

Prior to founding sb LiftOff Heaton was a co-founder and Managing Partner of Wellford Energy Group, which provides strategic advice and investment banking services to clean energy and low carbon companies and projects. She served as a General Counsel of Trans-Elect, Inc., the first independent transmission company and as Deputy General Counsel of Columbia Energy Group, a Fortune 500 company with $6 billion of gas and electric assets and operations in 10 states. Previously she served as General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Senior Counsel on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Senior Policy Advisor for a US Senator.

Ms. Heaton holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School and a B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Political Science from Barnard College at Columbia University. She has completed executive business programs at The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania; Columbia University Graduate School of Business; and Harvard Business School. Today she serves on the board of the Carolinas-Virginia Business Broker Association (CVBBA) and on the Government Contractors Committee of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. After graduation from law school, Ms. Heaton served as a Federal law clerk for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She has previously worked at the leading national law firms of Skadden, Arps and Latham & Watkins.