Our Team and Board

We are a global leader in statelessness research, advocacy, and policy work. Our mission is to protect the right to a nationality and support communities left behind by state systems.

Susanna Collins

Programme Officer

Susanna primarily contributes to the production and dissemination of key resources developed by the Knowledge Building team, such as the World’s Stateless Report and Flagship Statelessness Course. She was also assisting in the preparation for the World Conference on Statelessness in Kuala Lumpur in 2024. Susanna has a background in literature and law, with a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Exeter, an LLB (Ord) from the University of Edinburgh, and an LLM in International Human Rights Law from Lund University, where she wrote her Masters thesis on the legality under international human rights law of nationality deprivation as a security measure in the UK. Susanna has volunteered and worked in various areas of Scots public law, including in the areas of litigation, Criminal Injuries Compensation, and alternative dispute resolution for, among others, a law firm, a legal clinic, and the Citizens Advice Bureau. Prior to joining ISI she interned in the Statelessness Section of UNHCR in Geneva.

Tiana Danielle Xavier

Advocacy Lead

Tiana leads ISI’s advocacy programme. Through this, she works with ISI’s partner NGO’s in various countries in order to support and collaborate on the issue. At the international level, in order to advance ISI's mission, she engages with governments and various UN human rights mechanisms including the Universal Periodic Review, Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Tiana also currently assists in a project in the UK to counter citizenship stripping. Prior to joining ISI, Tiana was Senior Associate at an international law firm in Amsterdam. She worked on cases involving international human rights, arbitration, competition law and internal investigations. She has previously interned with the International Criminal Court. Tiana completed her LL.B. In International and European Law at the University of Groningen and Post-Graduate LL.M. In Arbitration and Business Law at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Tiana is Malaysian and is based out of ISI’s Rotterdam office. She is a theatre enthusiast and strongly believes in the power of arts in effecting change.

Laura Van Waas

Co-Director

Laura is a co-founder and a Co-Director of ISI. Her background is in human rights law and since starting to work on statelessness in 2004 Laura has particularly focused on research and education. Based out of ISI’s Rotterdam office, she has helped shape ISI’s knowledge building work – designing trainings, developing targeted resources for building the statelessness literacy of different audiences and leading cutting-edge projects on emerging issues. Laura’s PhD manuscript, ‘Nationality Matters’ (Intersentia, 2008), is widely used as a reference on international statelessness law and she has (co)authored a diverse array of other academic publications.

Laura is the co-founding Editor in Chief, with Professor Michelle Foster, of the Statelessness and Citizenship Review, and from 2011 to 2022, she was a part-time Assistant Professor at Tilburg Law School, where she taught on statelessness and supervised LLM and PhD research.From 2009-2011, Laura worked for UNHCR, delivering capacity building projects for Headquarters and for the Regional Offices in the Middle East and in South-East Asia. Laura has also conducted studies for, among others, OHCHR, the European Parliament, Open Society Foundations, the US Department of State and Plan International. She is a co-founder of the European Network on Statelessness and is the founder of Books 4 Life, a chain of charity bookshops.

Amal de Chickera

Co-Director

Amal is a co-founder and one of the Co-Directors of the Institute. He is a Sri Lankan human rights lawyer, advocate and activist, with expertise in the right to nationality, statelessness and discrimination. Amal has researched, advocated, written, spoken, delivered training and served as an expert on statelessness and related issues for the UN, NGOs and academia, since 2008. Based out of ISI’s London office, Amal has particularly focused on developing ISI’s movement building, discrimination and advocacy work. Amal believes in the power of the arts to shape and inform our understanding and response to issues of social justice. He spearheads ISI’s engagement with the arts and has (co) authored children’s books and graphic novels to bring the challenge of statelessness to new audiences. Before co-founding the Institute, Amal led the statelessness work of the Equal Rights Trust. He was also a co-founder of the European Network on Statelessness, and a founding member of Stages - a Sri Lankan theatre group. A member of the Sri Lankan Bar, Amal holds an LLM (Distinction) from University College London and an LLB (Hons.) from the University of Colombo.

Mark Van Waas

Head of Finance & Administration

Mark is responsible for the Institute's financial and administrative processes and procedures as well as its administrative organisation. Mark has been with the Institute since its founding in 2014 and holds a Bachelor in Business Administration for Hogeschool Novi. Prior to his involvement with the Institute in 2014, Mark worked for a variety of for-profit organisations in a management and/or business advisory capacity with a focus on employee benefits and payroll accountancy. Throughout his career before joining the Institute, Mark has been involved with not-for-profit NGOs as a volunteer consultant. Mark is based out of the Institute’s Netherlands office.

Deneisha Moss

Programme Lead (Children)

Deneisha Moss is the Programme Lead for ISI Children’s Programme where she holds responsibility for coordinating activities and implementing initiatives that focus on addressing childhood statelessness. She also supports other ISI programmes including the Discrimination Programme, Deprivation of Nationality and Capacity Building and Resource Development. Deneisha is based out of the Rotterdam Office. Prior to joining ISI, Deneisha spent more than 12 years in the humanitarian sector where she worked with the UN Refugee Agency predominantly in Southeast Asia and the Americas. There, she specialised in refugee protection, with an emphasis on child protection and statelessness. Deneisha is a non-practising Barrister, admitted to the Bar of England and Wales(2002), The Bahamas (2002), Turks and Caicos Islands (2006). She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Leeds in England, and a Master of Laws in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from the University of Lund in Sweden.

Georgia Field

Senior Movement Building Lead

Georgia leads ISI’s Movement Building programme. She is further responsible for working on development activities including internal fundraising, and donor education initiatives. Georgia further coordinates ISI’s internship programme and various staff development and welfare initiatives. Prior to working with ISI, she spent nearly four years living on the border of Myanmar in Thailand focusing on civil and political rights in Myanmar. Upon returning back to the UK in 2018 she spent a year working on the West Papuan independence struggle and their legal right to self-determination. Georgia has a background in Social Sciences with a BSc in Criminology with Psychology and an MA in International Criminology. She is based in the London office and has been working with ISI since April 2019.

Alena Jascanka

Senior Lead, Communications

Alena leads the Institute's communications work, focusing on every aspect of communications for non profit, including visual communications and design. Alena is based out of the London office. Prior to joining the Institute, Alena worked at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand, consulting to the UN ESCAP statistics division. There, she lead and presented the UN ESCAP 3rd workshop on Communication and Dissemination of Vital Statistics, to the heads of National Statistical Offices of the UN ESCAP member states. Alena has a background in both Fine Arts and Economics. She holds BA (HONS) degree in Photography from University of the Arts London, MSc in Economics degree from City, University of London as well as MSc in Economic and Social Sciences degree from Bocconi University. Before shifting to economics, Alena worked as a professional fashion photographer in the UK, shooting photographic campaigns for such clients as Sony Music, Game of Thrones or St. Andrew's University, to name a few.

Stefania Tantimonaco

Programme Officer

Stefania assists in different areas of ISI's programme. She is particularly involved in human rights engagement activities, and capacity and resource development tasks. She also contributes to some administrative work. She is based out of the Rotterdam office. Stefania has a background in Languages (English and Spanish) and International Law with a BA in Linguistic Mediation and Intercultural Communication from Università degli Studi di Milano and Manchester Metropolitan University and an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law and Public Policy from University College Cork. Prior to working at the Institute, she focused on discrimination and childhood statelessness. She lived and volunteered in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic and still supports children and teenagers who live in those facilities, particularly those stateless and/or undocumented. She also continued her French studies in Montreal and interned for the Coordination Unit and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) of the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies and for an international law firm in Italy.

Our Team and Board

Susanna Collins

Alexandra U’Ren-Ashdown

Tiana Danielle Xavier

Samantha Constance

Laura Van Waas

Amal de Chickera

Mark Van Waas

Deneisha Moss

Georgia Field

Alena Jascanka

Stefania Tantimonaco