BIO

Everett Ressler
Everett M. Ressler works with UNICEF as a Senior Programme Officer in UNICEF's Emergency Services (EMOPS). He is based in Geneva, Switzerland but works globally to lead the organization's emergency preparedness efforts in some 150 countries, supports the development of early warning-early response systems, and co-chairs an UN inter-agency working group on preparedness and contingency planning. He has served as UNICEF's Regional Emergency Advisor in east and southern Africa, as a Senior Advisor in UNICEF's Rwanda office, as Programme Coordinator of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok, as Regional Director in Asia for Norwegian Save the Children, and as a consultant working on a wide array of emergency studies and projects globally. He has participated in some way in many of the major humanitarian emergencies that have occurred globally over the past several decades with varied roles including analyst, researcher, planner, trainer, advisor, programme officer. He organized and carried out three large scale research projects--on the care and protection of unaccompanied children in war, refugee situations and natural disasters; on children in conflict situations, and on internal displacement. He is the co-author of several books and various papers on emergency related issues. He did his doctoral degree work at the University of Delaware, in affiliation with the Disaster Research Center, his masters level academic work at James Madison University and his under-graduate degree at Eastern Mennonite College. He is married and has two daughters.