A leadership team and staff team guides the work of IANSA. IANSA’s offices are hosted in the West African Action Network on Small Arms (WAANSA) office. IANSA also has an active UN liaison office in New York City.
IANSA Leadership Team:
Seydi Gassama
Leadership team member
Seydi Gassama is the Executive Director of the Senegalese section of Amnesty International. He is also the Chair of the Senegalese Coalition of Human Rights Defenders. Seydi has been involved in small arms control work since mid 1990s, with Amnesty International and IANSA. He holds a master’s degree in Economics from the Dakar University and a Masters on Business Administration (MBA) from the International School of Management (ISM) in Dakar. Seydi is a former UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Fellow and studied International Human Rights Law at the University of Nothingham in England. Seydi is a writter who has published a novel and several short stories at Éditions l’Harmattan in Paris, France.
Dr. Natalie Goldring
Leadership team member
Natalie is a Visiting Professor of the Practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. For the last several decades, she has advised nongovernmental organizations and governments on policies to control the international trade in conventional weapons, including as a member of IANSA’s leadership team, as the UN consultant for the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy (UK), and as the founding Director of BASIC’s Project on Light Weapons. Natalie holds a PhD in political science from MIT, with a specialization in defense and arms control.
Ken Kinney
Leadership team member / Director of the IANSA legal entity in Ghana
Ken is a current board member of IANSA since her registration in Ghana 2015. He is a Ghanaian non-state actor with a background in environment, peace and development policy studies. Ken has been active in facilitating peace, security and development processes across Ghana and Africa since 2001. Ken is a founder and leader of The Development Institute, a sustainable development NGO which has UN ECOSOC Consultative status with branches in Ghana, Minnesota USA, Liberia and South Africa. Ken is also an Executive Committee member of West Africa Action Network for Small Arms (WAANSA).
Clemence Sepenoo Kugbey
Leadership team member / Director and Secretary of the IANSA legal entity in Ghana
Clemence has over 18+ years of work experience with capacity development and lecturing in the areas of cost management and financial accounting, border security management, risk and donor fund management, project and financial systems design and development. Clemence has been Secretary to IANSA since 2015 and is on the board of directors. He is also the director of administration, finance and partnership for The Development Institute in Accra-Ghana since 2008.
Sarah Masters
Leadership team member
Sarah was the Coordinator of the IANSA Women’s Network from 2007-2011. She has personal and professional experience of over 30 years within the women’s rights sector including feminist organisations and global movements. Sarah is currently the Director of Programmes and Learning with Womankind Worldwide, an international women’s rights organisation and funder.
Jasmin Nario-Galace
Leadership team member
Jasmin is the Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Miriam College, Quezon City, Philippines, Senior Associate at the Center for Peace Education and a professor for the Department of International Studies. She is with the Board of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders and Pax Christi International and the Facilitation Team of Pax Christi Asia-Pacific. She was a former Coordinator of the IANSA Women’s Network. She is also co-convener of the Women Engaged in Action on 1325 and was its past National Coordinator. She co-led the formulation and adoption of the first Philippine National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security.
Dr. Brian Wood
Leadership team member
Brian was a founder of IANSA and head of Amnesty International’s advocacy on military, security and policing issues between 1994 and 2016. He played a leading role in the development of civil society proposals for the Arms Trade Treaty and was the consultant to the UN group of governmental experts on illicit brokering of SALW. He has worked as a consultant on arms transfer controls for various agencies including the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). He studied in South Africa and the UK most recently at the Middlesex Law School in London where he was he awarded a doctorate.
IANSA Staff Team:
Johnson Asante-Twum
IANSA Managing Director
Johnson has a combined working experience of over 20 years from international organizations, industry and public service focusing on conflict prevention, peace-building and arms control. He worked as Deputy Director and Head of Programs for the Ghana National Commission on Small Arms with over 13 years of experience in Treaty negotiations and Implementation with special emphasis on, but not limited to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), UN Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons, the ITI, Firearms Protocols, and ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms. Johnson holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Ghana Business School.
Elli Kytomaki
IANSA Program Officer
Elli joined IANSA in January 2024 as the Programme Officer. Her responsibilities include facilitating networking between IANSA members and other stakeholders, and co-ordinating civil society participation in UN meetings on small arms. Elli has over 20 years of experience in conventional arms control, mostly linked with the UN PoA and the Arms Trade Treaty. During her career she has held various positions for example at the UN Regional Centre in Asia and the Pacific, OSCE, UNIDIR and the Small Arms Survey. Elli holds a Master’s degree in international politics from the University of Turku, Finland.
Emily Callsen
IANSA Communications Officer
Emily has led on IANSA’s social media, campaign planning and communications operations since 2021. She graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada with an honors bachelor’s degree in Global and International Studies, majoring in Global Law and Social Justice.