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Xand is one of the BBC’s leading science presenters, having worked on many flagship health & science programmes. His main interests and expertise lie in public health, medicine, humanitarian aid and anthropology. Alongside his twin brother Chris, Xand presents CBBC’s Operation Ouch! The series has been a huge global success, involving self-experimentation and lab work to find weird and wonderful ways of showing children what goes on in hospitals, and inside our bodies. Xand is also the resident doctor on BBC One's ongoing flagship daytime show, Morning Live. In the US, he has been a health reporter for CNN.ÌýXand studied medicine at Oxford University, specialising in Tropical medicine. As a junior doctor he worked in the genocide in Darfur and this inspired a passion for the politics and medicine of conflict zones which led to his Academic appointment at Fordham in the US.ÌýÌýÌý

Dr Balogun Israel Adekunle - Commonwealth PhD Student, ÂÒÂ×Ðã

Israel has extensive work experience across development, peace, and humanitarian nexus. He has worked with high-profile institutions and NGOs, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the United Nations, CBM International, Humanity and Inclusion (formerly Handicapped International), Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM), the World Bank, UNICEF, WHO, and Save the Children International. His work in these sectors spans three continents and more than ten countries, focusing on disability inclusion, disability-inclusive Disaster Risk reductions, peaceful coexistence, and gender inclusion. He led the process for the first Disability Audit in a Humanitarian setting conducted by the British Government under the Northeast Transition to Development Initiative (NENTAD). He also facilitated the passage of the National Legislation and Policy on Disability in Nigeria. He helped shape the Policy to include disability within sexual reproductive health (Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Madagascar, Uganda, and The Girls' Education Challenge (GEC) Education in Ethiopia.Ìý

Chris Porter - Humanitarian Head of Profession at the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

Please note Chris is speaking in a personal capacity, but drawing on his wealth of experience.

Chris Porter is Humanitarian Head of Profession at the UK Government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). He leads FCDO’s external recruitment and retention of humanitarian advisers.ÌýHe also facilitates technical support to these experts and wider FCDO teams in order to promote the use of evidence in policy and programmes. He was previously DFID’s humanitarian and resilience adviser covering Kenya and Somalia and has twenty years’ experience elsewhere with DFID, UN OCHA, UNHCR and as an independent consultant.Ìý

Prof Maria Kett - Professor of Humanitarianism and Social Inclusion, and Programme Director for the new MSc Humanitarian Policy and Practice

Tariq Riebl - Global Programme Strategy and Innovation Director at the Norwegian Refugee Council

Tariq Riebl is an experiencedÌýHumanitarian Response Director, having worked on conflicts, natural disasters and epidemics in more than fifteen countries around the world since 2006 for the United Nations, the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

His work has covered many of the largest crises of the past years, including the Yemen civil war, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and DR Congo and the droughts of the Horn of Africa and West Africa, amongst others.ÌýBesides his operational work, he has been an outspoken advocate on a range of humanitarian policy issues, both through public lobbying and silent diplomacy.

Before his time in the humanitarian sector, Tariq worked on business ethics and corporate social responsibility in Washington, DC, for a non-profit organization consulting multinational corporations.

He has a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and completed his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.ÌýÌýÌýÌý

Mouna Khaity - Gender and Global Health Researcher

Mouna is a researcher and humanitarian worker with 12 yearsÌýof experienceÌýworking in the Syrian conflict and other conflict settings. She was recognised because of her activism and exemplary work in the Syrian context by EU International Partnerships on Women's Day 2019 as one of the women who are building a better future for all.

Mouna is a Pharmacist who graduated from Damascus University. She holds two master’s degrees, the first is an MSc in Clinical Biochemistry from Damascus University and the Second is an MSc in Global Health and Conflict (winner of both Chevening and St George’s Scholarships).

Mouna has extensive work experience across development, peace, and humanitarian nexus. In the Syrian context, Mouna worked as a frontline healthcare professional and co-led the effort to establish and govern an alternative Medical Education in the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta. Additionally, she has extensive experience as a women's rights defender and human rights advocate, she mainly focuses on accountability, transformative justice, victims-centered approach.

Mouna has worked as a research consultant/assistant researcher with prestigious universities in the UK such as King's College, ÂÒÂ×Ðã, and Oxford, and with different Syrian NGOs.