After 25 years in the humanitarian and development sector, Anissa joined Mercy Corps in 2018 as Vice President, Humanitarian Leadership and Response based out of our London office. A deeply passionate humanitarian, Anissa now leads our incredible Mercy Corps teams focusing on emergency response, capacity building and global engagement, safety and security as well as our crisis analytics work.

Throughout her humanitarian career, Anissa has filled senior leadership roles with a range of organizations including UK DFID, UN, NGOs, and the Red Cross Movement, providing field leadership for major disaster responses and advising on key operational and humanitarian policy issues.

In some form or another, Anissa has been involved in some of the most complex responses over the past two decades including, amongst others, Cyclone Nargis (Myanmar), Haiti earthquake, Somalia drought, Pakistan earthquake, and multiple flood responses, the Syria regional response as well as the 2017 Hurricane Irma/Maria response in the Caribbean.

When asked what energizes her most about her work with Mercy Corps, Anissa points to the incredible Mercy Corps’ teams, delivering together with their communities in the most challenging contexts on the planet. Their curiosity, passion, and dedication to lifting others up is what energizes her day after day.

Anissa holds a BA in Political Science and Russian and East European Studies from Cornell University and an MA in International Boundary Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). In her spare time, Anissa spends as much time as she can enjoying green, tree-filled, and mountainous places with her husband and young son.