Penal Reform International has many inspiring speakers available to speak on a variety of topics related to criminal justice, including amongst its Board members. Please contact us to identify a speaker.
PRI’s spokespeople:
Olivia Rope
Executive Director
Email 
Olivia Rope was appointed as Executive Director of Penal Reform International in 2020, having joined the organisation in 2012 and previously leading on policy and international advocacy. She is an expert on a range of human rights and criminal justice issues, having authored key publications and training materials for PRI and worked extensively with UN and other institutional actors and partners. Previously, Olivia worked at Amnesty International. She completed her LLM in International and European Human Rights Law at the University of Amsterdam in 2008 and was admitted to the High Court of New Zealand as a Barrister and Solicitor in 2009.
Taghreed Jaber
Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa
Email
Taghreed is the Regional Director for PRI in the Middle East and North Africa. She has been active in the field of human rights for many years, including working for PRI in the region since 2010. She holds an LLM in International Human Rights from the University of Essex and has vast experience leading criminal justice reform projects in more than 16 countries in the region.
Tsira Chanturia
Regional Director for South Caucasus
Email
Tsira has been serving as Regional Director for PRI in the South Caucasus region since early 2010. She is a member of the Consultative Council for National Preventive Mechanism at the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia since 2016. She is a member of the Criminal Justice Reform Interagency Coordination Council and its working groups, also a member on the Anti-torture Interagency Coordination Council at the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, and has served on selection committees of the penitentiary department and the National Probation Agency. Tsira is a lawyer by training and also holds a master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of York in the United Kingdom.
Doreen Namyalo Kyazze
Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa
Email
Doreen is PRI’s Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa. She has extensive experience in human rights advocacy in East Africa. She has served as project manager and legal expert on a number of human rights projects in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda including death penalty campaign, promotion of gender sensitive sentencing, alternatives to imprisonment; torture prevention; and prison reform. Doreen Namyalo is a member of the Uganda Law Society and Federation of Uganda Women Lawyers.
Zhanna Nazarova
Regional Programme Manager for Central Asia
Email
Zhanna is PRI’s Regional Programme Manager for Central Asia. As PRI’s representative in the region, she manages country and cross-regional projects. Zhanna is also a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, member of the Coordination Council of the NPM under the Ombudsperson of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and a co-chair of the Inter-Agency Working Group on prison reform in Kazakhstan. Zhanna joined PRI in 2010 and previously held positions in local municipalities. Zhanna Nazarova holds degrees Public Administration and Law, with a Master’s Degree in Criminal Executive Law.
Michel Gabriel Ngoo-Djob Litet 
Project Manager Central African Republic
Email
Michel is a prison administrator and journalist by training and profession, graduated from the National School of Penitentiary Administration (1999) and the Advanced School of Mass Communication (2005) in Cameroon, after his university studies leading to a Bachelor Degree in Philosophy (1994). He worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Justice in Cameroon for two decades, during which he dealt with various issues relating to the rule of law and good governance in prison, before joining MINUSCA (2016) as Government Provider Corrections Personnel, where he served as a mentor, involved in Prison Policy Development with the Ministry of Justice in the Central African Republic. He published a book on prisons issues in 2019.
Tríona Lenihan
Policy and International Advocacy Manager
Email
Tríona joined PRI as Policy and International Advocacy Manager in September 2020, having also worked with PRI in 2013-14. She leads the development of key resources to support the implementation of international standards, and the implementation of PRI’s policy programme and advocacy objectives set out in the strategy for 2020-2023. Tríona previously worked with the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, where she led advocacy, campaigning and technical assistance in the Americas and Caribbean, and also worked with the Irish Penal Reform Trust. She holds a Law degree and LLM in International Human Rights Law and Public Policy from University College Cork, Ireland, and is based in London, UK.
Tanja Dejanova
Project Coordinator, Alternatives to Imprisonment in Europe
Email
Tanja is Project Coordinator on Alternatives to Imprisonment in Europe, having joined PRI in 2021 after previously supporting international projects at Young in Prison, an NGO working with children and young people in contact with the law. She has worked as a Correctional Officer in her native Finland and Justice Planner for CGL RicciGreene, working with Criminal Justice systems and stakeholders across North America. Having earned her MA in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York in 2013, Tanja has supported people of all ages while working in mental health court diversion, higher education and varied social support services.