Azadeh is a seasoned humanitarian with more than fifteen years of field experience in a number of countries in Asia, Middle East and Africa. Throughout her career, Azadeh has worked with local NGOs,leading international NGOs and UN agencies. She has developed and managed response operations in natural disasters and conflict settings, complex emergencies and fragile states. Azadeh has managed operations in a wide range of disciplines, including life-saving interventions in a number of sectors such as health, shelter, and WASH, as well as recovery and nexus programming. She is passionate about harnessing the learning from responses to improve preparedness efforts and investing in DRR.
Currently, she is Relief International’s Global Humanitarian Director. She is in charge of all aspects of Relief International’s (RI) humanitarian responses in fragile settings around the globe and responsible for emergency preparedness and capacity building across RI country office and regions. Azadeh leads a team for RI’s response in every disaster, often traveling to the area days after to launch operations. Her drive comes from her passion and commitment to helping those most in need.
Azadeh holds a master’s degree in global health. She passionately remains engaged with academia and in addition to role at the University of San Diego she is a faculty member at the Center for Humanitarian Leadership in Deakin University in Australia and Center for excellence in humanitarian negotiation of ICRC.