Meet Our Team
The FCA Americas team represents Finn Church Aid within the United States. We were established to support FCA's relationship building, external relations and advocacy efforts with peer organizations in the United States and globally.
We aim to support the sustainability of FCA's projects and partners worldwide. We believe that collaboration and coordination across the humanitarian and development cooperation sectors is imperative for collective impact, and we work to build strong relationships to effectively resource our respective strengths and achieve greater results for the people we assist worldwide.
FCA Americas was established as a representation office in Washington, DC in 2015. We are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. A copy of our IRS tax-exemption certification is available upon request.
Board of Directors
Kevin Wensing | Chair
Kevin Wensing is a leader in the military and veteran community advising organizations and companies following 30-years of service to America in the US Navy and the Pentagon.
He planned/executed Vietnam War Commemoration opening ceremonies with President Barack Obama and other leaders on Memorial Day 2012 with an audience of thousands of Veterans and a national television audience. He works with various enterprises ranging from business development and fundraising to special events and media relations.
Assignments at sea and ashore include Special Assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England at the Pentagon and leadership positions with the Secretary of the Navy, Pacific Fleet, Seventh Fleet, Naval Forces Central Command and service aboard USS Blue Ridge, USS Arthur W. Radford and USS Tripoli.
He is a graduate of Quincy University (IL) and Naval War College.
Katri Soumi | Director of Stakeholder Relations, Finn Church Aid
Ms. Katri Suomi has worked in different positions in Finn Church Aid since 2008 and has been, for example, Head of Advocacy and Global Ecumenical Relations and Climate Change Adviser. Earlier she has worked, among other things, in the Finnish Ministry of the Environment and in Finland’s Permanent Representation to the European Union. Ms. Suomi holds a Master of Arts degree in Political Studies and a Master of Science degree in International Environmental Science.
Paul Turner | President and Executive Director, The Fund for Peace
In January 2022, Paul Turner joined The Fund for Peace (FFP) as the President and Executive Director. Prior to that, he was Chief of Party overseeing a USAID mechanism focusing on Governance and Stabilization in the Middle East and North Africa. Mr. Turner worked closely with FFP as the Technical Director of the USAID Reacting to Early Warning and Response Data (REWARD) project. Over his 25 year career across the national security paradigm, Mr. Turner has worked on more than 90 conflict affected countries and deployed to over 40 countries as a diplomat, activist, academic, researcher, and peacebuilder. While he served his country on every continent during his time at the U.S. Department of State, much of his career has focused on sub-Saharan Africa. During his career, he helped launch the National Defense University’s Center for Complex Operations, the interagency Civilian Response Corps, and the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s International Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism Capacity-Building Clearinghouse Mechanism. In addition, he has worked across the programming cycle and led research to frame the USAID Middle East Bureau’s approach to Positive Youth Development in Conflict Contexts, designed conflict, governance, environmental security, and atrocity assessment tools, and promoted vertical and horizontal integration to advance the inclusion of local voices.
Mr. Turner is a founding member of the Multi-Disciplinary Expert Resource Group on Rehabilitation and Reintegration and serves on the board of directors of Re-imagining New Communities in Kenya, and the Peace-Led Climate Friendly Sustainable Development Forum. He regularly addresses the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program as an expert on conflict and extremism and supported the U.S. Embassies in Switzerland and Northern Macedonia as a visiting expert in their Countering Violent Extremism Speaker Series. His contributions to the field have been recognized through his selection to join the Center for Strategic and International Studies as a Leadership Fellow, in his Fellowship on Governance and Extremism with the Caux Forum, requests to serve as a keynote speaker to events focused on Religious Tolerance and Regional Peacebuilding and a number of awards from the U.S. government and civil society.
Mr. Turner is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and holds a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the UNESCO sponsored European University Centre for Peace Studies. He also completed graduate diplomas or certificates in Mediation and Negotiation at the University of Erasmus, Environmental Science and Policy at the Central European University, and Economic Development and Social Change at University of Cape Town and Health Provision in Conflict Affected Areas at American University. He continues to remain connected to the academy and has led both graduate and undergraduate courses at American University’s School of International Service and the University of Maryland.
Dr. Jeni Gamble | Secretary
Dr. Jeni Gamble is the Field Education Director and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at West Virginia University. She has spent more than 20 years working to improve policies, systems, and services for the most marginalized and vulnerable throughout the US and globally, including survivors of gender-based violence, marginalized children and youth, and those experiencing homelessness. Gamble earned a BA from the University of Kentucky, and MSSW and PhD degrees from the University of Louisville in Social Work. Her doctoral research captured the backgrounds and behaviors of nonprofit leaders in seven North American cities to better understand the opportunities and challenges the NGO sector will face during leadership transitions in the future.
Gamble’s earlier career focused on eliminating gender-based violence and improving criminal justice and victim service programs, including leading technology projects and advocacy campaigns across the US to institute and improve civil and criminal victim notification services. From 2010 – 2018, she worked in the Washington, DC area and focused on global and girls’ education policy, practice, and research. She served as the Associate Director of the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution, where she accelerated the policy priorities of one of Brookings’ fastest growing research centers and developed CUE’s girls’ education research portfolio. While at Brookings she advised dozens of scholars and country leaders and contributed to various public sector safety and education plans, including the United States Global Strategy To Empower Adolescent Girls (2016), as well as co-chairing the Girls CHARGE collaborative of more than 60 global organizations and overseeing the Echidna Global Scholars program. Gamble has held leadership positions with organizations including the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Discovery Learning Alliance, and consulted to numerous organizations around strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and organizational growth.
Leadership
Mohamed Elsanousi | Executive Director, Peacemakers Network
Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi is the Executive Director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, a global network that bridges grassroots peacemakers and global players to work towards sustainable peace. Dr. Elsanousi was the director of Community Outreach and Interfaith Relations for the Islamic Society of North America. He also served on the Core Group Taskforce for the Department of State’s working group on Religion and Foreign Policy. Dr. Elsanousi holds a bachelor’s degree in Shariah and Law from the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan, a Master of Laws from Indiana University, a graduate diploma in philanthropic studies from the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, and a Ph.D. in Law and Society from the Indiana University School of Law.
Team
Jessica Roland | Senior Advisor for Inclusive Peace, Peacemakers Network
Jessica Roland is the Senior Specialist for Inclusive Peace for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. She is responsible for managing the Network’s strategic priorities in advancing the leadership of women, youth, and marginalized groups. In this role and focus, she manages the Network’s joint advocacy, research, programming, and inclusivity-based community of practice. She also leads the Network’s training initiatives and mediation-focused work.
Prior to joining the Network, she worked for Women Deliver as a Senior Associate for Policy and Advocacy. In this role, her portfolio included a focus on women, peace, and security, advancing women’s leadership, engaging men and boys, and gender-based violence. Jessica has also worked for the National Democratic Institute on advancing women’s political participation, and on a U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women Grant focused on services for domestic violence victims with disabilities.
Jessica earned her Master of Arts in International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Richmond, the American International University of London.
Sarah Tyler | Communications Consultant, Peacemakers Network
Sarah Tyler is the Communications Consultatnt for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. She brings to the Network culminating experience in public relations, preventing and combating violent extremism, and public diplomacy. Sarah is a graduate of Queens University of Belfast with a master’s degree in international relations. Her focus area of study pertained to United States public diplomacy and global security. Sarah holds an undergraduate degree in communication from the Millersville University of Pennsylvania.
Siam Tooran | UN Representative and Adviser on Religion and Development, Peacemakers Network
Siam Tooran was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to Peshawar, Pakistan shortly afterward. In 2001, he immigrated to the United States with his family and has lived in Westchester, NY. Siam received his Bachelors Degree from Fordham University in Political Science in 2014 and his Masters from Harvard University in Islamic Studies and Politics in 2017. As a Network UN Office Representative and Coordinator, Siam will represent and advocate for the Network within the UN, engaging not only with UN agencies but also other relevant stakeholders. Prior to joining the Network, Siam was an External Partnerships Consultant at the UN World Food Programme where he represented the agency at the UN.
Sarah Rehman | Membership and Administrative Specialist, FCA Americas & Peacemakers Network
Sarah Rehman is the Membership and Administrative Specialist for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. She graduated with a dual master’s in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Mediterranean Security from George Mason Unversity and the University of Malta. Prior, Sarah earned a dual master’s in Theology and Women’s Studies and Gender Studies from Loyola University Chicago. Sarah is passionate about ending religious violence, preventing violent extremism, and empowering women, youth, and marginalized populations to contribute to sustainable peace.
Triss Yap | Graphic and Visual Designer, Peacemakers Network
Triss Yap is the Graphic and Visual Designer for the Peacemakers Network. She supports the Communications Consultant, Sarah Tyler, and the Peacemakers Network Secretariat by bringing in her design and creative expertise from her background in design. She is a graduate of George Mason University, where she holds an undergraduate degree in graphic design and design thinking.