National Advisory Council

The National Advisory Council is an association of experts with experience across numerous disciplines and proven leadership in efforts for global human rights and torture survivor rehabilitation. These members employ their expertise and talents to provide organized and coordinated support for CVT’s mission to heal the wounds of torture for survivors, families and communities and to put an end to torture.

National Advisory Council Members

• Linda Chavez, Becoming American Initiative, a program of Defending Democracy Together
• David M. Crane, Professor of Practice, Syracuse University College of Law
• Sondra Crosby, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health
• Maryam Elahi, President & CEO, Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut
• Douglas A. Johnson, Director, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
• Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
• Mark P. Lagon, Ph.D., President, Freedom House
• Hanny Megally, Senior Fellow, New York University’s Center on International Cooperation
• Juan E. Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (2010-2016)
• Alberto Mora, Senior Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
• Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, Ph.D., Former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
• Diane Orentlicher, Professor of International Law, American University
• Regan E. Ralph, Executive Director, Fund for Global Human Rights
• Mark Ritchie, Minnesota Secretary of State (2007–2015)
• William H. Taft IV, Attorney at Law, Fried Frank
• Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Stephen Xenakis, MD, U.S. Army, Retired in 1998 at the rank of Brigadier General

CVT Board Liaison to the National Advisory Council

• Eric Schwartz, Professor, University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs