Enough's Experts

John Norris, Executive Director

John Norris is the Executive Director of Enough. Before joining Enough, he served as Chief of Political Affairs for the United Nations Mission in Nepal where he helped facilitate the ongoing peace process to end that country’s 10-year war. As part of that effort, John co-chaired arms management negotiations between Maoist rebels and the government and helped establish the conditions for the historic April 2008 election of a constitutional assembly. Previously, John served as the Africa Program Executive and Washington Chief of Staff for the International Crisis Group, conducting extensive field work and senior-level advocacy for resolving conflicts in Africa and South Asia. Earlier in his career, John served as the Director of Communications for the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State. He also worked as a speechwriter and field disaster expert at the U.S. Agency for International Development. John is the author of several books, including the Disaster Gypsies, a memoir of his work in the field of emergency relief, and Collision Course: NATO, Russia and Kosovo. John has published commentary in the Washington Post, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. He has a graduate degree in public administration.
 

Gayle Smith, Co-Founder of the Enough Project

Gayle Smith, co-founder of the Enough Project, was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Director of the International Rights and Responsibilities Program until February 2009, when she began a new post with the Obama administration. Previously, Smith served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from 1998-2001, and as Senior Advisor to the Administrator and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1994-1998.

Smith was based in Africa for over 20 years as a journalist covering military, economic, and political affairs for the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, Boston Globe, Christian ScienceMonitor, Toronto Globe & Mail, London Observer, andFinancial Times. Smith has also consulted for a wide range of NGOs, foundations, and governmental organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, Dutch Interchurch Aid, Norwegian Church Relief, and the Canadian Council for International Cooperation. She won the World Journalism Award from the World Affairs Council and the World Hunger Year Award in 1991, and in 1999 won the National Security Council’s Samuel Nelson Drew Award for Distinguished Contribution in Pursuit of Global Peace.

Smith is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of Oxfam America, the Africa America Institute, USA for Africa, and the National Security Network. She also serves on the policy advisory boards of DATA, the Acumen Fund, and the Global Fairness Initiative, and was the Working Group Chair on Global Poverty for the Clinton Global Initiative from 2005 to 2007.

John Prendergast, Co-Founder of the Enough Project

John Prendergast is co-founder of the Enough Project, an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity. During the Clinton administration, John was involved in a number of peace processes in Africa while he was Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and Special Advisor at the Department of State. John has also worked for members of Congress, the United Nations, human rights organizations, and think tanks, as well as having been a youth counselor and basketball coach in the U.S. He has authored eight books on Africa, including Not on Our Watch, a New York Times bestseller he co-authored with Don Cheadle. John is working on a new book which focuses on his 20 years in the Big Brother program. John has helped produce two documentaries on Northern Uganda and been involved in three documentaries on Sudan. He has been part of three episodes of CBS' 60 Minutes which earned an Emmy Award for Best Continuing News Coverage and is helping to develop two additional episodes. He is helping to spearhead a campaign involving the NBA and Participant Productions to widen awareness on Darfur, as well as a campaign to end the violence against women and girls in the Congo. John travels regularly to Africa's war zones on fact-finding missions, peace-making initiatives, and awareness-raising trips. He is a visiting professor at the University of San Diego and the American University in Cairo.

Colin Thomas-Jensen, Policy Advisor

Based in Washington, D.C., Colin helps to guide Enough’s analysis and policy recommendations to end crimes against humanity. He also oversees Enough’s field research in Sudan, Chad, Congo, Uganda, and the Horn of Africa. Colin previously worked at the International Crisis Group, where he had a range of responsibilities including direct advocacy with senior policymakers and research trips to Africa. He joined Crisis Group from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he was an information officer on the humanitarian response team for Darfur. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia and Mozambique, and has travelled extensively in East, Central, and Southern Africa. Colin has an MA in African Studies from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), with a concentration in the history of Islam in Africa, African politics, and Islamic family law. He has written for Foreign Affairs on U.S. policy in the Horn of Africa, publishes regular commentaries and op-eds in U.S. and African newspapers, and speaks frequently with international news outlets.

Omer Ismail, Enough Advisor

Omer Ismail was born in the Darfur region of Sudan. He has spent over 20 years working both independently and with international organizations on relief efforts and human rights. Omer fled Sudan in 1989 as a result of his political views. He helped found the Sudan Democratic Forum, a think tank of Sudanese intellectuals working for the advancement of democracy in Sudan. In addition, he co-founded the Darfur Peace and Development organization to raise awareness about the crisis in his troubled region. He currently works as Policy Advisor to several agencies working in crisis management and conflict resolution in Africa. He was a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

David Sullivan, Research Associate

David Sullivan is a Research Associate with Enough. He most recently served as a Program Officer at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), where he worked on Pakistan's 2008 national elections. Previously he supported relief and development projects across Africa for the International Rescue Committee (IRC). During 2004-05, he served as Grants Manager for the IRC in Liberia.

David received his MA in international relations, with concentrations in conflict management and international economics, from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College. He speaks proficient French.

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