Philip Winter, a founding Fellow of the RVI, will be Acting Executive Director of the Institute from October 2015 to June 2016. John Ryle, the RVI Executive Director, will be on leave during that time as a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

Philip Winter has been the representative for Independent Diplomat in South Sudan, Chief of Staff for the Facilitator of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and Field Director for Save the Children Fund in a number of countries in Eastern and Central Africa. He has directed and taught on the Rift Valley Institute Sudans Course and the Great Lakes Course. His book on the Inter-Congolese dialogue, A Sacred Cause: The Inter-Congolese Dialogue 2000-2003 was recently published in French. 

He has also written about wildlife, development and conservation in South Sudan and is a contributor to the RVI’s Sudan Handbook.