Joanna Oyediran is an independent researcher with extensive experience in human rights and philanthropy in Eastern Africa. In 2004/2005 she designed and led an initiative at the Ford Foundation to respond to the Darfur crisis. Between 2005 and 2009, as a UN Human Rights Officer, she led a team of human rights officers responsible for monitoring and report on human rights violations in the West Darfur. Between 2009 and 2016 she worked as Sudan Program Manager in the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA), setting up two programs supporting civil society organizations in the fields of human rights, democracy and media in Sudan and South Sudan. She worked at the Open Society Foundations between 2017 and September 2022.  Joanna speaks Arabic and French at an advanced level. She is a committee member of the Gordon Memorial College Trust Fund which works to promote education for the people of Sudan and South Sudan by giving small grants to individuals and organizations.