Our Team
News Decoder is the educational services unit of the French nonprofit Nouvelles-Découvertes, whose mission is to inform young people about international relations with tolerance, objectivity and broad vision.
Our team is composed of a professional staff, accomplished trustees and advisors and a large network of correspondents.
Learn more about us.
MEET OUR STAFF
Maria Krasinski
Managing Director
📍 Paris, France
Maria brings more than 20 years of experience leading global education, youth media and cultural exchange programs. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Tbilisi, Georgia, she holds master’s degrees in International Relations and Public Policy from the University of Chicago, where she also earned her undergraduate degree. She is a published illustrator with two books exploring public art and historical sites in New York City and Paris.
Marcy Burstiner
Educational News Director
📍 Ireland
Marcy is an experienced educator, journalist, published author and founder of the Humboldt Center for Constitutional Rights, HumRights. A graduate of the Columbia Journalism School, she has taught journalism for more than 15 years at Cal Poly Humboldt in California. The author of “Investigative Reporting: from premise to publication,” Burstiner was awarded the James Madison Freedom of Information Award in 2018 by the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Thea Lacey
Director of Development
📍 United Kingdom
Thea has 15 years of experience managing fundraising and programmes for mostly humanitarian and development NGOs, both small and large, including five years based in West and Central Africa. She holds an undergraduate degree in Politics from the University of Edinburgh and a postgraduate degree in International Development from SOAS University of London.
Joyce Yang
Program Manager
📍 Paris, France
Joyce is a former classroom teacher passionate about equitable education access, intentional pedagogy and inclusive policy-making. She has professional experience working in schools on three continents and holds Master’s degrees in Public Policy and Teaching, along with an undergraduate degree in Communications.
MEET OUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Nelson Graves
Founder and President
📍 Paris, France
Faith Abiodun
📍 United Kingdom
Christian Henry
📍 United States
Christian Henry is an executive recruiter within the education and nonprofit practice at Conley Search. He co-founded the high school study-abroad program The Island School as a science teacher before serving in business officer and fundraising roles. He has previously consulted on marketing strategies to engage public and independent schools with enrichment programming. He is on the board of several nonprofit educational organizations including the Centre for Ocean Research and Education, Beacon Hill Seminars and a Cambridge, Massachusetts public elementary school.
Lauren Heuser
📍 Canada
Lauren Heuser is a media management professional based in Toronto. She previously served as News Decoder’s Chief Strategy Officer and before that held editorial roles at two national Canadian news publications. Heuser holds a law degree from the University of Toronto and an MBA from INSEAD.
Alan Main
📍 South Africa
Alan Main is a purpose-driven leader recognized for creating strong, performance-driven cultures and diverse leadership teams. Alan has gained senior-level experience at companies like Roche, Bayer and Sanofi, including several years running multi-billion dollar enterprises. Alan is passionate about helping leaders develop and build successful businesses and is active in the non-profit sector in leadership development and supporting entrepreneurship, particularly for the African continent.
Nolwazi Mjwara
📍 Paris, France
Nolwazi Mjwara is a communications consultant at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France. She has previously held roles in social media and communications at the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and UNICEF. Nolwazi holds a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Cape Town, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Master of Arts specializing in communications from the American University of Paris.
Sue Phillips
📍 France
Sue Phillips has spent more than three decades in senior leadership posts in media and public affairs. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she held senior production roles in London, Moscow, Rome and Washington before serving as CBC’s London Bureau Chief. At Al Jazeera, she worked as London Bureau Chief and then as Director of Foreign Bureaux. She held senior positions at News World International, the Doha Film Institute and the National Museum of Qatar. Sue is a Patron of the Borneo Nature Foundation and a founding Director and Trustee of the Frontline Club in London.
Martha Clement Rochford
📍 United States
Martha Clement Rochford is a PR and communications consultant who has held leadership roles in nonprofit, professional services, government and international organizations. Rochford earned a bachelor’s in English from St. Lawrence University and master’s in Public Communication from The American University in Washington, DC. Informed by her years living and working in Europe and Asia, writing for a global audience and serving as an adjunct professor, Rochford views global citizenship, journalistic skills and media literacy as essential competencies for the next generation.
Carlos Rubio
📍 France
Carlos Rubio is an international journalist who has lived and worked in 15 countries on five continents. He has held senior positions in the newsroom and in the field, both in print and broadcast media. Rubio was Australia correspondent for the Spanish news agency EFE and a news editor with Al Jazeera English in Qatar and with Euronews in Lyon. Rubio has four degrees — in journalism, development studies, refugee studies and Asian politics — from universities in London, Sydney and Madrid. He currently teaches at journalism schools in France.
Betty Wong
📍 United States
Betty Wong was global managing editor of Reuters from 2008-2011, with 29 years of experience at the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. She covered white collar crime on Wall Street from Ivan Boesky to Michael Milken in the 1980s, led U.S. corporate news coverage from the dot com bubble to rubble and was global equities editor for Reuters.
MEET OUR ADVISORS
Tim Agnew is a principal of Masthead Venture Partners and serves on the boards of the Maine Venture Fund and CEI Community Ventures.
Jui Chakravorty is the Special Projects Editor at Nikkei Asia in Tokyo and founded b-yond tv, a digital journalism startup in San Francisco, which trained aspiring journalists in under-resourced communities.
Savannah Jenkins is Communications Officer for White Ribbon, a UK charity working to end violence against women, and News Decoder’s former Communications Manager.
Aralynn A. McMane is a journalist, journalism educator and director of Global Youth & News Media.
Giuliana Nicolucci-Altman works at Alp Analytica as an environmental sustainability and climate security consultant and is a former News Decoder Student Ambassador from School Year Abroad France.
Tom Osenton is a best-selling author and growth strategist for nonprofits who has held senior management positions at CapCities/ABC, Billboard and The Sporting News Publishing Co.
Charlotte Parker works at Acumen, a nonprofit venture fund working to change how the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders and ideas.