Collaboration

Rita Brings a wealth of experience and expertise in governance, human rights and gender, including mainstreaing, gender based violence and human trafficking. Rita served with the United Nations, in senior positions peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Timor-Leste, in social affairs, focusing on gender with UNESCAP in Bangkok; as special representative for the UN High Commissioner for Human rights on Trafficking of Women and Children in the Asia Pacific Region; as senior coordinator for refugee women, UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Regional Adviser for UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Region. Also, Rita carried out a UN evaluation on implementation of SCR1325 on Women Peace and Security in Peacekeeping. Her education includes: MA in Business Law and International Economics, London Metropolitan University; Certificate in Legal Practice, the High Court of Malaysia, University of Malaya; Certificate in Legal Practice, the High Court of the Republic of Singapore, University of Singapore; Barrister at Law, Gray's Inn London. - Council of legal Education, Gray's Inn, London.

Ron Sargent, Colonel (retired) U.S. Army. Currently, he is President of Parma, LLC. Previously, he served with the U.S. Army, focusing primarily in the Southeast Asia region. The highlights of those years include service as: Defense Cooperation Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Timor-Leste in 2006-2009; military professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia- Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI-APCSS) in 2009-2012; Deputy Director of the NATO Training Mission’s Security Assistance Office in Kabul in 2012-2013; Southeast Asia and Oceania Division Chief at the U.S. Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Operations Center in 2013-2014; and the Army Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia in 2016-2018. He was also an exchange officer with the Malaysian Armed Forces from 2002-2003. Ron Sargent speaks Malaysian and Indonesian, and possesses a MA in Southeast Asian Studies from Ohio University and a MS in National Security Strategy from the U.S. National Defense University. He is currently a Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt University Peabody School Ed.D. in Leadership.