Daniel Potts Email & Phone Number

Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte D'Azur, France

Kyiv, Ukraine

• Served as the Regional Security Manager for Mercy Corps’ Ukraine Response during a key startup phase, directly responsible for security procedures and processes across Mercy Corps’ presence in Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, and Romania. Led a team of eight security officers and analysts and created new roles, including that of Senior Security Officer and Conflict Analyst, in response to a dynamic and escalating conflict environment. • Authored key analyses and managed the implementation of an office-based warm hub strategy in response to a countrywide strategic bombing campaign in Ukraine that critically impacted civilian infrastructure. This warm hub strategy ensured that Mercy Corps Ukraine staff had access to climate-controlled spaces and modern amenities during prolonged periods of utility outages during the winter of 2022-23. Authored internal analysis and incident reporting that informed strategic decisions regarding air raid alert response and movement procedures. • Facilitated the establishment of Mercy Corps’ office presence in Odesa in the summer of 2022, and subsequently provided analysis and field reporting that informed the selection of a deep fallback location in October and November 2022. • Led a series of field assessments across Ukraine, including Mercy Corps’ first field visit to Mykolaiv in December 2022, subsequently authoring area assessments that would inform programmatic decisions for 2023.• Drafted and implemented new mechanisms for strengthening partner engagement, including enhancing partner engagement with security and training platforms and organizing an ongoing series of first aid trainings for field-based implementing partners.

Baghdad, Iraq

• Led a team of four senior managers responsible for over 80 staff operating across all governorates of Iraq. Managed country staff and programs through a series of extensive programmatic reviews, which resulted in the implementation of new, quality-focused service delivery standards for programming, training, and operational staff. Initiated recruitment and onboarding efforts for several senior staff positions, including the hiring of a new Training Manager, Deputy Director, and four international staff Safety Advisors. • Authored the INSO Iraq Quarterly Trends report, which was designed to provide NGO partners with an understanding of key developments in the nationwide security context and to examine how these security, political, and economic developments might affect the operating context for NGOs. • Presented on key contextual developments within Iraq and the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the monthly Country Director’s meeting, which was attended by an audience of senior country staff from partner NGOs. • Facilitated the INSO Iraq team’s re-engagement with partners in field forward areas, an effort that involved direct advocacy with host government staff in Baghdad and Erbil and coordination with multiple government agencies. As of April 2022, INSO Iraq’s three regional programming teams and the training team remained on track to hold monthly events in field forward areas. Following the onboarding of a new training officer, roundtables and training sessions will be available in three languages—Arabic, English, and Kurdish—greatly expanding the reach of INSO Iraq’s programmatic services. • Initiated a series of Quarterly Donor Presentations to a broader audience of donor partners, efforts that proved critical in ensuring sufficient funding to retain all staff in 2022, following a period of programmatic consolidation in spring 2020.

Kabul, Afghanistan

• Actively managed a large team of eight expatriate Safety Advisors operating in seven field offices across Afghanistan, ensuring that all staff maintained high standards in terms of regional security reporting and reporting of NGO security incidents, including travel to multiple field offices and partner NGO field offices. • Provided orientation training to over one hundred newly arrived NGO staff members, focusing on INSO’s services, the socio-political origins of the current conflict in Afghanistan, and the current security context.• Recruited and trained seven new Safety Advisors and monitored all reporting during their probation period. • Maintained an active liaison network with UN staff, international military forces, and the diplomatic community.

Jalalabad, Afghanistan

• Provided partner NGOs with timely and credible security information and contextual analysis regarding the security situation in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, and Nuristan, during a period of peak conflict in the region, through a series of daily alerts, weekly incidents lists, bi-weekly analytical reports, and area assessments. • Rendered crisis assistance to multiple NGO partners facing security emergencies, including several instances in which NGOs were directly affected by Islamic State-claimed attacks during the Jalalabad security crisis in 2018.• Authored several reports disseminated to all NGO partners in Afghanistan discussing Islamic State-authored threats towards educational programming and other reports forecasting security gains following a grassroots uprising movement in areas of eastern Nangarhar in the latter half of 2018 and early 2019. • Expanded the provision of near-monthly security roundtables to previously under-served areas of Asadabad in Kunar Province and Mehtarlam in Laghman Province, contributing to a three-fold increase in NGO reporting of security incidents in 2018 and an increase in situational awareness of security developments in the region.

Washington, United States

• Lead editor on a monthly Target Audience Analysis report analyzing socio-political developments in twelve provinces in Afghanistan and how such developments affected public perceptions of counter-narcotics activities. This report, which served as a monthly briefing for the US State Department’s Counter Narcotics and Community Engagement program, also examined the social and economic drivers of narcotics cultivation, trafficking, and opioid abuse, factors which were particularly affected by the rapidly changing security environment in different provinces. • Managed a small team of national staff in preparing a daily security update that was provided directly to the ambassador at the US Embassy. After significantly improving the day-to-day continuity of our security reporting and meticulously ensuring the accuracy of reported information, the quality of our reporting received repeated praise from embassy staff.

Masters Of Science In Foreign Service (Msfs), International Relations And Affairs

Bachelor'S Degree, International Relations And Affairs