BOARD MEMBERS
by alphabetical order
The current CoCreate Humanity team is made up of volunteers (eight Board Members, a peer support team, and a supervision team). The Board's mission is to define the strategic direction of the association and to ensure its values are upheld.
​Emmanuelle Lacroix
Board Member - Humanitarian HR professional
​HR and Learning Manager (Master’s in HR Management from London Metropolitan University), highly skilled in organizational development, talent management based on best practices, and capacity building. Emmanuelle brings over 20 years of strategic and operational expertise in People & Culture project management, staff engagement, and the creation of impactful cross-functional partnerships for the international development sector, as well as in hybrid learning strategies, training and event facilitation, and peer-to-peer and community-of-practice learning.
​
Bilingual in French and English, driven by curiosity and a continuous desire to learn and share, she has worked both remotely and in person with teams and partners across Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Europe—in headquarters and country offices of international NGOs, within global networks, for corporate foundations, and with a wide range of international training institutes.
​
A natural connector, she demonstrates empathy and active listening—qualities that inspired her to complement her professional profile with a Mental Health First Aid certificate (MHFA England) and to begin a Professional Coaching certification program in fall 2025.
​
An active member of the NGO Staff Wellbeing Network, she is also a passionate advocate for a holistic and inclusive approach to duty of care, wellbeing, and resilience within the aid sector (#bewellservewell).
​​​​​​
​​Fadi Daou
Board Member - Thought Leader & Changemaker, Nonprofit Founder
​
Laureate of the Elevate Prize for Global thinkers and change-makers (2020), Fadi Daou is since January 2023 the Executive Director of Globethics, international NGO which head office is in Geneva, Switzerland, promoting ethical leadership and responsible governance for a just, inclusive, and sustainable world.
Previously, between 2006 and 2020, he was founding Chairperson and CEO of Adyan Foundation (registered now in: Lebanon, Iraq, and France), working for diversity management and peacebuilding. He has been leading and contributing to many international initiatives in political mediation and policy dialogue fostering peace, countering violent extremism, inclusive citizenship, ethics of AI, and social cohesion.
Fadi Daou has a PhD in religious studies and an MA in political philosophy, and has been a professor of geopolitics of peace and interreligious relations, teaching at many universities in Europe and the Middle East, in addition to being guest speaker in many events across the world.
Among his publications: Religious Engagement in Global Affairs (ed. EN 2025); and Political Humanism (AR 2023).
​​​
​​​​Franziska Heizmann
Board Member - Safety and security consultant
​
Franziska Heizmann was born in 1969 in Zurich, Switzerland.
A seasoned security professional, Franziska brings a wealth of international experience across various sectors, combining expertise in law (holding a master’s in law), commerce, military service, and humanitarian and development work. Her broad-based knowledge is further enhanced by specialised training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), along with trainings in psychological first aid and Trauma Risk Management (TRiM).
Franziska’s diverse background has shaped her holistic approach to safety and security, where she seamlessly integrates her extensive leadership, management, and training expertise. Known for her strong interpersonal skills, she is a passionate teacher and coach, driven by the goal of motivating others to reach their full potential.
Her impressive career spans a variety of roles: she is a retired Major in the Swiss Army, a former desk officer for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)/Humanitarian Aid and has participated in numerous rapid response missions with the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA). For over 11 years, she served as a Pool Officer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and since 2008, she has been an Associate Trainer for RedR UK. Her work continues to take her around the globe, particularly to the Middle East and Africa, where she offers her consultancy services.
Since 2007, Franziska is operating as an independent safety and security consultant and trainer through her Bern-based firm, heizmannconsultancy. She is highly regarded for her ability to swiftly understand the unique needs and environments of her clients, consistently delivering professional, reliable support and advice.
​​​​​​
​​​​​​
Gilles Brönnimann
Board Member - Treasurer
​
Trilingual in French, German, and English, Gilles graduated from the Eikon Professional School of Applied Arts in Fribourg (2004). His career path led him to Zurich, where he lived and worked for six years.
​
He began his career in visual communication before shifting toward media in 2018, driven by his passion for pop culture, history, and popular science. Combining field journalism with motion design, his work has taken him to the Ukrainian border in 2022, to Turkey during the 2023 earthquake, and more recently to Syria.
​
Drawing on this wide-ranging professional experience, Gilles brings together artistic sensibility, technical expertise, and the ability to tell powerful visual stories.
​
Committed to community life, he co-founded Strangebots, an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting independent digital creators in French-speaking Switzerland. By joining the CoCreate Humanity Committee, he aims to put his expertise in visual communication and storytelling at the service of humanitarian causes, raising public awareness and highlighting the work of field professionals.​
​​​
​​​​
​Hélène Ros
Board Member - President
Head of Communications and Public Relations
Hélène Ros was born in 1978 in Lyon, France. The eldest of six children, she is the daughter of two political refugees who fled Pol Pot’s genocidal regime in 1977.
​
After completing a two-year university diploma in law (DEUG) at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, she interrupted her studies in her third year, as she had been considering a specialization in international law. She then worked in various jobs before discovering the field of logistics and international trade, where she trained directly on the ground. She gained solid experience in different sectors — agri-food, international moving, oil — which eventually led her, in 2015, to the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. She began there as a temporary staff member in the logistics department, then moved on to the private donations unit and finally to humanitarian diplomacy.
​
Hélène’s family history has always fueled her interest in the humanitarian world. On the one hand, her father’s journey, after being shot in Cambodia and operated on in France thanks to a medical evacuation, following his encounter in 1975 with Father François Ponchaud in the Aranyaprathet refugee camp. On the other hand, the actions of Handicap International in Lyon, particularly in the fight against anti-personnel mines, left a profound mark on her childhood, as relatives in Cambodia were directly affected.
​
Through a long therapeutic journey, Hélène discovered that she carried both a transgenerational trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, which she describes as the “violence of silence.” Her meeting in 2019 in Geneva with Dr. Daniel Dufour, founder of the OGE method (“the reverse of the ego”), proved decisive. Trained in his approach, she considered him her mentor until his passing in April 2021.
From this personal story and healing process arose her conviction that listening, speaking, and recognition are essential to supporting those who dedicate their lives to others. It was in this spirit that she co-founded CoCreate Humanity, a peer community dedicated to humanitarian workers, with the aim of bringing back to the heart of humanitarian action what lies at its very essence: the human being.​
“Human beings have the remarkable ability to rise again from anything, even the worst, if they are well supported.” — Dr. Daniel Dufour
​​​
Isabelle Hegglin
Board Member - Over forty years of experience in the pharmaceutical and training fields
​
Born in Vevey, with Swiss and Italian nationalities, Isabelle has over forty years of experience in the pharmaceutical field and in adult education. Holding a Federal Certificate of Capacity (CFC) as a pharmacy assistant, a diploma as a pharmacy preparer, and a Federal Certificate in Adult Education, she worked in several pharmacies in French-speaking Switzerland before co-founding Equimodus Sàrl in 2005 and later creating FormaLogique, her independent training structure, in 2009.
​
A trainer at the Vocational School of Sion and at HEVIVA in Renens, as well as an expert for the CFC exams for pharmacy assistants, she has also developed expertise in aromatherapy, olfactotherapy, micronutrition, and Bach Flowers, earning numerous certifications between 2010 and 2019.
​
Her commitment to associations is just as rich: a long-standing member of the Association of SMEs & Entrepreneurs and of the Association of Valais Pharmacy Preparers, and active in the cultural sphere (theatre, school skiing, community sports), Isabelle dedicates her energy and skills to human and collective projects.
Passionate about transmission, ecology, and personal development, she joined the CoCreate Humanity Committee in 2025, with the ambition of bringing her training expertise and her deep conviction that structured mutual aid can change lives.
​​​​​
Julie Sévilla-Fraysse
Board Member - Artistic Director
Ambassador of Cocreate Humanity since 2020
​
Julie graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, and is also a laureate of the Fondation d’Entreprise Banque Populaire. After shining as a member of the Orchestra of the Republican Guard and later the Paris Opera, Julie now devotes herself to her solo career, performing regularly in prestigious venues in France and abroad, from the United States to Europe. She has already played the great concertos of the repertoire with orchestra and also tours with a solo cello program featuring Bach and folk music.
​
Guided by her passion for chamber music, Julie has shared the stage with renowned artists. In sonata formation, she collaborates regularly with pianist Abdel Rahman El Bacha and with Anastasia Calmus in a poetry and music program entitled French Touch. She often performs alongside harpist Anja Linder and violinist Laurent Korcia, presenting a program dedicated to Franz Schubert, as well as in contemporary music repertoire with Yvan Cassar, in duet with hip-hop dancer Yann Antonio, and with étoile dancer Hugo Marchand through his association Pour la Danse.
​
Julie also shares her expertise through Master Classes at the Rhapsody Music Festival in Malaysia, at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School in the United States, and in Mexico with the musicians of OSUAEH. She was President of the Strings Jury at the National Music Competition of Morocco in 2023 and has been teaching at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot since 2024.
​
Convinced of the soothing power of music, Julie is also training in music mediation and is committed to social engagement, offering caring concerts in Parisian hospitals and for children with disabilities. She also serves as Artistic Director of the association CoCreate Humanity.
​​​​​​​
Lydie Béguelin
Board Member - Secretary
​
Lydie Béguelin was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in March 1972.
At the age of 20, after completing her business studies, she spent a year discovering the American continent, mainly Latin America. This magnificent backpacking adventure has since then guided her life. When she returned, her desire to help suffering populations was obvious, and she wanted to join the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). To accomplish her dream, she had to wait until she was 25. She worked as an insurance claims manager, gave ski lessons and perfected her English at Cambridge.
During her 24 years with the ICRC, in addition to missions in Afghanistan, Congo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo and emergency deployments to Kyrgyzstan and Libya, she worked at Geneva headquarters in the legal department and for many years in the unit responsible for relations with arms bearers. Among other things, she organized the administrative and logistical management of workshops for senior officers about the respect of international humanitarian law and human rights. She had the opportunity to travel to Colombia, Algeria and Mexico to organize these international seminars.
She then worked as Director of a house for university students in Lausanne, whose vocation is to take into account the whole human being, supporting interactions between different cultural identities.
Since the creation of CoCreate Humanity in 2019, Lydie has always supported and encouraged the commitment of its founders. She finds it extraordinary and relevant that such an association has come into being in Switzerland. When returning from some difficult missions, Lydie would have hoped to receive a sympathetic ear in a neutral space, in order to exchange freely with a network of humanitarian peers. This would have enabled her to regain her equilibrium more quickly. In the field, like many of her peers, she was confronted with often dramatic situations, which were emotionally difficult to share with those around her back in Switzerland. This gap and a certain isolation are not easy to manage without adequate support.
Lydie joined the association in March 2024. She has always been committed to putting people at the center of her concerns, in line with her own values. So, it's only natural that she should be keen to co-create this humanity, convinced that teamwork is the essential driving force behind the association's initiative.
On a personal level, Lydie enjoys the mountains, practicing ski touring. She has been a race leader with the Swiss Alpine Club since 1997. She also enjoys bike racing and sailing.
"In this life, we can't do big things. We can only do small things with great love". Mother Teresa.​
​​​