Who We Are

Capability Statement
Our Mission
UNISHKA’s mission is to understand and contextualize corruption as a social illness and combat it through effective remediation services and tools, strong human and organizational capabilities, and an extensive alliance of networks and coalitions that reduce corruption’s effects on people, society and the environment.
Our Vision
UNISHKA’s vision is to foster a society that values individual ethics and systems integrity.

Our Core Values

Integrity & Honesty

UNISHKA Associates measure integrity by the ability to act according to shared values, beliefs, and principles in a real world. Integrity is demonstrated by consistent adherence to moral convictions and ethical principles.

Kindness & Compassion

UNISHKA Associates will be kind and demonstrate compassion to the best of their ability. Kindness is a key element of a successful, healthy, and balanced society and life.

Respect & Honor

UNISHKA Associates will show respect in all instances, reflecting their strength of character.

Justice & Courage

UNISHKA Associates will give everyone an equal opportunity and will have the courage to speak up when others will not. Above all, UNISHKA Associates will be fair.

Duty & Loyalty

UNISHKA Associates have a duty to demonstrate personal fidelity to these common principles. By so doing, we demonstrate loyalty to each other, to the organization, and to the cause to which we are dedicated.

Competence & Accountability

UNISHKA Associates will continuously strive to improve their social intelligence, academic knowledge, and technical experiences.

About UNISHKA

Founded in 2005, UNISHKA Research Service (UNISHKA) is a worldwide alliance dedicated to fostering ethics and integrity in government, business, and society. We began by reaching out to local legal advisors, scholars, and financial experts and inviting them to partner in an information consortium committed to gathering data and knowledge on economic, legal, and political issues relating to corruption. Today, UNISHKA has grown to include more than 80 ideologically invested professionals from across the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, and Africa who collectively offer our clients unparalleled access to governmental agencies, organizations and businesses at the highest echelons. In accordance with our ideology, UNISHKA expects our clients to be dedicated to the same ideals of ethics and integrity.

In addition to being a social purpose organization, UNISHKA is a registered service-disabled, veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) that integrates anti-corruption theory, research, and practical experience to improve transparency, good governance, and public services to people. From our offices in rural Alaska (HUBZone), UNISHKA employs an evidence-based approach to anti-corruption by integrating theory, contextualization, and practical experience to improve transparency and efficiency in the environments in which we work. Our objective is to mitigate corruption and weak internal controls in order to enhance citizen access to public services.

Currently, UNISHKA has 3 full-time employees, 1 part-time employee, 14 active consultants, and 80+ local national associates (includes COVID-related furloughs). We operate under the administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements of 2 C.F.R. 200. In addition, we conduct annual cybersecurity audits and quarterly pen testing. UNISHKA has an ongoing Intern Program in conjunction with Mercyhurst University, Ridge College of Intelligence Studies.

Our Board of Directors

Our Team

President

Jeffrey J. Coonjohn

Vice President, Programs & Development

Jeffrey Carlson

Human Resources Manager

Hilary Coonjohn

SME – Civil Society and Organizational Development

Monalee Teves

Corruption Research Analyst

Cole Plante

SME – Gender Equality

Kristin Haffert

SME – European Union and OECD

Drago Kos

SME - Organizational Development and Compliance

Kevin Krispin

SME – Public Financial Management

Edmund N. Ayonga

SME – Governance and Organizational Change

Andy Tamas

SME - Business Process Management

Rob Ross

SME – Southern Africa

Linda Mluleki Dlamini

Duncan
SME - Ports and Border Security

Ewan Duncan

SME – East Asia

Craig Agena

SME – South Asia and the Pacific Islands

Rukshana Nanayakkara

SME – Anti-Corruption

Muska Dastageer

SME – Elections

Terry Hoverter

SME – South America

Pedro Votruba

SME– Middle East

Zuhair al-Maliki

SME – Human Security

Lima Halima-Ahmad

SME - Governance, Anti-Corruption, and Ethics

Mary-Jane Samkele Ncube

Senior Anti-Corruption Expert

Christopher Corpora PhD

President

Jeffrey J. Coonjohn

A native of Alaska, Jeffrey J. Coonjohn is the founder of UNISHKA Research Service and serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Operations Officer of the company. Possessing more than 30 years of experience combating corruption and promoting integrity reforms, he designs systems approaches, and identifies and implements novel solutions to address difficult integrity challenges within complex organizations. He develops national anti-corruption policies and strategies while advising on developing the legal framework and implementation of anti-corruption initiatives in legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, as well as with the media and civil society. Coonjohn’s programmatic experience includes projects in the Middle East, Central Asia, South America, and Africa. Previous assignments include: Senior Policy Advisor (Anti-Corruption) for the United Nations; Senior Advisor for Anti-Corruption at the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council in Iraq; Stability and Operations Attorney in Kosovo and Macedonia, and United States Foreign Claims Commissioner for the Southern Balkans. Coonjohn holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Doctorate of Law from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a graduate of the International Anti-Corruption Summer Academy in Vienna, Austria where he now teaches; has authored numerous papers on the study of corruption and the rule-of-law; and teaches at the National University of Ireland-Institute for Human Rights.
Vice President, Programs & Development

Jeffrey Carlson

Jeffrey Carlson is a democracy, governance, and integrity professional with 27 years of experience. He possesses on-the-ground, comparative practice in over 30 countries, including non-permissive and conflict-prone environments, and nascent and consolidating democracies. He is a subject matter expert, thought leader, analyst, and trainer experienced in assessments, knowledge enhancement, skills transfer, and capacity building of government institutions, media, and civil society. Currently, as Vice President at UNISHKA Research Service, he specializes in combating political corruption by promoting transparency and accountability in political finance, and government and civil society oversight. Previously, he improved democratic and electoral practices by serving as founding director of the Electoral Education and Integrity Practice Area at Creative Associates, establishing the program on political finance and public ethics at IFES, and coordinated electoral observation missions at the OSCE PA. He holds a BA in International Studies from the University of Washington and an MPM in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Human Resources Manager

Hilary Coonjohn

Hilary is UNISHKA’s Human Resources Manager and supports the Compliance Committee, the Safety Committee and several operational activities as a Project Manager. Hilary also oversights curriculum design and development for UNISHKA’s training initiatives. Hilary has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Alaska with an emphasis in Curriculum Development and an Associate in Arts Degree from UAS. Hilary lives in Fairbanks with her dog Williwaw.

 

Contact Information:

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SME – Civil Society and Organizational Development

Monalee Teves

Monalee Teves has more than 20 years of significant work experience in the multi-sector settings of private corporations, media, government, and non-governmental organizations in more than 20 countries. She has extensive experience in governance and anti-corruption initiatives. She has served as the Acting Director  for Transparency International-Philippines and as a National Program Advisor for the Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin.  She has published more than 15 articles and is fluent in several Malayo-Polynesian languages. Monalee has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from the University of the Philippines and her Masters Degree in Development Practice from the University of Arizona. Monalee is also a graduate of the International Anti-Corruption Summer Academy (IACSA) in Vienna, Austria.

Corruption Research Analyst

Cole Plante

Cole is a graduate of Ridge College of Intelligence Studies at Mercyhurst University where he attained a bachelor’s degree in intelligence studies and a master’s degree in cybersecurity. In his undergraduate senior year, Cole participated in UNISHKA’s initial intern program. He subsequently joined the company full-time as a Corruption Research Analyst with secondary duties in Cybersecurity, Social Media, and Website Development. As part of his master’s degree he explored anti-money laundering through cryptocurrencies and developed an open-source program to assist analyst in tracking illicit cryptocurrency flows. Originally from Northern New York, Cole now lives in Juneau.

SME – Gender Equality

Kristin Haffert

Kristin Haffert provides strategic advice to UNISHKA on the development and execution of initiatives that explore the nexus between gender and corruption, promote gender equality and advance women’s leadership. With experience in more than 75 countries, Kristin has designed, delivered and mobilized resources for initiatives that advance gender equality in every region of the world. As Co-Founder at Mine The Gap, she has consulted Fortune 500 companies, governments, UN agencies, global financial institutions and leading philanthropies and non-profits on diversity, equity and inclusion. Kristin’s thought leadership includes piloting new gender-inclusive approaches in complex scenarios ranging from peace negotiations to diversifying public corporate boards.

Prior to working in the private sector, she served in senior management and initiated the women and gender equality team at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) which she directed from 2002-2009. She has advised international leaders on promoting women in the economy and in political and civic life in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and North America. Her award-winning work includes spearheading global gender-related initiatives such as the Madeleine K. Albright Grant, Win with Women and iKNOW Politics.

Kristin holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Douglass College, Rutgers University.

SME – European Union and OECD

Drago Kos

Drago Kos is an anti-corruption expert with a unique understanding of corruption. With 39 years of experience, Kos serves as the Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery, member of the Independent Anti-Corruption Advisory Committee in Moldova, member of the Advisory Board of the Chair of Good Government and and Public Integrity, University of Murcia, Spain, member of the Commission for Selection of the new Head of Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office in Ukraine, member of the Commission for the selection of the new Head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in Ukraine and member of the Performance Review Committee of the Prosecutor General in Moldova. He was the first chairman of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption in Slovenia and was a founding commissioner and Co-Chair in the Joint Independent Monitoring & Evaluation Committee in Afghanistan. He has also served as the Chairman of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and as a Co-Chair of European Partners against Corruption, and was a member of the US COGEL’s Global Affairs Committee. Previous positions also include Deputy Director of the Slovenian Criminal Investigation Directorate, Vice-chairman of the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network, and a member of the Council of Europe’s Group of Specialists on Organized Crime. Kos holds an LLM from the Law Faculty at University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and passed the State Bar Exam at the Ministry of Justice of Slovenia.
SME - Organizational Development and Compliance

Kevin Krispin

Kevin works as an advisor for UNISHKA in organizational development and compliance. Kevin spent most of his career in management consulting and the technology industry working with both the public and private sectors. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced and International Studies and the Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering. Kevin lives in Seattle.

SME – Public Financial Management

Edmund N. Ayonga

Edmund N. Ayonga has over 34 years’ experience in Financial Sector, including 26 years in Public Financial Management in Eastern and Southern Africa and Central Asia. His PFM expertise includes establishment of internal controls framework and PFM policy framework review, with an emphasis on implementation of zero tolerance anti-corruption financial frameworks and development of policies safeguards to ensure fair distribution of national resources. He has also been instrumental in developing financial planning infrastructures that redress the neglected gender cross-cutting issues as part of the integral national development agenda. Edmund has served as an international auditor covering eleven Eastern Africa seaboard countries from Eritrea and Ethiopia in the north to Botswana in the south and has trained as an in-house ‘forensic auditor’ under the peer review of the then Ernst and Whiney (now Ernst & Young). Mr. Ayonga has been involved in capacity development training for Ministry of Finance staff, CSOs, national and sub-national devolved public institutions.

SME – Governance and Organizational Change

Andy Tamas

Andy Tamas is a governance and organizational change specialist with a focus on national and sub-national institutional analysis, policy implementation and reform in fragile and conflict-affected states, design and evaluation of development initiatives, civilian-military collaboration, contextually-appropriate institutional design, human resource management, intercultural team building and communication, valuing diversity and gender equality, community development and participatory strategic planning in low-predictability environments. His consulting practice has included diversity and equity related training of trainers for investigators of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and results-based employee performance management and evaluation for Department of Justice managers across Canada.  He has experience in the Middle East (Iraq, Egypt, Qatar, Yemen), Afghanistan, Africa, South America, Asia, Haiti, Ghana, the Canadian north and Alaska.  His education includes Bachelor’s in Integrated Studies (Waterloo) and Bachelors in Social Work (Regina), a Masters in Continuing Education (Saskatchewan), and  a Doctorate in Governance (University College Dublin). His published dissertation  is on Contextually-Appropriate Institutional Development in Fragile States: Lessons from Policy Implementation in Afghanistan.  For more information and samples of his work see his company’s web site:  www.tamas.com.

SME - Business Process Management

Rob Ross

Mr. Ross is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and UNISHKA’s subject matter expert in business process management (BPM). Mr. Ross has served as a senior executive and officer in privately owned and publicly traded companies such as HandySoft Global, Oracle, and Xerox. Similarly, Mr. Ross served as a Partner at Deloitte & Touche. Mr. Ross focuses on developing anti-corruption programs, integrating business process execution into corruption monitoring efforts, and strengthening operational and administrative process execution and mitigating business risk exposure. He has worked throughout the US and in 20 countries in Western/Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, Asia, and South America on behalf of companies/organizations based in the US, UK, Scandinavia, Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, the United Nations, and USAID. Mr. Ross has his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Purdue University and a Master’s in Management Science from Case-Western University. Mr. Ross is also a graduate of the International Anti-Corruption Summer Academy (IACSA) in Vienna.

SME – Southern Africa

Linda Mluleki Dlamini

Linda Mluleki Dlamini is a Subject Matter Expert in anti-corruption training and educational programs, fraud, and criminal investigations. He is a key UNISHKA resource in Africa and has been a guest speaker/lecturer/panelist for the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), participating in programs in Vienna, Austria and Marrakesh, Morocco. He has served as a police officer and a paramilitary resource mandated to suppress organized and violent crime. He is an Officer in the Anti-Corruption Commission in Swaziland and has facilitated more than 50 anti-corruption workshops. Linda has supported the Deloitte & Touche Forensic and Advisory Services Practice and is an Associate Member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He has earned Diplomas in Law from the University of Swaziland and Journalism from the Institute for Computer Education in South Africa. Linda is also a graduate of the International Anti-Corruption Summer Academy.

SME - Ports and Border Security

Ewan Duncan

Ewan Duncan is a seasoned operator whose compelling leadership credentials have been well-honed in assorted management structures and operational environments. A retired Brigadier and the former Director of the UK Defence Intelligence and Security Agency, Ewan has extensive experience and knowledge in investigations, security, training, and cross-agency engagements. As Head of Security for Associated British Ports, Ewan oversaw security compliance, risk management, and operational audits for 22 of the UK’s largest industrial ports. He also served as the Chair of the Maritime Industry Security & Resilience Working Group. In addition to his direct work in the maritime industry, Ewan served for 6 years as the Head of the Anti-Illicit Trade Intelligence Unit for British American Tobacco. Among his other skills, Ewan is an ISO 9001 lead auditor and a member of the Fellowship of the Security Institute.

SME – East Asia

Craig Agena

Craig Agena serves as UNISHKA’s subject matter expert for East Asia. A retired Army Intelligence Colonel, Mr. Agena is a seasoned Northeast Asia Foreign Area Officer with three decades of policy experience. He is also a distinguished recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, presented by Japanese Prime Minister Abe in April 2014. During his last active duty assignment as the Director of Security Assistance for Japan, Mr. Agena regularly met with and provided strategic engagement advice to government and industry stakeholders alike. As the Director Political-Military Affairs, Mr. Agena coordinated highly complex weapons and training programs to enhance defense capability and promote deterrence. As the Director of Political-Military Affairs, Mr. Agena was in charge of strategic communications, crisis management, bilateral engagement, and exchange programs with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces. He was the senior on-the-ground adviser to the Japanese task force commander following the worst natural disaster in Japanese history.  He was also charged with coordinating humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in Northeastern Japan in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear catastrophe.  Mr Agena also served as the Deputy Director J5 in Baghdad during the height of the Iraq conflict where he was deeply involved in rebuilding Iraqi security forces. Mr. Agena earned his Bachelor of Arts in German from the University of Colorado, his Master of Arts in Strategic Intelligence from the Joint Intelligence College and is a graduate of Japan’s National Institute for Defence Studies. Mr. Agena is fluent in Japanese, German and English. He was also a member of the Olympic Judo Team at the XXIIIrd Olympiad in Los Angeles in 1984.

SME – South Asia and the Pacific Islands

Rukshana Nanayakkara

An internationally recognized expert in anti-corruption, Rukshana Nanayakkara brings extensive knowledge and experience to the UNISHKA Team, including 10 years with Transparency International (5-years at TI-Sri Lanka and 5-years at the TI- Secretariat in Berlin). Rukshana is UNISHKA’s subject matter expert on the Asia Pacific Region. Some of Rukshana’s previous assignments at TI-S include: Asia Pacific Region, Outreach Manager; Senior South Asia Regional Coordinator; and Subject Matter Expert for the Asia Pacific Region. He also served as the Deputy Executive Director for TI-Sri Lanka. Rukshana has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Master in Laws (Human Rights) from the University of Hong Kong, and a Master in Laws (International Law) from George Washington University. Rukshana also completed a fellowship at the Centre on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. In addition to being a prolific author, Rukshana is a Fulbright Scholar and an occasional Lecturer at the University of Columbo, Faculty of Law.

SME – Anti-Corruption

Muska Dastageer

Muska Dastageer is an anti-corruption expert and a lecturer of peace and conflict resolution, political theory, and gender studies at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is a political scientist, educated at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris in France. She has extensive experience working with several anti-corruption assessment and evaluation methodologies and has conducted dozens of assessments in Afghanistan.

Prior to her work in Afghanistan, she worked on institutional reform and evaluation across active-conflict and post-conflict settings in the Levant and the Middle East. She is the recipient of several research grants and awards, including from Knud Højgaard Foundation, William Demant Foundation and the Ingwersenske Foundation.

SME – Elections

Terry Hoverter

Terry Hoverter is UNISHKA’s subject matter expert on elections. Terry has almost 20 years’ experience in elections and public international law including tours in more than 25 countries and nearly all modern conflict zones. Terry’s expertise includes election monitoring, elections malpractice, constitution drafting, legislation drafting, and policy development. He currently directs rule of law programs and provides legal advice on constitutional processes for Creative Associates’ Electoral Education and Integrity practice area. He has also researched and written on comparative issues and best practices related to electoral reform and constitutional processes. His previous experience includes Senior Associate with Democracy International; Election Field Advisor for USAID; Chief of Party for PILPG; Legal Advisor for UNDP, and Senior Program Manager for NDI.

Terry holds a JD from American University, an MA in International Affairs from George Washington University, and a BA from Fordham University. Terry is a member of the bar in New Jersey and the District of Columbia.

SME – South America

Pedro Votruba

Pedro Votruba has nearly twenty years of experience in anti-corruption, starting in 1997 as a Consultant of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Ecuador.  In late 1997 Pedro was elevated to the position of Executive Director—a position he held until late 2004. Pedro has served as an Anti-Corruption Consultant in Mozambique, Panama, Honduras, and Guatemala. In the Middle East he served as Senior Anti-Corruption Advisor in Iraq. He has also participated as speaker in many anti-corruption seminars and conferences in several Latin American countries including Colombia, Perú, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Panamá, etc. Pedro has an academic degree in Economics from the Economics Faculty of the Central University of Quito, Ecuador.

SME– Middle East

Zuhair al-Maliki

Zuhair is an accomplished international legal expert and judge with more than twenty years of experience working in anti-corruption mitigation and prevention strategies; judicial and criminal justice; political economy research and analysis; and transparency and human rights. While serving as the Chief Investigative Judge for the Central Criminal Courts—Iraq, Zuhair received global recognition from international news media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and the Independent for his strong and effective advocacy of human rights and for advancing democratic reforms, human rights, transparency and accountability. Committed thought leader, partner, and advisor to a range of international organizations on pivotal efforts to advance democratic values and groundbreaking institutional reforms in the Middle East.

SME – Human Security

Lima Halima-Ahmad

Lima Halima-Ahmad is a Human Security Expert. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the fields of International Security and Human Security at Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Her research focuses on youth and their vulnerabilities to extreme violence. She holds a master’s degree in international security from The Fletcher School and an undergraduate degree in women and Gender Studies from Bucknell University. She founded Paywand Afghan Association, which focuses on research regarding women’s issues. She has worked on several projects with national and international organizations mainly focusing on gender issues. Ms. Ahmad has worked as a Monitoring and Evaluation Director with the Administrative Office of the President of Afghanistan, where she worked on systems development and reforms to ensure accountability in the governmental institutions. In 2017, Ms. Ahmad organized the South Asian Youth Conference in Kabul, which focused on Youth, Violence, and Gender issues.

Currently she is a research fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies at Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Ms. Ahmad is an independent researcher with works published on the Women’s Penal System in Afghanistan, Women’s Participation in Peace process of Afghanistan, NATO as the Security Sector Reform Organization, and several analytical articles.

SME - Governance, Anti-Corruption, and Ethics

Mary-Jane Samkele Ncube

Mary-Jane Samkele Ncube is a corporate governance, anti-corruption and organizational ethics specialist. She is currently consulting for a USAID funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA). Until 2017 she was the Country Director for Transparency International Zimbabwe for 10 years. Her work as an anti- corruption practitioner in Zimbabwe and the region has made her a specialist in designing programs social inclusion programs to address cross cutting corruption. In designing such programs Mary–Jane has promoted gender responsive policies and programming by mainstreaming the tenets of gender equality in all policies and institutional strategic planning. Mary-Jane is a certified Ethics Officer focusing on organizational ethics from The Ethics Institute in South Africa. Mary-Jane has a special interest in social justice especially focused on social inclusion of minority and vulnerable groups to access economic and civic rights.

Senior Anti-Corruption Expert

Christopher Corpora PhD

Christopher A. Corpora, Ph.D. is an intelligence and international security expert with over 25 years of experience in the field and over a decade of teaching. Dr. Corpora is a recognized and published expert on transnational organized crime, corruption, and global threats. He served as a senior advisor and consultant with multiple U.S. government agencies and private companies, focused on countering transnational threats — global illicit trafficking, transnational organized crime, corruption and violent extremism. Previously, he served as the Team Lead/Chief of Party for support to the Syrian Opposition with the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO). Dr. Corpora also served as Team Lead/Chief of Party for CSO’s Maldives post-coup engagement, Senior Advisor for anti-corruption to ISAF and Deputy Director for Anti-Corruption at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Prior to joining CSO, he served as a Senior Advisor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was during this time that Dr. Corpora helped to establish the FBI’s first focused program to work with state and local law enforcement investigative fusion centers. He has worked with a multitude of private and public-private sector efforts to address the innumerable threats associated with illicit trade and transnational organized crime in at-risk regions.

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