Our Team

We are an international group of researchers and trainers who deliver high quality, complexity-aware research and customised training which always puts people at the centre. Our research and training inspires you to think differently about development solutions and social change processes and is based on building trust, giving voice and listening to those people for whom development interventions are intended.

Empatika has a core team of twelve researchers and trainers connected with a larger community of practice which currently includes over 75 trained researchers in six countries.

Our Core Team

Deborah Tobing has a Masters degree in Law and has been working in the development sector for almost 15 years. She initially gained key experience in procurement, contract management, finance and monitoring and evaluation. In the past six years she has focused on qualitative research and has honed her skills in RCA immersion research, Digital Storytelling, Participatory Focus Group Discussions and Participatory Video. She not only joins fieldwork, but is Empatika's Director of Operations and training coordinator. She helps custom design training curricula specifically for clients and builds a relationship of continued support for application of the training. She is passionate about people, especially the people she meets during her field work. She has undertaken numerous research studies across Indonesia and co-led research in Uganda on senior citizen grants and market value chains. She feels it is always important to undertake research in communities herself so that she can continue to learn from them and make training relevant and up-to-date.

Denny Firmanto Halim has seven years of experience in qualitative research, within international development and the private sector. He has undertaken immersive research in more than twenty three different locations including rural and urban communities. He is a senior researcher with Empatika as well as a facilitator for Digital Storytelling. He had earlier experiences designing and running small scale quantitative surveys and has become an advocate of combining mixed methods in order to ensure that surveys can be better designed and has been an assistant facilitator in mixed methods training programmes. He co-led field research in Uganda and Ethiopia, focusing on agricultural value chains and land rights. This involved training local research teams and providing support and guidance as well as actively taking part in immersion research in communities. He is a fully qualified Bahasa-English translator.

Danielle Stein has an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics along with over ten years of experience carrying out research, monitoring and evaluation for development programmes in Africa and Asia. Her experience includes five years as a Manager in Palladium’s Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Team in London, where she led both short term research studies on governance topics and long-term monitoring, learning and evaluation components for DFID, DFAT and UNICEF. Danielle is particularly interested in community-based research and story-telling processes, and has led immersion research studies in Ethiopia, Pakistan and Nepal. Danielle also utilises RCA approaches to training, instrument design and analysis in more ‘standard’ forms of research to make it better able to gather people’s voices and address power distances. She is Empatika's International Director and is currently based in Cape Town, where she enjoys sunshine, hiking and wine.

Frisca Tobing has 10 years experience in development both in research and training and holds a Master degree in applied anthropology and participatory development from Australia National University. She has been involved in various qualitative studies across Indonesia and is skilled in employing qualitative and participatory research. Her previous experience includes roles as a trainer for qualitative and quantitative research and research on gender and forests. Frisca also has experience working directly with government agencies in Indonesia, including a project evaluating factors to effective drug rehabilitation. Since joining Empatika in 2020, Frisca has participated in a number of studies and co-led a multi-phase study on the social determinants influencing people’s access to malaria services in Eastern Indonesia. Her experiences across different mixed methods studies and projects have helped Frisca to be a thoughtful reviewer and observer. With these skills and her attention to detail, Frisca has become one of Empatika’s Quality Assurance Coordinators along with Neha. Frisca is also the team's newest lead researcher in Indonesia.

Grace Adiputri joined Empatika in 2020 as Finance Assistant. Previously, Grace has worked for both profit and non-profit organizations in finance and accounting. From these experiences she also had the opportunity to learn and handle other aspects including event organization. In addition to her work on accounting and finance tasks, Grace provides logistical support to project and training teams, where she brings her calm demeanor and positivity to the sometimes hectic stages of projects. She also provides assistance while continuing to learn more about supporting contracting, permitting, and ethical reviews. Grace also supported Lena in preparation for Empatika’s external audit.

Iqbal Abisaputra is an experienced qualitative researcher, working mostly in remote areas in Indonesia including Papua. He has a degree in Psychology from Universitas Indonesia which has contributed to his unique skills as facilitator and mentor. He is highly skilled in visual participatory research. He is a facilitator for digital story-telling and participatory focus group discussions. He previously worked as Campaigner and Researcher for Greenpeace on the Zero Deforestation Campaign, worked at Orangutan Foundation with local communities in Kalimantan to initiate organic farming and also experienced learning together with indigenous people in Sumatra. As a senior researcher, Iqbal has co-led research teams in Ethiopia which involved training a new local research team and undertaking immersion research. He has extensive creative skills in computer graphics and InDesign.

Krisman Pandiangan is an enthusiastic researcher and team development professional. He has extensive experience conducting research fieldwork and facilitating workshops and training to community-based organizations and NGO staff related to program development and governance at the Central, Provincial and District levels in Indonesia. In recent years, he has been heavily involved in building Empatika’s experience using human-centered design approaches and adapting these approaches at the community level. Previously, he was a team leader for a Human Resources Consulting firm which focused on training needs analysis and HR program development for government offices and agencies. Krisman has strong interpersonal skills and is passionate about relationship building and sharing. These skills have formed a key part of the mentorship he has provided to Empatika’s wider team of research associates. Krisman holds a bachelor degree in Psychology and a Masters degree in Knowledge Management from the University of Indonesia.

Magdalena Yenni has 17 years of experience in financial, budgeting, auditing and accounting activities including the implementation of financial systems and financial monitoring and control. She has a degree in accounting from Atmajaya University, is a Certified Accountant (CA) and is a member of the Indonesian Accountants Association (Ikatan Akuntan Indonesia). Lena joined the Empatika team at the beginning of 2020 after a variety of experience working at some of Indonesia’s leading companies, International NGOs and one of the foreign embassies in Jakarta. Along with her duties as Finance Coordinator, Lena has overseen Empatika’s transition to a new accounting system as part of improving our accounting processes and project tracking capabilities. Lena also led the process for Empatika’s first external audit, which was successfully completed in early 2021. Lena has also begun to participate in the project budgeting process in an effort to build her familiarity with Empatika’s research activities and to bring operations and project processes closer together, including to help identify areas for added efficiencies.

Neha Koirala has over nine years experience of qualitative and quantitative research as well as monitoring and evaluation for development programmes in Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Through in-depth engagement with beneficiaries of different programmes, she has focused on understanding programmes’ relevance and effectiveness from their perspectives. She has been a RCA immersive research practitioner from the first time it was used in Nepal in 2012 and is now a lead researcher. She has taken part in over 12 immersion research studies covering a range of themes including governance and participation, security, health, access and market linkages, post-disaster recovery, youth training and employment. She leads field research and analysis and has trained local research teams in Bangaldesh, Nepal and Pakistan. She has also adapted elements of RCA (informality, immersion, conversations) to enhance more traditional qualitative tools such as key informant interviews, focus groups to encourage more participatory processes, understand context better and make engagement more fun. Neha is Empatika's lead Quality Assurance Coordinator.

Rizqan Adhima has been working in development for seven years and is a senior researcher for Empatika. He has been a trainer and mentor for researchers in Indonesia, Ghana, Cambodia and Pakistan. He is also a fully trained facilitator for Digital Storytelling and Participatory Video approaches. Riz has extensive field research experience across Indonesia. He has co-led field research teams in Cambodia, Pakistan and Ghana researching people’s perspectives of local governance, youth sexual and reproductive health and voice and accountability in health. He has creative visual skills and is competent in InDesign. He brings to his work the passion of the always curious and a deep appreciation of complexity. Recently he has been focusing on policy outreach to reduce the gap between people’s views and lived experiences and policy making.

Sherria Ayuandini PhD (anthropology from Washington University/sociology from University of Amsterdam). Over the last 10 years, Sherria has designed and led studies on social issues, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender and women, migration and mobility, poverty and vulnerable communities, health and medicine, as well as on children and adolescents’ life and rights. She has worked with multinational organizations such as UNICEF, the World Bank, and Australian Aid providing policy-oriented project reports, informing programme interventions and designing and developing research and capacity building programmes. She has led both qualitative and quantitative research teams in Indonesia, Ghana, Uganda, the United States and the Netherlands. Sherria has regularly led teams of international researchers in multiple countries to conduct immersion research studies and has actively engaged on national government policy dialogue. Her academic research brought together medical anthropology, gender, sexual and reproductive rights and migration, pioneered inclusion of patient voices and perspective on this particular topic and is published in Social Science and Medicine, Culture, Health and Sexuality and Nations and Nationalism.

Steven Ellis left his job in San Francisco and moved to Indonesia nine years ago. After first working on projects with DANIDA and AusAID/DFAT, he joined the Reality Check Approach project in 2015 in an effort to better understand and share communities’ perspectives and realities. Since that time and now with Empatika, he has participated in over 14 studies and is one of the team's lead researchers. Steven is Empatika's National Director, has led researcher training in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Uganda, and is a trained digital storytelling facilitator. A creative thinker, practical coordinator, and diverse writer and editor, Steven has also helped build Empatika’s knowledge management and quality assurance systems. Passionate about building understanding and tolerance, Steven believes that people-centred and immersive approaches to research can empower while also highlighting both the uniqueness and interconnectedness that is present in every village and city.

Thalia Shelyndra has participated in immersion studies for almost four years before fully joining the Empatika core team in early 2019. Previously she has worked on a variety of development projects as a field researcher as well as translator, along with online media. Although her previous dream was to work in the news industry in order to help minimize information gaps within society, she has found that working in the development sector allows her to interact with and reach out to a wider range of people. Through her work with Empatika she has learned about a variety of participatory approaches and is excited to keep on exploring what is possible in participatory research. While she continues to build her skills as a researcher and facilitator, she is also interested in doing more with C4D (communication for development) as she is aware of the need to develop better platforms and tools for delivering and sharing messages and information to people in the field.

Yeni Indra has a degree in economic and social science from Bogor Agricultural University. She has been involved in development programmes and projects focused on social economic development for over ten years. Recently this work has focused on examining ways to reduce regulations and bureaucratic obstacles to doing business in five major cities in Indonesia and comprises mixed methods research including situational studies and perception studies. She began working with the RCA methodology in 2016 and is now a senior researcher and trainer. So far, her work has been confined to Indonesia but she has gained wide experience through participation and leading field teams researching a wide range of topics including household finance, Village Law, haze from forest fires, university research culture and international refugees. She provides training in qualitative research and, as a researcher competent in quantitative research, provides both training assistance to mixed methods capacity building programmes and insights into mixed methods research design. She is an excellent communicator and people-person.

Associate Consultants

Annette Fisher is a freelance practitioner and researcher with an academic background in governance, conflict studies and participation approaches and has recently completed a second Masters degree in action research methodologies at IDS (UK). Annette has over ten years of experience in the fields of voice and accountability, youth advocacy and human rights and has lived and worked across North Africa, the Middle-East, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Annette was part of a team which commissioned the first Reality-Check Approach study in two provinces in Pakistan (conducted by Empatika) on maternal and child health and completed the RCA Training Level 1 as part of this process, she has also supported participatory research in Sindh focused on adolescent girls. As part of a previous role, Annette led an immersion study in Bangladesh with the Grameen Bank.

Annette has experience working with communities in a range of countries to support them to hold their governments to account for more responsive services to citizens. She has also designed and implemented interventions to strengthen accountability systems and participatory community-based mechanisms for monitoring service delivery. Annette is currently conducting participatory action research into community monitoring and accountability in Gujarat, India with a local social movement and will be starting an action research based PhD in 2019 with IDS.

Dee Jupp PhD is Empatika's former Technical Advisor. Now, as an Associate Consultant, she provides small advisory inputs for projects and training on request. She has over thirty five years of participatory development and qualitative research experience. She specialises in the conceptualisation and facilitation of complexity-aware processes to encourage community engagement in design, implementation and evaluation, in particular promoting community-led approaches. She has been a practitioner and advocate of immersion research for over fifteen years when she first promoted it in Bangladesh in 2006 as the reality check approach within the multi-donor primary education and primary health programmes. Now based in UK in semi-retirement, she has lived and worked for extensive periods in Bangladesh, Jamaica and Indonesia helping Governments, NGOs, Social Movements and community-based organisations to put ordinary people at the centre of development through creative use of participatory approaches. Over recent years she has focused on building local capacity to undertake immersion studies and other complementary participatory approaches, especially in Ghana, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Bangladesh and Nepal and to expand the use of immersion research in people-driven design.

Joost Verwilghen has worked with NGOs and CBOs at grassroots level, charities and private sector. He started his career in Bangladesh supporting local development programmes, living in a rural community. After that Joost was involved in the development and introduction of participatory techniques and working methods in the assessment process for partner organisations in Bangladesh and the design of subsequent development interventions. Since then he has also lived and worked in Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates and has been involved in various development projects funded by a range of international development agencies, including DfID, DFAT, Sida, EC, USAID and the Dutch Government in the capacity of project director, manager and technical consultant.

Joost has been project manager on several qualitative studies, starting in 2009 with the Bangladesh Reality Checks for primary education and primary healthcare (2017-12) funded by Sida and continues to enthusiastically encourage the inclusion of the RCA in other programmes and with other donors.