We are delighted to welcome two new managers to the Strong Cities Network team. Patricia Crosby and Simeon Dukic joined last month and will be leading the SCN’s work in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and the Western Balkans and Central Asia, respectively.  Together they bring a tremendous amount of regional expertise and insight that will be a great resource for the network and our members.

Patricia Crosby, Manager

Patricia joins the team as a Manager leading on the SCN’s work in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Patricia will lead on our work to identify, support and scale SCN “thematic model” cities that show significant expertise in one area of countering violent extremism programming such as youth engagement, education or local action planning. Over the course of the next 12 months, she will coordinate a number of activities including: city consultations, city exchanges, regional training workshops, civil society partnerships and lastly, fellow SCN members willing to adopt and adapt the model for use in their own city.

Previously, Patricia worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat’s CVE Unit designing and implementing government capacity-building projects on community policing, youth empowerment, education and dialogue in the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and South-East Asia. Patricia has also worked for the Canadian Government focusing on crisis response, consular emergencies and MENA development programming. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Social Sciences in International Development and Globalisation with a Minor in Political Science from the University of Ottawa.

Simeon Dukic, Manager

Simeon Dukic joins the team as a Manager for the Western Balkans and Central Asia. Simeon will work to transfer our pioneering Local Prevention Network (LPN) model running in Lebanon and Jordan to the Western Balkans context, setting up a multi-stakeholder and multidisciplinary infrastructure in an SCN member city. The primary role of the LPN will be to draft and implement a tailored Local P/CVE Action Plan. Simeon will also be building out our SCN membership and engagement in Central Asian states in cooperation with our partners at the Global Center for Cooperative Security.

Prior to his role at ISD, Simeon was a Project Associate at the National Committee for Countering Violent Extremism and Counter-Terrorism (NCCVECT) of the Republic of North Macedonia. He supported the coordination of 22 ministries and institutions involved in the work of the NCCVECT, civil society groups, the international donor community and regional counterparts. Additionally, he was involved in the drafting of the first National CVE Strategy.

Simeon holds an MA (Distinction) in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College London and a BA (Magna Cum Laude) in Global Challenges from Leiden University College, The Hague.

Visit our regional webpages to learn more about our past work in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Western Balkans.