The work of IGH is driven by a team that is committed to continuous learning and collaboration and whose diverse perspectives and experience strengthens our mission and vision.
Tiffany Connolly
Program Coordinator | Institute of Global Homelessness
Pronouns: she/her
Email: tconnolly@ighomelessness.org
Tiffany is the Program Coordinator at the Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH). She is passionate about progression, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. Through her work, she supports IGH’s efforts to achieve individual and team goals; organize and facilitate collaborations, projects, and convenings; and curate and share useful information, tools, and resources on homelessness and intersectionality. She also supports IGH’s effort to achieve its diversity, equity, and inclusion mission.
Christopher Holt
Global Policy and Advocacy Director | Institute of Global Homelessness
Pronouns: he/him
Email: cholt@ighomelessness.org
Christopher leads IGH’s strategic advocacy for international homelessness policy at the United Nations (UN). His work focuses on engagement and collaboration with UN Member States, expert groups, and other stakeholders, to ensure that global homelessness is measured, reported on, and meaningfully addressed at the international level.
With over fifteen years of experience in humanitarian relief and legal practice across the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia, Christopher brings extensive expertise in conflict, displacement, human rights, and homelessness. Most recently, he served as a Senior Humanitarian Policy Advisor with the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Previously, Christopher led a major strategic partnership between the European Union, UN Member States, and humanitarian agencies, working to prevent the displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. Christopher’s career also includes senior leadership roles with aid agencies in Iraq, South Sudan, and Syria. Earlier in his career, Christopher worked as a lawyer in Australia, providing legal assistance to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and advocating for policy and legislative reform.
Peter Mackie
Executive Director | Institute of Global Homelessness
Pronouns: he/him
Email: pmackie@ighomelessness.org
Pete serves as Executive Director of the Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH), guiding the organisation’s strategy and championing a global vision in which everyone has a home that offers security, safety, autonomy, and opportunity. Known for his collaborative approach, he brings people and organisations together across sectors and countries to achieve real and lasting impact.
His commitment to social change runs throughout his career. After two formative years in the third sector working for a homelessness charity, Pete moved into academia and spent 16 years at Cardiff University, becoming a respected international expert on preventing and ending homelessness. Alongside this work, he has dedicated 16 years to Llamau—Wales’s leading homelessness charity for young people and women—serving as a Trustee and, most recently, as Chair.
River Smith
Research Assistant | Institute of Global Homelessness
Pronouns: any/all
River is a research assistant at the Institute of Global Homelessness. They are originally from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and currently live in Chicago. River’s background is in psychology and mental health. He’s worked in direct service, designing and running psychosocial programming for adults living with mental illnesses. He’s also done psychological research on moral perceptions of criminality, and is committed to bringing a social justice focus to his mental health work.
Julia Wagner
Program Director | Institute of Global Homelessness
Pronouns: she/her
Email: jwagner@ighomelessness.org
Julia leads IGH’s work on the Vanguard Program, International Mayors Council on Homelessness, and Global Homelessness Data Map. She has more than a decade of experience in program design, building partnerships for systems change, and collecting inclusive data working across the fields of international public health, education, and homelessness.
Prior to joining IGH, Julia served as a Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Advisor for the AIDSFree Project, where she worked with teams from 13 countries to track and improve outcomes. She has also worked in Namibia and South Africa on projects focused on empowering youth, forming continuum of care networks, and engaging civil society organizations. Her experience includes creating data management systems, building dashboards and tools to make data more accessible for decision making, and providing technical assistance to field-based partners.
Julia holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Yamitza Yuivar Villarreal
Vanguard Program Associate | Institute of Global Homelessness
Pronouns: she/her
Yamitza is the Vanguard Program Associate at the Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH). She has worked as a researcher and teaching assistant at higher education institutions and as a journalist and community manager in social organizations. Yamitza also has experience assisting research projects and facilitating programs on education, communication, and social issues. Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, Yamitza advocates for a more equitable society that respects all cultures and believes in people.
Yamitza holds a MED in Education, Culture, and Society from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile. She aspires to pursue a PhD in public policy in the future.