Our team members

Lara has over 18 years of professional experience working in the fields of disability, gender, migration, equality, human rights and international development. After graduating with a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) degree from the University of Malta, she continued her (previously voluntary) work with persons with disabilities in community living settings. Leaving work to study once again, Lara then graduated from the Mediterranean Masters Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation with distinction, after which she worked in academia while also volunteering with Amnesty International Malta, before leaving to once again engage in practical work with persons with disabilities, this time in Burkina Faso. During the two years spent there, Lara worked on capacity strengthening with a network of organisations of persons with different types of disabilities. Returning to Malta, she worked with the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality as a senior projects executive, before continuing her studies through a Master of Arts in Research Methods and a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Durham in the UK. Her doctoral research was the basis of a monograph, Disability and Development in Burkina Faso: Critical Perspectives, published with Palgrave Macmillan, as well as several academic journal articles and chapters in edited volumes on disability and on participatory video. Lara has been working as a freelancer and with PIL since its inception in 2017. She also lectures on disability & international development and race & ethnicity in film at the University of Malta.

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Having an impact on policy and practice through her current work as evaluator, research manager and academic is what drives and motivates Lara. Working on a range of assignments including evaluating projects on the rights of victims of crimes with disabilities in Europe, evaluating the performance of Africa-Europe diaspora platforms, developing accountability toolkits for projects working with persons with disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa and mapping knowledge architecture on disability and international development / humanitarian initiatives, Lara – together with team working on the particular assignment – endeavours to produce work which is participatory, useful and actionable. Assignments Lara has worked on in the recent past / is currently working on include those for Humanity & Inclusion (HI), International Disability Alliance (IDA), Validity Foundation, Africa-Europe Diaspora Platform (ADEPT), European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) and the European Disability Expertise (EDE).  

An initiative Lara is particularly proud of is facilitating a participatory video process with a group of persons with disabilities in Burkina Faso, where they designed, filmed and edited a video on their lived experiences and their insights on development interventions in the disability field. Building on her training as a PV facilitator, Lara has also been training various cohorts (including the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Bread for the World, and University students in Benin and Burkina Faso) in utilising participatory video as a research and monitoring & evaluation method.

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