Two women rewriting the rules in crisis management
By Otibho Edeke Agbareh & Natalie Fairchild
For International Women’s Day 2026
There’s a particular feeling you get when you walk into a room and realise you’re the only woman there. Again. It’s not fear. We’ve both stood in the wreckage of disasters, coordinated responses to terror attacks, and held the hands of grieving families. We know what fear is. This is something else. It’s the weight of knowing that your voice will be questioned more, your expertise doubted longer, your compassion mistaken for weakness.
Between us, we’ve spent over two decades in crisis management. Aviation disasters, humanitarian emergencies, mass fatality incidents, pandemics. We’ve worked everywhere from Grenfell Tower to war zones, from boardrooms in Geneva to makeshift family assistance centres in Poland. And here’s what we learned: the industry desperately needs us, even when it doesn’t always want to admit it.
The gap isn’t just about gender, though that’s certainly part of it. It’s about how crisis management has been approached. Transactional, mechanical, often missing the very human heart of what a crisis actually is. When families are searching for loved ones, when communities are fractured, when everything feels like it’s falling apart, they don’t need another consultant with a binder full of protocols. They need someone who understands that crisis response is as much about humanity as it is about logistics.
That’s why we’re building CrisisDNA. Not because we want to play in a space that wasn’t built for us, but because we’re tired of watching organisations pay astronomical fees for crisis support that leaves them stranded when disaster actually strikes. We’re creating a platform that matches real expertise with organisations that need it, powered by technology but grounded in genuine care. We believe crisis preparedness should be accessible to everyone, not just a luxury for multinationals with endless budgets.
To the women reading this who work in fields where you’re outnumbered, outspoken against, or simply overlooked: your perspective isn’t just valuable. It’s essential. The empathy you bring isn’t weakness. The questions you ask that others don’t? Those are the ones that save lives. The fact that you care deeply doesn’t make you less professional. It makes you irreplaceable.
We’re not here to fit into the old systems. We’re here to build something better. And we can’t do it alone. Whether you’re a crisis professional tired of being sidelined, an expert with knowledge to share, or someone who simply believes that the people responding to our worst moments should reflect the diversity of those experiencing them, there’s a place for you in this.
This International Women’s Day, we’re not asking for a seat at the table. We’re building our own table, and we’re saving seats for every woman who’s been told she’s too much, not enough, or doesn’t quite fit. Because the truth is, when crisis calls, it doesn’t check your credentials or your gender. It just needs someone who’ll answer. And we’re done waiting for permission to do exactly that.
Join us. The world needs what you bring to it.
About the Authors
Otibho Edeke Agbareh and Natalie Fairchild are internationally recognised crisis management and humanitarian response specialists with extensive experience across aviation disasters, terror attacks, mass fatality incidents and complex humanitarian crises. Otibho brings global leadership in family assistance and identification, serving as a UN ICAO certified expert and Working Group member, with a career spanning clinical frontline care, humanitarian leadership and doctoral research on families of missing persons. Natalie contributes deep operational and strategic expertise across UN classified organisations, public contingency planning, humanitarian response and crisis consultancy, with a strong focus on enhancing humanitarian assistance through innovation and technology. Together, they co founded CrisisDNA to advance compassionate, effective and resilient crisis preparedness and response worldwide.
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