Andreas Accardo oversees the Agency’s cooperation with its institutional partners, including the EU institutions, Member State governments, human rights bodies, civil society and intergovernmental organisations. The Unit liaises with policy makers at the EU and national level to support the development of fundamental rights compliant legislation and policies. Andreas Accardo joined the Agency’s precursor organisation, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, in 2004. He then continued working for FRA where he led diverse projects, for example in the area of Roma integration, human rights at the local level and media diversity. From 2014 to 2018, he headed the Director's Office. Prior to joining FRA, he worked on institution-building programmes in former Yugoslavia with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He coordinated technical assistance and administrative reform programmes for local governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as capacity-building projects for the national parliaments of Serbia and Montenegro.
He holds a master’s degree in political science from the German University of Münster and a postgraduate degree in peace and conflict studies. His areas of expertise include EU and international relations, political affairs, human rights and good governance.
Xavier Català is the ad interim Head of Unit for Corporate Services. His professional career began in a private sector consultancy, managing the accounts and other fiscal and administrative tasks for several Seconded National Experts. In 1993, he joined the European Commission in Brussels, where he worked for eight years, always dealing with financial and coordination issues. In 2001, he was seconded to the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) in Thessaloniki, where he held various positions (budget officer, accountant), ending as Head of Unit for Finance. In 2009, he joined FRA in Vienna, where he has mainly dealt with Finance and Contracting issues. He also served as interim Head of Unit for Administration between 2016 and 2017. He has a university degree in Management in Tourist Enterprises.
Joanna Goodey's areas of expertise with respect to the FRA’s work include: victims of crime; hate crime; trafficking in human beings; quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, including surveys.From the mid-1990s she held lectureships in criminology and criminal justice, first in the Law Faculty at the University of Sheffield and subsequently at the University of Leeds. She was a research fellow for two years at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and has been a consultant to the UN International Narcotics Control Board. She was also a regular study fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg.
She studied criminology, as well as human geography, and is the author of the academic textbook ‘Victims and Victimology: Research, Policy and Practice’ (2005), and co-editor of the book, together with A. Crawford, on ‘Integrating a Victim Perspective within Criminal Justice: International Perspectives’ (2000). To date, she has published over thirty academic journal articles and book chapters.
Siobhán McInerney-Lankford is Head of Unit for Equality, Roma and Social Rights. She is a human rights lawyer with expertise in EU human rights law, anti-discrimination, international development, and environmental and social policy. From 2002-2023 she worked for the World Bank’s Legal Department, serving as both an operational and advisory lawyer. She was legal advisor to the World Bank’s first Human Rights Trust Fund established in the Bank’s policy department and represented the Bank in human rights fora at the UN, EU and the OECD. Prior to joining the World Bank she worked in private practice in Washington, D.C..
Siobhán has served as an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law, and has lectured at EPLO, EIUC, the Fletcher School, Harvard and the UN Summer Academy. She is the author of over fifty articles and book chapters; she is co-editor of Human Rights Methods (Edward Elgar, 2017) and The Roles of International Law in Sustainable Development (OUP, 2023).
Siobhán holds an LL.B. from Trinity College, Dublin, (First Class Honors), an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a B.C.L. and D.Phil. (EU human rights law) both from Oxford. She is admitted to practice law in Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.
Nicole Romain is Head of the Communications and Events unit. She joined FRA as Scientific Editor in March 2010, and has built up and led the agency’s Editing and Production Sector since 2011.
Prior to taking up her appointment at FRA, she worked as an author and editing consultant for Bertelsmann Publishing in Germany and Spain, and Eurofound, the EU Agency for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, in Dublin, Ireland.
She has authored several academic journal articles and contributed to encyclopaedia volumes on health-relevant topics. From 1994 until 2000, she lectured at the German Sport University Cologne. She studied Sports Sciences at Hamburg and Montpellier Universities, and psychology and social sciences at Montpellier University. She holds a Masters in Sports Sciences and a postgraduate degree in Social Sciences from Montpellier University, France.
