Johanna is an interdisciplinary legal scholar in human rights. She has served as a Visiting Research Scholar at Georgetown University Law Center, Australian National University, Oxford University (Mansfield College) hosted by the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights in its inaugural class examining novel ways to facilitate access to justice where there is a perceived power imbalance in civil liability systems, and most recently with the University of Melbourne Climate Futures Environmental Research Hub. Previously, she worked around the globe with the World Health Organization as a focal point on the cross-section of gender, human rights, and corporate accountability. She served as a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow to Samoa assisting the Ombudsman’s Office in its first ever State of Human Rights Report. Ms. Gusman grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and received a B.Sc. in Microbiology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and a M.Sc. in Biophysics and Physiology from Georgetown University. She was awarded the Gates Public Service Law Scholarship at the University of Washington and graduated with a concentration in international law.

She currently works as the Regional Adviser for Human Rights and Social Development at the Pacific Community (SPC) based in Suva, Fiji. Over the course of the last year, she has been working closely with Pacific governments on their submissions to the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on States’ obligations to address climate change. She sits on the Pacific Islands Forum Officials Committee’s Specialist Subcommittee on Sea Level-Rise in relation to International Law. She has been widely published on human rights issues related to climate change, non-economic loss and damage, feminist legal theories, and advancements in environmental law.