Founding Team
CROWN was founded by two people who saw the same problem from different angles — and recognised that solving it required both perspectives working in concert.
Yanina Soumaré — President & Co-Founder
Yanina Soumaré brings to CROWN the rare combination of lived experience and clinical expertise that the organisation’s mission demands. Of mixed European-African heritage, Yanina grew up navigating the daily realities of textured hair in European societies that had no language for the discrimination she experienced — and no infrastructure to measure, address, or prevent it.
She holds a psychology degree from a Portuguese university, where her academic work focused on identity formation, self-concept, and the psychological mechanisms through which appearance-based bias becomes internalised. It was during this period that Yanina began to identify the structural gap at the centre of CROWN’s founding argument: extensive research existed in the United States documenting the prevalence and impact of hair discrimination, yet Europe — home to an estimated 150 million people with textured hair — had produced virtually no comparable data, no validated measurement instruments, and no clinical protocols for the psychological harm that decades of American research had documented.
This recognition led Yanina to develop what would become CROWN’s 360° Integrative Mind-Body Therapeutic Protocol — the first structured clinical intervention designed specifically for individuals experiencing psychological harm from identity-based appearance discrimination. The protocol integrates six evidence-based modalities — Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, yoga and movement therapy, breathwork, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Tension and Trauma Release Exercises, and aromatherapy — into a coherent treatment programme that addresses discrimination-related distress at cognitive, somatic, and emotional levels.
Beyond her clinical work, Yanina serves as CROWN’s Swiss representative, domiciled in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Canton of Neuchatel. She leads CROWN’s emerging academic relationships, including the developing dialogue with the University of Geneva on the CROWN Discrimination Index, and oversees the development of CROWN’s Knowledge Library — the organisation’s growing repository of original, evidence-based content on hair discrimination, textured hair science, and identity.
Yanina is the author of the forthcoming book HELD, which examines the intersection of hair, identity, and healing from both personal and clinical perspectives.
Credentials: Psychology, University of Portugal. Creator, 360° Integrative Mind-Body Therapeutic Protocol. Author, HELD (forthcoming).
Seydou Soumaré — Vice-President, Treasurer & Co-Founder
Seydou Soumaré provides the strategic, financial, and technological architecture that transforms CROWN’s research mission into operational reality. He holds an MBA from Imperial College London — ranked QS World number two in 2026 — and previously served as a Manager at a leading global professional services firm, where he developed expertise in technology strategy, corporate partnerships, and complex programme delivery.
At CROWN, Seydou leads four interconnected domains. The first is financial strategy: structuring CROWN’s funding model across Swiss and French jurisdictions, managing the association’s dual-jurisdiction operations (Geneva headquarters and planned Paris entity under association loi 1901), and ensuring that every franc raised is allocated exclusively to CROWN’s mission — a commitment embedded in the association’s statutes.
The second is technology partnerships. Seydou is developing the relationship with ETH Zürich, where CROWN is in advanced discussions with a professor in biosensors and bioelectronics regarding the supervision of student projects on CROWN’s multi-sensor diagnostic device. This proposed collaboration — envisaged through semester projects, master theses, and a potential Pioneer Fellowship pathway — would represent the engineering foundation of CROWN’s measurement infrastructure.
The third is intellectual property management. CROWN’s diagnostic technology, CROWN Hair DNA profiling system, AI classification engine, and the CROWN Discrimination Index methodology constitute a portfolio of proprietary assets that must be protected, licensed appropriately, and governed in alignment with CROWN’s nonprofit mission. Seydou oversees this portfolio.
The fourth is commercial development — specifically, the partnerships with corporations, academic institutions, and salon networks that will ultimately drive adoption of CROWN’s diagnostic technology and sustain the organisation’s research programme.
Credentials: MBA, Imperial College London (QS World #2, 2026). Former Manager, leading global professional services firm.
Advisory Network
CROWN’s founding team is deliberately small. Two co-founders, each bringing deep expertise in their respective domains, operating with the agility that early-stage institutional building requires. But small does not mean isolated. CROWN’s advisory network connects the organisation to some of Europe’s most respected research institutions and support structures.
University of Geneva
Role: Prospective academic collaborator, CDI methodology
CROWN is in active dialogue with researchers at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva, one of Europe’s leading research universities. The faculty’s expertise in discrimination, prejudice, and social identity aligns directly with the academic domain in which CROWN’s CROWN Discrimination Index operates.
The proposed collaboration with the University of Geneva would centre on the CDI’s survey instrument design and validation methodology. This includes the construction of the measurement instrument itself, the calibration of survey-based data against hardware-verified diagnostic data to control for self-report bias, and the statistical validation pathway from pilot study through peer review to replication. Subject to formal agreement, this relationship would ensure that the CDI meets the methodological standards required for publication in peer-reviewed journals and acceptance as evidence in policy deliberation.
ETH Zürich
Role: Prospective technology collaboration, diagnostic device development
CROWN is in advanced discussions with a professor in the department of biosensors and bioelectronics at ETH Zürich — consistently ranked among the world’s top five universities for engineering and technology — regarding the supervision of student projects on CROWN’s multi-sensor diagnostic device. The proposed collaboration would advance through progressive levels of complexity: semester projects (three to six months) addressing well-scoped sensor integration challenges, master theses (six months) tackling the full multi-modal classification system, and the potential pathway to an ETH Pioneer Fellowship (CHF 150,000, eighteen months) for commercialisation.
This developing relationship would provide CROWN with access to world-class engineering talent and laboratory infrastructure while giving ETH students a real-world, multi-sensor engineering challenge with direct social impact and publication potential.
CAGI — Centre d’Accueil de la Geneve Internationale
Role: Institutional support, governance guidance
The Centre d’Accueil de la Geneve Internationale (CAGI) supports international organisations establishing themselves in Geneva. CROWN’s thirteen-article statutes were modelled on the CAGI template, reflecting the governance standards expected of Geneva-based international institutions. CAGI provides ongoing guidance on regulatory compliance, institutional networking, and access to Geneva’s ecosystem of international organisations.
Building the Team
CROWN is at the beginning of its institutional life. The founding team is small by design — two co-founders whose complementary expertise spans psychology, technology, finance, and institutional strategy. As CROWN’s research programme matures and its diagnostic technology advances from development to deployment, the team will grow.
Current priorities include research associates for the CDI pilot study, engineering talent for diagnostic device development (particularly through the ETH collaboration), clinical practitioners for protocol training and validation, and translators to support CROWN’s bilingual mandate.
If you are interested in contributing to CROWN’s mission, we invite you to explore our volunteer opportunities or contact us directly.