Ms. Kate Saunders is a Tibet specialist and co-founder of Turquoise Roof, a project that combines Tibetan research expertise with open-source intelligence methods to deepen understanding of the situation in Tibet, currently working with Tibet Watch in the UK. With over 20 years of senior-level experience as a Tibet/China specialist, Kate formerly served as Research Director of the International Campaign for Tibet. Kate is the author of ‘Eighteen Layers of Hell: Stories from the Chinese Gulag’, one of the few English-language works examining the Chinese laogai system, co-author of ‘The Dalai Lama and Havel: Warriors for Truth and Love’, and the report ‘Sacred Authority and State Power: The Dalai Lama Institution in a global context’, published in June 2025 by the Czech thinktank Sinopsis. Her articles and op-eds have appeared internationally in publications including The Guardian, The Times, the New York Times, The Independent and others.