Eliane (Maillefer) was born in 1946 in Lausanne, Switzerland and after high school, trained as a teacher. She started working full-time with MRA in 1968 when she joined the musical ‘Anything to Declare’, and travelled with it in Europe, Asia and Australasia. When she came back, she based then the MRA centre in Paris, for nearly 10 years. From there she took part in MRA activities in various countries, particularly in programmes with schools. She was also part of a team promoting the Black and White book, particularly with Members of the French Parliament. She also made several trips to India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
In 1980 she married Andrew Stallybrass. As a couple, they moved for a year to South Africa, learning from the local team how to bring change in that situation (this was the time of apartheid).
When they came back to Switzerland they settled in Geneva. They were active with some of the UN organisations, particularly ILO (International Labour Organisation). From 1981, she was a member of the Swiss Foundation and then its vice-president from 1988 to 1997, when she stopped working full-time with MRA. Round the end of the century, she started to work on the archives of Caux, and continues this work until today. From 2008 to 2012 she was operations manager in Caux.