Yamina Saheb – IPCC author, campaigner against the Energy Charter Treaty, and advocate of decolonising global governance
Yamina Saheb is a lecturer and researcher at Sciences Po (Paris), a lead author of the IPCC report on climate change mitigation and a Senior fellow at OpenExp. Prior to this position, Yamina was a Senior Fellow Researcher at the University of Münster and previously a Senior Researcher at the University of Lausanne. In 2018, Yamina was the head of energy efficiency unit at the Energy Charter Secretariat. Before that, she was a Policy and Scientific Officer at the Renewables and Energy Efficiency Unit at the Institute of Energy and Transport of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC). She also worked as senior buildings energy efficiency policy analyst at the IEA. Yamina holds a Ph.D in Energy Engineering, Master’s degrees on Landscape Architecture and Development Economics and an Engineering degree in Building technologies.
Melanie Vogel – Co-Chair, European Green Party
Mélanie Vogel is Co-Chair of the European Green Party from June 2022. She is one of the youngest senators in France, representing French abroad, where she sits on the committee for social affairs. Prior to her Senate mandate, she has been working as an advisor for the Green Group in the European Parliament in the committee on constitutional affairs. She is an expert in European democracy, feminism and LGBTI+ rights.
Gwendoline Delbos Corfield – MEP Greens/EFA
Born in Great Britain, Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield grew up in Ivry-sur-Seine (France) before moving to Grenoble for her studies, where she was elected municipal and then regional councillor. Member of the Committee of the European Green Party from 2012 to 2019, she has always linked local political commitment with European commitment. Member of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, she is involved in constitutional issues, civil liberties, rule of law, digital rights and equality (women and LGBTI rights, antiracism and fight against discrimination).
Nicolae Ștefănuță – MEP Greens/EFA
Nicolae Ștefănuță MEP (Greens/Europe Free Alliance) is a full member of the Committee on Budgets and a substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and the Committee on Transport and Tourism. Furthermore, he is a member of the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Association Committee, the Delegation for relations with the United States of America (D-US) and the Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Among his areas of interest as a MEP are climate change, foreign policy, security, public health, European budget, and European rights. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, where he obtained a Master of policy management degree. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics, obtained in Timișoara, Romania and a master’s in advanced international studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria and in European studies from the University of Vienna. He began his professional career working for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Once Romania joined the European Union in 2007, Nicolae started his European career working for the European Parliament in various public policy areas, including budget and agriculture policy, as well as in the area of Transatlantic relations for the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with the United States.
Joanna Talewicz – President of the Stronę Dialogu Foundation
Joanna Talewicz, Ph.D – Co- founder and president of the Foundation Towards Dialogue [Fundacja w Stronę Dialogu]. Researcher, educator, author, activist. For twenty years she has been working for the benefit of the Roma community and minority rights. Doctor of Cultural Anthropology. She worked as an assistant professor in Jagiellonian University and University of Warsaw. A graduate of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. Member of the Polish delegation in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The Batory Foundation Olga Kersten-Matwin Award winner, for constant integration, educational, psychological, legal and activation assistance for refugees of Roma origin. Talewicz was a fellow of Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Program- Columbia University, Leadership Academy for Poland, grantee of the Fulbright scholarship, Tom Lantos Institute, European Commission’s program: Marie Curie – Conferences and Training Courses on Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-National Approaches to Romani Studies- Central European University and International Leadership Visitor Program of the U.S. State Department Program. In her work she is focused on Romani communities in Europe. However, her main topic relates to the Roma Holocaust and Romani refugees.
Agata Meysner – President of Generation Climate Europe
Agata Meysner is an activist and an environmentalist driven by empowering young people to become climate changemakers in their communities. She is leading Generation Climate Europe, the largest coalition of youth-led networks on climate and environmental issues in Europe. She has served in several advisory roles to different organisations focusing on meaningful youth engagement, environment and system change, most recently in the OECD Youth Advisory Board.
Michael Keating – Executive Director, European Institute of Peace
Michael Keating is Executive Director at the European Institute of Peace, an independent body that works with a broad range of local and international actors to design and deliver action on conflict prevention, resolution and mediation. Until late 2018, he served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia. Prior to that, he was an Associate Director at Chatham House in London, where he initiated a range of initiatives on topics including Afghanistan, natural resources and conflict, access to energy for refugees and the displaced, and humanitarian engagement with non-state armed groups.
Małgorzata Tracz-Member of Sejm – Lower House Polish Parliament Partia Zieloni
Member of the 9th term of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland, Committee Member of the European Green Party, Co-chair of the Polish Green Party from May 2015 to January 2022.
Luiza Bialasiewicz- Professor of European governance, University of Amsterdam
Dr. Luiza Bialasiewicz is a professor at the University of Amsterdam and leads the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies. For the past 10 years, she has also taught an annual course on European Geopolitics at the College of Europe in Natolin, Poland. As a political geographer, her work examines EU foreign policy and geopolitics, including the geopolitics of border and migration governance. Her current research looks at how geopolitical agendas ‘touch down’ in domestic politics, focusing on far-right movements and parties.
Senada Šabić – Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development and International Relations
Senada Šelo Šabić is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Development and International Relations in Zagreb, Croatia. She holds Ph.D. in political and social sciences from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and has earned two Masters degrees – in international relations from the University of Zagreb and in peace studies from the University of Notre Dame, USA. Her research interests are European affairs, Balkans, migration and international security. Dr. Šelo Šabić is a fellow at the International Scholars Program in U.S. national security. She completed a study program at the University of Oxford on challenges of global human development; the World Bank training in international development cooperation; a training in strategic foresight at the German Council on Foreign Relations; and the Leadership Academy for Development led by Stanford University. Dr. Šelo Šabić has coordinated European research projects and has been a consultant for international development agencies. She is a representative of Croatia in the Standing Working Group on Gender in Research and Innovation at the European Research and Innovation Committee, a chair of the Development Cooperation Projects Approval Committee of the City of Zagreb and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Tomas Tomilinas- Union of Democrats “For Lithuania”
Educated in political science, Tomas Tomilinas is a green social activist, trade union organizer and member of Lithuanian Parliament from 2016. He is a co-founder and vice-chair of the new green-oriented political party of Democrats. Experienced in implementing socio-economic reforms, active on environment, human rights, migration and regional development. He is an author of the book, where he provides deconstruction of main obstacles for building real welfare state, rooted in Lithuanian political discourse and crucial in preventing social justice and progress. These myths include unprecedented public trust in free market, lack of humanistic adult education and special king of post-soviet neoliberalism.
Yevheniia Bryhinets – Executive Committee Member, Cooperation and Development Network
Yevheniia Bryhinets is an Executive Committee Member of Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe (CDN), originally hailing from Ukraine, and is an activist and volunteer dedicated to the causes of feminism, social justice, and regional security. She has undertaken numerous initiatives and youth-oriented events to advocate for women’s and LGBTQAI+ rights, address the climate crisis, and shed light on Russian war crimes. Furthermore, since early 2022 she has been part of the organisation providing humanitarian and medical aid to those in Ukraine in need.
Agnieszka Bryc – Assistant Professor, Nicolaus Copernicus University
Agnieszka is an assistant professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. She is a former member of the board of the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW). She specialises in Russian foreign policy and Israeli security.
Alice Stollmeyer – Executive Director, Defend Democracy
Alice Stollmeyer is the Founder & Executive Director of Defend Democracy, an independent, nonpartisan, transatlantic NGO defending democracy from foreign, domestic and technological threats. Alice has a background in social studies of science, technology and society. A former energy policy adviser and digital strategist, she now works on democracy, technology, geopolitics and hybrid threats. Alice has lived and worked in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, the heart of the European Union. Recently, the US government selected her for an International Visitor Leadership Program for her ‘excellence and leadership’. She is in Politico’s #Power40 top influencers who are most effectively setting the agenda in politics, public policy and advocacy in Brussels.
Joanna Kaminska – Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament
Joanna Kaminska works currently as an advisor in mediation and dialogue facilitation in the mediation team of the European Parliament. Her major area of work in Ukraine and the support for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Between 2019 and 2022 she was a Foreign and Security advisor to the President of the European Parliament David Maria Sassoli on foreign affairs, in particular on Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Russia, Nordic, Arctic and Baltic strategies, as well as on security and defense. Prior to advising the President, she was a Foreign Policy Advisor at the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament, where she advised the Members of the European Parliament on the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU, energy security and the European Neighbourhood Policy, in particular EU relations with the Eastern Neighbours.
Michał Polakowski – Baltic Dialogue Program Coordinator
Michał Polakowski holds a PhD in Public Policy and Policy Analysis from Maastricht University. He studied political science, political sociology and social policy. Before joining the Heinrich Boll, he worked at the Economic and social Research Institute in Dublin and Poznań University of Economics and Business. Michał has an experience of work in non-governmental sector in Poland and he is the co-founder of International Centre for Research and Analysis. His research interests include various aspects of socio-economic transformation. Since September 2023 he is part of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Warsaw team where he leads the Baltic Dialogue Programme focused on enhancing cooperation between the Baltic states.
Branka Vierda, Programme Director, Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Branka Vierda holds a master’s degree in law and works as a Program Director in the Youth Initiative for Human Rights – Croatia, a non-governmental organization and a recipient of several international human rights awards, among them also the Council of Europe’s Václav Havel Award. She started working at YIHR in 2017, first as a coordinator in the Justice Program then as a coordinator in the Justice and Reconciliation Program. She has worked and trained in human rights for more than ten years and has extensive and varied experience in the field ranging from activism to social and institutional advocacy and education. More narrowly, her areas of interest are research, advocacy and youth training in the field of transitional justice with a special emphasis on politics of memory. She organized and gave talks at numerous programs, panels, conferences and workshops on the topics of politics and culture of memory and dealing with the past, with a focus on reconciliation in the Western Balkans and the legacy of the 1990s wars. She also graduated from the Center for Women Studies educational programme in Zagreb and completed with distinction the Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention organized by the Auschwitz Institute for Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. In 2023 she was awarded the Post-Conflict Research Center’s Ordinary Hero Recognition for active and courageous work in promoting the values of justice, peace, and reconciliation.
Noam Pupko, Project Manager
After completing my Social Work degree in Israel, I went on to pursue a Master’s in Mediation and Reconciliation in Rome. I am an ex-student of Rondine’s World House program and I’ve been collaborating with Rondine since 2015 in managing and designing educational programs that focus on conflict management and peace education.
Palina Burko, Belarusian Environmental Activist
Palina Burko is a Belarusian environmental activist. She is a member of the Belarusian Young Greens and manager of the “Green Phone” project in the Belarusian NGO “Ecohome”. Researches environmental activism in contemporary art. Due to political prosecution in her homeland, Palina was forced to leave for Latvia, where she received asylum.
Rebecca Wangler, Project Manager at Virage Energie
Rebecca Wangler is project manager for territorial planning at Virage Energie, a French NGO established in 2006 to demonstrate how energy transition, climate mitigation and adaptation can be implemented at the local level without nuclear power. Rebecca supports local authorities in planning and implementing their energy transition, paying special attention to the impact of energy consumption and production on landscapes, narratives and social organisation. She holds a Master degree in public policy and sustainable development from Sciences Po Lille (France) and in political sciences from the University of Münster (Germany)
Júlia Boada-Danés, Member of Spanish Parliament (Sumar)
Júlia studied Political Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona. During this period she became a member of the board of the Catalan Young Greens (Joves d’Esquerra Verda) and of the Federation of Young European Greens. After some years working as Director of the Barcelona Youth Council, she moved to Brussels for a Master on European Studies. She has worked 5 years as political advisor at the European Green Party and since July 2023 she’s member of the Spanish Parliament for Sumar En Comú Podem for the constituency of Girona.
Julia Kelsz , Vicepresident of the Ważne Sprawy Foundation
Co-founder and vice-president of the “Ważne Sprawy” Foundation, Julia is a sociologist, lawyer and third sector enthusiast – both in theory and practice. She is a trainer, mentor, and researcher; experienced in working with groups, designing educational processes, and planning and analyzing the results of social diagnoses. In her spare time she is also a TikToker.
Tomasz Racławski, President of the Ważne Sprawy Foundation
Co-founder and president of the “Ważne Sprawy” Foundation, Tomasz has ten years of experience in NGOs, particularly in the area of involving young people in decision-making processes and improving the quality of public debate. At the foundation, he is responsible for communication and international activities. He is an economist and management expert.
Anna Dąbrowska, Director of Homo Faber
Human rights activist, social animator, president of the Homo Faber association Ana Dąbrowska has been working on the impact of migration on local communities since 2009. She currently conducts activities programming local integration policy. One of the founders of the ‘Border Group’ operating on the Polish-Belarusian border; since 24 February 2022, she has been co-ordinating the work of the Lublin Social Committee for Ukraine – an intersectional humanitarian aid platform. At present she is also working on a PhD on Ukrainian migration in Poland after 2014.
Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz, Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw
Dr. Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz is a cultural animator, political scientist and researcher, and a graduate of the Jagiellonian University. He works as an assistant professor at the Center for Migration Research at the University of Warsaw. He has nearly 15 years of experience in government administration, implementing state policy towards ethnic and national minorities, as well as coordinating the implementation of Roma integration policy in Poland. In the years 2008-2014, she served as the Plenipotentiary of the Małopolska Voivode for National and Ethnic Minorities. She is the author of evaluation reports for the European Commission under the Roma Civil Monitor (2017-2020) and Roma Civil Monitor II (2021-2025) projects. She is also the author of scientific and popular science articles on Roma topics. For 12 years he has been co-organizing the “Dikh He Na Bister” project commemorating the Holocaust of the Roma in cooperation with Ternype. She is a member of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) and a member of the board of the Jaw Dikh Foundation.
Adam Reichardt, Editor-in-Chief of New Eastern Europe (Moderator)
Adam Reichardt is the Editor-in-Chief of the New Eastern Europe magazine based in Poland. Published since 2011, the magazine is one of the leading publications dedicated to the region of Central and Eastern Europe. He is also the co-host of the “Talk Eastern Europe” podcast – the official podcast of New Eastern Europe. In addition, he is the Director of the Warsaw Euro-Atlantic Summer Academy (WEASA), organized annually at the College of Europe in Natolin (Warsaw) where he organizes trainings and workshops on disinformation and security. He has served on the editorial board of the Central European Journal of International and Strategic Studies (CEJISS) and was a member of the executive team of the Three Ukrainian Revolutions project run by the College of Europe. In addition to his activities at NEE, Adam also leads workshops on journalism, communications, and social media for students during international academies and seminars in Poland and abroad.
More speakers to be announced soon!