EDHEROES FORUM

Signed amended by Wendy Kopp.

Denis Nikolaev joined the World Bank as an Education Specialist in 2008. Since then he has worked on different World Bank projects, focusing mainly on higher education, in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Tajikistan. He started his career as a higher education specialist at the regional Ministry of Education in one of the Russian regions. He then worked as head of the corporate university at Concern Tractor Plants (CTP). His research interests are higher education and vocational education and training, in particular: quality assurance, internationalization, strategic planning and relevance to the labor market. Mr. Nikolaev holds an MA degree in Education Management from the University of Manchester (UK).

Ekaterina was born in Nizhny Tagil to a family of metallurgical engineers. She studied at the physics and technical school at MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) and was accepted to the Faculty of Radio-frequency Engineering of the Ural State Technical University. Later she decided to change her area of study and entered St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design. She earned a second degree in Costume Design in Moscow. After her first child was born she left the profession and focused on herfamily. She now has four children.


In 2015, she со-founded and then spearheaded the Rybakov Foundation alongside her husband, the entrepreneur Igor Rybakov. The private philanthropic organization helps families to gain access to high-quality education, while also creating programs and tools for schools that are ready to focus on the interests of families and establish active school communities with family participation.


In 2020, as President of the Rybakov Foundation, she received an international award at the Stevie Awards for Women in Business in the Leader of the Year of a Government or Non-Profit Organization category. She also received the national award Media Manager of the Year 2020 for founding the PRO Women community.

Burcu Gündüz Maşalacı has been working as the General Manager of the Mother Child Education Foundation (AÇEV) since 2019. She received her BS and MS degrees from the Middle East Technical University, Department of Political Science and Public Administration. She started her career in civil society, working on the social impact assessment and monitoring and evaluation of sustainable development projects. In 2008, she joined the Istanbul Private Sector Office of the United Nations Development Program. Between 2010 and 2015, she worked in the largest conglomerate in Turkey, Koç Holding, as the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager. She was responsible for the CSR and sustainability strategies of Koç Holding, as well as the design of the Group's social development projects. She joined AÇEV in 2015 as the Director of Research, Advocacy and Strategy Department.

Tom "Teacher Tom" Hobson is an early childhood educator, international speaker, education consultant, teacher of teachers, parent educator, and author. He is best known, however, for his namesake, Teacher Tom's Blog, where he has posted daily for over a decade, chronicling the life and times of his little preschool in the rain soaked Pacific Northwest corner of the US. For nearly two decades he was the sole employee of the Woodland Park Cooperative School, a parent-owned and operated school, knit together by Teacher Tom's democratic, progressive play-based pedagogy. He has authored two books, consults with organizations about his Family Schools program, and inspires early years audiences around the world at major ECE conferences, both virtually and in-person. He also shares his approach through online e-courses for early childhood educators and parents, and, in 2020, co-produced the epic The Play First Summit attracting more than 70,000 participants from over 100 countries. For more information, please visit Teacher Tom's World.

Boris Bulayev is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Co-Founder of Educate!, which provides youth in East Africa with the skills they need to succeed in today's economy. As an immigrant from Latvia and refugee himself, Boris believes in the power of giving young people access to formative educational opportunities, which have allowed him to get to where he is today.

Under his leadership, Educate! has grown to almost 200 staff and over 300 Mentors, reaching over 46,000 students intensively and 470,000 more broadly across over 1,000 schools in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya. The organization has received much acclaim for its work, including the 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and the 2015 WISE Award, and was highlighted by Bill Gates, the World Bank's S4YE's Impact Portfolio, the UNICEF-led Generation Unlimited as one of 20 innovative youth solutions, and The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies in their global scaling education learning initiative.

Before jumping into Educate! full-time, Boris worked at startup incubator Loeb Enterprises. Boris is a recipient of the 2011 Grinnell College Young Innovator for Social Justice Prize, and a two-time Forbes Top 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur.

Vlogger, presenter, singer, actor. Her audience includes a YouTube channel with 1.17 million subscribers, an Instagram profile with 2.5 million subscribers, and a TikTok profile with 13 million subscribers. She is a leading Russian blogger in terms of her TikTok following.

As one of the most successful young internet personalities in Russia, she makes frequent appearances on TV and radio programs. In 2020, Liza Anokhina took on the role of expert at a forum for the Russian Ministry of Education.

Tigran Shmis is a Senior Education Specialist of the World Bank, Moscow office. He holds a specialist degree (2001) as a school teacher of computer sciences and economics. After graduating from university, he completed his postgraduate studies in educational ICTs and holds a PhD (candidate of sciences) (2004) from the Russian Academy of Education. Later he completed the MEd program (2007) of the Moscow branch of the University of Manchester on Management in Education and Educational Policy.

Tigran works under educational projects in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Romania, Serbia and Peru. These projects include: the Yakutia Early Childhood Development (ECD) project, Russian Education Aid for Development (READ), Khanty-Mansyisk ECD infrastructure development technical assistance, Kyrgyz ECD project, Belarus Education Modernization Project and Serbia ECD project. He provided technical assistance to the Safer Schools development project in Peru. He cooperated with UNESCO and OECD: as part of this cooperation Tigran joined and organized several conferences, workshops and reviews arranged in Russia and Kazakhstan on the topics of ECD and learning environments.

His areas of research and professional interests are ECD, innovative learning environments, and international assessment work. Tigran leads work on innovative learning environments, ECD quality initiatives, and capacity building of Russia in international development aid in education.

Dr Tao ZHAN is the Director of UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) located in Moscow. He received his Ph.D from Shandong University in China in 1987, majoring in number theory and later became a Research Fellow of the Humboldt Foundation at the University of Freiburg in Germany, and Professor of Mathematics at Shandong University. Before joining UNESCO IITE in February 2017, he served as the President of Shandong University and Jilin University, Director-General of the Educational Management Information Center of the Ministry of Education in China. Dr Zhan was also a member of the Drafting Group for the Incheon Declaration 2015 and the UNESCO Framework for Action Education 2030. His vision for IITE involves working together with the Member States and the international education community to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG 4) by harnessing the unique power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In the current situation, IITE is working together with partners from different regions of the world to support teachers and students, parents and children in maintaining the learning process during COVID-19. For more information about IITE's actions please refer to: https://iite.unesco.org

Cecilia joined the Bernard van Leer Foundation in 2016 as Programme Director, and became Executive Director in 2020. She has over 20 years of experience managing social development policies and programmes. Before she joined the Foundation, Cecilia was the Coordinating Minister of Social Development of Ecuador from April 2013 to March 2016. She was responsible for policies in health, education, housing, sport and social welfare. Over the years, she also held policy-making roles in various other Ecuadorian ministries — including the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Social Inclusion and the Ministry of Education — where she championed policies to improve the conditions of children, women and indigenous populations.

Amongst the most relevant policies she launched, it is important to highlight the cross-sectoral early childhood policy, bringing unpaid household workers into the social security system; eradicating child labour on rubbish dumps; and new laws on food labelling to help people make informed choices about their nutrition.

Beyond government, Cecilia has worked for civil society organisations such as CESTAS and Fundación Esquel, international organisations such as the Organization of American States and UNDP, and in academia: she was a part-time professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito, and a Fellow on the Politics of Globalisation, Democratic Participation and Development Politics at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Since 2002 she has been a volunteer for Ayuda Directa, an Italian NGO that develops projects for rural communities in Chimborazo and Cotopaxi provinces.

Born in Leningrad in 1962. She graduated twice from Leningrad State University, firstly from the biology faculty, and then almost ten years later, from the psychology faculty with a degree in Developmental Psychology. She traveled all over the Soviet Union with scientific expeditions: was in the south, in the north (Barents and White seas), and in the far east (Sakhalin island and Kamchatka). She worked in a zoo and in the Shapito Circus (caring for animals), at the Department of Embryology of Leningrad State University, at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, and under the Doctors of the World program with children from socially disadvantaged families. She currently works as a family psychologist at a children's clinic, and teaches part-time at the St. Petersburg University of Culture.

She is a member of the St. Petersburg Union of Writers and has been awarded two Cherished Dream National Children's Literature Awards in Russia for the stories Correction Class (2005) and Guard of Anxiety (2007). In 2010, she was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

He is one of the country's leaders in the fields of education, pedagogical periodicals, and the digitalization of education. For many years, under his leadership, subject-based methodological publications in all areas of school life (24 monthly editions) and books on education were published, a large-scale collection of methodological developments for teachers was collected, large pedagogical conferences were held, electronic versions of textbooks on the federal list were created, and the ideology of the META textbook was developed.

Francisco Marmolejo is since February 2020 the Education Advisor of Qatar Foundation in Doha, providing support and advice at QF's unique educational disruptive innovation eco-system. During 2012-20, he worked at the World Bank, where he served as the Global Higher Education Coordinator, based in Washington, DC., and as Lead Higher Education Specialist for India and South Asia, based in New Delhi. From 1995 to 2012, he served as founding Executive Director of the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration at the University of Arizona, where he also worked as Assistant Vice President and Affiliated Researcher at the Center for the Study of Higher Education. Previously, he has been American Council on Education Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Academic Vice President of the University of the Americas in Mexico, and International Consultant at OECD in Paris. He has honorary doctorate degrees from his Alma Mater, the University of San Luis Potosi, and the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.

Matt was appointed as Chief of Education of the UNICEF's Office of Research-Innocenti in July 2019. He joined UNICEF in 2012 as Senior Education Advisor at UNICEF Headquarters where he was leading the Education Systems, Innovations, Data and Evidence for Results (SIDER) team, and responsible for leading on strategy development (including the UNICEF Global Education Strategy 2019-2030: Every Child learns); innovations; evidence and analytical tools for policy dialogue at the country level. Before joining UNICEF, Matt served at the World Bank as Senior Education Economist (2006-2012), at UNESCO/IIEP/Pole de Dakar as Education Policy Analyst (2001-2006) and at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics as Education Statistician (1998-2001). Matt is a graduate of the French National School of Statistics and Economics and also holds a "Diplôme d'Études Approfondies" in Sociology from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-Po).

Jill Barshay is a staff writer at The Hechinger Report, an independent education news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University. She writes the weekly Proof Points column about education research and data. Previously, Jill was the New York bureau chief for Marketplace, a national business show on public radio stations. She has also written for Congressional Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Financial Times and appeared on CNN and ABC News. A graduate of Brown University, Jill holds master's degrees from the London School of Economics and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She was a 2016-17 Spencer Fellow in Education Journalism. In 2019 she received the American Educational Research Association's award for excellence in media reporting on education research.

Entrepreneur and brand breaker. Former Rovio 'Mighty Eagle' of Angry Birds. Expert in mobile game development and brand management.

He is the founder of Slush, Mobile Monday and co-founder of Lightneer among others. He is a co-founder of Fun Academy – an early education company that provides pedagogical solutions based on the unique Fun learning approach.

Her work focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior. Dr. Oakley's research has been described as "revolutionary" in the Wall Street Journal—she has published in outlets as varied as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. She has won numerous national teaching awards, including the American Society of Engineering Education's Chester F. Carlson Award for technical innovation in engineering education. Together with Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute, she co-teaches Coursera – UC San Diego's Learning How to Learn, one of the world's most popular massive open online courses.

Her books include Uncommon Sense Teaching (Penguin Random House 2021), A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra), (Penguin, 2014); Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential (Penguin, 2017); and Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens (Penguin, 2018). Dr. Oakley has adventured widely through her lifetime. She rose from the ranks of Private to Captain in the U.S. Army, during which time she was recognized as a Distinguished Military Scholar. She also worked as a communications expert at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and has served as a Russian translator on board Soviet trawlers on the Bering Sea. Dr. Oakley is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Mercedes Mayol Lassalle has been the World President of OMEP (World Organization for Preschool Education) since January 1, 2020. National Normal Teacher, Graduate in Education Sciences, University of Buenos Aires. Former Director of the Early Childhood Education area of the City of Buenos Aires. Currently, she is a Professor in the Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of Buenos Aires and in the Regional Program for Training in Planning and Management of Educational Policies, IIPE-UNESCO Buenos Aires, Office for Latin America. She is an elected member of the Coordination Group of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on EDUCATION 2030 – CCNGO / ED 2030.

In the 1970s while on the faculty of Bank Street College, she researched and co-authored a book about exemplary child care, The New Extended Family: Day Care That Works, then used the lessons learned to help found the Family Center at Bank Street and then, in the decades that followed, to conduct a series of quantitative studies on the impact of interventions to improve the quality of child care and children's development.

In the 1980s, she studied how parents grow and change as adults and then wrote the now classic Six Stages of Parenthood. The findings from that initiative led to a series of studies on parent-professional relationships. These studies inspired her to work toward redefining parent engagement—away from a standard of professionals as experts and parents as the recipients of this professional expertise—toward building genuine partnerships where parents and professionals learn together.

Seeing how important work-life issues are, she helped to establish the field of work-life in the 1980s and co-founded Families and Work Institute (FWI) in 1989, becoming its president in 1996. Since the 1990s, Ms. Galinsky has directed or co-directed the most comprehensive ongoing studies of the U.S. workforce and workplace. In December 2016, these two programs became a part of SHRM.

In early 2000, Ellen Galinsky became concerned that far too many young people were dropping out of learning and she turned to investigating how to keep the fire for learning burning brightly in children's eyes. The resulting research journey led to her best-selling book, Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs. In March 2016, Mind in the Making (MITM) became a program of the Bezos Family Foundation. Its mission is to promote Life Skills that are based on and promote Executive Functions.

Steven Duggan is Vice President of Terawe Corporation, and was previously the Director of Worldwide Education Strategy at Microsoft. A former school teacher, Steven has worked in education for more than 30 years and has a passionate interest in teaching and learning and in the ways in which technology can transform student outcomes, with a particular interest in the needs of underserved learners and communities. The writer and presenter of the award-winning documentary feature The First Mile (RGI Films) his views on education have featured in press and radio and in a variety of publications. In addition to his role as a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, he serves on a variety of educational bodies and partnerships, including the Matuto: Literacy For Life partnership and the Collaborative Assessment Alliance.

Julia is a co-founder and CEO of Forbes Education, a Forbes Russia project. Before joining Forbes, she spent almost 15 years working in education. From 2015 to 2019, she was the director of a private language school and focused on language training both for children and adults, international exam preparation, and study abroad programs. From 2010 to 2015, she led the academic team at an international corporate training company.

Julia holds two master's degrees in education science (one obtained in Russia, the other — in the UK). Her areas of research and professional interest include educational systems worldwide, cognitive psychology, learner motivation.

Designer of educational technologies. Researcher into the capabilities of the human brain. Expert at motivation in learning and international communication.

She speaks seven languages and is a co-founder of bilingval.com, which offers courses with American ESL teachers to children aged 4-12. She is the founder of the first language cafe in Russia, Native Speakers Cafe, nscafe.ru (which has a comfortable atmosphere for learning and communication). She is also the founder of Antischool, which employs native speakers. She organizes festivals for families in the city: Language and the Brain, and Raising a Bilingual Child.

She is the creator of the BRAINIKA method of teaching foreign languages, founder of the Brainika.co online school, which teaches English with native speakers through the use of popular games like Minecraft, Roblox, and Among Us.

She is the co-author of the course: Learning to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying on Coursera (co-authored with the HSE, Barbara Oakley, and Vasily Klyucharev), Emotional Intelligence and The Art of Communication on Skillbox.

Since 2003, after graduating from pedagogical university, Nikolay Pankratov has worked in regional institutes for the development of education and led the strategic development program of Perm State Humanitarian Pedagogical University (PSHPU).

He is a project manager and business analyst, and founder of several projects in the field of child development: a chain of kindergartens Day Pyat (High Five) and the city summer camp KidzzzLab. His research interests include the conditions for the development of human potential. He was a student (MhD) of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and UM-Manchester (University of Manchester).

He is the co-founder and since 2020 has been CEO of RYBAKOV PLAYSCHOOL, an ecosystem of educational services for families and children.

Co-founder and chairman of the board of trustees of the Ayb Educational Foundation, member of the board of trustees of the Dilijan Central School (Armenia) and the Monte Melkonian Military Sports School, member of the TEDxYerevan advisory board.

From 2014 to 2020, was the executive director of the Ayb Innovation School in Yerevan, which is part of the PASH school network organized by the Goethe Institute.

Since 1993, has been involved in the development of the international technology company ABBYY, a leader in the development of intelligent content and business process management systems based on artificial intelligence, was responsible for the expansion of ABBYY corporate products in 98 countries. Co-investor and member of the advisory board of the first Armenian venture capital fund Granatus Ventures.

She is a media manager, journalist, and editor-in-chief of Mel (Chalk), an online publication about education and raising children. She was previously editor-in-chief of the Internet Department of the Interfax news agency and evangelist of the SCAN media analytics project.

She is a graduate of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, author of two books for parents: #mothering. Motherhood by The Rules and Notand #mothering. Hamster Wheel. She is a laureate of the Runet Prize, a government prize for the development of mass media.

Expert in preschool education, psychologist, head of the primary school at Moscow's "Novaya Shkola" (New School). Is engaged in a socio-game based approach to organizing a children's community, while bringing together a team of teachers to work with a socio-game style of teaching. Area of interest - educational psychology.

Educator-psychologist, honorary worker of general education. Worked as a primary school teacher and headed the educational center "Az" at the "Izmailovo" school No. 1811. Worked at the Research Institute of Preschool Education named after A. V. Zaporozhets under the leadership of Natalia Ivanovna Titova. Headed the psychological service in a private school in Moscow, then with the psychologist Fatima Bagaeva created a successful private psychological office, which grew into the "Bereg" psychological center.

In partnership with Sergei Reutsky, Roman Rauch, and Sergei Kondakov, developed the "School of Dialogue with Playground Equipment".

2013-2017 — director of the "Khoroshkola" progymnasium in Moscow.

Has worked with teenagers since 1991. Since 1992, has led an integrated group, which includes children with cerebral palsy, diabetes, asthma, and healthy children. Worked in UNICEF's Adolescent Health and Development Program (with children from at-risk groups). Developed and implemented the program "Civic Education for Youth" (within the framework of the programs "Conflict Resolution" and "Teamwork"). Conducted a program for children with cystic fibrosis. Conducted seminars and private consultations in communities with strict regimes and at special schools. Worked with children in a number of orphanages. Was the head, developer, and leading expert of the selection process for the "V. Potanin Scholarship Program" (emphasis on success and motivation).

Developed and led a program to provide psychological help to teenagers who survived the terrorist attack in Beslan. For 13 years was the co-director of a theater for teenagers. At the moment is leading their own theater group and is a co-author of the "Kavardak" children's art-residence. Conducted over 3000 different trainings and seminars with teenagers.

Vikas Pota is a globally respected leader and driving force for much good in the education, international development, philanthropy and technology sectors. His achievements include creating global awareness of the importance of education and specifically about the centrality of teachers and their profession.

His passion for dialogue, cooperation and creating collaborative projects that further the causes he supports mark him out from a field that is normally bound by national boundaries and often by ideology. As an example, what he has achieved through the Global Education & Skills Forum is truly unique and special, convening a vast range of people of all backgrounds and disciplines, shepherding the conversation to achieve a consensus on the inclusion of the teacher workforce in determining the strategies of education organisations. The way in which he approaches coalition building has resulted in successful partnerships, engaging organisations such as Education International – the international alliance of teacher unions – to the opposite spectrum of for-profit providers in education, bringing them onto a shared platform for dialogue, supporting and strengthening public education systems.

As a result of him driving conversations about teachers, several globally renowned organisations have added the teacher workforce to their considerations, whether they be bilateral and multilateral donor organisations, philanthropic institutions, bodies such as the United Nations or organisations further afield including private sector organisations focused on human capital development. His advocacy has resulted in more investment in capacity building programmes.

UNESCO regional HIV and health education advisor for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Chief of the Unit of ICT in Health Education, UNESCO IITE.

He has over 25 years of technical and managerial experience in the field of HIV, education, health, social support, youth and community development. He is an author and co-author of papers and guidelines on health education, violence prevention, and care and support for children and adolescents living with HIV.

Harry Anthony Patrinos is the Practice Manager for the Europe and Central Asia region of the World Bank's education global practice. He specializes in all areas of education, especially school-based management, demand-side financing and public-private partnerships. He managed education lending operations and analytical work programs in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, as well as a regional research project on the socioeconomic status of Latin America's Indigenous Peoples, published as Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Human Development in Latin America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). He is one of the main authors of the report, Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy (World Bank, 2003). Mr. Patrinos has many publications in academic and policy literature, with more than 40 journal articles. He is co-author of the books: Policy Analysis of Child Labor: A Comparative Study (St. Martin's, 1999), Decentralization of Education: Demand-Side Financing (World Bank, 1997), and Indigenous People and Poverty in Latin America: An Empirical Analysis with George Psacharopoulos (World Bank/Ashgate, 1994). He has also worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. He previously worked as an economist at the Economic Council of Canada. Mr. Patrinos received a doctorate from the University of Sussex.

For the past 20 years she has worked at the music school of the Municipal Conservatoire of Neapolis – Sykies in Greece and as well as Head of Music – Kinetic Approach in a Private Institute of Vocational Training.

She has created a pioneering teaching method called : Let's Play boomwhackers "Learn English through Music and Play"

She created in 2012, the first "Boomwhackers Orchestra" in Greece. Her pioneering venture has been the introduction of her boomwhackers method in the kindergartens and at the Early Childhood Education not only in Greece but in other countries too.

Since 2012 she has been the Instructor of Seminars addressing educators of all stages, of Preschool and School education, Kindergarten and Nursery school teachers, teachers of Physical Education and English teachers focusing on using her method in education.
Since 2017 she has been an external collaborator training educators of the "Harmonia Academy" in Turkey.

Both of her books are based on a new groundbreaking teaching approach of Pedagogy in Education.

Her Boomwhackers method is used with great success at Primary schools in Bulgaria, Holland, Finland, Ukraine. It is used at Private schools, Kindergarten and Nursery schools, English schools, Special Education schools and Professional training institutes all over Greece, Cyprus, India, Turkey and Australia.

A specialist and public figure in the field of early childhood education, including on the subject of the quality and organization of processes in an early childhood educational organization. Director of the Moscow network of private kindergartens "Mir Detstva" (World of Childhood). Lead auditor (international certificate of the IQNet Academy).

In 2019, under her leadership, the project "Center for the Management of Quality in Preschool Education" was launched.

On June 8, 2016, she was elected President of the Russian Committee of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) under UNESCO's auspices, uniting professionals in the field of early childhood education. OMEP is the largest international organization dedicated to early childhood education. It is represented in more than 70 countries around the world.

Gabriel was born in Málaga, Spain. Upon graduating from Malaga University, he started his career in 1996 as an assistant lecturer at the Modern Languages Department at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle (UK) before returning to his alma mater as an assistant lecturer at the English Department. In 2002 he moved to Singapore to work at UWC South East Asia, where he was a Spanish and Theory of Knowledge teacher, Deputy Houseparent, Head of Theory of Knowledge and Boarding Community Senior Houseparent. In 2011 he moved to UWCSEA's East Campus as the founding Director of Boarding. After 16 years at UWC South East Asia, Gabriel has moved to Armenia to join UWC Dilijan as its Head of College.

A confessed geek, he is passionate about the capacity for technology to improve different aspects of our lives. In 2008 he became the first Apple Distinguished Educator at UWC South East Asia.

He has been an IBO assistant examiner, workshop leader as well as a reader and visit member. He volunteers with the Council for International Schools as a team leader and application reader.

Gabriel is currently the Chair of the UWC Heads Committee and a member of the UWC International Board.

Francis Jim Tuscano is the GS EdTech Coordinator of Xavier School-San Juan in the Philippines. He is the founder of empowerED, an education advocacy and platform. In 2017, he was a Global Teacher Prize Finalist.

He is an Apple Professional Learning Specialist, Apple Distinguished Educator, digital learning consultant, and sits as a member of the National Basic Education Commission of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines and the Academic Advisory Board of the School of the Multidisciplinary Studies of De La Salle College of St Benilde. He hosts empowerED Podcast via Spotify and Apple Podcast.

In 2004, he graduated from the Department of Ancient Culture at the Institute of Philology and History at Russian State University for the Humanities. In 2007 he defended his PhD thesis on the topic.

From 2004 to 2007 he worked as an editor for the culture section of Polit.ru, hosted a show on Radio Kultura, was an editor for Esquire magazine, and an editor of the Svobodniy Chelovek (Free Man) book series for Novoye Publishing House, and the Soprotivleniye (Resistance) book series.

From 2007 to 2010 he was editor-in-chief of Bolshoi Gorod (Big City) magazine. He hosted the weekly magazine show Dzyadko3 on the Dozhd (Rain) TV channel. In September 2012 he became Director of Special Projects for The New Times magazine. Together with Peter Mansilla-Cruz, he participated in the development of the Bulgakov Museum.

In 2015, he founded the Arzamas Academy educational project with Anastasia Chukhrai, and is now the editor-in-chief of the project. In 2021, he published a book on poetry, Glazami Yashcheritsy (Through the Eyes of a Lizard).

Veronika Zonabend is the founding partner and the Chair of the Board of Governors of UWC Dilijan College in Armenia, the first academic institution in Eastern Europe and the CIS to join the United World Colleges network. She sits on the Boards of Trustees at UWC International (UK) and the American University of Armenia and chairs the Board of Directors of the Teach For Armenia Educational Foundation.

Veronika is actively involved in philanthropy, focusing primarily on the promotion of global education. Together with her husband, Ruben Vardanyan, she is the founder of the RVVZ Family Foundation and the IDeA Charitable Foundation, which implement philanthropic sustainable development projects in Russia and Armenia. They also co-founded the Noôdome Membership Club & Space, a platform for establishing a dialogue between people from different fields – business, culture, education, science and technology.

In the 2000s, she was an entrepreneur and undertook projects within such diverse sectors as Hospitality, Film Distribution and Production. Notable amongst these was the co-production of Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, a film that closed the Cannes Festival in 2009.

Prior to that, she worked for several years in the banking sector, becoming the Deputy Head of the Foreign Exchange Department of Tveruniversal Bank in 1993. After training as an aeronautical engineer at the Moscow Aviation Institute, she began her career at the Research Institute of Avionics in Russia.

Veronika graduated with honors from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1990, she studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science specialising in Banking and Finance in 1994-1995.

In 2014, the President of the Republic of Armenia awarded Veronika Zonabend the Order of Friendship in recognition of her many contributions to fostering educational development and international collaboration in science and education, as well as for her substantial efforts in building the international school in Dilijan and implementing academic programs.

Andria Zafirakou, a teacher at Alperton Community School in Brent, won $1 million when she was named best teacher in the world. Using the prize money awarded by the Global Teacher prize, Andria founded a charity called Artists in Residence (AiR) with an aim to improve arts education in schools.

Andria was born in north-west London to Greek-Cypriot parents and state-educated in Brent and Camden.

She is an art and textiles teacher in Brent on the outskirts of London, one of the world's most ethnically diverse places in the UK. She is passionate about education and using creativity to change the lives of young people and underserved communities.

She has worked her entire teaching career of 14 years at Alperton Community School and was promoted to Deputy Head of Art within a year of her arrival. She is now Associate Deputy Headteacher and leads staff professional development. Andria has also been named in the top ten of The Evening Standard's 1000 Londoners List, a list of the most influential people in London. She is a Culture Leader for the World Economic Forum as well as a member of their Global Future Leaders Council.

Andria sits on the Advisory board for the Cultural Leaders Alliance.

She is embedding excellence in her eighteenth year of Headship at Barham, a titan (930 pupils, 140 staff) multi-lingual / cultural / faith primary school in Wembley, U.K. She has been teaching and leading learning in urban primary schools for over three decades. Karen received the London Region National Teacher Award for (DCSF) Enterprise and Innovation in 2009.

Karen is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. She is currently Chair of the Inspire Partnership Academy Trust Board comprised of nine Primary Schools.

Karen is an Advisor to the Varkey Foundation (VF) Board UK and Trustee for VF Argentina, creators of the Global Teacher Prize, the Global Education and Skills Forum and education programmes. She also serves the Education and Employers Trustee Board.

She has experience of working for GEMS as a consultant looking into the feasibility of an affordable UK independent schools model. Karen also worked as a Local Government School Effectiveness Lead Professional.

Her work with Challenge Partners was initially as a Leadership Coach then Broker for the Mayor's Greater London Assembly Getting Ahead London programme for Aspiring Leaders. Karen has been a Leadership Coach with The Future Leaders Trust/Ambition School Leadership and a Director of the London Leadership Strategy. Karen has also facilitated numerous National College leadership development programmes (New Vision, Head for the Future, Tomorrow's Heads, National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)).

She currently facilitates professional development, (most recently in Argentina and Brazil), training for Diverse Leaders as well as the inaugural Women's NPQH. Karen was Consultant / Executive Headteacher for a school causing concern and an OFSTED Team Inspector. She has experience of study visits to schools locally, nationally and internationally (USA, China, Ukraine, Norway, Brazil, Ghana and UAE).

Dorothy Amunot is a 28 year-old accomplished procurement and logistics professional currently working as the Stores and Logistics Officer at Educate! in Uganda, where she supports the organization with stock that can assist in the smooth running of daily activities and the logistics of collecting and distributing field materials. Dorothy also supports the Design Team with content design. She graduated with a diploma in Procurement and Logistics Management from the YMCA Comprehensive Institute in Kampala in 2015. Her visionary perspective has earned her the opportunity to work with several companies and organizations, which include Eskom Uganda where she served as the Inventory Assistant, Brand Ambassador with Sajeki Agencies Kampala, and Office Administrator with WK Impact Soroti. Her current goal is return to school for an additional degree and to continue to gain experience professionally while also being playing her role as a parent. Dorothy's biggest achievement is juggling her career, working remotely from home, and at the same time parenting and supporting the online schooling of her daughter and siblings.

In collaboration with Dr. Deborah Leong, she developed the Tools of the Mind Early Childhood curriculum and teacher professional development program based on Vygotskian and post-Vygotskian theories of learning and Luria's theories of brain development.

Over 25 years since its inception, Tools of the Mind has been implemented in numerous public and private preschools and kindergartens in the USA, Canada, and Chile and helped thousands of children develop both cognitive and social-emotional mental "tools". In 2001, the program was named an "exemplary educational intervention" by UNESCO's International Bureau of Education.

Dr. Bodrova's work on applying Lev Vygotsky's theory to education started in Russia where she worked in the Institute for Preschool Education and continued in the US where she worked as a visiting professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver and later as a Principal Researcher at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. Dr. Bodrova has authored multiple articles and book chapters on early literacy, assessment, play, and self-regulation.

Dr. Bodrova holds a Ph.D. in Child Development and Educational Psychology from the Russian Academy of Pedagogical Sciences and an M.A. in Child Development and Educational psychology from Moscow State University, Russia.

Dr. Bodrova's collaboration with her Russian colleagues resumed in 2016 when she became involved in the development of an innovative Early Childhood curriculum called PRODETEY (ПРОДЕТЕЙ) sponsored by the Rybakov Foundation. Co-authored by Drs. Bodrova and Yudina, PRODETEY is now included in the list of sample preschool programs on the site of the Federal Institute for the Development of Education. Currently, PRODETEY is implemented in more than 30 regions of the Russian Federation and continues to extend its reach across the country.

Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative and of the International Education Policy Masters Program at Harvard University. An expert in the field of Global Education, his research and teaching focus on understanding how to educate children and youth so they can thrive in the 21st century. He is a member of UNESCO's high level commission on the Futures of Education.

He has written or edited thirty-seven books, of which the most recent include: Leading Education Through COVID-19, Education and Climate Change: The Role of Universities, Implementing Deeper Learning and 21st Century Reforms: Building an Education Renaissance After a Global Pandemic, Educating Students to Improve the World, Audacious Education Purposes: How Governments Transform the Goals of Education Systems, Empowering Teachers to Build a Better World: How Six Nations Support Teachers for 21st Century Education.
At the moment, he is leading a large comparative study of how 25 universities around the world have partnered with elementary and secondary schools to sustain educational opportunity during the pandemic.

With his graduate students, he has developed three curriculum resources aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are translated into multiple languages and widely used by schools and school systems around the world: Empowering Global Citizens, Empowering Students to Improve the World in Sixty Lessons and Learning to Collaborate for the Global Common Good.

Creator of the projects Skazbuka, Mensologiya: prosto o mozgye (Mensology: just about the brain), and Oshibka Vyzhivshego (A Survivor's Mistake). He is a TEDx speaker, specializing in thinking. Aged 17, Kesha Skirnevsky opened a studio that created trailers for movies and games. To understand how you could catch someone's attention with a short trailer, Skirnevsky made a special associative programming map, with which he analyzed every frame of the trailer to see how it effected the viewer's behavior. Since then, Skirnevsky has been interested in the study of the human brain.

With no field-specific education, he read hundreds of books on the subject, and in 2015 he established the project Mensology, which explains the structure of thought processes in simple layman's terms. Since then, Skirnevsky has written a wealth of fascinating texts in the media about thinking and associative programming, given a short but in-depth TED talk on everyday models of thinking, and developed Skazbuk, an educational app for kids from 2 to 6 years old.

Tutta was the best-known VJ on MTV Russia, from 1998 to 2008, during the TV channel's heyday. Since 2007 she has worked for Radio Mayak. Prior to this, she hosted the show C Pertsem po Zhizni (Pepper in Life) on Radio MAXIMUM.

She hosted the daily talk-show Devchata (Girls) on Russia-1, a show called Ot Nolya do Pyati (From Zero to Five) on the Mat i Ditya (Mother and Child) channel, and also the shows Bolshaya Ryba (Big Fish) on Radio Vesna FM, V Dolye (In the Mix) on Finam FM, Epizody (Episodes) on Amedia, Semyeinye Istorii (Family Stories) and Svetlyy Vecher (Bright Evening) on Radio Vera, and Vzroslye Lyudi (Adults) on KP Radio. On top of all of this, Tutta Larsen hosted Arena Moscow Night live broadcasts on the kultura.rf portal.

In May 2015, while expecting her third child, she launched the independent TV channel, TUTTA.TV, a project dedicated to issues that affect all women such as pregnancy, childbirth, parenting and family relationships.

Tutta currently hosts the YouTube show Vera v Bolshom Gorodye (Vera in the Big City), the TV channel Spas, and also, together with her daughter Martha, she hosts the culinary show Yeda na Ura! (Food with a Bang!) on the Carousel channel. She works with the streaming service Storytel to record audiobooks.

She has 9 children, of which 7 are adopted. Ambassador of kindness of St. Petersburg 2020. TEDx speaker.

Business coach, successful blogger, head of her own business.

He graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University, having majored in Personnel Management. He has a PhD in Social Sciences.

He has 15 years of experience of working in the scientific, educational, and HR sectors. He joined the Kaspersky Lab in 2017 and now runs a department that develops educational programs for employees of all levels on information security for commercial companies, and governmental and intergovernmental organizations worldwide.

The Kaspersky Academy also orchestrates the company's key student initiatives, including the Safeboard internship program and educational programs for leading universities in Russia and around the world. The department is also active in developing courses to advance the efficiency of employees who are directly involved in the sale of Kaspersky Lab products and solutions (Sales Academy).

Igor Rybakov is an entrepreneur, industrialist, and public figure, venture capitalist and philanthropist, and has featured in Forbes magazine's list of Russia's richest people.


He is the creator and host of The Mind of a Billionaire, a YouTube channel, Instagram channel, and Telegram channel. He is a co-founder and co-owner of the TECHNONIKOL corporation, which owns 54 factories in seven countries worldwide. He is a co-founder of PRYTEK (whose portfolio exceeds $1 billion), the Equium Business Club, the X10 Academy for Masters of Life, and the founder and owner of SOK Smart Offices. He was the EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018.


Igor Rybakov presents The Mind of a Billionaire Telegram and Instagram channels; he is a public speaker, and author of the books NUDGE and THIRST. Together with Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov (the father of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who has trained 27 world champions) he wrote the book Father. He writes and performs songs, and is developing a music project, rybakovmusic.com.

After starting out as a teacher in a London comprehensive, Alex did his MA at the IOE before joining Teach For All, a growing network of independent organizations working in sixty countries worldwide to ensure that all children fulfil their potential, where he now heads the Global Learning Lab.

He is fortunate to spend much of his time travelling the world in search of the practices that will shape the future of learning and has written about his experiences for the Guardian, Financial Times and Wired. He recently presented The Learning Revolution, a three part series on the future of education for BBC Radio 4, and is the author of Natural Born Learners (2018), a user's guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century.

Ferro Ferizka, aged 31, is one of the youngest University chancellor / rector in the history of Indonesia's higher education. He is currently leading a newly established Mahakarya Asia University.

Mahakarya Asia's mission is providing affordable access to higher education.
It has around 1.900 students. Mostly from poor background. Allowing them to gain access to higher education, taught by the best lecturers at low cost. Its faculties mostly filled with CEOs, professionals, entrepreneurs and investors. Only few are academics.

Under his leadership, in only 6 months, Mahakarya Asia is able to build cooperation with reputable organizations from UK, Canada, Singapore and China

Ferro worked at Microsoft for 10 years. He started his career from the Indonesian subsidiary, then promoted to Asia Pacific in only 1.5 years and eventually led one of worldwide team since 2017. Ferro has experienced variety of roles at Microsoft. Ranging from marketing, sales, customer success, consulting, until engineering division.

Ferro also established IDNEXTLEADER. A non profit organization focuses on indentifying, mapping, nurturing and connecting Indonesia's young future leaders. In only 10 months, IDNEXTLEADER successfully gather 15,000 young potential leaders. Making it become the fastest growing organization in Indonesia.

In his spare time, Ferro wrotes speeches for Indonesian leaders, like ministers, CEOs and even the military generals. Ferro is married and has 2 kids. Aged 5 and 3. Ferro lives in Jakarta, Indonesia.

She was born in Medan — Indonesia. She has a disability since she was 10 years old. And she is dependent on hearing aids and maximising her lips-reading skill since then.

But despites of all, she has so many achievements. Starting her debut as one of the finalists of Abang — None Jakarta (one of the famous pageant show in Indonesia) back in 2008, and chosen as The Most Fearless Female Cosmopolitan in the same year.

After finished high school from SMA 2 Bogor, she continued her education until got a master's degree of communication in London School of Public Relations, Jakarta — Indonesia. Her consistency on disabilities issue brought her to become a sociopreneur. And in 2011 she committed herself in this issue by building Thisable Enterprise in terms of empowering people with disabilities.

As a mother of 2 daughters, Angkie teach her children and the society to keep the spirit of inclusivism. That people with disability is not an exclusive community, can make a contribution towards Indonesia's development.

She published 3 books: Perempuan Tuna Rungu Menembus Batas, Setinggi Langit, dan Become Rich as a Sociopreneur.

In 2019, His Excellency Mr. Joko Widodo as The President of Republic of Indonesia pointed her as one of his special staff on 2 groups, the first one is innovation group with other millennials staff, and the second one is public communication in social affairs. In the first year of her occupancy, Angkie was managed on succeeding several governmental policies on disability issue. About 9 new regulations already signed by The President Joko Widodo.

Founder of the Parent-Teacher program for pedagogical retraining for parents, head of the Our Penates and Olymp-Plus schools, head of educational programs at the Odintsovo branch of Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

In 2009, Natalya Pichugova created her own network of children's centers, Tochka Rosta, which has been successfully operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Cyprus. Since then, she has been involved in the field of pre-school education and child-parent relationships, received a professional teacher qualification, and is now finishing her master's degree at Moscow State Pedagogical University.

Natalya was always fascinated by LEGO toys and considered them to be a universal tool for teaching children. When in 2014 she was offered to head the development of the LEGO Education Afterschool Programs network of centers, she gladly accepted the offer. During this time, more than 40 LEAS training centers have been opened throughout Russia and Kazakhstan.

In 2019 Natalya came to know about STEAM approach in education and became its advocate in Russia.

Ruben Vardanyan is an evolutionary visionary who, for over 30 years, has brought together people with different backgrounds, experiences and capabilities to implement partnership projects that transform the socio-economic environment. He explores cyclical historical processes and the prevailing trends, and, based on this analysis, builds a picture of the world for the coming decades to find the most effective courses of action that can be taken today.

Ruben and his family, together with a diverse group of partners around the world, have made more than $1.5 billion in commercial and philanthropic investments in key areas for human development – global education, healthcare, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), humanitarian issues, succession and philanthropy.

Ruben's track record includes many projects that have brought together a wide range of participants and have had a tangible social and economic impact at the local and global levels. Of these, the best known are the investment company Troika Dialog, SKOLKOVO Business School, Phoenix Advisors and PhilinPhilgood in Russia, United World College Dilijan, the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), the Wings of Tatev cable car in Armenia and the global Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ruben was part of a group that initiated a public discussion on the future of Russia and Armenia within the framework of "Club 2015" in Moscow and the "Armenia 2020" project. He is the recipient of numerous Russian and international awards, including the AIB Presidential Award for his contribution to education and the Common Ground Awards to honor his outstanding accomplishments in conflict resolution, community development and peacebuilding.

In 2001, Fortune magazine listed Ruben as one of the "25 Rising Stars of the New Generation" and the World Economic Forum named him one of the 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow.

2009-2018: Co-founder of "Zigzag" tutoring center in Kharkiv, tutor, maths teacher. Prepares gifted children for national school contests and competitions.

2013: Starts the career in InternetUrok as a screenwriter for video lessons and an algebra, physics and computer science teacher.

2014: Becomes the head of InternetUrok Unified State Exam ("ЕГЭ") project aimed for USE preparation for schoolchildren.

2015: Becomes the head of InternetUrok methodology department.

2020: Becomes InternetUrok Chief methodology and production officer.

Wendy Kopp is CEO and Co-founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations that are cultivating their nations' promising future leaders to ensure their most marginalized children have the chance to fulfill their true potential.

Wendy founded Teach For America in 1989 to marshal the energy of her generation against educational inequity in the United States. Today, more than 6,000 Teach For America corps members—outstanding recent college graduates and professionals of all academic disciplines—are in the midst of two-year teaching commitments in over 50 urban and rural regions, and Teach For America has proven to be an unparalleled source of long-term leadership for expanding opportunity for children. After leading Teach For America's growth and development for 24 years, in 2013, Wendy transitioned out of the role of CEO.

Wendy led the development of Teach For All to be responsive to the initiative of inspiring social entrepreneurs around the world who were determined to adapt this approach in their own countries. Currently, the Teach For All network is comprised of partner organizations in 59 countries on six continents, including its founding partners Teach For America and the U.K.'s Teach First.

Wendy has been recognized as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People and is the recipient of numerous
honorary degrees and awards for public service. She is the author of A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All (2011) and One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way (2000). Resides in New York City with her husband and their four children.

Juha Ollila is a professional in Finnish and international education and pedagogy. He is Experienced Education Specialist and Project Leader with a track record of working in the education management industry. Currently Juha is working to support the educational and business cooperation of Finnish Education and Science Institutions and startups with global partners. Juha has also returned to teach in a primary school in Helsinki in order to maintain strong substance knowledge of the teacher's position. He has been teaching in a Helsinki city school Meilahti primary school now two years in a Chinese-Finnish classroom. Juha has an ability to see the bigger picture of things - even in complex situations. He considers himself as forward thinking, strategic and creative with a strong problem-solving mindset. Juha's aim is to explore how to develop and modernize education and learning to exceed the 22nd century challenges. On a day-to-day basis, Juha strives to create the best opportunities for pupils to learn and teachers to excel. For almost 20 years, he has been involved in developing education and learning, in particular educational ICT and teaching technology. Most recently, Juha has been developing and creating an ecosystem of co-creation where working together with teachers and students and EdTech innovators every stakeholder could benefit and flourish in order to create new pedagogies and modern learning. Also, Juha is respected and valued speaker and inspirer of teaching and education. He thrives when he can help others to succeed and develop and innovate!

Zac is a graduating high school student from the Philippines who holds the distinction of being the first Filipino ever to attend UWC Dilijan. He was admitted to the college as one of one hundred students selected worldwide for the Davis-UWC Dare to Dream Scholarship. In his first year in UWC Dilijan, he was elected as the head of the college's Student Council. Prior to attending UWC Dilijan, Zac completed his primary years of education at the Maria Montessori Foundation in the Philippines. He then went on to finish his first two years of secondary school immediately preceding his tenure at UWC Dilijan at the Beacon Academy in Manila, an international school established with the vision of increasing access to international education for Filipino students. Zac was also awarded a summer programme scholarship to Yale University in the USA where he studied Politics, Law, and Economics under the auspices of the Yale Young Global Scholars programme.

Nicky is editor-in-chief of First News, the UK's only newspaper for children with 2.6 million readers which she launched in 2006. Nearly half of UK schools subscribe to First News. In April 2021 a digital international edition of First News is launching. Nicky is also CEO of Fresh Start Media, the UK's leading children's factual video production company. Their flagship production is FYI, Sky News' programme for young people. Nicky was BBC Worldwide's children's editorial director for 14 years. In 2009, she was honoured by the Queen with an MBE award for services to children and was given a Patron's award from the NSPCC for dedication to children. She is passionate about giving kids a voice and a fair deal. In 2014 Nicky was a Woman of Achievement in the Women of the Year Awards. She is a Special Adviser to Unicef, Patron of the British Youth Citizen Awards and the Global Teacher Prize. She says children are 27% of the world's people but 100% of the future. Her passion is to give children a voice, to include them in the global conversation and to help them become active and engaged world citizens. She says that the world will only become a better place if the next generation is better informed than the last. In her capacity as an expert on children and the news, Nicky appears regularly on television and radio and is often commissioned to write pieces for the national broadsheet newspapers.

Mine is a developmental and clinical psychologist from Ankara, Turkey. She received her M.S. degree in Clinical Psychology from Middle East Technical University and completed her PhD study in Developmental Psychology at Ege University.

From 1999 through 2005, she was employed as a psychologist at several private and governmental institutions. In the years 2005-2020, she worked as a full-time faculty member at Atılım University Department of Psychology, where she acted as the Vice Chair and Chair for several years. Since July 2020, she is an independent researcher and trainer. Her research interests include suggestibility of children's memories, children's rights, child abuse and neglect, developmental psychopathology, children and trauma, and refugee children.

She has been working in Child and Adolescent Unit of Turkish Psychological Association (TPA) and served as an Executive Board member (2018-2021). On behalf of TPA, she was one of the founding members of the Partnership Network for Preventing Violence against the Child in Turkey and for different periods since 2012, she served as the TPA representative at the Executive Committee of the Partnership Network. She is also a member of Turkish Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (TSPCAN).

Since 2018, she has been working to initiate and develop projects to increase national and international collaboration among TPA, TSPCAN and Child and Family Training in UK (CFT, a non-profit organization working for the welfare of children and families). These projects focus on the development and adaptation of assessment tools, intervention methods to help abused and/or neglected children and their families. She is an associate trainer and consultant of CFT.

Mihaela Bucșa became a physics teachers in the fall of 2018, with the support of Teach for Romania. Now she is part of our alumni community. Before entering Teach for Romania,she was a trainer and a consultant, working with entrepreneurs and corporates on organizational development and various organizations on project writing and accessing funding. Seven years ago, she founded a parents' association that offers over 3,000 hours of non-formal education every year for over 200 children in Brasov.

When she bacame a Teacher in a vulnerable community, Mihaela's top priority was to show kids what school is good for. She worked with 8th graders showing them and their parents the benefits of attending highschool or professional schools. She spent hundreds of hours in the little village where most of her most vulernable pupils were comming from to convince them to give school a chance, and to help them write applications and prepare for interviews. Most pupils in the village would abandon school by the 8th grade or immediately after. Actually, the children themselves could not remember who was the last neighbour who attended highschool. In 2020 Mihaela received the first prize of the Romanian Civil Society Gala for Social Inclusion.

If before the pandemic, Mihaela organized various trips for her students, during the pandemic the trips continued but... in space. Mihaela's students met online with researchers from all over the world, Romanians who are now studying in Oxford or Cambridge, who work in the European Space Agency or in Sillicon Valley. They got the chance to chat about life beyond Planet Earth, black holes, spaceships, climate change and nanorobots. In 2020, Mihaela was the only teacher in her school who had nodrop-outs from her class. On the contrary, her class had a negative dropout rate (she started school with 15 students and finished with 16, with a child who decided to join her class and finish his 8th grade after 2 years of effective drop-out, working seasonal jobs in Germany).

Mihaela teaches now in Sânpetru, a village in the Brașov County, where, together with the school principal, she created an integrated science laboratory with interactive video projectors, VR glasses, augmented reality, a 3d printer and a garden farmed by robots programmed by the students. Mihaela dreams that one day the Sânpetru school will become energetically self-sustainable, and that her pupils will drive this change.

Maria is a teacher, trainer, guidance counselor, producer, and EdTech product manager. She studied education and foreign language teaching at Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after K.D. Ushinsky to further continue her studies at Oxford University and at Stanford University.

She has been engaged in e-learning since 2012 and for the last three years she has been a producer and manager of EdTec products for children with Skyeng, where she leads the development of interactive learning materials for teaching English to children and teenagers.

Šćekić has gained professional recognition as an expert in teaching children under 9 years of age and is a winner of the Headway Scholarship Competition 2017. Her professional interests include neurolinguistics, children's psychology and modern methods in early childhood development. She has a hands-on experience of applying the communicative language teaching approach and has mastered three languages to speak them with native proficiency.

Candice Odgers is a Professor of Psychological Science and Informatics at the University of California Irvine and Co-Director of the Child & Brain Development Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Her research focuses on how early experiences and social inequalities influence children's development, with an emphasis on how digital technologies can be leveraged to improve the lives of young people.

Odgers was a William T. Grant Scholar and her work has been recognized with awards from the American Psychological Association, Society for Research in Child Development, Royal Society of Canada, and Association for Psychological Science. In 2015 she was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest Early Career Award and, in 2016, the Jacobs Foundation Advanced Research Fellowship. She is the author of over 100 scientific publications and her research has been disseminated widely via outlets such as the Economist, New York Times, Scientific American, and the Washington Post. More information about her research can be found here: https://adaptlab.org/

Michael has extensive experience in the creation and implementing of education systems and programs, including additional education and preparation for standardized testing in various countries of the world. In 2004-2007 he worked as a Vice President at Kaplan Inc. — the world leader in education and professional development. In 2009-2012 is a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), he advised public and private education organizations around the world. In 2013 Michael founded the company MAXIMUM Education. He actively supports education processes in Russia, constantly participating as a speaker in industry-specific conferences and exhibitions (Moscow International Education Fair, EdCrunch, Innovations Forum, etc). In 2009, he received an MBA (in Finance) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Vladimir has been working in digital media for over 10 years. Since September 2020, he has been the Director of the Department of Educational Initiatives at VKontakte social network. He moved to VK from Foxford Online School, where he held the positions of Product Director and Chief Executive Officer for 2.5 years. Prior to Foxford Online School, he served as Director of Marketing and Monetization for Lingualeo, an English learning platform. Vladimir graduated from the Physics Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University and received his master's degree from the Department of Management of the Higher School of Economics.

Strana Chudes ("Wonderland") kindergarten in Zelenogorsk of Krasnoyarsk Territory is part of the innovative network of Rosatom School project to create a special way of life for children, including students with disabilities in an open space and in various environments like playing or bilingual. Elena is the author of Choice Time, a technique for development in preschool children of the ability to act independently, which is introduced in kindergarten and enables kids to become free and self-sustained.

She is an active advocate of L. Venger's ideas on child's ability development and E. Kravtsova's theory of development through play activities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an online kindergarten "Strana Chudes Online" was launched under her leadership. She is currently promoting a blended learning model for preschool children.

Head of the Step into the Future Competence Center under the scientific supervision of Eureka Institute for Educational Policy Problems. Elena actively trains managing and teaching teams of Russian kindergartens through activity-based internships in the kindergarten environment. Winner of the Digital Teaching Internship Competition.

In 2020, she was awarded the title Honored Teacher of Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Dr. Lucia Brajkovic is an Education Specialist with the Education Global Practice at the World Bank. She is also the Executive Director of the Higher Education Initiative for Southeastern Europe and serves on boards and committees of several international education organizations. Prior to joining the World Bank she worked as a Senior Research Specialist for the American Council of Education in Washington, DC. Lucia holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia, USA, where she was a Fulbright Fellow, and an MA in philosophy and sociology from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her research focuses on higher education internationalization and global engagement; political economy and higher education systems in post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe; and higher education finance. Her work has been published in European Journal of Higher Education, Policy Reviews in Higher Education, International Higher Education, Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions and other venues.