Christina Maria Beran, MSc in Psychology, Postgraduate Certificates in Clinical Psychology, Health Psychology, Industrial Psychology and Organizational Psychology, author, political consultant, speaker is living and working in Vienna, Austria. She is also vice president of the Professional Association of Austrian Psychologists and a leading member of the Board of Ethics there.

Once employed in the field as a youth worker, she used her insights at a scientific level and examined the potential for designing socio-spatial employment projects as part of the EQUAL development partnership space!lab. A large part of this work was devoted to the structural change of the labor society, with a particular focus on the digital labor society. The starting points for the socio-spatial employment projects were strongly resource-oriented and thus certainly nothing less than psychological. A book was also written about this work together with two co-authors. The project developed on the basis of this basic research won the EFS Innovation Award in 2013.

Psychology has always been her companion. Whether she was active at the local political level, advising parties, or co-developing a method for surveying the emotional aspects of electoral decisions for market and opinion research (EmOpIn-Types™).

Today she works as a psychologist, coach, and consultant, but primarily as a lecturer, speaker and author (working on a book about Ethics at the moment) and is very involved in professional politics. The common thread is certainly the high level of commitment to making the findings of psychology accessible and useful to the general public.

With 8 years of experience in education, Jennifer Schiffer is an accomplished English, Spanish, and Ethics teacher at a secondary technical and vocational college in Mödling, Austria. As the Erasmus+ coordinator, she excels in organizing international student and teacher mobilities, fostering global connections and educational growth. In addition to teaching, she serves as a gender and diversity coordinator at her institution, as well as mentor to student teachers, bringing expertise in didactics and a dedication to professional development.

Vedran Dzihic is a Senior Researcher at the oiip and lecturer at the University of Vienna. He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University, Washington D.C. His field of research are related to democracy and transition processes, European integration, civil society and protest movements, foreign policy, conflict research, and nationalism. His regional focus lies on Eastern and Southeastern Europe and the USA. He has published numerous books, articles and analyses on these questions and is regulary contributing to national and international media.

Doctor in political philosophy, graduate of the Sorbonne University and specialist in European issues, Joséphine STARON is currently director of studies and international relations at the French think tank Synopia. She is the author of the essay “Europe. La solidarité contre le naufrage”, published in 2022 by Editions Synopia. Since 2022, Joséphine Staron has hosted a weekly podcast on Euradio on major European issues.

Her research focuses on European political solidarity: defense, energy, industry, market, foreign policy. These skills cross the disciplines of philosophy, political science and sociology.

She regularly publishes articles in the written French press (Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Atlantico, The Conversation, l’Opinion, le FigaroVox, etc.), as well as in academic journals. She intervenes in the French media (LCI, BFMTV, Public Senat, France Info, Arte) on European and international issues.

Courtney Kelner is the Programme and Grants Officer at the International Office of International Cultural Youth Exchange (ICYE). She facilitates the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Sub-Committee and manages projects on critical issues related to solidarity, such as gender-based violence prevention and response, youth empowerment and engagement, anti-racism interventions in volunteering projects, and decolonization of global organisations and networks.

Anna-Karin Eriksson is Senior Lecturer at Dalarna University, Sweden. Her research examines the historical legacies of the ‘comfort women’ issue. Her work has been published in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Politics, Japanese studies, and Chinese studies from Lund University in Lund, Sweden. Prior to her PhD studies, she worked as Coordinator of International Relations at Gifu Prefectural Office in Gifu, Japan.

Kai Alhanen is the director of Dialogue Academy and a researcher in political philosophy. He is one of Finland’s leading experts on dialogue and a respected trainer also in other parts of the world. Alhanen has previously published books on the philosophy of Michel Foucault and John Dewey, Dialogue in Democracy, and The Dialogue Book. He has been an advisor to Timeout-project and has been involved in the launch of the National Dialogue Model with the Finnish government.

Lia Reithner is a project manager and youth worker with three years of experience in
Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects. She is a law graduate at the university of Vienna. In her studies she specialised in Human Rights and non-discrimination law. Lia is a Human Rights educator, certified by a training course of the Council of Europe. She has been working with multiple NGOs in the sector of youth work, holding Human Rights Education workshops and projects – regarding the subject of Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights.
She has been volunteering with a Human Rights watchdog organisation – the Border Violence Monitoring Network – documenting illegal pushbacks in Greece.

Irene Bader – English and French Teacher, Educational Advisor
Irene Bader is a dedicated English and French teacher at a secondary school specializing in economic professions (HLW). With a passion for languages and intercultural exchange, Irene has been organizing several language weeks in France for her students, offering students invaluable opportunities to improve their linguistic skills and experience French culture firsthand.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Irene serves as the Bildungsberaterin educational advisor) at her school. In this role, she supports students in making informed decisions about their educational paths and future careers. Her expertise in education extends beyond the classroom, as she has also worked in adult education at the WIFI for some years.
Irene’s commitment to her school community is reflected in her previous role as the head of the Personalvertretung (staff representation) for 12 years, where she supported the development of a positive working environment.

Through her diverse roles and contributions, Irene Bader exemplifies a lifelong commitment to education, mentorship and cultural engagement.

Aleksandra Mangus merges her extensive professional experience in communications with her passion for the European youth sector to contribute to the European values and promote them. Since her collaboration with UNESCO and publishing her Master’s thesis on the digital citizenship of international youth in 2019, she has authored and managed several research and communications projects at SALTO Participation & Information Resource Centre; attended as keynote speaker at various capacity-building events at the Council of Europe and Estonian National Agency; organised, hosted, facilitated and reported on youth-focused events such as SALTO Awards. Her work has been published in SALTO’s Participation Resource Pool, European Youth Portal, Mihus magazine (Estonia), Verke blog (Finland), etc.