Annual Conference 2018 – Speakers
Programme / Speakers / Pics and presentations / Gallery Walk
Speakers
Denitsa Sacheva holds an MA degree in Public Relations from the Faculty on Journalism and Mass Communication at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and an MA degree in health management from the Prof. Dr. Assen Zlatarov Univerity of Bourgas. She is a holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Social Pedagogics awarded by Neophit Rilski South West University of Blagoevgrad. Her professional carrier began in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy holding different positions – from specialist to head of sector in the National Centre for Social Assistance. In 1999 she is one of the first employees of the newly founded National Health Insurance Fund and became Head of Directorate for International Cooperation, European integration and projects. In 1999 – 2001 Denitsa Sacheva was head of the cabinet of the Minister of Health responsible for the liaisons with international institutions, IMF, World Bank and European Commission. In 2016 – 2017 she . Denitsa Sacheva is fluent in English, works with German and Russian.
Stefaan Hermans is since May 2017 Director of Policy Strategy and Evaluation in the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture at the European Commission (DG EAC). Before holding this position, he was Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Marianne Thyssen in the Juncker Commission. Previous posts include Head of the ‘Universities and Researchers’, ‘Skills’, and ‘Reflective Societies’ Units in DG Research and Innovation, and Secretary of the Employment Committee of the European Union. He also lectures on EU Affairs at the KU Leuven.
Stefan Zotti (* 1976, Vienna) holds a doctoral degree in Catholic Theology from the University of Vienna and a master degree in European Studies from the Danube University Krems. He started his professional career as assistant to an Austrian Member of the European Parliament. 2007 he became political adviser to the Minister for Science and Research on national and European research and innovation policy and acting Head of cabinet in 2009. In 2010 Dr Zotti joined the cabinet of Mr Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy. One of the main tasks he dealt with was establishing stronger ties between regional development and national or regional research and innovation strategies the context of theEuropean Cohesion policy’s reform. Since January 2016 he acts Director General of the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD GmbH). He is Vice-president of the European Academic Cooperation Association and since 2017 he also serves as CEO “Innovationsstiftung Bildung”..
David Lopez Is President of the Lifelong Learning Platform. He is an international expert in lifelong learning, and currently works are international policy officer in la Ligue de l’enseignement, the older organisation in education (formal and non formal) in France. He coordinates both international and European solidarity sectors for La Ligue. He has a background as a teacher in primary schools, but has been working in non-formal education associations since 1983, managing different regional structures of non-formal education and training (CEMEA). Because of his current position, he also represents La Ligue in SOLIDAR, the European Civic Forum, besides being the President of the Lifelong Learning Platform.
Prof Dr Kim Shinil is Professor Emeritus at the Seoul National University (SNU) and Adviser of Korean Federation for Lifelong Education. Prof. Kim is one of the leading advocates and architects of lifelong learning in Korea and in East Asia. He studied at SNU and the University of Pittsburgh, and has taught Adult Education as well as Sociology of Education at SNU for most of his professional career. He has been also instrumental in the founding of organisations important to a learning society, including the East Asia Forum for Adult Education and the National Institute for Lifelong Education. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, 2006-2008. In this position, he enhanced the visibility of adult education and lifelong learning in his country and internationally.
Dr Anna Steiner is a Senior Officer in the Federal Chancellery of Austria, Arts and Culture Division. She has worked for the Austrian Government since 1991, being in charge of international affairs. After 13 years in the field of international education, including EU educational programmes, she has worked with the International Cultural Policies Department, in particular with cultural affairs in the context of UNESCO and the Council of Europe. Her current thematic priorities include strengthening of bilateral and multilateral cultural relations; intangible cultural heritage at the national and international levels, promotion of cultural diversity, contemporary interaction with cultural heritage as well as culture and sustainable development. She has studied at the University in Vienna and the ANU in Canberra, Australia. Steiner is the National Coordinator for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.
Art historian and professor emeritus, visiting professor at the University of Plovdiv, (Bulgaria), Dr Claire Giraud-Labalte continues her activities as a lecturer and researcher with a long experience in Life Long Learning and interdisciplinary approach. Member of Alliance 3.3. / Encatc, she has represented these European networks on numerous occasions as an ambassador on Heritage. She is also a member of scientific and steering committees: Reflection Group « EU and Cultural heritage » as an observing member ; Consultative Conference of Culture (Pays de la Loire Region); Val de Loire – world Heritage, UNESCO ; Office du Patrimoine Culturel Immatériel (France); ProKultura Observatory of cultural policies, Split (Croatie). Committed at the European level, she has contributed to the realization of several works : Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe (2015); European Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21st Century (2016). She is also President of Territoires imaginaires. Her research works centers around travelers in Europe and their view on cultural heritage and society (19th-20th centuries).
Gerhard Bisovsky is the Secretary-General of the Austrian adult education centre (Verband Österreichischer Volkshochschulen) since 2012. Before this, he had been the director of the Viennese adult education centre for over 15 years, maturing an outstanding experience and expertise in the adult education field. Over his long career, he has gained experience also with European and international associations, especially in non-formal education and adult education. He is still involved in the European Association for the Education of Adults, and was previously a representative of the Lifelong Learning Platform.
Agnes Roman obtained her university diplomas on literature, history and Hungarian as second language in Budapest between 1998 and 2006. She was an adult learning and secondary school teacher in Hungary and in the UK. In 2009, she obtained another master degree on European studies and international relationship at the Institut Européen des Hautes Etudes Internationales (IEHEI) concluding it with a master thesis on adult learning policies and regional development. After working for the Adult learning unit of the European Commission, in 2010 she became a coordinator on education policy issues at the European Trade Union Committee of Education (ETUCE) while she has been advising also the European Trade Union confederation (ETUC) on VET and skills policy since 2012. She is representing the European trade unions in several permanent bodies and groups of the European Commission and agencies, eg. CEDEFOP Governing Board, ACVT, DGVT, EQF, EQAVET, ECVET.
Lars Ebert (Heidelberg, Germany, 1976) is managing board member and co-director of the cultural centre Castrum Peregrini in Amsterdam and Senior Advisor at ELIA – The European League of Institutes of the Arts. In both capacities Lars develops and implements projects and engages in initiatives addressing the integration of a culturally diverse and inclusive Europe. As an institutional and programme reviewer he has extensive experience with organisational development, both on a strategic as well as on operational level. He is a frequent facilitator, moderator and speaker during international events. Lars holds a post-graduate degree in theology.
Prof Rineke Smilde is a musician and social scientist. She is Professor of Lifelong Learning in Music at Hanze University (Prince Claus Conservatoire) in Groningen and at the University of Music & Performing Arts in Vienna. She leads the international research group ‘Lifelong Learning in Music’ that examines questions on the relationship between musicians and society, and what engaging with ‘new audiences’ means for the different roles, learning and leadership of musicians. Her particular research interests are into biographical learning within the context of lifelong and lifewide learning. Rineke has published numerous articles and book chapters on different aspects of lifelong learning in (higher) music education. She lectures and gives presentations worldwide. Her book ‘Musicians as Lifelong Learners: Discovery through Biography’ (2009) underpinned curriculum development and continuing professional development in various European institutions.
Prof Ulf-Daniel Ehlers is a learning innovation expert and has been appointed Professor for Educational Management and Lifelong Learning at the Baden-Wurttemberg Cooperative State University in Karlsruhe in 2011. From 2011-2016 he held the position of Vicepresident at the same university and has been responsible for Quality and Academic Affairs. He held positions as Associate Professor of University Duisburg-Essen (Germany), Professor for Technology Enhanced Learning of University Augsburg (Germany) and Associate Professor of the Graduate School for Management and Technology of the University of Maryland University College (USA).
Christina Paulus is head of the unit of Lifelong Learning and Continuing Education at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. After studying in Vienna and at the Kings College London and working in England, she was asked to work at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. Her work focuses on national and international projects in the area of lifelong learning, such as quality assurance in validation of non-formal and informal learning. She was nominated member of the UNIKO from 2012-2014 in an expert group for the NQF K2. She is an evaluator at the National Coordinating Office for the NQF in Austria (NKS) and AUCEN Delegate at EUCEN, and chairwomen at the National Network Forum of EUCEN. Her other activities include expertise and consultation and committee work. Her OEvre includes publications and lectures on lifelong learning issues and the development of continuing education.
Anette Mjöberg has been Director of the library in Hässleholm, in the south of Sweden, since 2013, and a member of the Standing Committee of the IFLA Public Libraries Section (PLS) in IFLA since 2014. In 2017, she became secretary of the section. She is also a member of the jury for a national librarian prize Bengt Hjelmquists prize in Sweden, and of the Board Nomination Committee of the Swedish Library Association. She has been worked with several integration projects for newly arrived residents of Hässleholm, organizing many activities to help newcomers to learn Swedish and adapt to the society, for example with language cafés, adult education and “Swedish for immigrants” training. She has also set up a Makerspace in the city library, a local museum in a branch library and started a new festival for children and youth in the city library. Anette is also a member of the board of a new network for Nordic librarians who are engaged in IFLA called NIN (Nordic IFLA Network). In addition to her librarianship education, she is also a trained pre-school teacher and has worked with Montessori preschools. For 13 years she was a school librarian in a high school in Eslöv, Sweden.
Mariya Dzhengozova is a project manager at 3s Unternehmensberatung (Vienna, Austria) and a social researcher (MA in sociology) in the field of education, labour market and equal opportunities. Her research work is based on comparative analysis on international and national trends in education, patterns and policies in the wider European context. Mariya joined 3s in October 2011 and since then has been involved in multiple projects dealing with topics such as classification and assessment of skills and competences, skills analysis, anticipation of skills needs; learning outcomes and competence acquisition in the area of lifelong learning and development and implementation of European transparency instruments (EQF, ECVET, ECTS, Europass). Mariya contributed to the 2014 and 2016 update of the European Inventory on Validation of Non-formal and informal learning as a country expert for Bulgaria. Furthermore, Mariya is currently part of the core team (led by 3s) of the Cedefop project ‘Validation of non-formal and informal learning and career guidance’ which focuses on the inter-linkage between validation and career guidance regarding low-skilled adults (among other target groups)’.
Lorenza Leita is a senior project manager and an expert on the models for valuing competences and validating non-formal and informal learning (VNIFL) at Fondazione Politecnico di Milano. MA graduated in Electronic – IMS Engineering (Milano, 1997), she initially worked in innovative learning process enhanced by digital technology and web collaboration. In 2012, she contributed as methodologist in the development of the competence certification process decreed in Lombardy Region (Decree 9380 22 October 2012) and in the related monitoring in field. In ICT sector, she has recently worked in projects dealing with the development of e-competence qualification profiles, learning outcome based approaches and e-Skills Match tools, in full compliancy with ESCO and the CEN standard e-Competence Framework (e-CF 3.0). Since 2014, she has developed models and experimented the validation process of soft and transversal competences, experienced in informal contexts such as volunteering, for increasing mobility and employability. At present, she actively works with the NQF – EQF national team for searching coherence and compliancy between the designed competence models and the European mobility tools such as EUROPASS and ECVET.
Eddy Habben Jansen is director of ProDemos – House for Democracy and the Rule of Law, The Netherlands since 2016. He is responsible for the ProDemos visitor’s programme in Parliament. He has been working for different organisations in the field of citizenship education in the Netherlands since 1994. He was involved in the development of the Dutch Voter Advice Application StemWijzer (VoteMatch) en was responsible for organising mock elections in schools. Since 2008, as the deputy-director of ProDemos and its predecessor IPP, he coordinated the development of the new educational centre of ProDemos in The Hague, including programmes for secondary schools, a number of exhibitions and the development of the building in The Hague. Since 2013 he is actively participating in NECE, Networking European Citizenship Education, in which ProDemos is one of the main partners.
…Stay tuned as we unveil more illustrious speakers for this iconic event!