Advisors
Violeta Momcilovic has notable worldwide professional experience and a highly respected academic background. Violeta specializes in protection and gender mainstreaming, she has a thorough understanding of humanitarian assistance and research activities related to GBV/SGBV in conflict and post-conflict environments.
Violeta, a 'Research Associate/Member of the European Working Group and Chairing the Expert Committee for Violence on Women and Girls in Conflict' (Every-woman Everywhere Coalition) at the Harvard University Kennedy School in Boston since 2015, has worked previously as a protection mainstreaming expert with INGO - People in Need in Eastern Ukraine and as a research and information analyst for IOM in Iraq.
Violet has worked in Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Iraq, and has worked as a volunteer during the Balkan wars, in refugees and IDP camps, as well as with IDPs from Kosovo during the NATO intervention in Serbia1999.
Violeta has an M.A. in Gender Studies from The University of Novi Sad in Serbia and a M.A. in Political Science from The University of Belgrade, a B.A. /M.B.A. in Economy – banking and management – from BK University School of Trade and Banking in Belgrade, Serbia. She is currently reading for an M.A. in International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid with Kalu Institute, Almeria, Spain.
Violeta holds certificates in:
Gender in Conflict and Peacebuilding Certificate from IAPSS, Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus;
Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster Certificate from Harvard University;
SGBV in Conflict Certificate from UNHCR
Different Needs Cert – Equal Opportunities: Increasing Effectiveness of Humanitarian Action for Women, Girls, Boys and Men, from IACS - Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Geneva.
Sarah Edgcumbe is a PhD candidate with the School of International relations at the University of St Andrews. Her doctoral research focuses on the erasure and exclusion of Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers (GRT) from conflict analyses and peacebuilding, in conjunction with everyday resistance practices employed by these groups as they push back against their contemporary social positionalities.
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Sarah’s research focuses on marginalised and stigmatised groups in conflict-affected environments and peacebuilding; identity; everyday resistance; structural violence; and displacement. Her doctoral research focuses on Iraq (including the Kurdish region), Northern Ireland and the border counties, and Kosovo. Sarah holds an MA in conflict studies and human rights from Utrecht University, and an MA in refugee protection and forced migration studies from the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study.
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Sarah has worked in Sudan, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq / the Kurdish Region of Iraq, and has volunteered in Kosovo and Northern France on community development and aid / solidarity-oriented projects.
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Patrycja Perkiewicz, works as a landscape urbanist at Asplan Viak AS, concentrating on cartographic analysis and development of design scenarios of Norwegian territories.
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Patrycja Perkiewicz is a PhD researcher in Urbanism and Landscape at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO).
Her research focuses on the relation between urbanism, natural resources, and their effect on the landscape, to understand how to proceed with future design and development outcomes.
George Biesmans is a trained Forest Therapy Guide and international affairs professional with a deep interest in the intersection between nature connection practices and peacebuilding.
He holds a BA in Modern Languages and Cultures (Arabic, Spanish and Italian) from Durham University and an MA in Advanced International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, where he specialised in ethno-religious conflict. He wrote his MA thesis on religious insurgencies in the Lake Chad Basin area and his interest in conflict and peacebuilding has taken him to the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the Western Balkans.
His professional experience spans working on interfaith dialogue platforms for peace and reconciliation in Nigeria and Central African Republic with the International Dialogue Centre, and as an EU foreign policy researcher at the European Parliament. He has also held roles as a policy analyst at sustainability think-tank The Club of Rome, and currently works for climate and nature education organisation, AimHi Earth.
He feels a deep sense of purpose and connection to the work of being a Forest Therapy Guide, and sees immense potential in infusing elements of the practice into conventional peacebuilding, conflict resolution and community building processes.