Meet the speakers and contributors

Márta Bajnay graduated at ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education. She is currently studying Education Science MA at ELTE’s Faculty of Education and Psychology.

As Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor at Utrecht University, Linas Cepinskas supports and promotes initiatives and policies with the goal to make the university more equal, diverse and inclusive for all. Prior to joining Utrecht University, Linas was leading projects and programmes in human rights advocacy, public diplomacy, and higher education in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Lithuania. Originally from Lithuania, Linas holds a Master’s degree in International Relations (VU University Amsterdam) and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (University College Maastricht).

Meritxell Chaves has more than 25 years of experience in several universities in different positions (academic management, quality and accreditation, international relations). She was part of the team preparing the first CHARM-EU proposal and she is CHARM-EU Alliance Manager since August 2019.

Elliott Cholet is a European Projects Manager at the International Relations Office of the University of Montpellier (UM). He has expertise in project management, communication and event planning. He is UM representative for communication and inclusivity matters within CHARM-EU. He is managing the UNI-ECO project, focusing on the sustainability dimension of CHARM-EU universities.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliott-cholet-08b74b61/

Catherine Comiskey is Professor in Healthcare Statistics at Trinity College Dublin.  She is the Academic Director of the CHARM-EU Project and is the Chair of the International Academic Board and Academic Director of the Master”s Program on Global Challenges for Sustainability. She is also the Chair of the EU’s Scientific Committee of the EMCDDA, Lisbon (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction) and ministerial appointed expert to the Irish National Drug Strategy Implementation Committee.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/comiskeycath

Kata Dósa is an associate professor and the Director for the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Budapest Business School. She wrote her PhD on science education, and focused on inclusive teaching during her postdoctoral program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has been engaged in training and research in using universal design for learning in higher education, with a special emphasis on creating inclusive learning environments for LGBTQIA+ students, student veterans, international students and women in STEM. She regularly folds this topic into professional development workshops and conference talks, most recently at the 2022 Budapest Pride, titled “How do I make my course inclusive? Workshop for teachers in secondary and higher education”. She had the opportunity to observe and learn from several international institutions in the US and in Europe, bringing the tools and perspectives together in her work.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katadosaphd/

Gréta Ercsey has been working as an international coordinator at ELTE for more than six years. Between 2016-2020 she was responsible for the event management of central summer university programs and HFL courses with large student numbers at ELTE. In addition to acquiring a comprehensive knowledge of internal functioning of ELTE faculties, central units and educational programmes, she learned the event management process of a university as well. Furthermore, she gained remarkable experience through meeting local and international students and academic staff regularly, while working together on the different courses and events. She joined the CHARM-EU Project Management Team in 2020, being in charge of event management and internal coordination of CHARM-EU project at ELTE. In the new project – CHARM EIGHT – she will focus on the issue of Internal Transformation of CHARM-EU partner HEIs.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gréta-ercsey-1610884a

Agnes Sarolta Fazekas (she/her) is an assistant professor at the Eötvös Loránd University Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education in Budapest, Hungary. Since 2019, Agnes has been the leader of the Work Package 6 Inclusiveness of the CHARM-EU Alliance. Agnes has been elected as a member of the EAIE General Council 2020-2022 and has been the chair of the EAIE Expert Community Access and Diversity from 2018-2020. She has acquired an extensive list of additional skills throughout her education and international professional experiences in inclusive education, focusing on Universal Design Educational Models, social inclusion, diversity, disability, and Human Rights Education.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/agnessarolta

LinkedIn: https://hu.linkedin.com/in/agnes-sarolta-fazekas

After a bachelor’s degree in law and a master’s degree in health law, Anna Galmiche have had the opportunity to join the Institute of Health Law of the University of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland. She is currently a PhD candidate and research assistant. Her PhD thesis is focusing on the impacts of climate change on health. She is focusing on how public health law can be used in courts or in public policies to mitigate the increase of health and climate inequalities. She have had the chance to work among CHARM-EU’s WP6 on Inclusion as a student from the University of Montpellier and deeply learn about inclusivity.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-galmiche/

Catherine Gillo Nilsson is the University of Gothenburg’s (UG) coordinator for EUTOPIA work package on Inclusion as part of her mission on coordinating UG’s efforts on widening access, participation and inclusion in higher education. Building long-term cooperation relationships and co-creating with students and staff at different levels of the university as well as society (e.g. different communities in the municipality, civil society, school systems, companies, other public government agencies and tertiary education institutions including international partners) in promoting inclusion, diversity and equity is a key principle in her mission. Catherine holds Master's degrees in scientific subjects education, Africa and international development cooperation and social science. Her professional experiences stretch over four decades, from teaching and research in mathematics, guidance and career counselling to public speaking, research on implementing agile project management methods in globally distributed teams, as well as project leadership in international development cooperation focusing on capacity building in the field of study and career counselling, peer support and inclusion in higher education within the Gothenburg-Nelson Mandela Bay Partnership. She has, amongst others set up varied peer helping and mentoring schemes in higher education, facilitated “train the trainers” workshops in the field, as well as intercultural educational modules and stereotype reduction workshops within and outside the university. She has furthermore presented and conducted workshops at both national and international conferences (e.g. NUAS, EAIE, NAFSA and IAEVG).

Zoltán Háberman is Chair at the Department of Social Science and Social Work at the Jewish Theological Seminary-University of Jewish Studies, Budapest. He is a Senior lecturer at ELTE, the Faculty of Social Science, Department of Social Work. His research fields are social ethics, Jewish studies, Jewish social history, holocaust, trauma and anti-discriminatory social work.

Prof. Imre Hamar earned his degrees in Chinese and Tibetan Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and became doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2016. He is continuously teaching and doing researches on the field of Chinese studies. He has been fulfilling different leadership positions. Professor Hamar serves as Vice-Rector for International Affairs of ELTE since 2017, also coordinating the work of the CHARM European University Alliance at ELTE.

Cati Jerez is a sociologist and coordinator of University of Barcelona Support Programme for Refugees and People in Conflict Zones. She works with refugees, universities and public administrations to advocate and promote access to higher education for refugees; contribute to improving their social and academic inclusion; raise awareness of forced displacement, its causes and consequences, and foster the crucial role of education providers as agents of change and global justice.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/catijerez

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catijerez/

Derina Johnson is project manager on the Trinity Inclusive Curriculum Project (Trinity-INC), based in the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Office, Trinity College Dublin. The mandate of Trinity-INC is to embed principles of diversity, equality and inclusion across all curricula at Trinity College Dublin. Derina is a team member on the Inclusiveness Work Package of the CHARM-EU European University alliance. Derina was awarded her PhD from the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin in 2018. Her doctoral research explored the lived experience of young migrants and refugees growing up in legal and social marginalisation on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Prior to her PhD, Derina spent three years living on the Thailand-Myanmar border, working in close collaboration with local refugee and migrant groups to develop and deliver culturally appropriate and sustainable psychosocial care programmes, trainings and initiatives for children and youth. Before that, Derina ran her own play therapy practice working predominately with children and young people in the inner city and other disadvantaged areas of Dublin. Derina obtained her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology from University College Dublin, and studied Play Therapy and Psychotherapy at the Children's Therapy Centre. She also lectures on the Trinity Elective, Forced Displacement, and on child psychology in DCU and Marino IT, teaches research methods and supervises final year dissertations on the Masters in Psychotherapy at the Children's Therapy Centre.

LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/Derina_Johnson

Annamária Kótay-Nagy is a doctoral student in the Language Pedagogy and English Applied Linguistics PhD Programme at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and a temporary lecturer at the Department of English Language Pedagogy at ELTE. Her main research interests include differentiated instruction in English language teaching and the use of educational technology in fostering a learner-centred classroom environment.

Anastasia Kurysheva has a research background in developmental and clinical psychology. After completing her degree in clinical psychology, she worked in clinical settings for three years as an educational and neuro-psychologist, specializing in neuro-psychological assessments and support of children and adolescents with cognitive and emotional impairments. Being interested in research on cognitive determinants of school study success, she moved to the Netherlands to study at a research Master's programme of Utrecht Univerisity "Development and Socialization of Children and Adolescents". After compling her Master's programme, she translated her research interest of cognitive determinants of study success into practical and research work in the field of Higher Education. She assisted at the Graduate Education project of Utrecht University, where she has been supporting the development of the Learning Community on Admissions and a number of other projects. She later started a PhD track with the focus on determinants of study success at a graduate level. Combining her expertise in educational studies, psychological assessment and statistics, Anastasia is currently researching admission criteria of research Master’s programmes, with a specific focus on their validity, reliability, and transparency. In applied settings, she is working on a pilot of standardizing the admission tools and the admission process within the Utrecht University Graduate School of Life Sciences. She will defend her PhD dissertation in November 2022.

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anastasia-Kurysheva

Andrea Lapegna is the Deputy Director of the Lifelong Learning Platform. Originally from Italy, he has extensive experience with non-governmental organisations in the sectors of education, training and civil society space, particularly in the Brussels milieu. A lifelong learner, he is a trained musician and a sports advocate.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/a_lapegna 

Dr. Ildikó Lázár is a senior lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, offering courses on language pedagogy and intercultural communication. She has also worked as a researcher and trainer in many Council of Europe and Erasmus projects as well as for local and international NGOs. Since 2012, she has been coordinating a community of practice for teachers’ professional development on a voluntary basis in Budapest. She has published research articles on intercultural language teaching with a special focus on ways to bring about change in teachers’ beliefs and practices in the fields of inclusive education and intercultural competence development. She is co-author and co-editor of several practice-oriented resource books for teachers and teacher educators, including Developing Intercultural Competence through Education (2014) and TASKs for Democracy (2015) published by the Council of Europe. Her most recent book Mirrors and Windows in Language Teacher Education – Intercultural Competence and Reform Pedagogy (2022) was published by Cambridge Scholars. She is on the Advisory Board of the World Council for Intercultural and Global Competence.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ildikolazar

Head of Education Management and Talent Support Department of ELTE, Krisztina Lénárt has a master degree in Andragogy and works at Eötvös Loránd University since 2015. Ms Lénárt has expertise in coordinating and promoting the use of digital technologies and innovative teaching methods, and she is continuously seeking possibilities of supporting talented students with skill development programs and financial tools. In CHARM-EU she is the Coordinator of WP4 Teaching & Learning Strategies of ELTE. In this position, she is responsible for building and maintaining relationships between academics of different disciplines, developing and organising pedagogical development sessions and providing professional support for the implementation of new VLE tools.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisztinalenart/

ELTE e-learning: https://www.elte.hu/elearning

Emily MacPherson is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Students’ Union. She is originally from the UK but has spent most of her life in Norway. Emily received a BSc in sports and exercise science with biological science from Oxford Brookes University. She is currently on leave from Master’s degree in exercise physiology at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. She has been actively involved in all aspects of student life in both countries including student representation at local and national levels. The cause closest to her heart is disabled student's rights.

Social links: https://esu-online.org/?team=emily-macpherson

Rucha Moharir is a non-EU student originally from India. She did her bachelors in Environmental Science in the US, and she is now in Europe striving to make a change in the Sustainability world. Being one of the minorities in Charm-EU, Rucha hopes to represent their inclusivity needs to the best of her ability, and bring change to the CHARM-EU master's program.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rucha-moharir-501669107

Marijeta Mojašević is covering a position of Youth Advisor at local Youth Office in Montenegro since 2015. As a stroke survivor, she has frequent workshops with elementary, high school and student population on the topic “Life with disability”. Her workshops showed that young people are ready to listen, understand and fight prejudices toward people with disabilities, so she would love to share this practice everywhere she can.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marijeta-mojasevic-2b3b6646/

Spyros Papadatos is a passionate young European, born in Greece, and currently living in Belgium. He has been shaped by international mobility and considers himself primarily an active European citizen. He was the president of AEGEE-Europe for 2018-2019; since 2020 he is a member of the Advisory Council on Youth (AC) of the Council of Europe, and currently he is the AC Chairperson.

Bendegúz Pisch discovered early that he has a strong interest in learning languages, especially Slavic languages. He started learning English and German in primary school, then he studied Russian in secondary school. He is studying Russian Slavistics at the University of Pécs since 2020, currently he is writing his diploma work. He participated in an Erasmus mobility program in the Czech Republic in the spring semester of 2022.

Csaba Prónai graduated from Eötvös Loránd University in MA of History (1992), MA of Cultural Anthropology (1994), MA of Aesthetics (1996), and MA of Hungarian Language and Literature (1996). He defended his PhD Thesis in Sociology (The History of Cultural Anthropological Gypsy Studies in France) in 2000. He is an Associate Professor at ELTE, the Head of the Department of Cultural Anthropology and the Director of the Hungarian and the English Cultural Anthropology MA Program. Since June 2022, he is the Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University.

Henriette Stoeber is a Policy Analyst in EUA's Higher Education Policy Unit. Prior to joining EUA, she worked as a research assistant at the Hungarian Rectors’ Conference and spent several years at the German Academic Exchange Service’s (DAAD) National Agency for Higher Education Cooperation. She has also worked in the private sector in the United Kingdom. Henriette holds a Joint Master degree in European Public Policy with distinction from the University of York (UK) and Central European University (Hungary), where she specialised in the field of higher education policy.

Boglárka Szilágyi has a degree in Special Needs Education since 2022. At university, she joined several movements and researches that help inclusion. She is currently working in an inclusive secondary school as a speech and language therapist.

Mária Szulovszky joined the CHARM-EU Work Package on Dissemination in May, 2022 and works as a communications officer in ELTE’s CHARM-EU Office. She holds an International Relations Bachelor’s degree and is currently completing a Master’s degree on Adult and Continuing education at ELTE’s Faculty of Education and Psychology.

Kinga Szuly is Head of Sector for Higher Education Policy at the European Commission Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) since November 2017. The sector provides, among other tasks, policy support to member states; ensures Commission representation in the Bologna Process; cooperates with international organization like OECD to provide evidence-based research on the field of higher education. Before joining DG EAC, Ms Szuly was working at various fields at the Commission, including Political Adviser at the Representation of the European Commission in Budapest, media analysis and internal audit.

Ferenc Takó studied Philosophy and Japanese Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest, Hungary, where he currently lectures at the Department of Japanese Studies. He used to be head of the Rector's Cabinet International Strategy Office at ELTE between 2018 and 2021. Since 2021, he is head of the Rector's Cabinet CHARM-EU Office, project manager of CHARM-EU as well as of TORCH (the research & innovation project of the CHARM-EU Alliance) at ELTE.

Ádám Tóth is an Earth scientist and an Assistant Professor in hydrogeology at the Department of Geology, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). He is studying the distribution and movement of groundwater in the rocks to explore groundwater and related geothermal resources. He has expertise in surface water – groundwater interaction, ecohydrogeology, fluid dynamics and exploration geophysics. He is the coordinator of the Water track in the Global Challenges for Sustainability Master's programme offered by CHARM-EU.

Petra Videmšek is an associate professor at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work. She is a Vice-dean for Research, Development, and Doctoral Studies in the Faculty of Social Work and a supervisor in the field of social welfare. Her main research interests are social inclusion in mental health and disability, promoting service user involvement in research and education, advocacy for people with mental illness and learning disabilities who experience sexual abuse, and developing supervision in social work. She currently leads Work Package 5 “Promoting inclusion and equal societies” of EUTOPIA and the training programme for qualifying supervisors in social care at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work. She is the author, author of numerous articles and books on inclusion, experimental knowledge, and dealing with vulnerable people.