Cyprus

Katerina Downward has committed her professional life to defending human rights, with extensive experience in the fields of humanitarian response, a proven track record as a leader supporting refugee livelihoods, and a longstanding commitment to social justice. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and obtained a Master’s degree in Human Rights, graduating with distinction, from the London School of Economics. She joined METAdrasi as a Project Manager in the education department. In that capacity, she set up three schools for refugee children on the frontier islands of Lesvos and Chios where most refugee arrivals through Greece’s sea borders occur. She was then promoted to Head of the Education and Integration department where in addition to her sustained project management responsibilities, she now leads a team of 60 educators and oversees the implementation of all education programs for refugees and migrants across the country, serving more than 3000 people annually. She was recently nominated to take on additional responsibilities, helming the program for the certification of survivors of torture and building capacity amongst frontline workers in identifying possible survivors. Previously, she worked at an education nonprofit in New York partnering with under-resourced schools to implement curricular materials on social-issue documentaries as a way of engendering civic engagement and human rights literacy. During her formative and academic years, she volunteered at human rights and civil society organizations across four continents and interned at the Washington Peace Centre and Amnesty International.