Communications & Marketing

Irina Mkrtchyan is circular economy and grant writing expert, as well as environmental enthusiast from Armenia. She holds a master’s degree in Marketing, PR and Advertising from the University of Sheffield,UK and a second master’s degree in agribusiness from Armenian National Agrarian University (ANAU) in Armenia. She holds a BA in marketing and agribusiness from the same university. She is the co-founded and development lead of “ISSD” Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development of Communities” NGO (founded in 2017), where she is leading various environmental and rural development projects, supported by organizations like UNDP, Norwegian Retailers Fund and others. Irina is supervising grant writing, marketing, fundraising and development activities. She has raised over 550,000USD in grants and donations within the last 2 years. She has 13+ years of experience in marketing, consulting, public relations/outreach, solid waste management and environmental protection, green communication, strategic planning and development, project/grant management, startup management. She is specialized in designing, planning, executing and monitoring project and marketing/PR campaigns. Irina has strong knowledge and international experience in various industries including Fortune 500 companies, the World Bank, UNDP, GEF, World Resources Institute. Her professional/research interests are circular economy, waste management, recycling, marketing, grant writing, rural development, women empowerment, environmental protection and policy development, partnership development for implementing joint projects.

Host Organization: National Academy of Public Administration

Role at Host Organization: At National Academy of Public Administration, Irina will be serving as a Business Development and Communications Fellow: Supporting the organization’s development and fundraising efforts, and expanding and implementing communications strategies to leverage technology and social media for visibility of the organization.

Pearl Gahwera has over three years of experience of brand management in advertising, marketing, communication, and public relations, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Finance) from Makerere University Business School, Uganda. For the past 4 years, Pearl has been a full-time volunteer at 40 Days Over 40 Smiles Foundation (4040), a youth-led non-profit organization in Uganda, which supports children in vulnerable communities to improve their learning outcomes. Through her work as the Head of Communications at 4040, she has provided strategic and implementation support towards the organization’s work like the Angaza Literacy Program, which supports 300 children annually to improve their learning outcomes, and the Angaza Learning Centre. Pearl recently transitioned into the Angaza Learning Centre Project Lead role where she oversaw the planning for the set-up of the learning centre as well as liaised with the community leaders where the centre is scheduled for set-up. Previously, Pearl worked at Scanad Uganda, an advertising agency, where she supported 3 brands to improve their products, communications as well as growth in the industry. Pearl is also a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community in Kampala for the outstanding work she is doing towards social impact in Uganda. From these opportunities, Pearl has developed outstanding leadership skills, project planning and implementation as well as great communications and marketing skills. She is interested in education, unemployment, gender inequality and civic education.

Host Organization: Advocates for Youth

Role at Host Organization: At Advocates for Youth, Pearl will be serving as an AMAZE Global Partnerships Fellow: Assisting in efforts to maintain, expand, and facilitate communications and partnerships associated with Advocates’AMAZE International work.

Edrida Pulungan has 10 years worked in the Secretary-General House of Regional Representatives of Republic Indonesia and expert in partnership. She earned a double Bachelor’s in Economics and Education and also a double Masters in International Relations and Sociology. She currently pursues a Ph.D. in Government Science. She worked as a Parliament PR and was then promoted as a Policy Analyst in research and budget center which has opened her mind about public policy and collaborative government. During COVID-19 to recovery economy, she innovated a penta-helix model for developing creative economy under law no. 24 and proposed her innovation to the minister. She is also active in building partnerships with senators, local, central government, private sector, academician, community, and media to overcome the social and economic problem by initiating discussion Local Heroes Network which involved youth and community. Edrida was awarded as a Government Official by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform. Edrida was concern with collaborative government, partnership, capacity building, climate change, woman empowerment, peace, and a creative economy. She published books, research, and opinion about global issues. Her book was part of the collection of Global Peace library in Paris, the title” The Peace Message of The Earth” and visited UNESCO. She is a Climate Change Leader trained by Al Gore. She also the Founder of Lentera Pustaka Indonesia which promotes literacy and the Founder of Corps International Government 4.0. She was selected to be part of Global Woman Leader ASEAN by IWB Malaysia. As a future leader, she believed her contribution to the Indonesian government and the US will increase the best partnership in the future.

Dwi Rezeki Kirana Bangun is a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Indonesia Open University. She has been working in Indonesia Tax Court for six years and has a strong understanding of taxation and management both in theory and practice. Besides that, she developed an interest in nature and the environment. She is currently participating as a Hutan Itu Indonesia (HII) volunteer, one of the leading organizations campaigning about Indonesian forests. She also participated in fundraising and collected 86 million rupiahs to adopt more than 430 trees in the Sumatra forest. Recently, HII and more than 140 collaborators declared 7 August as Forest Day in Indonesia for the first time. This action is acknowledged by the Minister of Environment and Forestry. Combining her government experience and volunteering in HII, she initiated a movement called Forest is Our Friend (FiOF). Every month, FiOF presents a talk show called ‘Forest Talk’ that invited various speakers from all over Indonesia, such as Dayak Tribe Community, musicians, filmmakers, researchers, and anyone related to the forest. Her main goal is to raise awareness for Indonesian people to know more about the importance of protecting the forest as it is the source of clean air, clean water, and home for millions of people, flora, and fauna. She encouraged people to take real action by planting trees in their homes or protecting the existing forest with tree adoption and visit national parks to support ecotourism.

Nendra Rengganis is a well-rounded content entrepreneur. Coming from an International Relations background, she chose to follow her calling in content creation and built Hipwee.com. Nendra learned to grow digital media from scratch. Using her ability to create relatable content, she won the hearts of Indonesian youth. Hipwee has the vision to become a bridge of a good cause for Indonesia Gen Z and Millenials through its content and community. Currently read by more than 10 million youth and become one of the most shareable media in Indonesia, Hipwee is now helping many NGOs, government institutions, and also private brands to connect with Indonesian Youth. She is currently on a mission to create more impact for Indonesian youth using digital platforms, content, and community engagement — especially in public and mental health.

For approximately more than 11 years, Veronika Oxtafia has been working in the Public Prosecutor Institution (Attorney General Office of The Republic of Indonesia). As a Public Prosecutor Officer, Veronika Oxtafia handled multiple criminal cases and there are parts of them dealing with crimes against children. Within her law enforcement duties, Veronika focuses not merely on law enforcement efforts, but on the other side, she as well as committing deterrence duties to overcome or at least decreasing the number of crimes against child/children, and as consequences, the children would still receive their physical and/or psychological protection amongst their society later on and still could get their bright future. Due to those reasons, Veronika has committed sort of cooperation with Dinas Pemberdayaan Anak dan Perempuan (Child and Woman Empowerment Service) under the Merauke District Government to makeover District of Merauke to be a region with its characteristic that welcome and care towards children through several deterrence efforts such as establishing a halfway house for street children in District of Merauke.

Zhifa Lailatunnazhifah is an International Relations graduate with a keen interest in public policy and community development. Her career began with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), where her legacy of trilateral cooperation “China-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program” remains. She acquired four years of experience directing international conferences, working closely with the Indonesian diaspora across the world, and accomplished 60% growth of FPCI chapters at local universities. She assisted a female parliamentarian at the House of Representatives. During her tenure, she was accountable to aid with Commission I counterparts and delivered support in the Privacy Data Protection Bill drafting session. She is currently managing a capacity-building project for Indonesian women entrepreneurs under Kinara Indonesia and Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Her compassion to bring impact to society has been cultivated since doing community service assignments in high school. She is currently leading Think Policy Society, a community for Indonesian young professionals with a focus to promote evidence- and empathy-based policymaking in Indonesia. Her professional journey has exposed her to the urgency of implementing a gender-transformative approach in public policy. She is now working on an interesting project, where she got to support gender justice values and meaningful and inclusive youth participation with Rutgers International. During her spare time, she likes to read about world history, social movements, and behavioral studies.

C Novika Maharani was born in Malang, Indonesia. She completed a Bachelor’s of Law in International Law at Sebelas Maret University. Passionate in the international field, she is currently working as an Analyst in the Deputy of International Economic Cooperation – Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of Indonesia. Her main duties are to analyze matters related to building and maintaining economic partnerships between Indonesia and countries in the American continent countries. The analysis is not limited to trade agreement negotiation, bilateral forum meetings, and dispute settlement in World Trade Organization. Through working in her current unit and institution, she began to learn the importance of partnership as it is stated as 17th SDGs, whether it is between inter-ministries or agencies, and partner countries. Inspired by the importance of cooperation and collaboration between ministries and agencies in Indonesia, she joined a community called Abdimuda Indonesia, with other young Indonesian Civil Servants. Abdimuda Indonesia aims to promote young Indonesian public servants to have a smart mindset to contribute to their work, encourage social movements, also prepare them as the future leader of Indonesia’s government. Other than that, she is also a member of Think Policy, a think-tank for young professionals that undertakes brainstorming and research of Indonesia policy. By joining Abdimuda Indonesia and Think Policy, she contributes and encourages collaboration for young public servants and young professionals to build critical thinking patterns towards various policies and help them to reach self-development opportunities.

Ayunda is a communication professional with years of experience working for both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Currently, she is focusing on the communication for development (C4D) field where she is interested in any work related to behavioral and social change. She believes that communication plays a crucial role in helping social change in the community. She is currently working for the International Labour Organization and involved in several projects related to labor issues. Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked as a Public Relations and Communications Manager at SOS Children Villages, an INGO that provides care for children who lost or at risk of losing parental care. As a communication professional, Ayunda does not dedicate herself to a particular development issue, but she is very interested in children, public health, and equality topics. Before dedicating herself to non-profit organizations, she used to work at Public relations firms where she developed her skills at developing and executing communication strategy plans for multinational and technology companies. She is now pursuing her calling as a C4D expert and wishes to explore opportunities and collaborations with more international development organizations. Ayunda holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Indonesia majoring in Communication. She later awarded by Chevening Scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in Communication for Development (C4D) at the University of Reading, the United Kingdom.

Eka Christiningsih Tanlain (she/her/hers) is an experienced and passionate human rights educator who likes to conduct training for state apparatus and the public with various methods and games. She also has experience in developing modules, organizing public campaigns, and developing campaign tools. She has concerns about minority groups, gender & sexuality, and psychological impact in the helping profession. But she also keeps expanding her knowledge in other human rights issues such as torture, human rights defender, human rights cities, and others. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Jember University. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s program in Social Psychology at Unika Atma Jaya with a focus on health.

Niniek Yuliani has four years of experience in the government sector and six years of work in the private sector. Niniek earned a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Trisakti University in Jakarta. During her work as an engineer in the private sector, she realized her interest and goal of working to solve social problems in the community especially in the field of education, law enforcement, and public welfare. She works at an anti-corruption agency as a Specialist in Education. In this role, Niniek managed the anti-corruption prevention program for the business sector by facilitating advocacy forum at the local and national level in Indonesia, writing an anticorruption guidebook for the business sector, establishing a national work standard competency of Integrity Officer, and conducting anticorruption socialization, seminar and workshops for business, education, and public sector. Niniek focused on developing anti-corruption education programs by encouraging local governments to establish anticorruption education regulations and implement the program at schools. Thanks to this job, she was able to attract people’s awareness to complex social problems on anti-corruption, share anticorruption values and the rule of law, facilitate sessions for various segment from students to business people to improve their knowledge and awareness on anti-corruption, and engage them to involve and take actions to eradicate corruption through creative solutions for Indonesia free of corruption, fair law enforcement, and equal social welfare. Niniek enjoys focusing on topics of anti-corruption, education development, technology, and has a strong passion for self-development and public speaking.

Sepri Andi earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a focus on development. He has over four years of experience in building communities across different issues in Indonesia. Recently, he took a full-time job to create one of the growing mental health communities called Social Connect. Before founding Social Connect, Sepri was a mental health survivor. Through Social Connect, Sepri and his team successfully reached 3 million youth online through a self-love campaign launched during the COVID-19 outbreak. Since then, Sepri has been working to build a safe space, forums, and virtual friends for mental health survivors like himself, with more than 50.000 members to date. Sepri’s previous work was also building a community from scratch for one of the leading logistic companies to support their mission of contributing to Indonesia’s economy. His work has reached 8.000 retails with 50M transactions per month. Andi starts his career by working for one of the top e-commerce companies in SEA to build a lasting relationship with the seller community across Indonesia. Through his experience, Andi has learned, joined, spoken, and contributed to community development, mental health, and youth empowerment.