Scholars

Aboud J. Al Ifranji has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector and three years of experience in the UNRWA education sector. A.J. earned a Bachelor’s of Teaching English Language from Al Azhar University in Gaza, Palestine. While working as an English teacher in different UNRWA schools, he helped improve his students’ academic achievement in English in prep schools. While working as a Project Coordinator in Japanese Campaign for the Children of Palestine, he helped improve the quality of education in local government schools across different areas in Gaza, Palestine. Through these experiences, he developed strong project coordination, planning, monitoring, implementation, reporting, and evaluation skills. A.J. also honed his abilities to work with computerized and office programs, use cameras for video recording and editing, and facilitate different types of trainings, workshops, and meetings, especially for teachers and school staff members. A.J. is also deeply skilled in translating oral and written English to Arabic, researching, working under pressure, multitasking, and leading teams. Throughout his career, A.J. has developed a wide variety of communication skills, along with best practices in data collection, validation, summary, and analysis. A.J. enjoys focusing on topics of education development, cultural variety, sports, animation, movies, and music, and has a strong passion for self development and youth empowerment.

Abubakar Kagermanov has six years of experience in the nonprofit sector and two years of work in university. Abubakar graduated from Grozny State Oil Technical University in Russia. During his second year of studies, he realized his goal of working to solve social problems in the local community. He couldn’t leave the university, as his parents were paying tuition fees and they had their own expectations. But it didn’t stop him from volunteering at local NGOs and creating his own social projects focused around conflict management, peacebuilding, communication, and human rights. After graduating from university, he started to work as an Assistant Director of the local NGO “Youth the Future.” In 2017 Abubakar received a scholarship for his Master of Arts on Theory and Technology of Social Work at Chechen State University.To this day, he is continuing his research on the topic: Socialization of Children with Disabilities in the Chechen Republic. He also created a project on socialization of children with disabilities and is still engaged in the project as a volunteer. For the last five years, the project helped more than 220 children and involved more than 150 volunteers. Since 2013, Abubakar participated in different long term programs and has won grants to support his local activities and projects. For the last two years, he has worked at the Chechen State University. Thanks to this job, he was able to attract young people’s attention to certain social problems, create new workshops, and facilitate sessions for the students to improve their soft skills and find creative solutions for complex social issues.

Aleksandra Sergeeva earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Hospitality Management from International Management Institute in Switzerland, and a professional degree in Nutrition from National Institute of Professional Education in Russia. She is interested in public health, especially in the area of foods and nutrition. Aleksandra has worked in a company which produces and sells peptide products for more than one year. Her main duties are providing the actual information about the achievements in the area of health promotion and illnesses prevention. She creates articles and provides consultations. Aleksandra’s working experience is related to the hospitality industry, where she had a chance to observe current trends of customer demand from service, food, and beverage sides. Aleksandra took her career pathway from hospitality management and found her passion in being a nutritionist. She would like to start a non-profit educational organization as she sees the importance of improvement in public nutrition. She believes that healthy nutrition and professionally balanced diets are important for everyone. The major skills she acquired through recent experience are social media marketing management, copywriting, and public speaking. Aleksandra’s main interests are educating people about healthy lifestyle, writing articles, and creating recipes.

Ankita Saha is a Development Professional with over four years of experience in the non-profit sector, specifically in the field of Education. She earned a Master’s degree in English Literature from Visva Bharati University in India. She is a passionate advocate of every child’s fundamental Right to Education. To help the primary grade students continue their learning process during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ankita developed a digital learning curriculum of Environmental Science while working as a Curriculum Developer in an EdTech organization. Previously, Ankita worked with Kaivalya Education Foundation as a Program Leader in Delhi for two years. There, as an Instructional Design Specialist, she developed numerous pedagogy-based learning modules for students; and facilitated multiple andragogy-based Capacity Building workshops for teachers to improve students’ foundational literacy and numeracy skills with the integration of 21st-century skills. She was closely associated with NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog’s ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ program. There, she was responsible to lead the ‘Accelerated Learning Program’ in the underdeveloped districts of Uttar Pradesh, India by developing and implementing activity-based learning modules to enhance students’ foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Ankita additionally pursued the Gandhi Fellowship program and spent two intensive years in rural Rajasthan to spread awareness on different social issues. She immersed herself with the village community to understand and empathize with the rural problems and identify solutions through a participatory approach. She worked closely with the education system of Rajasthan to bring a sustainable impact on the school learning environment and the learning outcomes of students. Through these experiences, she developed meaningful communication, design thinking, technology, documentation, data analysis, and facilitation skills. She aims to continue her work as a Catalyst for Social Change for underprivileged children, by developing and implementing impactful Learning Experiences.

Anna Goltermann has two years of experience in the non-profit, government, and legal sectors. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University. Currently, Anna works for the Center for International Private Enterprise as a Program Associate for Europe and Eurasia. Anna’s work focuses on facilitating cohesion in a rapidly growing department, supporting projects in Europe and Eurasia that promote healthy economic environments, and assisting the Regional Director with a wide-range of programmatic responsibilities on a global scale. Anna’s interests involve promoting women’s economic empowerment, advancing human rights and civil liberties in Europe and Eurasia, and conducting research on regional political trends. Prior to her experience at CIPE, Anna received a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to study in an intensive language immersion program in Moscow, Russia where she gained proficiency in Russian and participated in cross-cultural exchanges with Russian university students. During her time at George Washington University, Anna interned at Capitol Hill with Congress-member Karen Bass and worked for the Institute of European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies. With these experiences, Anna cultivated a strong skill set in research, project management, and interpersonal communication.

Anna Reutova was born in Seversk, Russia. She graduated from Tomsk State University with a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Economics. While still a student, Anna was offered a position at the University’s Department of International Financial Reporting Standards. In this position, her main focus area is bringing Russian financial reporting into compliance with the international financial reporting standards of the government sector and thus making the university’s financial reporting transparent and accessible to its partners worldwide. Anna’s other significant focus area is working with international funds like Oxford Fund and European Commission funds, large international volunteering projects, international research projects, and grants. She oversees financial management of each project from budgeting and submitting an application to preparing a final financial report once a project is complete. Anna spends a lot of time consulting university employees about the intricacies of financial reporting, accounting, and tax accounting. In her spare time, Anna serves as a member of a nonprofit organization Association of Lawyers of Russia (Tomsk branch) where she is involved in several social projects aimed at providing free legal advice to underserved communities. Through her extensive work experience and continuous involvement with the nonprofit sector and socially important issues, Anna developed great expertise in financial management and strong project management skills. Anna is most interested in education and healthcare, where she is sure her skills will be most useful and for which there is a lot of room for growth in Russia.

Areen Dweekat is a Palestinian lawyer. She started her job as a public interest lawyer in 2015 at the National Institution for Human Rights in Palestine. In 2019, she received the Open Society Foundation Scholarship to earn her Master’s degree in law from Syracuse University in New York and she graduated in 2020. During her job, she focuses on marginalized groups’ rights, including women, persons with disabilities, refugees, and persons in prisons and detention centers.

Astari Raihanah currently lives in Sarmi Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia. She earned her Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Economics of Statistics from the Institute of Statistics (Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Statistik Jakarta). Since then, she works as a Statistician for the Indonesian Government in the Statistics of Sarmi Regency Office, where she is actively involved in the economics and trade-related surveys and censuses conducted by the Indonesian Government. She also has experience in statistics-related conferences in Malaysia and Thailand. During her experiences in these conferences, she learned Bayesian Data Analysis and R programming as a new tool for data analysis in official statistics. In her meantime, she also volunteered for local communities by teaching basic skills such as reading, writing, and basic math for underprivileged young children from remote areas in Papua.