Speakers

Paula Adam

Director of Research, Agency for Health Quality and Assessment (AQuAS) of Catalonia

Paula Adam (PhD) is an expert in research impact assessment from the perspective of public policy, implementation and change management. Since 2010, she works at the Agency for Health Quality and Assessment (AQuAS) of the Government of Catalonia. In 2013, she co-funded together with Jonathan Grant and Kathryn Graham ‘The International School on Research Impact Assessment’ (ISRIA). This school trained a few hundreds of science practitioners from all over the globe during 5 years. She led a testimonial of this experience in co-authorship with Pavel V Ovseiko and others through the publication of an ISRIA Statement. In her carrier, she has payed special focus on the assessment of biomedical research centers and the key performance indicators in collaboration with the ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ from the Spanish Government. Over the past years, Paula’s has gained expertise on gender policies in science and the promotion of professional and public involvement in research. She also has a long-standing experience on public policy analysis and evaluation (at the OECD in Paris). She obtained her PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy in 1996.

Session : Methodological perspective on research impact assessment – November 19, 2020

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Valentina Amorese

Project manager Social Science research programme, Fondazione Cariplo

Valentina has spent 7 years in Scientific Research Area of Fondazione Cariplo. She was the project manager for Fondazione Cariplo of RRI TOOLS project. She is now responsible of Fondazione Cariplo initiatives related to Human sciences and public engagement. She is the focal point on Milan Food Policy working in close collaboration with the City of Milan Municipality and trade union on food issue between Fondazione Cariplo, Cariplo Factory and Milan Municipality. Valentina holds a PhD in Sociology.

Session : Methodological perspective on research impact assessment – November 19, 2020

Ragui Assaad

Research Fellow, Economic Research Forum

Ragui Assaad is Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He is a Research Fellow of the Economic Research Forum in Cairo, Egypt and serves as a member of its Board of Trustees. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences in Beirut, Lebanon and a Research Follow of the Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany.

Assaad’s current research focuses on labor markets and human development in the Arab World, with a focus on youth and gender issues as they relate to education, transition from school-to-work, labor force participation, employment and unemployment, informality, migration, and family formation. More recently, he has been researching the effects of the Syrian refugee influx on Jordanian society and issues relating to the welfare of adolescents and youth among Syrian refugees.

Session : The impact of capacity building initiatives on the next generation of young scholars, universities, and economic development of MENA region – November 18, 2020

Paul Brest

Co-director, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society; Former President, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Paul Brest is Former Dean and Professor Emeritus (active), at Stanford Law School, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, co-director of the Effective Philanthropy Learning Initiative at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and co-director of the Stanford Law and Policy Lab. He was president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000-2012..

He is co-author of Money Well Spent: A Strategic Guide to Smart Philanthropy (2nd ed. 2018), Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment (2010), and articles on constitutional law, philanthropy, and impact investing. His current courses include Problem Solving for Public Policy and Social Change, and Advanced Topics in Philanthropy and Impact Investing. He also the creator of the open and free online interactive course Essentials of Program Strategy and Evaluation, and the instructor in an online course, Essentials of Nonprofit Strategy, offered by Philanthropy University.

Session : The meaning and measurement of impact – November 16, 2020

Leonora Buckland

Senior Researcher, ESADE Business School

Dr. Leonora Buckland is an academic-practitioner specialised in social entrepreneurship, impact investment and impact management. In an academic capacity, she co-ordinates research projects and co-authors publications with ESADE business school. She has written several publications on impact management, venture philanthropy and gender lens investing.

As a practitioner, she works with Stone Soup Consulting on various large-scale impact management projects for European charitable foundations. She began her career as a strategic consultant for Monitor Company before obtaining a masters in international economics from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University (USA) and a PhD from the University of Oxford, U.K.

Session : State of the field - November 17, 2020

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Cristina Chiotan

Evaluations Manager, European Climate Foundation

Cristina Chiotan works as Evaluation Manager at the ECF. She is responsible for all aspects of the new ECF Programmatic Evaluation Framework. She supports strategic decision making by developing monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess ECF programmes and projects, identify greatest impact opportunities and priorities.

She works closely with and helps the ECF programme teams in their periodical monitoring of grants, outcomes and objectives towards improved evaluation and learning processes. She has worked for many years in the health sector for e.g. the Ministry of Health in Romania, with UNICEF Romania, and EuroHealthNet in Brussels, where she held the position of Policy Senior Co-ordinator. She brings an extensive experience around policy and advocacy, project monitoring and evaluation.

Cristina holds a Master of Arts in Political Strategy and Communication from the University of Kent, on the top of a medical doctor diploma from the University of Bucharest, and a post graduate certificate in public health administration and health service management from the Romanian National School of Public Health and Management.

Session : The meaning and measurement of impact – November 16, 2020

Pedro Cunha

Director of the Gulbenkian Program for Knowledge, Calouste Gubenkian Foundation

Pedro Cunha is Program Director at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, where he leads the Gulbenkian Academies for Knowledge, a national network of 100 programs for SEL in schools and community settings.

Pedro holds a Degree, Masters and Ph.D (ongoing) in Psychology of Education. He started his career as a school psychologist, and as coordinator of social innovation programs on substance abuse, community development and social exclusion. He was Program Director and Head of Education at the Aga Khan Foundation Portugal and taught at Teachers College.

Pedro served as Deputy Director-General for Education in four governments (2010-2017), where he was responsible for school improvement, ECEC, Early School Leaving, Health and Wellbeing, Inclusive Education, Curricula Enrichment, Psychology and support services. He acted as National Commissioner for the Rights of the Child and for Early Intervention and worked as expert at the European Commission, UN, UNICEF and the OECD.

Session : The Value of the Humanities: Measuring the Impact of Liberal Arts Education – November 18, 2020

Marco Demarie

Head of Planning, Research and Evaluation Dept, Compagnia di San Paolo

An economist by background and a lifetime in foundation professionalism, is currently head of the Knowledge Office and the Philanthropy and Community Department at the Compagnia di San Paolo, Italy. From 2001 to 2008 he was director of the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation. In the same period he was editor-in-chief of Altreitalie, an international journal of studies on populations of Italian origin in the world. Until 2010, he was president of the CDF (Center for Documentation on Foundations), dedicated to the world of Italian foundations. He has been active in the boards of several non-profit entities, including European Foundation Center, Solidarity and Development Committee of Banca Prossima, and Sinloc, an investment company in the sector of public-private financial partnership, strategic research and financial arrangement and most recently Network of European Foundations. His field of specialisation is socioeconomic research, philanthropic work, urban development policy.

Session : The meaning and measurement of impact – November 16, 2020

Moushira Elgeziri

Associate director, Arab Council for Social Sciences

Moushira Elgeziri joined the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) in Beirut. in April 2019 as Associate Director. She leads the Council’s Fellowships and Grants unit which includes seven active research and fellowship programs that address the needs of researchers and scholars in the Arab region.

Before joining the ACSS, Ms. Elgeziri was program officer for higher education at the Ford Foundation’s Cairo office from 2013-2016 and for youth opportunity and learning from 2016 to 2018. She earned her BA and MA in political science from the American University in Cairo, and her PhD in development studies from the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University in the Netherlands.

Session : The impact of capacity building initiatives on the next generation of young scholars, universities, and economic development of MENA region – November 18, 2020

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan

Vice President, National Program, and Program Director, Education, Carnegie Corporation of New York

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is Vice President, National Program and Program Director, Education at Carnegie Corporation of New York. She oversees grantmaking and activities aimed at engaging parents and communities, improving teaching and leadership, advancing innovative learning environment designs, providing pathways to college and career success, and fostering integrated approaches to innovation and learning.

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Srinivasan has extensive experience in senior-level leadership roles in the areas of urban district change, nonprofit education reform, and educational technology. She served as a deputy chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (2003–2006), where she designed and implemented Project Home Run, a strategically redesigned system for recruiting, hiring, and placing teachers and school principals that greatly increased the teacher talent available to high-needs schools and which has been replicated nationwide.

Session : Supporting Strategic Grantmaking Through Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration – November 18, 2020

Frédéric Forest

President, Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme

Frédéric Forest is the acting president of the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme since november 2020. He is a general inspector for education, sports and research (IGESR) since 2018.

He held different positions in the ministry of higher education and research in France between 2012 and 2018. During this period, he has been especially in charge of the funding of universities and has been, in 2017, the acting general director for higher education and employment. Formerly, he has been the head of administration of the university of Rouen (2006-2012) and also worked at the ministry of finance (2002-2006).

He has a PhD in political science (Sorbonne Université) and an habilitation for conducting researches (Université de Paris) in social sciences. He is associate researcher at the Université de Paris. He is the author of two books on the epistemology of psychoanalysis and is a teacher in psychology at the university of Rouen. He also edited a book on the functioning of universities in France and several publications on higher education.

Session : Welcome and introduction by the organisers

Carole-frampton-de-tscharner

Organisational Development Lead International Partnerships Manager, PeaceNexus Foundation

Carole leads the Organisational Development (OD) service offer.She provides support and facilitates learning for PeaceNexus’ OD partnerships across the different regions, and directly manages PeaceNexus’ OD support to international partners and collective learning initiatives on OD.

Carole started her career in South Africa at the Centre for Conflict Resolution. Subsequently, she moved to Burundi to run the Women’s Peace Centre, created by international peacebuilding NGO Search for Common Ground (SFCG). She was later SFCG’s Director of Institutional Learning and a member of the senior management team in Washington, DC. Upon leaving SFCG, Carole worked as an independent consultant and trainer. After moving back to Switzerland, Carole held the position of Africa Director at Geneva Call and Director of Operations for Justice Rapid Response.

Carole holds a Masters in International Relations from the Graduate Institute for International Studies and a Masters in Gender Studies from the University of Geneva.

Session : Strengthening the funder-grantee relationship to increase impact – November 17, 2020

Lisa Hehenberger

Director, ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute

Dr. Lisa Hehenberger is an Assistant Professor in the department of Strategy and General Management at ESADE, and Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute. Dr. Lisa Hehenberger is a renowned expert on (social) entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy and impact investment. She is a member of the European Commission's Expert Group on Social Entrepreneurship (GECES) and of the OECD's Social Impact Investment Expert group. She served on the French National Advisory Board and the Impact Measurement Working Group of the Social Impact Investment Task Force established by the G8. Until recently, she was the Research and Policy Director of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA).

Lisa is very active in the field of practice. She sits on the advisory boards of impact investing funds such as Creas, Social Impact Ventures, Oryx Impact Fund, People and Planet Partners and Seastainable Ventures. Lisa has advised organizations such as WWF, Repsol Foundation and Meridia Capital Partners on their impact investment strategies. She launched the Entrepreneurship Institute’s Social Entrepreneurship & Impact Initiative through which she engaged in numerous research projects and set up ESADE’s impact community to connect ESADE students with the impact sector. Lisa is a member of the Impact & Sustainable Finance Faculty Consortium set up by Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. She is a member of CNBC’s Disruptor 50 Advisory Council — a group of leading thinkers in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Session : State of the field – November 17, 2020

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Amy Hungerford

Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University

Amy Hungerford is Executive Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. She specializes in 20th- and 21st-century American literature, especially the period since 1945.

Prof. Hungerford’s undergraduate teaching is known worldwide through her popular, and free, online course, “The American Novel Since 1945.” In the graduate program, she teaches regular seminars on 20th and 21st century literature, criticism, and book history, and convenes a dissertation workshop for students studying late-19th to 21st century American, British, and world Anglophone literature. Since 2009, Prof. Hungerford has been teaching at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College in Vermont in the summertime; Bread Loaf offers a Master of Arts program mainly serving secondary school English teachers.

Prof. Hungerford is a founder of Post45 (a professional association for scholars working in post-45 literary and cultural studies), and served on the group’s board from 2006 to 2015. She co-founded and remains site editor of post45.org, an open-access journal publishing a curated stream of peer reviewed and general interest work in the field. Working with Prof. Andrew Piper of McGill University, she is collaborating to launch a companion open-access journal called CA: A Journal of Cultural Analytics.

Session : The Value of the Humanities: Measuring the Impact of Liberal Arts Education – November 18, 2020

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Emmanuel Kattan

Director of the Alliance Program, Columbia University

Emmanuel Kattan is Director of the Alliance Program. He was previously Director of the British Council in New York, where he oversaw academic collaboration programs. He created partnerships with the Henry Luce Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation to launch initiatives connecting higher education institutions across the Atlantic. Before joining the British Council, Emmanuel was Senior Adviser at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, where he managed strategic communications and engagement with academic communities. He also held senior positions at the Commonwealth Secretariat and at the Quebec Delegation in London, where he was in charge of academic relations programs. A native of Montreal, Emmanuel studied politics at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and earned a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of five books: an essay on the politics of memory and four novels.

Session : The Value of the Humanities: Measuring the Impact of Liberal Arts Education – November 18, 2020

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Andras Kovats

Director, Menedék – Hungarian Association for Migrants

András obtained degrees in social policy and special education at ELTE University, Budapest. He is the director of Menedék – Hungarian Association for Migrants and a part-time research fellow of the Institute for Social Sciences. He has worked on immigration and asylum since 1995. He has participated in several national and international programmes related to immigrant integration and migration policy development either as partner or as professional leader. Menedék Association provides services to foster the social integration of refugees and other immigrants in Hungary under his coordination.

András regularly performs teaching, expert and consulting work for national and European organisations and institutions. He has authored or edited dozens of professional publications.

Session : Action based research activities in Migration – November 19, 2020

Gilles Lhuilier

Full Professor of law, École Normale Supérieure & Head of Global Legal Studies Network, Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme

Gilles Lhuilier is Full Professor of law at the École Normale Supérieure, head of Global Legal Studies Network (GLSN), the research program of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) on the globalization of law.

Gilles is an European ERC « Independant expert », (Advanced Grant), International expert for ex. Hight Level Expert group on global security (France-germany), National expert (ANR expert or for ex. scientific comity of Bordeaux University for the « Grands Programmes de Recherche » projects, etc.)

Gilles is also the PI of a CNRS research on « sciences and law » and the uses of scientifical criterias by juges or admnistrative bodies. The relations between sciences and law appears to be governed by the principe of liberty to chose the « sciences » ou « criteria of evaluation » to decide, but framed by some legals and epistemic principles (transparency, coherence, reasonability, etc).

Session : Methodological perspective on research impact assessment – November 19, 2020

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Luca Lixi

Migration and Mobility Policy Officer, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission

Luca Lixi is Migration and Mobility Policy Officer in DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission. He oversees migration research in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe and his work focuses on enhancing EU policy making on migration by providing an evidence base through Horizon funded research projects. Luca holds a PhD in migration governance. His research focused on the European External Migration Governance in the Mediterranean region. He was specifically looking at how actors of governance – in Europe and in Northern Africa- understand migration in the Mediterranean, what divergences are present and how this plays out in developing a joint governance of migration in the region.

Luca graduated from the University of Nottingham with a BA in Political Science, and then carried out a Master of Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in International Migration and Public Policy.

Session : Action based research activities in Migration – November 19, 2020

Lynda Mansson

Director General, MAVA Foundation

Lynda has been the Director General of the MAVA Foundation since 2010 and continues to believe she has the best job in the world. She is responsible for implementing the strategy of the foundation and leading the secretariat team. Since joining the foundation, Lynda has overseen a complete reshaping of MAVA including changes at the levels of the board, staff, strategy, processes, project selection, and communications. Lynda led the foundation to incorporate a new programme to work on the intersection of economic growth and natural resource depletion which has become a major focus of its work. Given the end of MAVA’s grant-making in 2022, Lynda is now leading the team to ensure the greatest impact of funds invested as well as ensuring the sustainability of work in our areas of interest even after MAVA’s closure.

Lynda is deeply invested in developing the leaders the world needs now and tomorrow to meet the global challenges we face. She has an IDC/EMCC coaching certificate and has coached and mentored several dozen people throughout her career. She has overseen the development of two different leadership development programmes and has developed and delivered trainings in leadership, team building, negotiations, conflict within teams, and change management.

Session : Strengthening the funder-grantee relationship to increase impact – November 17, 2020

Safwan M. Masri

Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development, Columbia University

Professor Safwan M. Masri is Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He joined Columbia University in 1988 as a member of the faculty of Columbia Business School and served as Vice Dean from 1993-2005. He previously taught engineering at Stanford University and was a visiting professor at INSEAD (Institut Européend’Administration des Affaires) in France.

Masri is the author of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly (Columbia University Press, 2017). He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. Masri also serves on the Board of Directors for AMIDEAST and on the Global Advisory Board for the Chazen Institute at Columbia Business School.

Session : The impact of capacity building initiatives on the next generation of young scholars, universities, and economic development of MENA region – November 18, 2020

Delphine Moralis

Chief Executive, European Foundation Centre

Delphine Moralis is Chief Executive of the European Foundation Centre. A leading platform for philanthropy in Europe, the EFC is a dynamic membership organisation of strategically-minded philanthropic organisations from more than 30 countries that works to strengthen the sector and make the case for institutional philanthropy as a formidable means of effecting change.

Prior to joining the EFC, Delphine was Secretary General of Terre des Hommes International Federation, a network of nine organisations working in 71 countries for the rights of children and to promote equitable development without racial, religious, political, cultural or gender-based discrimination. Before Terre des Hommes, Delphine was Secretary General of Missing Children Europe, an organisation that brings together 31 NGOs from 27 countries and provides the link between research, policies and organisations on the ground to protect children from any kind of violence, abuse or neglect that is caused by or results from them going missing.

Delphine has also held positions in advocacy and public affairs at Child Focus, the European Youth Forum and Cable Europe. She has a Master’s degree in Philosophy and an Advanced Master’s Degree in European Studies

Session : Welcome and introduction by the organisers

Claudia Natali

Head of Programme Development Support Unit, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Claudia Natali leads and coordinates the Programme Development Support Unit of IOM Libya. She liaises with donors and partners in Libya and provides overall guidance on programme development, funding opportunities and strategic direction to IOM Libya programme managers. Between 2014 and 2020 Ms. Natali worked as Regional Thematic Specialist on Labour Migration and Human Development in the Regional Office for West and Central Africa based in Dakar.

Previous to that, Ms. Natali served as a Labour Migration Programme Coordinator at IOM Thailand (2008-2014) and as a Policy Officer at IOM HQ in Geneva (2006-2008). She holds a Master’s degree in Development Economics from the University of East Anglia, UK.

Session : Action based research activities in Migration – November 19, 2020

Lucia Patuzzi

Knowledge Hub Coordinator, European Foundation Centre

Lucia joined the EFC in 2012, and worked initially for the Professional Development and Communications departments of the organisation while also working as a Fundraiser officer for ERAB Foundation, a research foundation based in Brussels. Since 2014, she is working with the EFC knowledge team where she collects and analyses data from EFC members, respond to research requests and produces mappings on different themes at the heart of European foundations’ work.

On the side, and after working for documentary festivals and cultural associations in Italy, Lucia has founded a cultural association based in Brussels and seats on the board of AIF+, the Flemish umbrella organisation of intercultural associations in Belgium.

Lucia holds a MA in Linguistic Science for Intercultural Communications from Universitá per Stranieri di Siena.

Session : State of the field - November 17, 2020

Lisa Petrides

Founder and CEO, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education

Lisa Petrides, Ph.D. is founder and CEO of ISKME, a global nonprofit dedicated to democratizing access to education. Her work includes the development of ISKME's award winning OER Commons, a digital public library of open educational resources and collaboration platform that facilitates the discovery and improvement of high-quality digital resources that are free, openly licensed, and available for a diverse range of learners. A former professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership at Columbia University, Teachers College, Petrides has advised and led development efforts that have enabled schools, colleges, universities, ministries of education, and the organizations that support them to expand their capacity to use data and information, and create inclusive knowledge-driven environments focused on teaching and learning. Petrides received an MBA from Sonoma State University, and a Ph.D. in Education Policy from Stanford University.

Session : Supporting Strategic Grantmaking Through Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration – November 18, 2020

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Hal Plotkin

Senior Scholar, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education

Hal Plotkin is a former Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Education under President Barack Obama. Plotkin was a founding editor of Marketplace, the globally broadcast U.S. public radio business and economic news program. He also served as President of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District Governing Board of Trustees, which oversees two colleges with approximately 45,000 students.

A former Senior Open Policy Fellow at Creative Commons, USA, Plotkin has been instrumental in the promotion of free open intellectual property licenses and open educational resources (OER), which support resource-sharing and collaborations across borders and cultures in the fields of science, education, the humanities, and business. Plotkin is currently a Senior Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), based in Half Moon Bay, California.

Moderator of the sessions :
- Strengthening the funder-grantee relationship to increase impact
- The impact of capacity building initiatives on the next generation of young scholars, universities, and economic development of MENA region
- Action based research activities in Migration
- Methodological perspective on research impact assessment

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Darius Polok

Managing Director of the International Alumni Center & Coordinator, Bosch Alumni Network

Darius Polok is managing director of the International Alumni Center (www.iac-Berlin.org) founded 2017 by the Robert Bosch Stiftung to support the development of impact-oriented alumni communities and networks in philanthropy.

The iac Berlin coordinates the “Bosch Alumni Network”, a global community of former and current fellows, partners, and staff members of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The iac Berlin is hosting the “Global Diplomacy Lab”, an exchange platform for a new and more inclusive diplomacy and with “Connecting Networks” a community of network builders from more than thirty foundations.

Darius Polok graduated in Slavic Studies and Philosophy from the University of Potsdam. Over the past years, he worked as a consultant and evaluator for diverse foundations and public institutions. He strongly believes that networks matter and that they can be an asset and instrument in tackling complex challenges.

Session : Strengthening the funder-grantee relationship to increase impact – November 17, 2020

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Dominic Regester

Program Director, Salzburg Global Seminar

Dominic Regester joined Salzburg Global Seminar as a program director in March 2017. He is responsible for designing, developing and implementing programs on education, conservation, and the future of cities. Prior to this he worked for the British Council for 14 years, primarily on projects connected to global citizenship education, teacher professional development, education collaboration and internationalism in education. He has an M.A. in Chinese studies from the School of Oriental and African studies in London and an M.A. in education and international development from University College London Institute of Education. Dominic is a founding member of the Executive Committee for Karanga - The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills and the co-editor of two new books Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined: Thoughts and Responses from Education’s Frontline During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond (2020) and Social and Emotional Learning across the Mediterranean: Cross Cultural Perspectives and Approaches (2020)

Session : The Value of the Humanities: Measuring the Impact of Liberal Arts Education – November 18, 2020

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Bernardo Rondelli

Strategy Director and Founding Partner, SIRIS Academic

With a PhD in Archaeology and a postdoctoral research in Artificial Intelligence, I’ve been involved for more than 10 years in several interdisciplinary research projects in the field of Digital Humanities at european level (including being co-PI of an ERC Advanced Grant). In 2010 I’ve co-founded SIRIS Academic of which I have been director since 2014. SIRIS is a research-driven consulting company providing strategy solutions for public and socially oriented organizations. Based in Barcelona, SIRIS has 10 years of experience in the European context, and has worked with over 90 leading universities, research institutions, public administrations, government agencies and charities in 10 countries. I’ve coordinated several projects for the design, implementation and monitoring of research and innovation policies in several European countries, working with higher education organizations, funding agencies, charities and governments. I’m particularly interested in open innovation and open government processes for public policy decision-making.

Session : Methodological perspective on research impact assessment – November 19, 2020

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Marcello Scalisi

Director, Mediterranean Universities Union (Unimed)

Marcello Scalisi is the Director of UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union – since 2008. He holds a degree in Historical Sciences and in International Cooperation at the Faculty of Literature, Philosophy and Languages of University of Roma Tre, Rome. He gained extensive experience in Sicily in the sustainable tourism sector, managing and monitoring EU projects for local tourism development and providing vocational training for dozens of companies and thousands of workers. He started working at UNIMED in 1998 as project manager and moved gradually to the coordination of UNIMED’s European, International and National funded initiatives and projects. Since Marcello Scalisi became director of UNIMED, there has been a significant increase of the number of associated universities to the network, funded projects and employees and collaborators. Moreover, UNIMED is nowadays a permanent stakeholder of the European Commission.

Session : Action based research activities in Migration – November 19, 2020

Jeff Ubois

Vice President, Knowledge Management, Lever for Change, MacArthur Foundation

Jeff manages the information collected via Lever for Change competitions and works with cooperating organizations to make this information useful and publicly available. Jeff joined the MacArthur Foundation in 2011 to build what became the Discovery grants program and has since worked in the Foundation's American Democracy, Philanthropy, and 100&Change programs. Prior to this, Jeff worked for organizations focused on digital media and innovation, including UC Berkeley’s School of Information Management and Systems and the Internet Archive, and as a journalist covering new technology.

Jeff has written for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Nation, and First Monday, and as joint inventor, has five U.S. patents related to information management. He serves on the boards of the Kahle/Austin Foundation, which supports access to digital information; Humanity 2050, which explores challenges of complexity and the human future; and QuestionCopyright.org, which supports free culture and expression.

Session : Supporting Strategic Grantmaking Through Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration – November 18, 2020

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Saskia van den Dool

Managing Director, Adessium Foundation

Saskia joined Adessium Foundation as Director of Programs in 2017 and became Managing Director in November 2020. Adessium Foundation is a private and independent grant making foundation, based in the Netherlands. It aspires to a society that encourages people to live in harmony with each other and with the environment. Before joining Adessium, Saskia worked as senior Advisor Responsible Investment for PGGM, a Dutch pension fund investor, covering issues ranging from human rights and investing in conflict-affected areas to policy development and measuring the impact of PGGM’s investments in sustainability solutions. Prior to that Saskia worked as a consultant for PwC Global Sustainability Solutions in the UK, The Netherlands and Argentina to advise multinational corporations and (non) governmental organizations, focusing in particular on projects related to stakeholder engagement and measuring social performance. Saskia holds an MSc in Policy and Organisation Studies from Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

Session : The meaning and measurement of impact – November 16, 2020

Shelley Whelpton

Senior Managing Director, Arabella Advisors

Shelley Whelpton is a changemaker who brings energy, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to generating social impact. She is at the center of a network of front-line social entrepreneurs, donors, nonprofit leaders, political candidates, and policymakers, and is skillfully able to connect people with the partners and platforms they need to succeed at reaching their goals. She is able to marry visionary ideas with tactical implementation, empowering individual, family, corporate, and institutional funders to make significant change.

At Arabella, she has partnered with her clients to find concrete, customized entry points for donors to launch or amplify their philanthropy—including advocacy and impact investing; to connect donors with cutting-edge information that allows them to make impactful decisions; and to create innovative organizational structures that enable donors to put their ideas into action. Projects she oversees include involving formerly incarcerated people in criminal justice reform efforts, advocating for state policy changes to promote children’s nutrition, and ensuring that women’s voices are equitably represented in public dialogue.

Prior to joining Arabella, Shelley was the vice president of business development and strategy at the Sheridan Group, a Washington, DC-based policy firm dedicated to public interest causes. Her development work with the Sheridan Group spanned a wide range of issues, including new social financing mechanisms, open access, education, youth development, child welfare, and health.

Session : Supporting Strategic Grantmaking Through Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration – November 18, 2020

Hillary S. Wiesner

Program Director for Transnational Movements and the Arab Region, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Hillary Wiesner is Program Director for Transnational Movements and the Arab Region at Carnegie Corporation of New York. The program supports the activity, connection, and impact of social science and humanities expertise centered in the Arab region to work on critical trends shaping the future. She previously served as Senior Executive Officer and Secretary of the Directorate of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and as the first Director of Programmes of the Vienna-based intergovernmental Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue. She holds a BA in religion from Harvard, an MA from the University of Chicago on the Ancient Mediterranean World, and a PhD from Harvard's Committee on the Study of Religion. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of AMIDEAST. Her most recent article is on political sectarianization

Session : The impact of capacity building initiatives on the next generation of young scholars, universities, and economic development of MENA region – November 18, 2020