Marta Berecka, curator, completed her post-graduate studies Totalitarianism – Nazism – Holocaust and Culture Management in the Institute of Culture at the Jagiellonian University. She is a certified teacher, and since 2007 employee of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Initially, she was in the Program Section team. From 2013-2017 she was the head of Educational Projects of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Since January 2018 she has joined the Diplomacy of Remembrance. Marta is a coordinator of numerous international, educational projects for educators and teachers, as well as other groups. She is an author or co-author of educational programs for university and school students organized in Auschwitz Memorial. In addition, she is a Co-editor of the ICEAH publications. Her main area of interest is the methodology of teaching about the Holocaust.
Beata Biel works at TVN S.A. where she is responsible for the creation of publisher’s fact-checking platform Konkret24. She has been working in the media industry her whole professional life – mainly as a TV journalist, documentary filmmaker and managing editor for investigative and current affairs programs. For the last four years she has also been working as a media training expert, mainly with Fundacja Reporterów and the Google News Lab (2015-2017), representing the team in Central & Eastern Europe and working with newsrooms and journalists in CEE to enhance digital knowledge and drive innovation in the media. She also teaches at journalism department of SWPS University in Warsaw and is involved in media literacy and fact-checking initiatives. She received her MA in journalism and mass communication at the Jagiellonian University (1998-2003), and is also the recipient of several journalism awards.
Eliza Chilimoniuk-Przeździecka has a Ph.D. in Economics, and is a faculty member of Warsaw School of Economics. She is a Marie Curie scholar and the Polish-American Fulbright Commission alumna. Eliza has completed many research and teaching internships in universities around the world, including Duke University, ZHAW School of Management and Law, Toulouse School of Business, Aarhus University, ICN Business School Nancy. In addition, she is an author of numerous publications on foreign direct investment, global value chains and international trade. She has extensive professional experience in the field of market analysis and consultancy regarding the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of implementations, technology transfer and investment financing processes.
Agata Cieszewska, a geographer and geoecologist (PhD in earth sciences) professionally engages in landscape planning. Assistant professor at the Department of Landscape Architecture, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, vice president of the Polish Association of Landscape Ecology, scholarship holder of the Fulbright Foundation and the Kosciuszko Foundation. Her scientific interests are focused on the natural conditions in spatial planning, and also on the development strategy of tourism and educational functions in naturally valuable areas. Author and co-author of scientific publications as well as expert opinions and practical studies related to the influence of natural factors on spatial development.
Mirosław Czyżewski – throughout his professional career he has been working for and with Polish non-governmental organizations. In 2008 he joined the team of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. Since then he has been responsible for co-designing and monitoring its educational programs addressed to local communities. Earlier he was working for the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy organizing study visits for partners from Georgia and Ukraine to share Polish experience in community development. He also helped an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity Foundation from Poland in creating a coalition of partners and volunteers ready to build a house for low income families. In 1999 he graduated from Warsaw University, Institute of Social Applied Sciences with a Master’s Degree in Sociology. He devotes his free time to his wife and two kids as well as to his passions, including running and writing reviews of the books that he always reads with great engagement.
Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak is Associate Professor of Literature and Director of the Center for Young People’s Literature and Culture at the Institute of English Studies, University of Wroclaw. She is the author of Yes to Solidarity, No to Oppression: Radical Fantasy Fiction and Its Young Readers (2016). Her research focuses on speculative fiction, utopianism, and child-led approaches. She has taught courses children’s and YA literature and culture. She is a Fulbright, Kosciuszko, and Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow.
Ewa Drygalska – Fulbright Junior Research Award winner at the University of California in Los Angeles. She received her doctorate at the Institute of American Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Author of such publications as bilingual Interfaces, codes, symbols; The future of communication (2016) published by Miasto Miasta / Wroclaw, and Afro-American Cinema. Creators, works, phenomena published by the Katedra Publishing House (2015). Her articles about new media technologies and culture are featured in such journals as Kino, Dwutygodnik and Znak. She is the author of the Laboratory podcast, a series of talks devoted to interesting phenomena in culture, art and theory (https://voicerepublic.com/users/laboratoriumpodkast). She also works with the Warsaw Film Festival, American Film Festival, Dom Spotkań z Historią (House of Encounters with History), and the National Museum in Warsaw.
Marta Duch-Dyngosz was born in Bytom (1983). She obtained a MA in Sociology (2007) and European Studies (2009) at the Inter-faculty Individual Studies in the Humanities at Jagiellonian University. She holds a PhD in sociology (2017). Marta was awarded Fulbright Junior Advanced Research Award (2012-2013) and a research grant funded by National Science Center in Poland (2014-2016). Her fields of interest include: social theory, Jewish/non-Jewish relations, Jewish heritage. She is the editor of the monthly journal Znak since 2011. Marta resides in Cracow.
Eliza Eliasz is a promoter of board sports among women and a wakeboarding pioneer in northern Poland. Eliza has shared her passion with girls for many years i.a. by organizing a training series called Girls Can Wake, which quickly disproved the false stereotype that women do not have required strength and fitness capacity to take part in board sports. Outside of being a wakeboarding, kitesurfing, and snowboarding instructor, in everyday life she is involved in marketing in a company in the wind energy industry. Participant in the Global Sports Mentoring Program 2013.
Jan Gasparski – alumnus of the US Student Exchange Program (Institute of International Education/Foreign Fulbright Programs Scholarship) with focus on Marketing and Business Administration at J.J Nance College of Business Administration at Cleveland State University, Ohio. Alumni of Faculty of Management at Warsaw University and Chartered Marketer of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. He is currently a C-level manager with international fast paced commercial experience in leading marketing programs in various lines of business. Non-executive director at Stowarzyszenie Interim Manager & co-author of the book Menedżer do zadań specjalnych. Czasowe zarządzanie przedsiębiorstwem. He also used to teach postgraduate students at top CIM & Executive MBA Programs incl. Koźmiński University and Polish Open University.
Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska – she earned her PhD in economics at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics and her habilitation in the study of religions at Jagiellonian University in Cracow. She works as an associate professor at the Middle East and Central Asia Unit and is also a vice-Dean of Master’s Studies. Her research interests focus on contemporary Middle East and Muslim minorities in Europe. She published five monographs including Deconstructing Islamophobia in Poland (2014) and edited a book on Muslims in Poland and Eastern Europe (2011). Currently she is coordinating two projects – an educational one Muslim minorities and the refugee crisis in Europe (a Jean Monnet Project funded within Erasmus+ Programme) and a scientific one Managing spoiled identity: the case of Polish female converts to Islam (funded by the Polish National Science Centre).
Andrzej Górniak is a history and civic education teacher in III LO in Kraków. He participated in International Visitor Leadership Program which was held in Los Angeles & New York. Andrzej Górniak has prepared several meetings of the youth from III LO and the partner schools from Israel. Using his educational experience as a History teacher, he has also prepared original lesson plans based on the Holocaust witness’s accounts stored by the Shoah Foundation. He also graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Computer Studies and European Studies. He is involved in the implementation of multicultural & civic education in his school’s curriculum and preparation of educational projects about minorities. He is an expert of the Ministry of Education for Matura – a secondary school leaving exam – in Civic Education. He works in the Association of Polish History Teachers, as well. In free time he likes swimming and hiking in the Karkonosze mountains.
Aleksandra Hirszfeld defended her PhD in philosophy and works at the intersection of artistic, curatorial and journalistic practices. Her projects typically involve an analysis of social consciousness on specific issues. Her installation Information Absorber, which examined the public space in democratic nations, was exhibited at the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel alongside the works of Marina Abramovic and Thomas Hirschhorn. She published a book on audiovisual art practices, titled Behind the Image. Repetition in Audiovisual Arts in 2015 (Universitas). She is a co-author and co-producer of the first Polish erotic graphic novel Istota created entirely by women. Her writing has appeared in magazines and periodicals, such as Monitor Magazine, Political Critique, Art and Science Meeting, and Film.
Anna Krzemińska-Kaczyńska is a graduate of the University of Gdansk, and she holds a diploma in teaching English and studies in Geography at Faculty of Oceanography and Geography in Gdańsk. She teaches a geography course for International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme students at VIII Prywatne Akademickie Liceum Ogólnokształcące, IB World School in Kraków. Anna holds the position of IB Development Manager. She has published her actions and activities associated with Bilingual Geography and International Baccalaureate teaching and learning in teacher`s magazines: Bilingual Geography. Anna coordinates educational projects. She also has won many awards such as the European Language Label, TEA Scholarship Program 2010, Polish-American Youth Leadership Program 2011; and the Small Grant by IREX. She motivates teachers to grow as educators by being an ambassador of the English Teaching Program in Poland. Alumna of a 2018 program Academy of Diplomacy. In 2018, she was awarded a medal from Polish Ministry of Education.
Magdalena Krzysiak has been an English teacher for about twenty years in various schools in Wroclaw and also one language school in Kazakhstan. After six years of working with students of different ages, she decided to have a career break and pursue her further education at Queen’s University in Belfast. In the past twenty years she has travelled widely. Seven years ago she took part in the Youth Leadership Exchange Program which gave her an opportunity to spend some time in American High school in Colorado Springs as well as take part in some workshops in Washington D. C. organized by American Civics Center. In her free time she reads a lot of books, mainly in English. She is a big fan of Agatha Christie and Jo Nesbo. As for music she likes jazz and rock (at times). Right now Magdalena is a teacher at Akademickie Liceum Ogólnokształcące przy Politechcine Wrocławskiej.
Agnieszka Kubik – chief expert working at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education since 2008. In 2000 graduated from the English Philology Department at Warsaw. After graduation worked at the Chancellery of the Polish Sejm and later at the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in the sections on international cooperation. In September 2017 was nominated by the US Mission in Warsaw to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Programme held by the Department of State. At MSHE now employed at the Department of Science responsible for students and researchers’ international mobility via the cooperation with the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission. Privately an open and sociable person, mother of a talented Polish table tennis player, interested in politics, philosophy, film, theatre and healthy lifestyle.
Paweł Kwiecień works as a spokesman of Mostostal Warszawa and as a psychotepeutist at Dom Rozwoju. He graduated from Political Science (2012) and Psychology (2013) at the University of Warsaw and from Project Management (2016) at Warsaw School of Economics. He is a President of the Board of KEN Association and an alumn of International Visitor Leadership Program of US Department of State. He has worked at “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
Katarzyna Łaziuk is a teacher at Gimnazjum i Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Polskiej Macierzy Szkolnej in Mińsk Mazowiecki. She has experience in organizing business workshops for students and running ‘School Without Borders’ exchange programs. Her current interests include teaching tolerance and critical thinking. She hopes to instill open-mindedness in her students. She creates educational materials for teachers teaching on the Holocaust. Being into teaching on the Holocaust and human behavior cooperates with different institutions in the USA and Poland. Involved in charity work. Proud to be a part of Forum for Dialogue. Loves literature, travelling and dancing.
Paulina Roś is a responsible and well-organized person with high communication and coaching skills. She has extensive experience in teaching English, creating and conducting various types of social projects, including in the area of law and mediation, as well as in raising funds for their implementation. For 10 years she co-owned a localization company and for the following seven she cooperated with numerous organizations in Poland and Great Britain to develop and implement various social projects and training courses. She specializes in family mediation and organize and conduct training in effective communication and conflict resolution (including for school children). Working with people is her passion and she is open to others and constantly looks for new ways of sharing her knowledge and experience with people she works with in the most effective way.
Mateusz Świetlicki and is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies (University of Wroclaw) where he teaches many different things, such as American History, American Culture, Slavic Popular Culture, and American Literature. He is also a member of the Center for Young People’s Literature and Culture (Institute of English Studies, University of Wroclaw). He was awarded fellowships at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (2014) and Harvard University (2012) and this year he spent a few months in Chicago, where he was teaching as a Fulbright Visiting Professor (UIC). Mateusz has also published a few books and translated some scientific articles. He absolutely loves music (he doesn’t believe in genres – music can be good or bad) and traveling.
Artur Wieczorek is a trainer and consultant specializing in sustainable development and development cooperation policy. He is a Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action Foundation and Board Member at Polish Forum of Young Diplomats. Artur graduated in culture studies from Jagiellonian University in Kraków and National University of Singapore.
Marek Wysocki – researcher at the Faculty of Architecture at the Gdansk University of Technology. Director of the Universal Design Center, the first Polish research and development center implementing the concept of universal design in physical environment, products and services. An expert in the design of the space accessible to the disabled and elderly. He is the first in Poland “Access Officer”, appointed to this position in 2014 by the local government of the City of Gdynia. Collaborator of many NGOs working for persons with disabilities. Consistent supporter of the introduction of the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities into the Polish legal system. Promoter of the idea of equal access for persons with reduced mobility and perception to public space and public education. Social worker, providing the environment for people with disabilities.
Miłosz J. Zieliński holds a PhD in Cultural Studies, MA in International Relations and in Central and Eastern Europe Cultural Studies, as well as BA in History and in International Relations. He studied at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Warsaw University. His research interests focus on what role the pre-war legacy has played in today’s Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship of Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Miłosz J. Zieliński is a career diplomat. He joined the Polish foreign service in 2012, having dealt with policy planning, institutional cooperation and Ukraine’s foreign and domestic policy. Between 2016 and 2018 he worked at the Polish Permanent Representation to the European Union, covering the COEST Working Party. He currently holds the position of First Secretary at the Polish Consulate General in Kaliningrad where he is responsible for political and economic affairs.
Piotr Zimoch lives in a small village Sobków (Świętokrzyskie Province) where he works as a teacher for English. For many years he has been involved in international projects cooperating with schools from many countries in Europe and he also participated in the exchange program with the USA for 4H Clubs. As a teacher he tries to talk during his lessons about human rights, volunteering and cultures of other countries – that is why he invites interesting people and international volunteers to help him during his lessons. Cooperating with many foundations, associations and organizations he also tries to encourage his students to become active citizens with open minds. Personally, he enjoys travelling and working with people.
Magdalena Zowsik, communication trainer since 2017. MSc in environment protection, between 2003-2017 she worked for EC Baltic Renewable Energy Center, Greenpeace Poland and City of Warsaw, realizing projects on renewable energy and climate protection. At some point she realized that equally important to protection of the Earth, is protection of her own ecosystem. She has been searching for best ways of doing it, including coaching, contact improvisation, developing as a leader and speaker (obtained title of Competent Communicator and Competent Leader of Toastmasters International Club). Recently she has discovered a universal language that helps people connect, even despite opposite views, which is emphatic communication (Nonviolent Communication). She shares this method with others to help them live full life.
