SeeD’s inter-disciplinary and international team brings together scholars and practitioners who have worked extensively in peacebuilding, advanced data analysis, sociology, psychology, international relations and security studies. The passion and dedication of our staff drives us to find ever better ways to understand peace and conflict. We draw strength from the diverse experience of our staff members and we are committed to investing in the growth mind set of team members through constant learning. This is what helps SeeD to strive to be an innovation hub for sustaining peace.
Dr. Ilke Dagli Hustings
Director General and the Head of Partnerships & Growth
Ilke has been a peace practitioner and researcher for over 15 years and a peace activist for over two decades. She has an MSc in Security and Development from the University of Bristol and a PhD on Security, Identity and Peacebuilding from the University of Warwick. Before her academic career at Warwick and Exeter Universities, where she taught World Politics and International Principles of Business respectively, Ilke worked as a project coordinator, project developer, consultant and facilitator for CSO and SME projects in partnership with UN and EU agencies as well as a consultant for polling companies in Cyprus. She co-authored and coordinated myriad peacebuilding programmes such as The Civil Society Dialogue, Cyprus Community Media Centre, Access Info Cyprus, Play for Peace and ENGAGE Do Your Part for Peace. Ilke, who joined SeeD as a Senior Security Researcher in 2016 served as the Head of Programmes and Field Operations between 2017 and 2021, overseeing SeeD's global programmes and research efforts. In 2021, Ilke transitioned into the role of Head of Partnerships & Growth, and in 2023 she became the Director General. Ilke is still responsible for partnership and growth of the organisation and leading SeeDs growth together with the rest of the senior directors.
Contact email: dagli@seedsofpeace.eu
Alexander Guest
Senior Director of Research
Alexander is passionate about quantitative research for more informed peacebuilding and evidence-based policy-making. To that end, Alexander has led the design of numerous research processes in Africa, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe. These research processes aim to fill evidence gaps and inform peace-processes and development decision-making with rigorous data. He has investigated how violent tendencies emerge in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Caribbean, and what can be done to mitigate cycles of violence. He is interested in how civic behaviour is honed by individual, structural and contextual factors, and how resilience analyses can uncover protective factors against violence, instability or food insecurity. In the past, Alexander has worked in astronomy, media analysis and wooden toy-making. His past research includes analysis of observational data from the CHANDRA X-ray space telescope and of textual data from Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot newspaper articles about the Syrian refugee crisis, which strove to introduce quantitative methods to the humanities. He strongly believes in spreading methods and skills with a new generation of peacebuilder-researcher-practitioners in conflict affected countries, both within and outside SeeD.
Contact email: guest@seedsofpeace.eu
Eliana Christoforou
Head of Operations
Eliana Christoforou is a result oriented, goal driven professional with over 25 years of experience in Administrative & Operations Management. Eliana holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations, postgraduate studies in Communications and a master’s degree in business administration. She was a ground operation executive in the Airline industry and carries the experience of operations & administration in Academia.
Contact email: eliana@seedsofpeace.eu
Chara Kazakeou
Head of Finance
Senior accountant for two decades responsible to supervise financial activities within the company, perform budget investigation and prognosis, and maintain general ledger. Able to manage teams of accountants and support them in daily tasks. Member of the internal audit team, able to evaluate internal processes, identify weaknesses and recommend new controls to improve procedures with the aim to achieve effective and efficient operations.
Contact email: kazakeou@seedsofpeace.eu
Marian Machlouzarides
Analytics Team Lead
Marian Machlouzarides completed her BSc in Pharmacology and MSc in Biochemical Engineering at University College London. She has worked in health systems strengthening at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in Geneva and as a data analyst at Cancer Research UK. This sparked her interest in using evidence-based practices in development, leading her to SeeD. Marian first joined SeeD as a data analyst, and soon took on broader research responsibilities including contributing to research design and co-authoring publications in Ukraine and Bosnia. In 2021, Marian became the Analytics Team Lead, responsible for coordinating all quantitative analysis processes and data analysts across the organisation.
Contact email: machlouzarides@seedsofpeace.eu
Tornike Zurabashvili
Regional Team Lead for Eastern Europe and Caucasus
Tornike Zurabashvili is a Tbilisi-based researcher with an in-depth understanding of political, economic and security developments in Georgia and the wider Black Sea region. At various times, he has contributed his research to leading think tanks, civil society organisations and online outlets, both in Georgia and abroad. Tornike also possesses extensive experience of developing, managing, and implementing multi-component democracy assistance programs in Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Tbilisi State University (International Affairs), and master’s degrees from Ilia State University (Public Administration) and Trinity College Dublin (Political Science). He is currently pursuing a PhD in Political Science at Tbilisi State University.
Contact email: tornike@seedsofpeace.eu
Dr. Bertrand Baldet
Regional Team Lead for West Africa
Bertrand holds a PhD in Sociology from the University Toulouse Capitole, where he focused on flood risk management and adopted a multidisciplinary approach that married sociological and political science approaches to better understand and investigate environmental conflicts and environmental public policies. His research covers various topics such as resilience approaches, poverty traps, large-scale land appropriation, sustainable livelihood framework, climate change stakes, smart and sustainable agriculture practices and natural resource management. Bertrand joined SeeD in 2018 to help design measurement metrics to better understand the effect of environmental challenges on social cohesion and peace-building before transitioning into the senior researcher role for Cote d’Ivoire and West Africa efforts.
Contact email: baldet@seedsofpeace.eu
Abdon Dominique Koko
Africa Programme Specialist
Abdon has an MSc from the Ritsumeikan University (Japan), which focused on the relationship between social capital and economic development. Passionate about evidence-based thinking, he regularly publishes on local economic dynamics to contribute to informed and sustainable local development initiatives in Ivory Coast. He is an active member of the Ivoirian civil society, where he leads multiple civic initiatives that work on democracy, civic behaviour and livelihoods. His conviction that strong and resilient social cohesion and peace is essential for sustainable development led him to SeeD. Since 2019, he has been working on SCORE efforts focused on violence prevention and education reform.
Contact email: koko@seedsofpeace.eu
Dr. Orestis Panayiotou
Programme Design Expert and Project Manager
Orestis holds a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Kent, where he focused on the cognitive and motivational underpinnings of envisioning positive social change. Throughout his academic studies Orestis has been involved in a number of research projects focusing on social identity processes and their role in civic engagement. Before joining SeeD he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Polish Academy of Sciences investigating political polarisation in Europe. His interest in applied social research has led him to join the SeeD family as a data analyst.
Contact email: panayiotou@seedsofpeace.eu
Dr. Kateryna Ivashchenko-Stadnik
Senior Research Consultant for Eastern Europe
Kateryna is a multidisciplinary researcher with degrees in History (Donetsk State University), Sociology (Central European University, Prague and Warsaw) and International Development (University of London). She joined SeeD in 2020 as Project Coordinator and Researcher, focusing on SeeD's research in Azov Sea Area. Between 2022 - 2023, Katya served as the Country Team Lead for SeeD's Ukraine portfolio. Before joining SeeD she was a Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Sociology (Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences) and the Ukrainian team lead and country expert within a number of international research projects. In the 2000s she worked as a Social Policy Advisor in UNDP, Ukraine. As a parallel professional track, Kateryna has also spent several years in film production and distribution (Arthouse Traffic, SOTA Cinema Group) and was a magazine editor (The Ukrainian: Life and Culture). She is an alumna of the Aspen Institute Kyiv (Responsible Leadership Program).
Contact email: ivashchenko@seedsofpeace.eu
Valeriu Dragalin
Research Coordinator
Valeriu is a researcher and facilitator from Moldova passioned about public policy, organizational development, strategic development, advocacy and citizen participation. He has a M.L in Law from the Moldova State University (Chișinău) and a M.A in Public Policy and Public Management from the University of East Anglia (Norwich). In the past he was the president of the National Youth Council of Moldova (CNTM) and worked in the legal development sector.
Contact email: valeriu@seedsofpeace.eu
Daniel Martinez
Social Cohesion Researcher
Daniel has worked with humanitarian aid organisations focused on delivering relief to immigrants, refugees and internally displaced people in Mexico. He has also volunteered in a summer programme teaching children in Mexico’s rural communities, and in a summer camp for Saharawi refugee children with disabilities in Italy. Due to his humanitarian efforts, Daniel was awarded with the 2019 Municipal Youth Award for Social Action by the Municipal Government of Querétaro. Before joining the team, Daniel served as an intern in the Generations for Peace Institute, in Amman, Jordan, supporting research on the Youth, Peace and Security agenda. He holds a B.A. in International Relations from Tecnológico de Monterrey, and a Master’s Degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University.
Contact email: martinez@seedsofpeace.eu
Charalambos Nicolaou
Operations Officer & Executive Administrator
Charalambos Nicolaou is a goal-driven, detail-oriented professional with extensive experience in educational administration. Charalambos holds a bachelor's degree in Sports Studies and a Master's degree in Business Administration. He has served as an Examination Officer at the University of Nicosia Medical School, where he has honed his skills in academic operations and administration.
Contact email: nicolaou@seedsofpeace.eu
Ashraf Saleem
Administration & Operations Officer
Ashraf is a multi-disciplinary practitioner and researcher. He completed his MSc in Healthcare Organizations Management, and he holds a BSc in Psychology. His research interests focus on burnout and organization psychology concepts and their application in civil society organizations. Ashraf aims to conceptualize a model to identify and treat burnout in CSOs worldwide. Ashraf has been involved in civil society efforts since 2015. Between 2020 and 2023, he served as the Executive Head of VOIS Cyprus, a CSO advocating for the rights of international students, managing a team of over 120 volunteers. Ashraf has significant experience and skills in project management, administration, organizational development, HR and in graphic design spanning seven years.
Contact email: saleem@seedsofpeace.eu
Solomiia Myronovych
Data Analyst
Solomiia has an MA in sociology from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and a BA in social work from the Ukrainian Catholic University. During the last five years, she worked as a quantitative analyst and gained extensive experience in collecting and analysing data from various sources. Her current research interests include quantitative data analysis methods and developing holistic research approaches to studying issues that can help foster peaceful and democratic societies. Solomiia believes that only multi-faceted studies can provide a sufficiently comprehensive understanding of complex problems and suggest meaningful ways to solve them. This is especially important when it comes to peace, development and democratisation.
Contact email: myronovych@seedsofpeace.eu
Mehmet Korkut
Data Analyst
Mehmet completed his BSc in Economics at Middle East Technical University, where he also worked as an Econometrics teaching assistant, and wrote his dissertation on the pro-environmental consumption behaviour of Cypriots. He has an MSc in Economics with a Specialisation in Data Science at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, where his thesis focussed on the Impact of Temperature Rise on Electricity Consumption of Nordic Countries. Mehmet previously worked at the Cyprus Dialogue Forum, where he contributed to data analysis and research processes for the Labour Market project, which aimed to create a fact-based dialogue on the Labour Market across the island. Mehmet's interests include latest trends in data science, environmental statistics and sport analytics. Mehmet also actively competes in triathlon and marathon swimming races.
Contact email: korkut@seedsofpeace.eu
Pavlo Sereda
Data Analyst
Pavlo completed his master's degree in sociology at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine. He continued his scientific and academic career trajectory with a PhD in Sociology in the same institution, where he gained experience as a teaching assistant. His academic interests focus on health inequality, social capital, and Pierre Bourdieu's theory. Pavlo is a strong believer of self-growth, and devotes a lot of time to self-education, in particular to improving his data analysis skills, such as multidimensional analysis techniques and social network analysis. Before joining SeeD he worked in different research and polling organisations in Ukraine where he contributed to research and data analysis processes.
Contact email: sereda@seedsofpeace.eu
Kando Serge Gbagbeu
Data Analyst
Kando Serge holds a PhD in economics at Kyonggi University (South Korea) which focused on the relationship between economic transformation and economic growth in Africa. He has previously a Master degree in applied economics at the Interuniversity Graduate Program (Côte d’Ivoire). He is passionate about quantitative and qualitative research and policy advice for positive change in Africa. Before joining the SeeD’s Team as Data Analyst, his has been working as independent researcher in economic transformation and related thematic areas.
Contact email: serge@seedsofpeace.eu
Sonia Dasse
Data Analyst
Sonia holds an Advanced Post Graduate Degree in Development Economics from Félix Houphouet Boigny University of Abidjan (Ivory Coast), and is preparing a doctorate thesis in Economics. She has been working in a think tank in Ivory Coast for more than three years in research projects implemented in the country and in Burkina Faso and Kenya. She has previous experience in working as a Researcher in international research projects, in quantitative data analysis, Randomized Controlled Trial and Policy impact analysis. She would like her work to contribute towards more innovative and sustainable solutions, for a more equitable and inclusive society where peace and social cohesion reign.
Contact email: dasse@seedsofpeace.eu
Viktoriia Kharchenko
Data Analyst
Viktoriia holds a Bachelor degree in Sociology from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, complemented by exchange programs at Otto Von Guericke University Magdeburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen. Before joining SeeD, Viktoriia interned at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, where she utilised research-driven approaches to support strategic planning and strengthen the ministry's international communication. Her research interests include the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, social inclusion, and equity in access to fundamental human rights and services. Viktoriia believes that to prevent conflicts and build resilient, peaceful societies, a fundamental step is to actively engage diverse voices in decision-making processes and address systemic inequalities
Contact Email: kharchenko@seedsofpeace.eu
Nadiia Novosolova
Researcher
Nadiia completed her Master’s degree in Sociology at Lund University, Sweden. Before joining SeeD she worked in international NGOs in Sweden and Ukraine where she assisted with research activities, event coordination and internal policy development. Her academic and professional background encompasses women’s political participation, civil society and international development. Nadiia first joined SeeD as Ukraine programme assistant, and in 2021 became a junior researcher supporting multiple research processes and training with the methods team at the HQ in Nicosia.
Contact email: novosolova@seedsofpeace.eu
Orest Biloskurskiy
Researcher
Orest is a media expert with extensive experience in research and audience analysis. Over the years, he has developed and implemented a range of advanced research methodologies across Ukraine, with a particular focus on understanding complex social processes and media dynamics. Orest has played a key role in organizing and launching research initiatives, including founding and leading the Strategic Marketing and Research Center, where he led multi-component projects aimed at driving social change. In addition to his practical work, Orest has contributed to academia, having previously taught sociology at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, helping to shape the next generation of researchers. He is passionate about applying research insights to real-world challenges, providing organizations with the tools to understand their audiences and navigate evolving social contexts.
Contact Email: orest@seedsofpeace.eu
Selin Uretici
Researcher
Coming from an interdisciplinary academic background Selin joined SeeD as a researcher. She a Bachelor's degree in Politics, Psychology, Law, and Economics (PPLE) and have earned a Master's in Political Theory from the University of Amsterdam. Her Master’s thesis focused on the ethical aspects of artificial intelligence and policy discourses surrounding AI accountability. Selin has practical experience gained through internships with non-governmental organisations in Cyprus, including the Refugee Rights Association and the Civil Society Initiative. Selin’s research interests span protest movements, political polarisation, and technological ethics, reflecting a commitment to addressing contemporary societal challenges.
Contact email: selin@seedsofpeace.eu
Nino Samsonidze
Partnership and Growth Officer
Nino has over 7 years’ experience in supporting CSOs operating in the field of development, in Georgia and internationally. She worked as a project assistant in Civil Society Institute during 2017-2020, where she conducted extensive desk research, created analytical materials centred on citizens' participation mechanisms and participatory democracy and co-authored Citizens’ Participation Guidebook for Municipalities. She has a background in Political Science (BA) and International Relations (MA). She also completed her second Master's under the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master program in Transition, Innovation and Sustainability Environments – with a specialization in development and sustainability.
Contact email: nino@seedsofpeace.eu