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.

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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

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Alexander Guest

Senior Director of Research

After working in astronomy, media analysis and wooden toy-making, Alexander has turned his attention to quantitative research and data analysis. His past work 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. Alexander is exploring the use of new data streams from both traditional and social media into SeeD’s work. He is passionate about quantitative research, data analysis and visualisation, political engagement and activism, and Cypriot rapprochement.

Contact email: guest@seedsofpeace.eu

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Nicos Florides

Chief Financial Officer

Nicos studied Public and Business Administration at the University of Cyprus, he is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and an ICAEW Business and Finance Professional with more than 20 years of professional experience in a multinational environment.

He worked in Cyprus, Middle East, and Africa, offering services and undertaking managerial roles in the Finance Function, such as the role of the Financial Controller, Head of Financial Reporting and Senior Financial Advisor.

Contact email: nicos@seedsofpeace.eu

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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

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Tornike Zurabashvili

Regional Team Lead

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

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Dr. Bertrand Baldet

Regional Team Lead 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

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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

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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 in partnership with Interpeace, INDIGO, UNICEF and the EU.

Contact email: koko@seedsofpeace.eu

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Ruslan Minich

Senior Researcher

Ruslan has a Master in World Politics and International Relations from the University of Pavia, Italy. He speaks Ukrainian, English, Italian, and Russian. In SeeD, Ruslan’s work focuses primarily on Transforming Communications Activity in Ukraine, while at the same time he supports SeeD’s work in on Democratic Governance in the East and Azov Sea Area Resilience. His focus research areas include EU integration, international relations, peace and conflict studies, public policies, border and migration management, and media. Ruslan’s previous work experience includes policy analysis, research, project management, journalism, and TV programmes production.

Contact email: minich@seedsofpeace.eu

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Dr. Orestis Panayiotou

Data Analyst & Researcher

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

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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

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Mirka Petrou

Financial Officer

Mirka Petrou is a Slovakian who has been living in Cyprus for more as 15 years and she lives with her family in Nicosia.

After graduation on a Business academy in Martin she started work for Slovak Insurance company as a front office assistant. Later she joined Vienna insurance group at Poistovna Slovenskej sporitelne as a technical underwriter.

After she reached LCCI higher diploma in accounting her accounting professional carrier has begun.

Today, she has over 10 years of experience in accounting field, which helped her achieve knowledge in accountancy.

Her commitment at recent job position is to assist with the different tasks of finance department.Mirka is an honest hardworking and trustworthy person. When she is not working, Mirka enjoys reading Slovak and foreign literature, watches movies and likes to travel.

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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

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Daniel Martinez

Social Cohesion Researcher

Daniel has volunteered and worked in humanitarian aid organisations focused on delivering relief to immigrants, refugees and internally displaced people in Mexico. During his experience, he engaged in different stages of humanitarian aid, ranging from providing first hand assistance, to research, funding, human rights advocacy and project management.

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

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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

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Dariia Synhaievska

Junior Researcher/Project Coordinator

Dariia holds a B.A. in Political Science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine, and she is currently pursuing M.A. in the same field and institution.
Advocating the importance of civil society in political process, she has become Serhiy Ryabov laureate with paper «A vicious circle of Ukrainian civil and non-civil society confrontation».
Meanwhile, she is engaged in fellowship at CEU researching political culture of Ukraine. She also has a demonstrated track of working with the CSO, governmental structures, and media.

Contact emaidaria@seedsofpeace.eu

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Ashraf Saleem

Administration & Operations Officer

Ashraf Saleem is a multi-disciplinary and dynamic practitioner and researcher. Currently pursuing an MSc in Healthcare Organizations Management, 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 since 2015. Over four years, he volunteered in VOIS Cyprus, a CSO advocating for the rights of international students, eventually becoming Executive Head of VOIS Cyprus in 2020, managing a team of over 120 volunteers. Ashraf has significant experience and skills in project management, leadership, administration, organizational development, and HR.

In addition to his role in civil society and research interests, Ashraf has significant expertise in graphic design spanning seven years.

Contact email: saleem@seedsofpeace.eu

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Selin Uretici

Junior Researcher and Operations Officer

Coming from an interdisciplinary academic background Selin is a junior researcher/operations officer at SeeD. 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.

During her Master’s thesis Selin aimed to answer questions 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 focus spans protest movements, political polarisation, and technological ethics, reflecting a commitment to addressing contemporary societal challenges.

Contact email: selin@seedsofpeace.eu

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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

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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. Mehmet then completed his 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 as a Data Analyst, where he contributed to data analysis and research processes for the Labour Market project, which aimed to create a common understanding and fact-based dialogue on the Labour Market of the Turkish- and Greek-Cypriot communities. Mehmet's experience in data analytics and research lead him to the SeeD family as a Data Analyst. His current main aim is to make a positive impact on sustainable peace and social cohesion by using his experience and skills. Mehmet has always been an active learner of different topics in Data Science, and his areas of interest are Peacebuilding, Behavioral Sciences, Environmental Statistics and Sport Analytics. Mehmet also actively competes in triathlon and marathon swimming races.

Contact email: korkut@seedsofpeace.eu

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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

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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

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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

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Nino Samsonidze

Intern

Ms. Samsonidze has over 7 years’ experience in supporting the CSOs operating in the field of development, on the international and local level. Nino was the project assistant of the previous CSSIGE project in Civil Society Institute during 2017-2020.

Her expertise extends to encompass a diverse spectrum of activities, including extensive desk research and the creation of analytical materials centered on citizens' participation mechanisms and participatory democracy. She is a co-author of the Citizens’ Participation Guidebook for Municipalities.

She has a background in Political Science (BA) and International Relations (MA). Currently, in the framework of Erasmus Mundus Joint Master program she is pursuing her second Master’s Degree in Transition, Innovation and Sustainability Environments – with a specialization in development and sustainability.

Contact email: nino@seedsofpeace.eu