PARTICIPANTS

More than 15 representatives of institutions, civil society organizations, international organizations, cultural institutions, media and businesses will take part in the event on December 2. Here you will find a brief introduction of each of them.

Martina-Chapman
MARTINA CHAPMAN
MERCURY INSIGHTS







Martina Chapman is the national co-ordinator for Media Literacy Ireland. She is a consultant in media literacy policy, research and projects. She also served as a member of the Council of Europe CDMSI sub-committee on Quality Journalism in the Digital Age (MSI-JOQ), and is an Associate with Wagner-Hatfield. In 2013, Martina established Mercury Insights to provide specialist advice and guidance to a range of organisations including public service media, national regulatory authorities, research and public policy organisations.




CHRISTINA DE BRUIN
UNICEF





Christina de Bruin represents UNICEF in Bulgaria and is assigned as UN Designated Official for Bulgaria. She has been working for the UN as an international civil servant for over 20 years. Ms. De Bruin is responsible for the UNICEF partnership with the Government, the private sector, civil society, children and other partners to implement, monitor and evaluate the UNICEF Country Programme in the country. Between 2017 and 2021 she was a Deputy Director of the UNICEF Office for relations with EU Institutions. She holds Master of Science in Public Administration from the Leiden University and has a certificate in Executive Education, Leading and Scaling Early Childhood Initiatives from Harvard University.


martin-kothe
MARTIN KOTHE
FNF FOR FREEDOM







Martin Kothé is the Director for Bulgaria of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom was the first German political foundation, which supported the process of democratic transition of Bulgaria immediately after the fall of the Iron curtain in 1990. For 25 years now, the foundation was actively involved in the promotion of the rule of law, good governance, the market economy, and human rights.






KRISTINA HRISTOVA
MEDIA LITERACY COALITION




Kristina Hristova is the President of the Media Literacy Coalition and one of the founders of the Association of European Journalists-Bulgaria, which she led between 2010 and 2016. Until September 2018 she was the Director of the Centre for Culture and Debate "Red House" and since 2021 she has been the Project Manager of Factcheck.bg. For her work as a journalist on European current affairs she has been awarded three times by the Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria with the Robert Schuman Award in the category of Internet Media. She studied International Relations in Sofia, Political Science and Political Sociology in Paris.




PETYA DYULGEROVA
FNF FOR FREEDOM









Petya Dyulgerova is Programme Coordinator for Bulgaria and Macedonia at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and co-editor of the periodical "Black Book of Government Waste in Bulgaria". She graduated from the University of Economics in Varna, the Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany and BRIE - Ruse.







JOANNA MARINOVA
MEDIA LITERACY COALITION




Yoanna Marinova is a member of the Media Literacy Coalition Board and Executive Director of the Lachezar Tsotzorkov Foundation. She graduated in International Relations and Economics from the University of Toronto and Harvard Management Program. She is a recipient of the Harvard Harbus Prize for Excellence in Journalism and Education, the United Nations Award from the Universal Forum of Cultures in Spain, and was honored by the State of Massachusetts for her work with youth. In 2016, she returned to Bulgaria to invest her expertise to the development of the NGO sector in her home country. Ioanna is also a member of the Board of the Bulgarian Donors Forum.




PANELISTS

Natalia_Miteva_C
NATALIA MITEVA
TELELINK BUSINESS SERVICES







Natalia Miteva is Education and Social Impact Manager at Telelink Business Services and a member of the Commission for Innovations at the Ministry of Education and Science. Prior to joining Telelink, she was Program Director for Good Education and Work Skills at the America for Bulgaria Foundation for nearly 10 years. She actively works with Columbia University in New York in the field of effective teaching technologies. Natalia holds a master's degree in public policy from the University of Maryland in the United States and specialized in Impact Assessment at the World Bank's Assessment Department.


daniel_F
DANIEL KIRYAKOV
CENTER FOR ANALYSIS AND
CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS







Daniel Kiryakov, PMP, is Communications and Institutional Relations Manager at the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria. He has over 15 years of experience in communications, CSR and institutional relations, aquired in the energy sector. He is a member of BDVO and EACD. Chairman of the Ethics Commission at BDVO (2016 - 2020), co-founder of the Center for Analysis and Crisis Communications. The center provides analyzes and forecasts for communication crises, assessment of potential communication risks, recommendations for establishing procedures for prevention and response in case of crisis.


ambassador-Herro-Mustafa
H. E. HERRO MUSTAFA
U.S EMBASSY SOFIA




H. E. Herro Mustafa was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador to the Republic of Bulgaria on September 26, 2019. She worked in the Office of the Vice President from 2009-2011, providing counsel on issues related to the Middle East and South and Central Asia. Prior to joining the State Department, Ambassador Mustafa was an International Elections Supervisor with the OSCE in Bosnia. She is the recipient of notable awards from the State Department, including the Matilda W. Sinclaire Award for superior achievement in a foreign language. She speaks Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Greek, among other languages.H.E. Mustafa participated in the national conference "Media Literacy in Bulgaria. What have we learned from the crisis?" organized by the Media Literacy Coalition and the Friedrich Naumann Freedom Foundation in 2020.

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IVAN RADEV
CHRONICLES OF INFODEMIA







Ivan Radev is a member of the Management Board of the Association of European Journalists-Bulgaria and leader of the projects "Media Literacy in the Classroom" and "Chronicles of Infodemia" - a multimedia project that covers the various attacks on the truth. He has over 10 years of journalistic practice. Ivan graduated in Balkan Studies at Sofia University and closely monitors the development of societies in Southeast Europe. For five years he was a correspondent for Bulgaria of the Romanian national news agency Agerpress.




RalitsaKovacheva
RALITSA KOVACHEVA
FACTCHECK.BG





Ralitsa Kovacheva is a doctor of journalism and an assistant professor in international journalism at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”. Her research interests are in the European Union, international politics, and disinformation. Ralitsa Kovacheva has many years of journalistic experience. She has published three books and numerous scientific articles and has worked as a journalist at Bulgarian National Television and FM Plus radio, published in various online media, and is one of the founders of RE: TV and BiT. Editor-in-Chief of the site Factcheck.bg.




Axenia-Boneva-MK
AXENIA BONEVA
MINISTRY OF CULTURE




Axenia Boneva is an expert in the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Culture in the field of audiovisual policy. She is a member and representative of Bulgaria in the Audiovisual Working Group of the Council of the EU, which considers and adopts legislative initiatives related to European media policy. Ms. Boneva is a representative for Bulgaria in the Working Group "Media Literacy" at the EC and heads Working Group 18 "Policy in the field of culture and audiovisual" at the Council for European Affairs, as well as the Expert Council on Media Literacy at the Ministry of Culture. She has many years of experience as a production manager at Radio FM +. Ms. Boneva is also a member of the Public Council for Safe Internet.



miroluba
MIROLUBA BENATOVA
JOURNALIST, LECTOR




For over 20 years, her mission as a journalist has been to tell exciting stories, reveal important details, introduce interesting people, ask questions, deal with conflicts, and defend positions. Ms. Benatova has won dozens of awards, including the Grand Prize "Chernorizets Hrabar" for investigative journalism, the Grand Prize "Valya Krushkina - Journalism for People", and the Grand Prize for Journalism "Saint Vlas". She has worked for 168 Hours, BTV and Nova TV, and her articles have been published in L’EUROPEO, Manager, EGOIST. Shee is lecturing in documentary cinema at NBU, has three participations as a lecturer at TEDx in Bulgaria, and conducts trainings for elderly people at the Coalition for Media Literacy.



Angel-Znam
ANGEL GEORGIEV
ZNAM.BE, SOFTUNI




Angel Georgiev has many years of experience as a technical trainer and product presenter. He has trained in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Since 2014 it is part of the education in software engineering in our country. At the time of joining the Media Literacy Coalition in 2020, he was in charge of the internal training and development program at Musala Soft. Since the spring of 2021, he has been part of the SoftUni team, where he leads the strategic development of professional programs - Software University, SoftUni Digital, and SoftUni Creative. Angel is a teacher of programming and information technology at school, conducts trainings for teachers and children on projects of the Media Literacy Coalition and is the founder of Znam.be.


Antoaneta-Vasileva-2
ANTOANETA VASSILEVA
SAFER INTERNET BULGARIA




Antoaneta Vassileva is a member of the Management Board of the Media Literacy Coalition, coordinator of the Online Safety Advisory Line 124 123 and head of the Digital Media Literacy Program at the Parents Association, part of the National Center for Safer Internet. She has more than 18 years of experience in the field of risk prevention and support for children and women, and protection of their rights, as well as in the development of policies to combat trafficking in human beings, protection and support of victims of trafficking and cybercrime. Ms. Vasileva is the Bulgarian representative and First Vice-President of the Council of Europe's Anti-Trafficking Expert Group (GRETA).



VESISLAVA ANTONOVA
JOURNALIST, NCJE



Vesislava Antonova is a journalist with 25 years of experience. She has worked in the Horizon programme of the Bulgarian National Radio, where she has gone through all levels of development - from reporter and editor to host of programmes. For the last 16 years she has been working as a journalist at the Bulgarian newspaper Capital. "In mid-2021, she joined the editorial team of the "Manager" magazine as Editor-in-Chief. She graduated in journalism at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication of Sofia University, holds a PhD in Public Communication and Information Science from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", and has two journalism specializations in Italy and the USA. Since 2014, Dr. Antonova has been a member of the National Council on Journalistic Ethics.


MIHAIL OKOLIYSKI
WHO BULGARIA






Prof. Dr. Mihail Okoliyski has been an expert at the World Health Organization Office in Bulgaria since 2014. He graduated in Social Therapy in 1995 from the Humboldt University in Berlin and received his PhD from the same university in 1998. For fifteen years he worked at the Center for Public Health and Analysis. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Okoliyski participated in numerous seminars in Europe, Asia and the USA. He is the author of dozens of papers and publications presented in Bulgarian and international scientific journals. Prof. Dr. Okoliyski also teaches students at Southwestern University.




MARIA CHERESHEVA
AEJ, SCOOL MEDIA




Maria Cheresheva works as a freelance journalist, hosts the show "Who Speaks" on Darik Radio and is editor-in-chief of the national online platform for student journalism Scoolmedia. Maria Cheresheva started her career in 2008 at the European portal of Dnevnik.bg, and since then she has worked with numerous Bulgarian and international publications - Balkan Insight, OCCRP, ZDF, Deutsche Welle, BBC, Ethical Journalism Network, etc. Her work focuses on topics such as migration, human rights, social and political issues. She is a board member and one of the founders of the Association of European Journalists - Bulgaria (AEJ).





SPASKA TARANDOVA
GLOBAL LIBRARIES FOUNDATION BULGARIA


Spaska Tarandova is Executive Director of the Global Libraries Foundation - Bulgaria. All her professional experience is related to libraries, their development and modernization. She has specialized in the USA and is part of the International Group for Innovation in Public Libraries (INELI) of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is a member of the IFLA Public Libraries Section Standing Committee and of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association Board. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the journal BBIA Online. Ms. Tarandova is one of the founders of the campaign to promote children's reading "Fun Summer Reading" and an active participant in the "Read with Me" campaign. She is the initiator of the Early Childhood Development Room at the Metropolitan Library and an adult trainer with over 10 years of experience.


VEHBIE BALIEVA
NCC CHITALISHTE-2021




Vehbie Baliyeva has a PhD and is lecturing in Modern Bulgarian Language at the University of Veliko Tarnovo "St. St. Cyril and Methodii". She is a long-time teacher of bilingual children and has developed a model of the bilingual language personality. She has a background in psychology and philology and is bilingual in Bulgarian and Turkish. Dr. Baliyeva is a librarian-specialist at the Regional Library "P.R. Slaveykov" in Veliko Tarnovo and is the president of the newest community center in the city - "Svetlina-2021". She is also part of the Svetlina Educational Group in Sofia






GEORGI PARVANOV
EVERGREEN TALENTS 55+




Georgi Parvanov is a partner in Evergreen Talents 55+ - a multifunctional web platform for recruitment, specialized training for IT skills and innovation, psychological and motivational training, hobbies, personal finance management and entrepreneurship. He has more than 20 years of international experience in all areas of human resource management. In 2000, Mr. Parvanov founded the HR company Consulteam, which has grown to become one of the largest companies in the field in Central and Eastern Europe. He has become a representative in a number of national markets of leading global HR organizations such as Mercer, Tack, TMI, Thomas, Erickson College, Panoramic Feedback, etc. In 2015, he launched a new project - CTeam, and since May 2016 he has been a member of the Board of the Bulgarian HR Association.



TATYANA PREDOVA
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
ADN SCIENCE








Tatiana Predova has a Master's degree in Psychology and a PhD in Adult Psychology. She gained her professional experience in the education system. One of the policies she works on in her professional activity is the protection of children's rights. Since 2010, she has been working at the Ministry of Education and Science as a state expert in the Inclusive Education Directorate.






YANA PEEVA
TEEN STATION







Yana Peeva joined the independent youth media Teen Station in January 2020 and has since written about music and culture as a freelance journalist. Since November 2021 she has been part of the editorial team of some of the projects of Teen Station. She graduated from the American College in Sofia in May 2021 and since then has been looking for the right field and realization.







EKATERINA RUSEVA
SCHOLO ACADEMY







Ekaterina Ruseva is the head of Shkolo Academy in Shkolo.bg - school software No.1 in Bulgaria. She deals with trainings for pedagogical specialists with a focus on innovative teaching methods. Since 2015 she has been working in the field of educational projects with an emphasis on social and emotional learning. Ekaterina holds a Master's degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the Complutense University in Madrid.