Our collaborators

Alexandra Gil Taboas

Training and Knowledge Sharing and Business Development teams

alexandra.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Alexandra Gil Táboas is an independent consultant in the fields of cultural cooperation and project management, with an academic background in communications and EU International Relations. 

As a member of culture Solutions, she managed the team delivery of the webinar “Towards a sustainable cultural and creative industry in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries” for the ACP-EU programme regional CCI hubs. Also, as key expert in the “Global Thematic Evaluation of EU Public and Cultural Diplomacy” (2022) she provided research support to the team, particularly focusing on the analysis of the Cultural Diplomacy actions that were evaluated, EU Film Festivals (EUFF) and the Cultural Relations Platforms.

In 2020, she launched her own consulting firm, Implicarte. Amongst others, she has worked for UNESCO, the Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID), the Embassy of Spain in Senegal (where she co-managed EUNIC’s video mapping project “Dakar, carrefour de cultures”), FIIAPP, the European Commission, the Consulate General of Spain in Havana and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Alexandra is a native Spanish and Galician speaker, fluent in English, French and Portuguese. She lived and worked in Egypt, Cuba, Senegal, Panama, Belgium, France and Spain.

Ana Laura Martins

Special Assistant and Research team 

laura.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Ana Laura Martins is a young professional who recently completed her Master’s in Military History, which followed a degree in History (with a Minor in European Studies). Her academic interests focused on the socio-cultural and geopolitical fields. She is currently a Junior Collaborator at culture Solutions Europe, where she integrates the communications team, undertakes fundraising intelligence tasks and assists the board. Simultaneously, she is working at the General Library of the University of Coimbra, where she directly assists the board and organizes cultural activities, such as series of debates, exhibitions and conferences. At the same time she manages their presence on social media and is in charge of bringing younger audiences and the Library closer. She is part of Ludi Conimbrigensis, a project that aims to provide children and teenagers with direct contact with Classical culture. She participated in a university program, buddy, helping international students settling in.

Ayşe Esra Kara

Communications team

ayse.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Ayşe Esra Kara holds a bachelor’s degree in law and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in European Union law. With 8 months of experience as a legal intern at Özçakar Law Firm, Ayşe has developed a strong foundation in the field. Fluent in Turkish and possessing good language skills in both English and German, she is dedicated to expanding her expertise in the realm of European Union cultural studies.

Celia Zayas

Training and Knowledge Sharing and Research teams

celia.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Celia is interested in the intersections of intercultural dialogue, culture and human rights. Her experience at the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe and the EU External Action Service approached her to understand the potential for culture for a driving social change, especially linked to gender equality and human rights promotion, an area that she is currently developing working for the Spanish Development Agency (AECID), at the Spanish Cultural Centre of Malabo. She worked with culture Solutions on the development of a knowledge-sharing strategy for EU Delegations, and her area of research focuses on culture and decolonization.

She is a graduated on Political Science and Law from the Universidad de Granada and holds an MA on European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe. She also has experience in leading cultural projects and arts performance, particularly linked to photography and creative writing.

Elise Cuny 

Podcast team

elise.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Estela Vilanova Núñez

Who’s who and Research teams

estela.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Estela Vilanova Núñez is a young professional and junior collaborator at culture Solutions, where she conducts research on cultural heritage, cultural diplomacy and cultural policy in the EU’s external action. Estela currently works as a Cultural Assistant at the Spanish Embassy in France and has extensive professional experience in national and international organisations such as the Cervantes Institute, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, UNESCO and EUNIC.

Estela holds a Master of Arts in EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies from the College of Europe, where she majored in cultural diplomacy and EU-China cultural relations, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University Carlos III of Madrid.

Hiba Touihri

General Coordinator

hiba.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Hiba has graduated as an IT Engineer and is working as Project Management Officer (PMO), Project Management Consultant & IT consultant.

She has a solid experience in managing cultural, e-government and digital transformation projects within the Ministry of Cultural Affairs – British Council, the Ministry of Interior (Local Affairs) – GIZ, the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment – World Bank and the University of Tunis El Manar.

Her experience within Tfanen Tunisie Créative and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs allowed her to see the different facets and the richness of the cultural field and led her to better explore it.

Ina Kokinova

Web editor and Research team

ina.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Ina is in her last year of a double bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Protocol, Event Management and Corporate Communication. She is currently writing her thesis on the Cultural Diplomacy of the European Union with a special attention to the relations with China. Ina is in charge of culture Solutions’ web editing and also contributes to the communications and research teams. Her area of interest is digitalisation and internet and she recently carried out a research on UNESCO’s promotion of cultural diversity in the digital era as part of a specialisation at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.

Simultaneously, Ina is part of the association Equipo Europa which promotes the European values among the youth and fosters their political participation. At Equipo Europa Ina is the communications coordinator, the leader of the working group on European identity and a researcher in the working group on cyber security. After leaving her home in Bulgaria Ina has lived in Spain and the United Kingdom, and apart from fluency in Spanish and English, she also has an advanced level of Chinese and an intermediate of Russian and Italian.

Isabelle Van de Gejuchte

Research team

isabelle.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Isabelle has over 10 years of experience working in the field of cultural relations. She gained this experience through her work with the British Council, where she was responsible for the organisatio’ns engagement with European institutions and European networks. For six years, Isabelle served as the EUNIC Global focal point for the British Council, co-organising a series of activities with the network, including regional meetings, workshops, and online webinars. She was also a member of the Cultural Relations platform and More Europe-Global Cultural Relations, contributing to the strengthening of culture in external relations in Europe and beyond.

Over the past year, Isabelle has focused her work on the theme of arts and culture addressing climate change. She has recently developed and co-authored research for IETM (International Network for the Performing Arts) on the meaning and implications of climate justice for the performing arts on a global scale. Through literature analysis, global dialogues with arts professionals, and selected projects, the research highlights the contributions of performing arts in reshaping climate narratives, raising awareness, and engaging communities in climate action.

Isabelle holds a Ph.D. in social and political sciences from the European University Institute in Florence.

Nicole McNeilly

Training and Knowledge Sharing coordinator

nicole.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

As a researcher, evaluator, facilitator and project manager based in the Netherlands, hailing from Northern Ireland and with professional experience in regions including Russia, Europe, the UK and South Asia, Nicole McNeilly is an internationally-experienced cultural professional and a skilled intercultural communicator. Her strengths lie in policy, research and evaluation, and she has worked with organisations including the British Council, Arts Council England and Europeana Foundation. 

She has a unique sector perspective stemming from her training as a musician and composer and complemented by her later study on cultural policy and governance. In her MA, she investigated the role of equality legislation as implicit cultural policy in Northern Ireland’s post-conflict context. Nicole’s professional research interests lie across culture, the creative industries and heritage, and in contemporary debates around digitisation, accessibility, and equality and diversity. She is a regular contributor to Dutch and Russian contemporary art platforms.

Lilian Richieri Hanania

Research team 

lilian.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Lilian Richieri Hanania is an attorney (Paris Bar and São Paulo Bar), PhD in International Law (University Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne), an accredited mediator (CNMA) and a collaborative law practitioner. She graduated from the Law School of the University of São Paulo (USP – Brazil) in 2001 and obtained a master’s degree in International Economic Law in 2003 and a PhD in International Law in 2007, both from the University Paris 1. Her PhD thesis, publications and lectures address International Economic Law, International Law on Culture and Sustainable Development, with an emphasis on creative industries, new technologies and the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Besides her activity as an attorney in law firms and in-house since 2002, and a consultant in International Law since 2003, she worked as advisor-negotiator at the International Economic Affairs Division of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 3 years and taught International Law and International Relations at the University Paris 1 for 4 years. She currently teaches at Sciences Po Paris and at the University Paris Descartes. She founded her own law firm in 2017, where she works as an attorney, a consultant and a mediator.

Szilvia Nagy

Research team

szilvia.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com

Szilvia Nagy is a policy researcher, project manager and founder of Local Operators’ Platform (LOCOP), a network and research platform to facilitate dialogues between researchers, local operators and cultural practitioners. She is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations at Central European University, Vienna. Her research interests are at the junction of foreign policy and cultural policy and encompass global governance, external governance, relationality and orchestration. In her research approach, she builds on critical policy ethnography and interpretive policy analysis, and her expertise lies in cultural policy analysis; participatory approaches – especially participatory policy-making methods and participatory action research (PAR) –; community development and cultural sustainability. She has wide experience of working with civil society, international NGOs and local operators. She has also collaborated with and provided expertise for many European Capitals of Culture cities, EUNIC network projects and Goethe-Institut programmes. She has an education in photography and worked for several years as a curator of contemporary art.

Vana Filipovski

Business Development and Fundraising team

vana.culturesolutionseu@gmail.com