Luiza Jardim, Program Coordinator

Luiza Jardim, Program Coordinator

São Paulo, Brazil

Luiza supports People Powered’s capacity-building and community-building programs. She provides coordination support for capacity-building programs on inclusion, whilst coordinating and engaging the PP member community, fostering their participation in People Powered's capacity-building programs and organizational decision-making.

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Simone Julio

Simone Julio

Oficina | Faro, Portugal

Simone holds a degree in economics from the University of Porto, a master’s in tourism and urban culture from Escola Superior de Educação Hotelaria e Turismo of the University of Algarve and a certificate in macroeconomics from Birkbeck University of London.

At Oficina, she has dedicated a significant part of her time to the design, implementation and evaluation of participatory democracy processes – including participatory budgeting, citizen’s panels, neighborhood tutors, and territorial and institutional planning instruments, such as social charters, local housing strategies and the design of statistical observatories.

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Ana Paula Pimentel Walker

University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, United States

Ana Paula is an assistant professor in urban planning at the University of Michigan. She investigates how disenfranchised communities engage with urban governance and evaluates the significance of participatory institutions in planning socially and environmentally just cities.

She has a Ph.D. in anthropology, master’s degrees in urban planning and Latin American studies, and a law degree.

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Rocío Annunziata

CONICET - National University of San Martín | San Martín, Argentina

Rocío is an associate researcher for CONICET, based at the Political Research Institute of the National University of San Martín in Argentina. She also currently works as an adjunct professor of contemporary political theory at the University of Buenos Aires and as a professor of political science at the National University of San Martín.

In addition, Rocío directs the collection Contemporary Political Thought at Prometeo publishing house and is a member of the #NoSinMujeres Network of Political Scientists.

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Byungwoo Shine Cho

Konkuk University | Seoul, South Korea

B. Shine Cho is an assistant professor in the department of public administration at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea. Currently, he is working on a research project about post-COVID participatory budgeting.

Shine received a Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, a master’s of public administration from Georgia State University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in public administration from Yonsei University in Seoul.

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Carole Excell

Carole Excell

Waverley Street Foundation | Rockville, United States

Carole is strategy director at the Waverley Street Foundation, where she supports community-led climate solutions around the world. As an environmental lawyer, she works with civil society organizations, activists and governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean promoting environmental democracy and environmental justice, with a special focus on inclusive and equitable development.

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Nicolás Díaz Cruz, Co-President

Nicolás Díaz Cruz, Co-President

Extituto de Política Abierta | Bogotá, Colombia

Nicolás is executive director of Extituto de Política Abierta in Colombia, an organization that supports innovative practices to influence, occupy and inhabit decision-making spaces. It aims to make politics more open and democracy more solid, to redistribute power, and bring government closer to citizens.

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Aleksandra Ilijin

OPENS | Novi Sad, Serbia

Aleksandra works as a senior consultant for OPENS, a Serbian NGO that runs school participatory budgeting in Novi Sad and advocates for young people to be equally involved in the decision-making process. Currently, her focus is on developing a youth participatory budgeting program and incorporating PB into local and national youth strategy documents.

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Emiliano Arena

Argentine Association for Participatory Democracy | Buenos Aires, Argentina

Emiliano Arena holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Buenos Aires, and a specialization in management and control of public policies from the Latin American College of Social Sciences (FLACSO), Argentina. Currently, he is coordinator of monitoring and evaluation at the Center of Public Policy Implementation for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC).

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Jaroslav Dvorak

Klaipeda University | Klaipeda, Lithuania

Jaroslav Dvorak has worked as a professor and head of the Department of Public Administration and Political Sciences at Klaipeda University, Lithuania. He served as Klaipeda University’s representative at the Klaipeda region development council (2019-2021), and at the Klaipeda University Participatory Budget Lab, he promotes PB capacity building.

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Jared Abbott

Tulane University, Center for Inter-American Policy and Research | New Orleans, United States

Jared is a postdoctoral fellow with the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research at Tulane University. He is currently working on a book that explores the causes and effects of large-scale participatory institutions in Latin America. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

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Jarosław Olejniczak

Wroclaw University of Economics and Business | Wroclaw, Poland

Jarosław Olejniczak is an assistant professor in the Department of Finance at the Wroclaw University of Economics and Business.

Currently, he collaborates with researchers from Poland and the Czech Republic to examine the participation of young adults in local government activities, as well as citizen participation in rural areas.

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