BERNARD VAN LEER FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior People and Culture Officer
Job Titles:
- Director People and Culture
Contributing to a better world by sparking true conversations is Agnita's personal mission in her professional work as an organisational consultant and HR professional. As the Foundation's Director of People and Culture she is very happy to support all our team members to fully contribute to our mission. Her approach can be recognised by compassion for people, creating positive movement and a systemic perspective.
Agnita grew up on a boat, sailing around the world with her parents and sister. Her mother is a teacher, and her father a merchant shipping captain who insisted that his family come along on his travels. Her childhood taught her to look at people and situations with an open mind. She easily finds her way in different organisational cultures.
From 1995 to 1999 Agnita studied Public Administration at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, specialising in change management. Agnita has since been involved in many organisational changes. From 2007 to 2022 she worked as an entrepreneur, running her own consultancy business. Agnita's first encounter with Bernard van Leer Foundation was in 2013, when she supported maximising the team's potential by implementing changes in the Foundation's way of working.
After living in the centre of Rotterdam for years, Agnita moved to a village just south of Rotterdam in 2010. She is married to Marnix and mother of two daughters. Agnita loves being outdoors and practices yoga. She feels blessed to be able to live in line with what is true to her: connectivity, creativity and personal development.
Alexis is the Foundation's inhouse Digital Design Officer. He provides support on creative and visual communications across multiple disciplines, such as graphic design, video production, photography, illustration and animation. Alexis' approach focuses on synthetised and effective communication that also feels exciting and engaging. He keeps everything on-brand while exploring identity boundaries to identify opportunities and express all its playfulness.
Before joining the Foundation, Alexis engaged as a freelancer in as many different projects as possible to gain expertise and overall understanding of visual communications and branding. He studied filmmaking and took his passion around the world as a travel vlogger. After exploring different landscapes and engaging in humanitarian causes as a volunteer filmmaker, Alexis established himself in the Netherlands to apply all he learnt.
Born in Uruguay, Alexis moved to Spain at 7 years old, so he grew up with a capacity for adaptation and curiosity that keeps him passionate about getting to know other cultures, languages and people.
Job Titles:
- Programme Coordinator for Jordan
- Programme Coordinator Jordan
Alia studied Business Information Systems at the University of Jordan. She is a creative thinker with over eight years' experience in humanitarian and development work in Jordan, where most of her experience centres on emergency response for education. Before joining the Bernard van Leer Foundation in 2021, she worked as an Education Technical Officer in the Syrian Response Office at the Norwegian Refugee Council. She took the lead on digitising the Self Learning Programme, through which children can learn by themselves with the help of their caregivers where there is no access to schools.
Alia has also worked as an Employment and Partnership Senior Officer at the World University Services of Canada in Jordan on a national programme for women's economic empowerment, leading the employment team, with a focus on decent employment opportunities for graduates of early childhood care and development programmes. Through her work, Alia discovered her passion for children's healthy development and its impact on their lives and communities.
As Programme Coordinator for Jordan, Alia facilitates the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Bernard van Leer Foundation's investments in the country.
Job Titles:
- Lead, Programme Administrator
Alicia graduated in psychology, specialised in child development and learning difficulties, and started her career with ten years as a school psychologist for disadvantaged children in difficult neighbourhoods in Madrid. She also gained several years experience in programme administration support in Spain before joining the Foundation in 2003 as a Programme Administrator for various countries in Latin America, Israel and global investments. She now leads the Programme Administrators team at the Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Director Programme Support and Learning
Andrea has over 20 years of experience managing and implementing social public policies and programmes and over 10 years of experience in the early childhood development field. She holds a Masters degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of Chile, and a Master of Arts in International Child Studies from Kings College London.
Before joining the Foundation, she was the National Coordinator of Chile Crece Contigo ("Chile grows with you"), the comprehensive protection system for early childhood development, at the Ministry of Social Development from 2010 to 2012 and 2014 to 2018. She led a team in charge of implementing 12 national-level programmes, designing tools for local management and acting as the technical counterpart for the Ministries of Education, Health and Justice and private implementing partners. She has also worked for the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, providing technical assistance to various Latin American countries in early childhood development.
Job Titles:
- Programme Administrator Brazil
Beatriz is the Foundation's Programme Administrator for Brazil. With previous experiences in the education sector and managing social projects, Beatriz has worked with international organisations such as the Red Cross and SOS Children's Villages, working to strengthen support for children and young people. She is passionate about Latin American studies, especially in the area of childhood, and has participated in academic research on the topic.
Beatriz holds a Bachelor's in International Relations, with a specialisation in Latin American Studies and International Cooperation for Development, and she is a graduate in Social Responsibility in the Third Sector.
On the personal side, Beatriz was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and loves animals and nature.
Job Titles:
- People and Culture Officer
Blanca has been supporting Michael Feigelson with administration, research, writing and project management since 2017, and the Board of Trustees since 2019. She is a translator at heart who thrives providing operational support as part of interdisciplinary and multicultural teams working for a mission.
Originally from Spain, Blanca has lived in the UK and the Netherlands. Before joining Van Leer, she worked in translation and content editing, and more recently for the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an EU agency. She holds a BA in Translation and Interpreting (English, German and Italian) from Madrid's Universidad Pontificia Comillas, a MA in Human Rights from the University of Sussex, and is currently pursuing a degree in Law at UNED.
Job Titles:
- Communications and Knowledge Uptake Officer
Claudia Vidigal has worked to defend and promote the rights of children in Brazil for 20 years. She founded Fazendo História Institute, which is recognised for its innovative approach to alternative care for children separated from their parents.
Before joining the Foundation in 2019, her work spanned the private and public sector as well as civil society. She provided technical assistance to large companies on social investment, and served as National Secretary for the Rights of Children and President of the National Board for Children's Rights. She has been on the board of trustees of five organisations.
Claudia is a psychologist and has also studied business. Her role at the Foundation involves identifying opportunities for collaboration on the Urban95 and Parents+ strategies.
Daniella is responsible for developing and implementing a national strategy to improve opportunities for young children and families in Israel through partnerships with government, civil society, business and academia. She also leads on the Foundation's city-wide initiative for early child development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Daniella brings 25 years of wide-ranging experience in international development, managing social and economic programmes around the world. She has worked as an independent consultant for the World Bank, UN-HABITAT and UNIFEM, as well as corporations and NGOs. Her professional background has focused on designing and leading global, multi-stakeholder initiatives on children and youth in urban development, governance and peacebuilding. She is now applying her experience at the intersection of children and cities to implement the Foundation's Urban95 strategy in Israel and contribute to its strategic development internationally.
Daniella holds an MA in Political Science and International Relations from Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and a BA in Government and International Relations from Clark University, USA. She also holds an Executive Education Certificate from the London School of Economics (LSE Cities) on the governance, planning and design of global cities.
Darja is the Foundation's Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) expert. She provides MEL technical assistance to partners, with particular emphasis on utilisation-focused design, participatory evaluation, cost-effectiveness and capacity building. Darja encourages the team to listen first and is always on the lookout for innovative and lean MEL approaches that bring the voices of the communities we serve to the foreground.
Before joining the Foundation, Darja managed and implemented interdisciplinary projects across nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, gender and agriculture. She supported research, organisational governance strengthening and evaluation within NGOs, academic institutes and the UN, with projects across Europe, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Darja holds a PhD in nutrition from the University of Nottingham, a MSc in international development and sociology from the University of Edinburgh and a Bachelor's in developmental psychology from the University of Victoria.
Originally from Germany, Darja grew up in the Philippines which created a deep love of the ocean. She takes every chance possible to head on a scuba or free diving adventure. When on dry land, Darja can be found buried in books following her curiosity.
Job Titles:
- Programme Administrator Israel
Ellen Avraham joined the Bernard van Leer Foundation in 2022, after a long career in resource development in the non-profit world. She is passionate about social change and empowering marginalised communities. She has worked in development for a number of Israeli and international civil society organisations, including as Director of Resource Development at the Haifa Feminist Center and the Heschel Sustainability Center, and a senior team member at the AMIT Educational Network and the Joint Distribution Committee in both Israel and the former Soviet Union.
Born and raised in the United States, Ellen attended Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, earning a BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. She moved to Israel shortly after graduating and did an MA programme in Contemporary Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Ellen is an avid traveller: she has lived on three continents and visited over 35 countries, and looks forward to future journeys. She is also a licensed Israeli tour guide.
Job Titles:
- Lead, Knowledge Uptake and Communications
Job Titles:
- Senior Finance and Accounting Officer
Job Titles:
- Representative Mission Related Investments
Job Titles:
- Finance
- Investment Analyst
Job Titles:
- Senior Programme Administrator
Job Titles:
- Representative the Netherlands
Job Titles:
- Travel and Events Officer
Job Titles:
- Administrative Assistant to Programme Support and Learning
Job Titles:
- Representative Global Displacement
Job Titles:
- Programme Coordinator Israel
Job Titles:
- Programme Coordinator the Netherlands
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Job Titles:
- Control and Optimisation Officer
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to CEO
Job Titles:
- Finance and Accounting Officer
Job Titles:
- Programme Administrator India
Job Titles:
- Manager ICT and Facilities
Job Titles:
- Mayor of Boa Vista, Has Publicly Launched Our Urban95 Partnership in the City. You Can Read
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Job Titles:
- Senior Programme Coordinator Brazil
Job Titles:
- Director Finance and Investment