Corina Pirvulescu has over 12 years of experience in youth programmes and electoral engagement of young voters in Romania, USA and at European level. Over the years, she had different roles, starting as a youth representative and continuing as a professional, advising public institutions, international organizations and co-authoring various publications on youth (electoral) participation. Recently she co-founded Civics International, a Brussels-based non-profit aiming to connect the experiences of activists and young voters in Europe and USA. Corina has an educational background in political science and holds an MPA from the Hertie School in Berlin.

Gabriella Civico is from the UK, but lived in Spain and Portugal for many years before moving to Belgium and becoming a Belgian citizen.  She has a degree in Social Policy and Education from the University of Surrey (UK), and a Masters in Education in E-learning from the University of Hull (UK).  She worked with CEV in her role as Project Manager for the EYV2011 Alliance from July 2010 until the project’s completion in March 2012, when she became CEV Director. There, she takes a leading role in advocating for better volunteering policies, contributing her expertise at the European level in various European Union expert & advisory groups, such as EQF, Europass, Mobility of Young Volunteers, as well as in the European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre Advisory Group. She also represents CEV in the EESC Liaison Group for European Civil Society Networks and has been further involved in establishing Civil Society Europe in 2014 where she is currently the President.

Riikka Korkiamäki is a Professor in Social Work at Tampere University, Finland. Her main research focus is on teenage young people and, specifically, on peer relationships, friendship, social support networks, and communities and communalities among young people. At the moment, she is leading a research project ‘Solidarity in Practice – Young people’s everyday communities as sources of recognition and spaces of preventive social work (SoliPro).

BKA—Federal Chancellery of Austria, Department for International Yoth and Family Policies.

The implementation of international youth exchange and European youth mobility programmes in Austria has been among her responsibilities, including the creation of stakeholder networks in Austria and the cooperation with the National Agencies and DG EAC.

She has been actively involved in negotiating the new Union Youth programme generations since 1997 and is a member of the Council Working Party of Youth. Because she completed her political science studies before Austria joined the European Union, she was unable to participate in the Erasmus program. Ever since she has tried to make up for this missed chance by exploring other options to combine international work and life experiences with fun and inspiration.

Asst prof. Dr Marko Kovacic is a former youth worker turned academic currently acting as a vice-dean for research and international cooperation research at the Bernays University of Applied Sciences where he teaches classes in youth studies and methodology. He is a founder and lecturer at the first academic youth studies program in Croatia, run at the University of Rijeka. Kovacic is a member of the European Pool of Youth researchers, a body jointly governed by the European Commission and Council of Europe, and he was a first Youth Wiki correspondent for Croatia. In the last 14 years, he has been engaged in most national and European youth policy processes. Marko authored more than 70 papers on youth and education and managed numerous youth and education projects. He did his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Graz and holds a PhD in (youth) public policy from the University of Ljubljana, accompanied with two MAs – one in political science from CEU in Budapest and another one in public policy from the University of Zagreb, where he also acquired his BA in political science. Also, he was a visiting researcher at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

With over 15 years of experience in the youth sector under his belt, Miguel worn many hats in the ESC world, from being a mentor to becoming a key person in youth organizations. His journey has been a rich tapestry of learning and growth, since 2023, Miguel is part of the ESC Resource Center, and plays a special role in the community building of Solidarity Corps practitioners by listening to them, having dialogue with them and by coordinating events and resources with them. Miguel is also part of the Europe Talks Solidarity team, helping to disseminate SOLIDARITY all over Europe.

Matúš works for the Slovak National Agency, where he is responsible for the coordination of solidarity projects and the organization of national and international events, which are part of the European Solidarity Corps program. He is responsible for the overall co-ordination of program activities hosted in Slovakia, including the planning, implementation and evaluation phase of the activity. At the same time, he also deals with the topic of inclusion as an inclusion officer.