Speaker’s BIOS

Ms. Clare Hutchinson is NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security. She is the high-level focal point on all aspects of NATO’s contribution to the Women, Peace and Security agenda, with the aim to facilitate coordin…

Prior to appointment at the position of the Minister of Defence of Montenegro in December 2020, Dr. Olivera Injac, has been engaged as a Professor at the University of Donja Gorica, at the Security Studies Programme. Since 2008, she was Professor for…

Dr. Deniz Yüksel-Beten graduated from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium. Dr. Yüksel-Beten joined NATO’s Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division in January 1991 as Programme Director of the Committee on the Challenges of Modern …

Brigadier General (BG) Metodi Hadji-Janev, Ph.D. is an associate professor at the Military Academy General Mihailo Apostolski”-Skopje, a unit of University “Goce Delcev” in Stip, Macedonia and an adjunct faculty member at Ira A. Fulton School of Engi…

Dr. Anne Speckhard is the Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) global operations. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and has taught the Psychology of Terrorism at G…

Dr. Carola García-Calvo is a Senior Analyst in the Programme on Violent Radicalisation and Global Terrorism at the Elcano Royal Institute and Associate Professor at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), both in Madrid. She is also Scientific Coordi…

Dr. Ghayda Hassan is a clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology at UQÀM. She has a number of research, clinical, and community-based national and international affiliations. She is the director of the Canada Practitioners Network fo…

Her scientific field focuses on Mass Media and Strategic Communications. She has participated in several domestic and international research projects. She was the organizer of an international conferences and participated in numerous domestic and for…

Dr. Nina Wilén is Director for the Africa Programme at the Egmont Institute for International Relations and Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at the Lund University. She is a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute in …

Meral Musli Tajroska – Executive Director of Pleiades and Alumna Ambassador of MotherSchool North Macedonia. Meral Musli Tajroska is a Psychologist and currently works as a consultant on preventing and countering violent extremism and radicalization.

Dr. Jayne Huckerby joined the Duke Law faculty in 2013 as an associate clinical professor of law and inaugural director of the Duke International Human Rights Clinic. Prior to joining Duke, she most recently served as a human rights adviser to UN Wom…

Dr. Robin May Schott is a philosopher who works in the areas of gender studies, genocide studies, ethics, political theory. She focuses on issues of gender and (in) security, including the production of gendered insecurities through sexual and gender…

Ms. Seran de Leede works on the topic of women, gender and political violence as an independent researcher and as an associate fellow for the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), The Hague. Her research interests include the involvement…

Prof. Dr. Sc. Mitko BOGDANOSKI is Vice Dean at the Military Academy “General Mihailo Apostolski” in Skopje, Managing Director and Consultant of CYSEG, and President and Co-founder of Cyber Security, Corporate Security, and Crisis Management Initiativ…

Dr. Travis Morris served as a captain in the U.S. Army where he spent 4 years on active duty as an Airborne Ranger with the 10th Mountain Division. After completing his military service, Dr. Morris was a police officer in Lexington, Kentucky and serv…

Dr. Vasilka Sancin, PhD, Associate Professor of International Law, Head of Department of International Law and Director of the Institute for International Law and International Relations at University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law (Slovenia) is also a…

rof. Dr. Ashok Vaseashta is Executive Director for research with the International Clean Water Institute in Virginia, USA. He also serves as a Professor at Riga Technical University, Chaired Professor of Nanotechnology at the Academy of Sciences of M…

Ljubica Pendaroska is Privacy and Data Protection Expert, committed to promoting profound women’s participation in the complex cybersecurity challenges. Following that spirit, she grew up professionally through her expertise role in UNICEF as well as…

Awarded as Top 100 "Women of Influence in Cyber Security in Europe", she is the President of Women4Cyber Albania, an initiative which aims to promote, encourage and support the participation of women in cyber security.

Mrs. Lejdi Dervishi is the Director of The Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism (The CVE Center) close to the Prime Minister’s Office, Tirana, Albania. She has attained three second-level Master’s degrees in the field of international…

Mrs. Ratela Asllani has an expertise on geopolitical and security issues. She has been a member of Atlantic Council of Albania since 2005 and is highly engaged on all forums of discussions, researches, presentations and different projects as an indep…

Dr. Ilya Roubanis is Director of Research at the Tactics Institute for Counterterrorism Studies in London, UK. For two decades he has worked with governments, legislators, and corporate leaders across Europe in various roles in political communicatio…

Lina Biscaia is an international lawyer, and an expert on sexual and gender-based violence. She currently serves as the head of the Gender and Children Unit of UNITAD. Previously, she was the lead for the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, coordinati…

Dr. Dijana Gupta is President of Atlantic Council of Bosnia and Hercegovinia and Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Dzemal Bijedic University of Mostar. She has various publications in the field of communications and media,

Prior to founding Clearspeed, Alex served in the U.S. Marine Corps leading infantry, reconnaissance and special operations units over 4 operational deployments. Upon leaving active duty, he founded a private maritime security company based in Muscat,…

Ms. Sara Osmani, has master degree in Human Resource Management and Bachelor degree in Psychology with experience in trainings, mentoring, researching, M&E and moderating in areas of P/CVE, communication, conflict resolution, child/human rights, inte…

W. Bradley Cotton served as a police officer in Ontario, Canada for almost 28 years specialising in police training and community safety projects. Following retirement, he obtained his Master of Business Administration from the University of Edinburg…

Ms. Lisa Deveau has spent the last decade working in education as a teacher, policing as an officer, and healthcare as a social worker. Her Masters research highlights and focuses on the lack of standardize police training de-escalation and mental he…

Dr. Lora Pitman holds a PhD in International Studies from Old Dominion University, a Master’s in Humanities from the same institution, and a Master’s in Law from Sofia University, Bulgaria. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles with a foc…

Dr. Ankica Tomić has worked at Migration Asylum Refugee Regional Initiative Regional Centre (MARRI RC) based in Skopje since October 2020 as the Representative of Bosnia and Hercegovina. She also performs the tasks of Special Advisor on Gender and Eq…

Dr. Dunja Duić works as Assistant Professor at the Faculty of law Osijek and she is Head of the Department of the Constitutional and European law. Professional orientation towards EU law derives from Postgraduate Mater of Advance studies in European …

Ms. Elvira Hadzibegovic Bubanja, Executive Director at Forum MNE, communication specialist /community youth worker with a two decade rich experience in the field of civil society in the Western Balkans. She holds a bachelor in education with major in…

Dr. Tatyana Dronzina is a lecturer at the department of Political Science of St. Kliment Ohridski, University of Sofia, Bulgaria. She is doctor habil and a full professor with research interests in the field of terrorism (specifically female suicide …

Dr. Angelos Kaskanis is the Project Manager of Tactics Institute For Security & Counter Terrorism. His field of research is Security Studies and the impact of International Terrorism in Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus. He has participated/co-org…

Mr. Gabriele Cascone spent the first part of his career as an officer in the Carabinieri Corps. This included two tours of duty in Bosnia and Herzegovina with IFOR/SFOR in 1996 and 1997. In 1998, he joined the NATO International Staff, where he still…