Co-founder & Managing partner | ZAGREB

Caroline Hornstein Tomić, PhD is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar in Zagreb specializing in high-skilled and return migration, diaspora and identity politics, post-socialist transformation processes in Southeast Europe, and civic education. Besides engaging in academia and the civil sector – as Co-Founder and Managing Partner of THE CIVICS, Co-Founder and Management Chair of the Zagreb based foundation Wissen am Werk / Znanje na djelu, Board member of the European Forum Alpbach Foundation, Member of the Networking European Citizenship Education (NECE) Advisory Board – she has also worked in the public sector as Operative Division Head at the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (2016 – 2018). Caroline is based in the SOE region since 2000; from 2001 until 2005 she served as Resident Representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Co-founder & Managing partner | BONN

Co-founder & Managing partner | SOFIA

Louisa is a political scientist and author with extensive experience in foreign policy, democracy development and civic education. She received her MA in political science, history and American literature from the University of Cologne and is pursuing a PhD at the University of Sofia. Louisa has held various positions throughout her career, including a visiting fellow at Columbia University, programs manager at the European Council on Foreign Relations and adviser to Bulgaria’s former foreign and climate ministers.

In 2013, she founded the Sofia Platform Foundation, a non-governmental organization focused on civic education and dealing with the country’s communist past. She is the co-author of two textbooks on civic education in Bulgaria and has authored and edited several books and publications on foreign policy and democracy development.

In 2021, Louisa co-founded THE CIVICS Innovation Hub and now serves as one of its three managing partners, overseeing operations in Sofia. She is also a civics course instructor at New Bulgarian University and a frequent contributor to Bulgarian and international outlets on democracy in Bulgaria and the region.

Project manager | ZAGREB

Project assistant | SOFIA

Project assistant | BONN

Hub manager | ZAGREB

Project assistant | ZAGREB

Project assistant | BONN

Project assistant | BONN

Alla holds a Master´s and Bachelor´s degree in International Relations from the universities of Eichstätt and St. Petersburg respectively. Alla has gathered experience in the spheres of international event and project management in UNHCR and UNIDO in Vienna. She is particularly interested in peacebuilding and human rights protection. Currently she is also a human rights volunteer in the Shalom for Justice and Peace working group. In March 2023, she joined THE CIVICS team as project assistant in the Bonn hub.

Hub manager | BONN

Sabrina holds a bachelor’s degree in regional studies of Latin America with economics from the University of Cologne (Germany) and studied one semester abroad at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), enhancing her intercultural competences as well as multilingualism. She has experience in cultural and event management and operated two years as a project manager at the education and event agency labconcepts in Bonn, focusing on sustainable project management. She was involved in projects in the field of European political education as well as education in the field of sustainable development. Since July 2021, she has been supporting THE CIVICS as a project manager. Since September 2023 she is also responsible for the Hub management in Bonn.

Project manager | SOFIA

Leonie holds a MA in Peace and Conflict Research from Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and studied politics and sociology (BA) in Eichstätt (Germany) and Brussels (Belgium). She is project coordinator and assistant at the Sofia Platform Foundation in Sofia (Bulgaria), an NGO that focuses on history and civic education. Previously, she was focusing on social and political transformation processes in fragile contexts. Leonie is co-editor of publications in the field of civic education. Since the beginning of 2022 Leonie is project manager at THE CIVICS Hub in Sofia and mainly involved in the project CIVIC SCOUTS.

Project manager | SOFIA

Kameliya has over nine years of professional experience working with high-performing international civil society organisations. The areas in which she specialised include organisational effectiveness and good governance, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion. As part of her various roles at Accountable Now, Transparency International, Greenpeace International, and Vessy.com Kameliya reviewed and assessed the management and governance systems of small, medium, and large entities and provided guidance on how to improve their management strategies by focusing on transparent and accountable processes and practices. Kameliya has a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Bristol, having studied Contemporary Identities and Multiculturalism whilst also volunteering with a campaign to defend the rights of asylum seekers in the UK.