Irina Ferencz is working for ACA since 2008, currently as ACA Director. In this capacity she manages a wide portfolio of activities, combining member engagement, research and policy work, advocacy, fundraising, and external representation. Irina is an avid advocate for international higher education, and is active in multiple professional fora.

Marija Mitic has worked at ACA since 2014. Marija’s responsibilities include a wide variety of tasks, from diverse membership-oriented activities, project and event management, policy analysis to representation of ACA in Brussels and globally. Marija’s (international) experience could be subsumed as a policy-practice triangle of education, training and inclusion.

Queenie, Project Manager of ACA, joined the ACA Secretariat in late 2010. Since 2018, she is based in Germany and is primarily responsible for consultancy services for ACA members from her home office. Her main research interest lies in international education marketing and branding. Occasionally, Queenie also assists the European Commission and some academics with evaluation exercises.

Martin supports ACA's work in ongoing projects, which includes a variety of tasks such as data collection and analysis, reporting, representation at events and liaison with different stakeholders. Prior to joining ACA, Martin finished the Blue Book Traineeship in EACEA where he worked on the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees. He also worked in organisations, projects and initiatives related to the commons movement, culture, media and human rights.
He holds a BA in Information Sciences and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Zagreb, an MA in Cultural Anthropology and Heritage Studies from the University of Zagreb and an MA in European Studies from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. Martin speaks Croatian, English, German and Polish and he’s learning French.

Irina Malai joined ACA Secretariat in November 2017 to take over the position of the Office Manager. She is responsible for the internal organisation of the office and for the external communication (stakeholders and general inquiries). She is also involved in the organisation of ACA’s events in Brussels and abroad. Irina was born in the Republic of Moldova but has been living for many years in different European countries (first Italy, then Belgium). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philology of Modern and Classic languages from the Moldova State University and a Master’s degree in Modern languages and literature from the Free University of Brussels (ULB). Irina speaks fluently English, French, Italian and Russian, besides Romanian, her mother tongue.

Claire is currently doing a traineeship at ACA, as Junior Editor of the ACA Newsletter – Education Europe. In this role, she is in charge of finding news and writing articles for ACA’s monthly e-publication. Alongside these monitoring and editorial tasks, Claire supports ACA staff in organising events and in other project-related activities.
Prior to joining ACA, Claire interned with UNICEF Djibouti and was a volunteer teacher with NGO Volunteer Uganda.
She holds a BA in Law from the University of Angers, as well as an MA in International Law from the Sorbonne. Claire also studied Marketing, with a minor in Spanish to English translation, and is currently in the process of obtaining an MA in Solidarity Economy and Market Logics from the Catholic Institute of Paris.
In addition to her mother tongue, French, she speaks English and Spanish.