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ACA Secretariat

About us

ACA Secretariat

aca secretariat

Irina Ferencz

Director

irina.ferencz@aca-secretariat.be

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

aca secretariat

Veronika Kupriyanova

Deputy Director

veronika.kupriyanova@aca-secretariat.be

Veronika re-joined ACA in 2020 as Senior Policy Coordinator leading the Secretariat’s policy development, advocacy and member engagement work. As of 2023 she is the Deputy Director of ACA. She is experienced in a wide range of higher education and research topics and has a keen interest in policies and programmes supporting internationalisation at the institutional, national and European level.

aca secretariat

Angeliki Psychogyiou

Policy and Project Coordinator

angeliki.psychogyiou@aca-secretariat.be

Angeliki is a Policy and Project Coordinator, and has been working at ACA since 2021. Her main focus is on digitalisation and sustainability in international higher education, conducting both project and policy related work. In the framework of overseeing the digital portfolio of ACA, she is the co-chair of ACA’s Thematic Peer Group “New Mobility Formats”, exploring the intersection between digitalisation and sustainability and discussing emerging trends and issues in new digitally enhanced mobility formats as well as their implications for programme design and the work of funding agencies. She is also the coordinator of the HIBLend project, aiming to raise interest in and enhance HEIs’ capacity to develop high-quality blended mobility opportunities for students. Angeliki’s main areas of professional and personal interest are international cooperation, mobility as a foster agent for European identity, digitalisation, inclusion and social responsibility of educational institutions.

aca secretariat

Raul Ranne

Senior Advisor

raul.ranne@aca-secretariat.be

Raul joined the ACA Secretariat in October 2021 as a Senior Advisor. He has been involved in higher education development since 2007 in various key positions in the public, private and non-profit sector. His expertise is in recognition of prior learning, internationalisation, marketing and digitalisation. Raul supports ACA’s work with a focus on the Study in Europe project and driving ACA's new strategy process.

aca secretariat

Martin Bogdan

Policy and Project Coordinator

martin.bogdan@aca-secretariat.be

Martin Bogdan is Policy and Project Coordinator, who first started working for ACA in 2019. He is the co-chair of ACA’s Thematic Peer Group “Widening Inclusion in Higher Education”, which is discussing the management of national and European funding to increase participation of underrepresented groups in international higher education. He coordinated ACA’s work in projects supporting researchers with refugee background (CARe) and Internationalisation of higher education for society (IHES), as well as capacity building trainings on inclusion for HEIs and NAs. Prior to ACA, Martin worked in the European Commission, in several NGOs working with open access policies, migrants, arts, and media. He also briefly taught in an international school.

aca secretariat

Jenny Nygård

Project Assistant

jenny.nygard@aca-secretariat.be

Jenny joined the ACA Secretariat in 2024 as a Project Assistant. In her role she supports the development and implementation of ACA’s activities and contributes to project work, analysis and member development activities. Her responsibilities also include technical and administrative tasks.

Prior to ACA, Jenny studied in the Erasmus Mundus master’s programme Research and Innovation in Higher Education. Her background includes diverse work and internship roles, such as research assistant positions and brief experiences with quality audits of higher education institutions, internationalisation and administration of development cooperation programmes in higher education, Nordic collaboration and labour market mobility, as well as international relations. Additionally, she has brief teaching experience, primarily as a study counsellor.

aca secretariat

Courtney Hartzell

Communications Coordinator

secretariat@aca-secretariat.be

Courtney joined ACA in 2020 to steer the Secretariat's work on communications, event management and planning, and member support. She has a unique mix of skills and experiences in both communications and international higher education research.

aca secretariat

Nikolina Đurić

Junior Communications Officer

junior.comms.officer@aca-secretariat.be

Nikolina is a Junior Communication Officer with 8 years of combined volunteer and professional experience in communications. She has been working in Brussels since 2020, with expertise in policy and advocacy communication and EU-funded projects. Nikolina's main responsibilities include providing support for the management of ACA's social media channels, supporting the organisation and management of events, and overseeing the editing, review, and publication of ACA's monthly newsletter "Education Europe".

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Martine De Graeve

Office Manager

office@aca-secretariat.be

Martine De Graeve has been handling ACA's internal accounts and office logistics since November 2020. She has extensive experience in logistics concerning employee regulations and accounts. Martine is also an avid photographer and is ACA's event photographer.