Following the retirement of ACA’s long-term Director Bernd Wächter, and the start of Irina Ferencz as ACA’s new Director in September 2020, several new staff members also joined the ACA team this autumn. 

Veronika Kupriyanova joined the Secretariat in the role of Senior Policy Coordinator, with core responsibilities over policy development, advocacy and member engagement work. 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. Prior to joining ACA, Veronika worked, amongst others, for the European University Association (EUA), multiple consultancies in the UK and USA, as well as for the EU Delegation in Russia. 

John Delap joined the team as Senior Policy & Project Officer (focused on the area of higher education inclusion), supporting the team with policy analysis, writing, project management, and inclusion-focused facilitation and training. John comes to ACA after working for more than a decade on higher education access and inclusion policy implementation and practice in Dublin, Brussels and in the USA. 

Courtney Hartzell, ACA’s new Communications Officer, will steer the secretariat's work on communications, event management and planning, and member support. Courtney joins ACA after completing her Master’s degree at the Centre for International Higher Education (CIHE) at Boston College. She lived and worked in the USA, Germany, Turkey, and India, and brings with her a wealth of experience in international higher education.  

Martine De Graeve joined the ACA Secretariat as Administrative Officer.  Martine studied international relations and has many years of experience as a skilled provider of administrative support.  Her work will include management of the office and of ACA’s relations with Belgian public authorities. 

The ACA Secretariat is pleased to welcome each of these new team members, and looks forward to jointly bringing the ambitious plans for 2021 and beyond into fruition.  

Warm thanks go to the departing staff members – Marija Mitic (Policy Officer), Irina Malai (Office Manager) and Claire Pasquiou (Junior Editor ACA Newsletter) – for their service to the association.