My may main research interest is to understand the situation of youths not in employment, education or training (NEET) in rural areas, namely how informal and formal social support affect the vocational and social development of these youths. My research interests also focus on social determinants of adolescents’ social and educational development, with a particular focus on the role of youth mentoring as a relational context to promote these outcomes.

Ph.D in Psychology (University of Coimbra) Since 2015, I am a researcher and a full member of the Center for Social Research and Intervention at the University Institute of Lisbon (CIS-IUL). Presently, I coordinate the research group Community, Education and Development (CED), at CIS-IUL.

I authored and co-authored more than twenty international peer-reviewed papers on issues such as adolescents’ social development and well-being, social support, youth mentoring or rural NEETs psychosocial profile.

I have an experience of over 15 years in project design, implementation and assessment for and with several organizations (Comunidade Intermunicipal da Lezíria do Tejo; Câmara Municipal de Angra do Heroísmo; ISCTE-IUL team responsible for supervising schools included in the Priority Territories for Educational Interventions - TEIP program) funded by private and public organizations.

I am community manager of the ECEBM, with more than 700 mentoring professionals from all over Europe, since 2016. With my work i connect mentoring practitioners and researchers, to increase the quality of organizations, to learn from each other and to create stronger mentoring relationship. Together with the field, i advocate for a place of mentoring in the EU governement. I have 20 years of experience as a mentoring practitioner within education, with evidence-based practice. I am also a mentor.

I am currently researching to what extent single-mothers also benefit from their child receiving formal mentoring.

Renée Spencer is a professor at the Boston University School of Social Work whose research interests include youth mentoring, adolescent development and gender. Much of her research focuses on the relational processes at work in more and less successful youth mentoring relationships. She also studies innovative approaches to mentoring for special populations of young people, including foster care and military-connected youth. She has published widely and serves as a member of several boards and committees, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Research Advisory Council.

Manolya has recently worked on a randomized control trial funded by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Program (OJJDP) that examined the implementation processes and outcomes of enhanced mentoring approaches at 32 mentoring agencies in rural, urban, and suburban communities across 13 states in the U.S. https://www.ojjdp.gov/research/evaluation-of-the-mentoring-enhancement-demonstration-program.html

I am deeply interested in bridging research and practice in mentoring to advocate for its benefits.
I have worked on multiple mentoring research/evaluation studies since my graduate school and have a strong knowledge base in youth mentoring. I do both US-based and international work on issues related to youth development and prevention. I am looking for opportunities to collaborate with researchers and practitioners to grow our knowledge base, network and learn from others. I am also interested in engaging young people in data-related activities as peer researchers and as part of youth-adult partnerships. I have trained college students on data collection and evaluation skills in the past and mentor many junior staff at my workplace. Internationally, I am in particular interested in program implementation and outcomes evaluation with refugee youth and training youth as peer researchers.

Heather Taussig, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Colorado. Dr. Taussig’s research focuses on developing and testing prevention programming for maltreated children with child welfare involvement. She developed and directs the Fostering Healthy Futures (FHF) program, an evidence-based mentoring program for children in foster care that was developed and tested with funding from the U.S. National Institutes for Health. FHF is being disseminated through community-based organizations and a teen adaptation is being tested in a randomized controlled trial funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Dr. Taussig recently completed data collection for a 10-year longitudinal study of youth in foster care, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Justice, and she is beginning a study of ecological factors leading to juvenile justice involvement for youth in foster care through funding from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Dr. Taussig’s work includes research on youth mentoring, adolescent risk behaviors, dating violence, and child welfare system outcomes. Dr. Taussig currently serves on several review panels and community collaboratives as well as on the Research Board of the U.S. National Mentoring Resource Center. She served on Colorado Governor Ritter’s Task Force on Foster Care and is an awardee for her work on child abuse and neglect from the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.

Mentor stakeholder

This study examines the different perceptions about the role of mentors between at-risk youth who are institutionalized versus those who are family-based in the Russian Federation. The present study was conducted using a survey questionnaire with respondents between ages 15 to 23 in Moscow. Data analysis was conducted on 1110 responses using Pearson’s chi-squared test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and t-test. Results indicate that institutionalized at-risk youth, more than their family-based peers, perceive the mentor to be their friend; a person with whom they can establish a close and trusting relationship. For family-based respondents the mentor is perceived as a professional who teaches them certain educational and vocational skills. This has implications for the recruitment and training of mentors.

Dr. Alexandra Telitsyna works as associate professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics at the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Non-profit sector, in addition to playing a lead role in the Board of Directors in Fundraisers Association of Russia and NGO Association “All together”. She is the Ex-Executive Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Russia. She sits on the Committee of Child Protection at Public Chamber and some others, is a spoken widely about sector issues at many International conferences.

I am a certified elementary school teacher working as a program coordinator for the University of New Brunswick's Promise Partnership program. We run an at lunch and after school mentoring program at a local K-5 school. 85% of the students that attend this school live in poverty. Our focus is combating poverty through increased literacy. Our mentors meet with their mentees once a week for an hour to read, do sight word practice, and play games together. We also offer a High School tutoring program that focuses on high school completion. Students from priority neighborhoods are bused onto campus after school and fed supper in our cafeteria. They then head over to our classrooms and receive homework support in small groups with a University student tutor. Students get help with homework, writing resumes, applying for post secondary and much more. Through the generous donation of a local business we are able to provide a scholarship for students wishing to attend UNB after high school.

Yvonne M Ualesi is a Doctoral Scholar and PhD Candidate at the University of Auckland. She is of Samoan, Tokelauan and Fijian descent. She is a registered primary school teacher in Aotearoa NZ and currently completing her PhD at Te Puna Wānanga - School of Māori and Indigenous Education within the Faculty of Education and Social Work. She is currently working on the research to inform the cultural adaptation of Campus Connections Aotearoa a unique youth mentoring programme at the UoA originally developed at CSU in the US. Her study is a strengths-based approach underpinned by indigenous theories and references that contribute to positive youth development and youth mentoring. She is exploring key elements of Culturally Sustaining and Safe Practice in Youth Mentoring Aotearoa NZ.

Doctorate in child psychology 'Who and what works in natural mentoring?
A Relational Approach to Improve the Effectiveness of Youth Care'

Educated as a child psychologist, I currently work as an innovator and researcher developing and evaluating new (treatment) programs for youth with special needs.

Migchiel van Diggelen is an assistant professor in Educational Psychology at the Open University of the Netherlands. He has completed his Ph.D. on the effects of self-assessment on teachers' competencies in coaching students’ reflection skills at the Eindhoven University of Technology. His research interests include professional learning of teachers, feedback, formative assessment, mentoring and coaching and quality assurance. Van Diggelen is an experienced teacher trainer, educational developer and educational researcher and has initiated, coordinated and participated in numerous (large-scale) educational innovation projects. He is also a board member of the Higher Education division of the Dutch Society for Educational Research (VOR).

I am a sociologist and senior researcher at HIVA, a research institute which specializes in policy-oriented research and forms part of the university of Leuven (Belgium). My research focuses on the integration of immigrants.

Her evaluation work is centered on principles of culturally-responsive and youth-centered evaluation. She uses mixed-methods approaches including quantitative data analysis, focus groups, arts-based evaluation, and other participatory methods.

Rachel Vinciguerra has a Master of Social Work with a Human Service Management concentration and a Master of International Development focused on NGOs and Civil Society. Rachel specializes in designing and adapting monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) activities to suit the strengths and capacity of nonprofit organizations. She is trained in qualitative and quantitative inquiry and analysis including focus group facilitation, qualitative coding, and data analysis using SPSS, Tableau, and Excel. Her evaluation work is centered on principles of culturally-responsive and youth-centered evaluation. In that context, Rachel has participated in Black Girls Equity Alliance working groups in Pittsburgh, centering the lived experiences of black girls in the city, since 2017.

Rachel recently conducted a program evaluation of a girls' empowerment program in Haiti producing reports in English and Haitian Creole for stakeholders. She has also worked with a newly-formed foster care agency in Haiti to guide the development of their theory of change and logical frameworks before designing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan and training staff. Academically, Rachel specializes in gender equality initiatives locally and internationally. She was the coordinator of the Gender Equality in Public Administration research group at the University of Pittsburgh which partners with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to research and make recommendations for increased gender equality in public institutions worldwide. She was the Gender Intern for UNDP at the Regional Hub for Asia and the Pacific in 2018.

My main interest is in Quantitative Psychologiy, but I'm also interested in the effect of child- and youth mentoring. I'm heading a longitudinal evaluation study of the mentoring program biffy, which is a formal mentoring program for children in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The program is designed to forge long-lasting mentoring relationsships, which works well for my research interest is in long-term outcomes of long mentoring relationships both in the menteess and the mentors.

I have a PhD in Computer Science from the University of the Saarland, Germany, and a Habilitation in Psychology from the Humboldt University, Berlin. I was research group leader at the Max Planck Insitute for Human Development from 2005 unitl 2010 and Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia from 2011 to 2015. Since 2016, I am a full professor at the University of the Federal Forces in Munich, Geramy.

Numerous scientific projects of the European network for prevention and health promotion (EUROPREV), Association of teachers in General practice family medicine (ATGP/FM) as associate or principal investigator or Ministry of Health

1. 2001.-2003. “Say yes to non-smoking ”, project on organizing practical schools for people who smoke - research associate
2. 2002. -2005. “Prevention and health promotion in clinical practice: the views of general practitioners in Europe – principal investigator
3. 2008-2012. “Effectiveness of the intervention, regional distribution of total risk for cardiovascular disease in family medicine, patients' attitudes about prevention” - The project was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb. The project was reported to the Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry (ISRCTN 31857696) - principal investigator
4. 2011. FP7 project "The appropriateness of prescribing antibiotics in primary health care in Europe with respect to antibiotic resistance - APRES", implemented in nine European countries – research associate
5. 2010.- 2015. "EUROPREVIEW Patient study" - principal investigator
6. 2016.-2019. "EUROPREV III Study" - principal investigator
7. 2019. – present “Mentorship in postgraduate vocational training in family medicine” – project manager

1985.-1988. postgraduate study of Otorhinolaryngology and maxillofacial surgery
Zagreb, Croatia
Postgraduate study of Otorhinolaryngology and maxillofacial surgery, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Croatia
1988. Master of science
2003.-2005.
Zagreb, Croatia
Specialization of Family medicine, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Specialist in Family medicine
2003.-2006. Phd study
Zagreb, Croatia
Medical School, University of Zagreb, Croatia
PhD
1988. Master of science
2013. Doctor of Philosophy – PhD
2015. Primarius
2015. Assistant Professor of Family Medicine

I have to 2 key areas of research.
1. Transference of learning in the Outdoors
2. Powers of outdoor pursuits in the space of mentoring

I have been working with children and young adults for the past 2 decades with the space of mentoring. My playground is the Outdoors. I have a Masters in Outdoor and Environmental Education from La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia. I have recently started a counselling and mentoring organisation - Entendido (conscious effort to understand).

Two years in Poland I extended my studies in practice and research of a post communist Europe implementing laws and acts to recover and transfer to a free market.
Study found that those nations met to agree on acknowledging and accepting each others professional and academic credentials.
HOWEVER, those same laws identified institutions of higher learning as the best qualified to evaluate foreign education qualifications - still giving the institutions instructions. So that those most qualified often denied applications saying they had no authority - slowing economic recovery

My doctoral dissertation - Poland At Law: Pragmatic Quid-Pro-Quo Nostrification was formally published last year.
However due to the COVID-19 classrooms have closed at Washington U. and I have offered to mentor students remotely.
My parents were displaced persons of WWII relocated to the US and here I was born. English is my Second Language and Polish is-was my first.
I studied Latin in parochial school and Spanish in secondary. I was assigned to study Vietnamese at the US Defense Language Institute. I volunteered with the US Peace Corps to Poland that is where I met my wife - working in Denmark Germany and the Netherlands.
I returned and was called upon Webster U Chair to teach International studies giving me the opportunity to compose coursework at the undergrad level and one for Wash.U. at grad level. Also, founder of the Center for International Studies by the Disabled, nonprofit 501(c)3 involved identifying European universities and composing questionnaires regarding accessibility then downloading the mail replies into a database system. closed for lack of funding

Developing community based mentoring for children and young people from working class and poor backgrounds;
■What’s Going on Now? An audit of youth music in Scotland. This project, commissioned by Creative Scotland, is designed to revisit and update on the issues highlighted in the What’s Going On? report of 2003 which was an audit of youth music in Scotland. It has a particular focus on inequality and music provision;
■creating school-based resources to increase understanding of people with learning disabilities;
■understanding local council understandings and responses to SAC and PEF funding initiatives;
■developing literacy support for young people in areas of social/economic disadvantage.

Alastair's work is focused on different aspects of inequality - identifying and challenging the processes that create and sustain it. Along with Katie Hunter he has led the development of an intergenerational mentoring programme that supports children and young people in terms of early literacy development and access to and progression through higher education (www.intergenerationalmentoring.com). This work has created the Intergenerational Mentoring Network which is independent social enterprise supporting different aspects of school and community development. He is currently (2019) leading a research and development project aimed at understanding local council understandings and responses to SAC and PEF funding initiatives in education. A recently completed project has examined the impact of tuition fees in music provision in schools and the impact on children and young people from working class and poor households.

While with the government funded several mentoring research projects including a focus on cross gender and cross race mentoring.
Through the Federal Mentoring Council, encouraged evidence based mentoring and marshalled the resources of 52 federal youth programs that allowed for mentoring or where mentoring was a principal focus. Along with HHS partners, developed an executive order that created the Inter-agency Working Group for Youth Programs (www.youth.gov) where mentoring and other youth program designs that work are showcased.

Youthwork professional 1978-2000, Associate Commissioner Family and Youth Services Bureau 2001-2008, OJJDP Coordinating Council 2001-2012, Dept. of Justice. Founder and Co-Director of the Federal Mentoring Council 2002-2012. Currently Sr. Consultant on the Sanford Education Project a relationship based educational intervention is changing the world, one classroom, one program, one relationship at at time. Also helping Colleges and Universities in Indiana develop AOD prevention frameworks and establish student ally training where students mentor and support new students in mindfulness and monitor and refer for substance use and self harm.
Was the lead on the President's Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents initiative. Developed mentoring initiatives and took them to scale.