Trainers

The complementary workshop sessions with theoretical and practical content will be offered by trainers which are experts with large experience in international environments.

Anke Ulmer

Anke Ulmer holds a degree as a translator from the University of Heidelberg and a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from the University of Kaiserslautern.
Mediating between cultures has been one of her leading interests for many years, having been affiliated with AFS-Interkulturelle Begegnungen e.V. for a life-time.
She works as an English language trainer at the University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe. Furthermore she is engaged in individual free-lance projects in the fields of intercultural communicative competence and organizational development.
She is also a certified coach and a member of the Coaching Pool of the Führungsakademie Baden-Württemberg.
Her main training subjects are communicative competence, intercultural competence, and problem-solving strategies in a professional context.

Anna-Maria Hass

Anna-Maria Hass is currently writing her thesis to finish her studies of business psychology focused on human resources and organizational psychology at Leuphana University, Germany. She has been involved in AFS as a trainer since 2006 and is an active member of the European pool of trainers of EFIL (European Federation for Intercultural Learning) since 2009. Anna-Maria’s own intercultural experience abroad includes having lived and studied in Brazil, Portugal, Austria and China as well as shorter projects in Indonesia, Ghana, Sweden, Romania and Hungary amongst others. She has been a trainer for the Summer Academy in 2011 and is already looking forward to the next edition in 2012! Anna-Maria is a certified administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory and the Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory.

Annette Gisevius

Annette Gisevius is the Head of the Intercultural Learning Department at AFS Interkulturelle Begegnungen e.V. She holds a degree in Culture Studies of Leuphana University, Germany and a BA from Angelo State University in Texas. She facilitates intercultural trainings for target groups of all ages, incl. teachers and trainers with a focus on cultural awareness, cultural conflict styles and experimental learning in non-formal adult education. She completed a formal education as an “intercultural coach”, is a certified administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory and the Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory, and a certified trainer of TOP (c) (Technology of participation).

Elis Motta

Elis Motta has been a volunteer for AFS Brazil for 11 years working both in the local level and in the AFS Southern Cone Region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay). She has participated as trainer in several training events in the Southern Cone Region, as well as in national training events both for AFS Brazil and AFS Argentina & Uruguay, besides being a facilitator at the AFS World Congress in the 2010 and the 2012 editions. Elis has just finished a 10-months internship at the Intercultural Learning Department at AFS International and has attended the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication (SIIC) in Portland, Oregon in 2010 and 2011, having the opportunity to learn from experts in the field such as Janet Bennett, Michael Page and Milton Bennett. She has also been a participant in the first edition of the Summer Academy, in 2010. Her academic background include social sciences, linguistics and translation, focusing on English, Portuguese and Spanish, and her long term experiences abroad include Belgium, Argentina and the United States.

Eva Vítková

Eva holds a masters degree in International Relations from the University of Economics in Prague. In her thesis, she focused on the role of Education in Multicultural Societies. She is an active trainer and facilitator within AFS and EFIL (European Federation for Intercultural Learning) as well as outside of this network. She is member of the Pool of trainers of the European Youth Forum and of the Czech National Youth in Action Agency. Her main focus as trainer is Intercultural Learning, Intercultural Conflict Management and Global Education. Eva has successfully completed the Crossing Borders Global Studies programme at Krogerup Folkhighschool in Denmark in 2009. She also atteneded the first Edition of Summer Academy in Karlsruhe in 2010 and returned a year later as trainer of the workshop „Multicultural Society“.

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Florin is involved in AFS as a trainer on national and European level (for the European Federation of Intercultural Learning) since 1997. Since 2005 she has been giving workshops and trainings for ASA / InWent. During her pedagogic studies, with focus on managing diversity and global education, she has gained a certificate in coaching and counselling. As she is responsible for designing ASA-weltwärts seminars since 2008, she is familiar with wide varieties of non-formal education methods. Her workshop concepts are based on a participant focussed approach using holistic methods and are mainly dealing with communication, group work / teamwork, conflict solution and managing diversity.

Jana Belohlavkova

Jana holds a degree in Humanities and Civic Society Studies (Charles University, Czech Republic). Since 2000 she is involved with intercultural issues mostly through her AFS experience and later volunteer work. As a trainer she works with topics of intercultural communication and intercultural learning since 2007.
During her studies she was a part of the team which developed “Czechkid” – an online tool for teachers to implement multicultural education in schools in the Czech Republic (www.czechkid.cz). Her final thesis was closely connected to the topic of multicultural education as well – the main focus was on using stories as a tool for multicultural education.
Jana is a member of EFIL’s pool of trainers and she works as a freelance trainer for the Czech National Agency of Youth in Action programme. She runs trainings for various Czech and international NGOs on topics as intercultural communication, conflict management, project management or team work.
Currently Jana takes part in a long-term training course for trainers in transcultural approach and conflict transformation (ATCC).

Jana Holla

Jana is a freelance intercultural consultant, facilitator and trainer focusing on Intercultural Learning and relocation training & support in both the NGO and corporate sectors.
Although Jana’s academic training is in Cultural Anthropology (she holds a PhD from Charles University in Prague) she chose to follow a consulting & training career. Her introduction to the Intercultural field was through Young SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research). She joined in 2000 and has been an active volunteer and a board member since.  Through Young SIETAR, Jana heard of and later got involved in AFS.  She worked as a Support coordinator for AFS Egypt before joining the volunteer ranks. She is also an active member of the EPOT and recently was appointed to EFIL’s Training Advisory Body. Jana has been facilitating trainings for Young SIETAR, AFS and other NGOs since 2005.
Originally from Slovakia, Jana moved to Egypt in 2004 where she’s been enjoying a highly satisfying and fulfilling expat life since.

Katja Braunschweig

Katja Braunschweig holds a Bachelor degree in Educational Science and is currently pursuing a Masters in Adult Education in Berlin, Germany. During which she studied different aspects and challenges of learning, especially in informal and non-formal settings, as well as intercultural theories. In addition to these theoretical explorations, she has been an active volunteer within the AFS Network for several years. She has large experience in facilitating training concerning topics such as different concepts of culture, (intercultural) communication and intercultural sensitivity, furthermore, Katja is a qualified administrator in the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).

Lisa Cohen

Lisa Cohen has worked for over 20 years as a professional in the field of intercultural education, having most recently been responsible for global training efforts for AFS International, based in New York. Her work has focused on bringing intercultural topics into all AFS learning programs, creating a learner-focused and experiential educational approach and advancing organizational cultural development.
Lisa holds a Bachelors degree in History from Cornell University and a Masters degree in International Education from Harvard University. She has lived in Panama, Argentina, Portugal and Denmark, as well as on both coasts of the USA, and has traveled and worked in over 30 countries around the globe. She is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory, a trained presenter working with Cultural Detective and a trained coach in the Co-active Coaching model.

Natalia Sarro

Natalia Sarro is a licensed Psychologist, Intercultural Trainer & Coach. Her passion  is to help individuals and teams work more effectively across cultures and re-create their sense of belonging and identity when moving abroad.
Her areas of expertise are: Intercultural  Training & Coaching (global leaders & teams, expatriates, repatriates, families in global transition), Intercultural communication & teambuilding and International Recruiting & Headhunting.
She has multiple certifications in teamwork and intercultural training and coaching, including COF (Cultural Orientations Framework, developed by Rosinski & Company).
Natalia held global HR recruitment & training positions in Lufthansa (Germany), Wellington Public Hospital (New Zealand) and Avature (Argentina/ US).
In the past years, her passion for the intercultural communication field took her around Argentina, Uruguay, Germany and Spain.
She developed Intercultural Training Workshops for international executives and teams, as well as expatriate families and exchange students.  Some of her clients were Johnson& Johnson, Dow, Monsanto, University of Washington, SIETAR Spain, AFS Argentina, among others. Additionally, she participated as a trainer in 2^nd Edition of Summer Academy on Intercultural experience in 2011 (Karlshochschule International University, Germany).
Natalia speaks Spanish, English, German, and basic Italian.
She lived in Germany and New Zealand, and is currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Verena Piper

Verena Piper is a cross-cultural consultant and trainer based in Hamburg, Germany. She holds a degree in psychology with focus on cross-cultural and educational psychology, acculturation and migration. In cooperation with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, formerly known as InWent gGmbH) she wrote her thesis, dealing with the effectiveness of Role Plays in intercultural training. As an expat coach and intercultural trainer, she is currently supporting people with their challenges in international co-operations.
Verena’s experience ranges from individual coaching to group training programs. She has a focus on stress management in the intercultural context, developing intercultural competence, conflicts in international settings as well as career and life planning for expatriates. Since 2009 she is also a trained mediator.
Prior to her work as an intercultural consultant she was responsible for the „Intercultural Training Service“ at Fix International Services GmbH in Hamburg.  As the department coordinator she accompanied many clients from various industries regarding the collaboration with (mainly) China and Russia.
In addition, Verena is lecturing „Intercultural Management“ and „Cross Cultural Communication“ at the International Graduate Center, Hochschule Bremen and at the St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance. Verena herself has lived in Vancouver, Canada for two years and also in Mexico City for some time, where she still holds strong bonds.