REF Board Swiss Foundation

Costel Bercus
Chair of REF Board

Costel Bercus is a Romanian Roma, graduated in International Relations and European Studies from the Spiru Haret University in Bucharest.  Since 1997, he has been working as a human rights activist with Romani CRISS (Roma Center for Social Interventions and Studies), which is a well-known human rights organization in Romania. In 2000, he was appointed Executive Director of Romani CRISS, which made him exposed to extensive international activities and ultimately led to his appointment in 2005 as Board Member of the Roma Education Fund (REF). The same year, he was asked to take the Chairmanship of the REF Board which he is carrying on still today. Between 2006 and 2008, he was leading the Roma Civic Alliance of Romania, a network organization linking over twenty Roma NGOs in Romania. He has also worked as an international consultant providing technical assistance in policy development on Roma inclusion for several countries in the Western Balkans and Romania, commissioned by different international development agencies. 

Rob Kushen
Vice-Chair

Since 2008, Robert Kushen has been the Managing Director of the European Roma Rights Centre, a public interest legal advocacy organization dedicated to challenging discrimination and promoting equality of Roma throughout Europe.  From 1996-99 and 2003-07, he served in a number of positions at the Open Society Institute, including Director of International Operations from 2004-07.  From 1999 to 2002 he served as Executive Director of Doctors of the World (“DOW”), a non-governmental organization committed to addressing health care problems caused by human rights abuses in the U.S. and around the world.  From 1991-1996, he served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, where he worked as counsel to the bureau on counterterrorism, liaison to the International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and negotiated a number of international agreements in the areas of scientific and environmental cooperation.

Rob’s experience on Roma issues includes the establishment while at DOW of health education and service delivery programs addressing tuberculosis and maternal child health care for Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptian people in Kosovo.  He has served as a member of OSI’s Roma Advisory Board since 2004, which is responsible for oversight of all of OSI’s Roma programming, and is presently the Chair of that Board.

Tamar Manuelyan Atinc

Tamar Manuelyan Atinc, is currently Director for Human Development in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank.  Tamar has been in the World Bank since 1984 working in various capacities, including 13 years in the East Asia and the Pacific Region as Advisor in the VP`s office, Acting Director for Human Development, sector manager for poverty, and senior economist on China. She has also served as a member of the World Development Report 06 team on Equity and Development and worked in the Africa Region.  Her recent interests and work have focused on poverty, inequality, labor markets and social protection issues.

Yvana Enzler

Yvana Enzler is currently the Swiss Ambassador in Albania. She joined the Swiss diplomatic service in 1979 and was posted in Berne (1979-80), Brussels (1980-81), Berne (1981-88), Rome (1988-91), Washington (1991-95) and again Berne (1995-98). From 1998 to 2002 she was Deputy Head of Mission at the Swiss Embassy in Sarajevo and, from 2002 to 2007, Head of the Swiss Liaison Office in Pristina (Kosovo). She holds a Master Degree in Political Sciences from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and a M.A.L.S. from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. (U.S.A.)

Pierre Gassmann

Pierre Gassmann is a Swiss National. Holds an MBA (INSEAD) and an MA of the Graduate Institute for International Relations in Geneva. He worked for ten years in the private sector, and then, for 25 years in senior management positions at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), namely as Head of Operations for Eastern Europe. He has served  as program advisor and lecturer at the Program for Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at Harvard University and at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). He has been a consultant to the International Labour Office (ILO), the Swiss MFA, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) and the United Nations Works and Reconstruction Agency (UNWRA). He is an associate of the WolfGroup Consultants.”

 Henna Hutu 

Henna Huttu is a Finnish Roma Activist, President of the Fintiko Romano Forum (Finnish National Roma Forum) and NGO Roma of the Northern Finland. She has studied on the International Master of Education programme at the University of Oulu and specialized on intercultural education and special education. She has worked at the Finnish national Board of Education Roma Education Unit in 2000-2002 and from 2006 onwards as a permanent Roma specialist at the Advisory Board of Roma Matters in the Provincial State Office of Northern Finland. She has published articles on variety of matters concerning Education of the Roma, including teaching materials for Romani

Livia Jaroka

Livia Jaroka is a Hungarian national and a Roma, and a member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the committee on Women’s Right and Gender.

 Lisa  Jordan

Lisa Jordan is Executive Director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation. In this position she oversees programs and operations that impact over a million disadvantaged young children every year. Ms. Jordan is a well-known speaker, author and applied specialist in the fields of democracy, civil society, good governance, NGO accountability, and globalization. She is co-editor of the recently published book ‘NGO Accountability: Politics, Principles and Innovations`. Ms Jordan has worked on strengthening democracy and civil society through positions with NGOs, governments and private philanthropic foundations for twenty years. Ms Jordan previously served for nine years with the Ford Foundation as Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Governance and Civil Society Unit. In this  position she was responsible for overseeing $120 million in grants. Other positions included directing the U.S. component of the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE), an environmental exchange program for parliamentarians from Russia, Europe, Asia and the United States; acting as a legislative assistant to Congressman Jim Scheuer (8th NY); directing the multilateral development bank program of BothEnds, a non-profit in the Netherlands; and directing the Bank Information Center, a non-profit in Washington D.C. She has acted as a consultant for numerous foundations in the fields of development and environment and has published peer reviewed articles in Dutch, English and Spanish on changes in the field of development, globalization, NGO accountability, and on the multilateral development banks. Ms. Jordan graduated cum laude in 1992 with a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands.  A U.S. national, she is married with two children.

Nadir Redzepi

Nadir Redzepi is Macedonian Roma and NGO activist since 1998. With his 12 years of experience, working on the Roma issues at local, national and international level, he contributes to Roma integration and institutional set-up of Roma issues. During this period he held various positions in managing and coordinating Roma related actions. He has been member of the number of policy and decision making bodies related to the Decade of Roma Inclusion in Macedonia and an active international actor on Roma issues. At present, he holds the position of project manager at Local Government Initiatives.