Our people

Dan is a researcher and practitioner specialising in inclusive youth participation with over 20 years' experience working with children and young people. His work focuses on how children and young people's participation can influence policy, as well as the development of participatory structures and processes. Originally a youth worker at local and regional level in England, he now works throughout Europe and beyond supporting a variety of organisations, to develop their approach to youth participation. In 2017 he was invited to re-develop the consultation process behind the EU’s Youth Dialogue. This engaged nearly 50,000 young people and was instrumental in developing the European Youth Goals.

PhD in Political Sciences (Comparative European Youth Policies in Romania and Turkey), with extended expertise in grass roots youth work and youth work methodologies and practices, youth participation methodologies and inclusion policies. MA in Comparative European Social Studies (MACESS) at London Metropolitan University, holding a BA in Political Sciences and one in Social Work – University of Bucharest. In 2020, served as the Chief of Staff of the State Secretary in the Field of Youth at the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Member of the Pool of European Youth Researcher and of the European Knowledge Centre on Youth Policies – national correspondent (Romania).

Cristina is a research consultant with a specialisation in public policies for adolescent and youth development. She has over 14 years of experience in policy and advocacy for young people, and her roles include Adolescent and Youth Consultant for UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Office, Adolescent Evidence Synthesis and Policy Advisor for UNICEF. Innocenti, and Research Coordinator for Youth Policy Labs, a global think-tank specifically focusing on youth. She was the project and research lead for "Age Matters", a multi-year, multi-country study on minimum age legislation, which was selected as one of the top 10 projects for the Best of UNICEF Research Award 2019.

Neringa is a Lithuanian Human Rights educator and an expert of Youth, Peace and Development. She is currently pursuing PhD at SOAS, University of London, where her research focuses on the role of Media literacy in advancing peace-building in Myanmar; and youth participation in the decision making within the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. Neringa has led several forums in Asia, MENA and Eastern Africa, bringing together CSOs, entrepreneurs, activists and institutions (EU, AUC, UfM, ASEAN, Ministries) to facilitate youth-led policy recommendations,( e.g. “Building Youth Partnership Opportunities to Advance UN Sustainable Development Goals for Education, Peace & Innovation.”) Neringa has previously served at the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe, where her work focused on advancing Minority Rights, Roma youth participation, and North- South cooperation; and she is currently a member of the Pool of European Youth Researchers at the EU-CoE Youth Partnership.

Akshit is passionate about nurturing and sustaining volunteering energy in different ecosystems and spaces through lean systems, inspiring storytelling, co-created innovations and learning together. He has an experience of over 6 years in the social development space. #ToInfinityAndBeyond. Akshit build data driven visual interactive dashboards that enable advocacy, impact assessment and strategic decision making. He support institutions in setting up a process and system for data collection, aggregation, analysis and reporting and has have created such dashboards for various national level ecosystems and social programs.  Akshit believes in youth centric development and technology driven innovations as a means for social change. He aims to balance integrity and passion in a journey of excellence. 

Ed has over 10 years experience working across the public, charity, co-operative and private sectors developing the way organisations work with people to deliver results and make a bigger impact for stakeholders. ​Ed also lives on a narrowboat and travels around Greater Manchester, giving a different view every week and the flexibility to choose where to be. Ed works with People Dialogue and Change  providing facilitation and training support, particularly around our work with the patient advocacy community.

Mark is a full time qualified Youth Worker with experience in many fields of Youth Work and Social Care. A former Children's Rights Service local authority manager within the UK,  with extensive experience of advocating for cared for and care experienced young people. Mark is an expert, trainer, and advocate for children and young people's participation. He is also a work environment assessor specialising in Youth Work qualifications.