Our Team

We pride ourselves on having a young, talented and transnational team that works hard to ensure European Alternatives is a continuous success story. Meet the team of staff behind our organization.

Abhishek Chauhan

Abhishek Chauhan

Project coordinator

Abhishek is currently a student of Politics in Kaunas, Lithuania, with his field of research on Politics in Post-Soviet/Communist states. Having previously lived and worked in Armenia and Georgia with several NGOs and dwelling into the complexities of the societies and looming Russian influence in the region, he decided to take part take in Academic approach to study the history, philosophy and political trajectories of these regions in Lithuania.
He has created projects such as Agora Project, Employ your Ability and Future Leaders Acting for Peace. He was also an Executive Director and CEO of the business company RegNest.

Billie Dibb

Billie Dibb

Logistics Maestra and Project Witch

Billie works within the logistics of the Paris Office and assists in the ‘imagination’ projects of European Alternatives, mainly ‘New Challenges’, ‘Room To Bloom’ and FIERCE. 

They have an academic background in International Politics, with a focus on gendered nationalism and big data. She also has experience within the asylum & migration sector across the UK & France, volunteering for multiple groups over the last 7 years covering roles in event management, graphics & communications, campaigning, and coordination. 

Billie created and runs an event in Paris, ‘La Voisin’, an exhbo-cum-party creating a space for feminist thought and artistic expression. She is passionate about, and dabbles in, the creative possibilities of new technologies in the arts and how they can facilitate social change. 

Camilo Alvarez Garrido

Camilo Alvarez Garrido

Creations & Publications Assistant

I’m an activist and researcher from Chile. I moved to Germany in 2019 to pursue a Master’s in Global Studies. Since 2020, I have been actively involved in the migrant labor struggle in Berlin, particularly in the organisation of delivery riders with the Gorillas Workers’ Collective and its network, as well as in the construction of transectorial alliance between labor, housing and climate activists through the Make Amazon Pay campaign.

Alongside European Alternatives’ Berlin Hub and the School of Transnational Organizing, I also work as a research assistant at the Humboldt University Institute of European Ethnology together with the Berlin Institute for Migration and Integration Research. My personal research is currently focused on the role of care practices in enabling intersectional solidarity building within organised spaces of resistance.  I believe the most important task at hand in political organising is forging organisational cultures capable of attending to the complex diversity of our human needs, so as to allow us to pool our capacities together in more effective and sustainable ways.

Csenge Schneider-Lonhart

Csenge Schneider-Lonhart

Transeuropa Festival Local Coordinator

Csenge is the Local Coordinator of the TransEuropa Festival, taking place in Cluj this year. She was born in 1998 in Budapest. In 2022 she finished her Master’s degree in Contemporary Theatre at the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca, Faculty of Theatre and Film. She has volunteered at various festivals, such as the TESZT Festival in Timișoara, the Interferences Festival and the Khetane festival in Cluj . She was one of the founders of the Questioning Reality Festival, the first research festival in Cluj-Napoca, organised around the topic of the Smart City concept of Cluj. The QR project debates, analyses, and dissects, together with the local community, the hidden problems of a smart city.

She is currently collaborating with Casa Tranzit, where she is involved in projects that address interaction and care for children. She is part of the movement Social Housing NOW!, which is a local movement for public housing and housing justice.

Gabriela Ortiz Soto

Gabriela Ortiz Soto

Berlin Hub Coordinator

Gabriela Ortiz holds a law degree from the Universidad Catolica in Peru and a Master’s degree in Labor Policies and Globalization from the Global Labour University in Berlin, specializing in labor law, decent work, migration, gender equality and diversity. She wrote her Master’s thesis on the issue of transnational mobility of domestic workers using a legal and intersectional approach. 

Gabriela joined European Alternatives’ Berlin Hub in June 2023. Prior to that, she gained experience in union organizing, mapping strategies and tools for Spanish-speaking migrant domestic workers in Washington D.C. She also had a short but enriching internship experience in Brussels conducting lobbying and labor relations research.

In addition to her job as Berlin Hub Coordinator of the School of Transnational Organizing, Gabriela is working on a voluntary basis on the creation and growth of the grassroots organizing community “Berlin Worker Center” to connect and support different workers’ struggles and build power.

Gabriela Siegel

Gabriela Siegel

Grassroots Community Manager

Gabriela was an intern at the Berlin Hub of European Alternatives, working on the School of Transnational Organizing‘s education and training programs for migrant workers, East German & Eastern European activists, as well as youth activists and campaigners from across Europe.

She has almost ten years of experience in direct legal services, community organising, and policy work with refugee and immigrant communities, both in Lebanon and the US. Gabriela worked in the US as a movement lawyer, representing low-income undocumented individuals, first in their immigration cases and later on employment and labour matters. She also worked on designing and implementing benefits and policies to support low-income immigrants in New York State. She is currently completing a master’s programme through the Global Labour University on Labour Policies and Globalisation.

Since April 2023, Gabriela has transitioned into her new role as Grassroots Community Manager building, holding, and caring for our community and network in Berlin and across Europe.

Gabrielle Jourde

Gabrielle Jourde

Research assistant

Gabrielle is based in Paris and works on the FIERCE project and the New Challenges ‘Litératures en Marges’ Festival.
She holds a double bachelor degree in Literature from Sorbonne University and in Political Humanities from Sciences Po. She is currently finishing her Master’s Degree in Gender Studies at the Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis with a literary research on queer parenthood and the ‘autotheory’ medium. In 2024, she will complete a second Master’s Degree at Sciences Po in Political Theory, and her research will focus on contemporary feminist theory.
Gabrielle is passionate about feminism, artistic creation and the circulation of political and collective commitment through different media. She has taken part in initiatives to combat sexual violence in higher education, in particular through the G.A.R.C.E.S collective. She also organizes musical events in the north-east of Paris as part of the Village Jourdain association, with the aim of taking over public spaces and strengthening social ties through greater access to art and culture.
Georg Blokus

Georg Blokus

Berlin Hub Director & Head of Organizing Education

Georg Blokus, born in 1987 near the Polish Solidarnosc city of Gdansk, is the Director of European Alternatives’ Berlin Hub, which primarily runs the School of Transnational Organizing – a grassroots school for political activists, civil society organisations, labor organizers, political artists, migrant communities, and social movements seeking for skills and tools to build the next generation of movements and organisations.

He is a psychologist by training and has been working for several years as a transformative organizer, documentary theatermaker, movement educator, and political strategist with progressive pioneers and organisations. Because of his own family history, his focus is on organizing workers, migrants, and feminists on the frontlines to build solidarity and fight for their rights beyond borders.

Before joining European Alternatives in early 2021, he worked as Artistic-Pedagogical Director of the Academy of the Arts of the World/Cologne from 2014 to 2016, and initiated the SCHOOL OF POLITICAL HOPE as a place for citizens, communities, and civil society actors seeking inspiration, empowerment, and support to overcome our shared feeling of political powerlessness and revive the lost art of organizing solidarity.

Jana Ahlers

Jana Ahlers

Grassroots Education Manager

Jana is Grassroots Education Manager at European Alternatives, working within the School of Transnational Organizing. She is dedicated to creating transformative learning spaces and building capacity to collaboratively strategize for system change. 

With a background in education, she has a passion for critical and experiential pedagogy and research interest in how social movements learn and engage in counter-hegemonic knowledge production. As a social and climate justice organizer and activist she has experience and a wide network across the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, the UK, and Germany. 

Most recently, she coordinated the programme of the People’s Summit for Climate Justice in Glasgow. Working with the COP26 Coalition, she draws on capacity organizing with a wide range of civil society groups, ranging from environment and development NGOs, to grassroots community campaigns, youth groups, indigenous groups, and migrant and racial justice networks. 

Outside of EA, Jana is a Berlin-based grassroots organizer and activist, steadily pushing towards new imaginaries and strategic wins by the people.

Laetitia Caumes

Laetitia Caumes

Research assistant FIERCE Project

Laetitia is working on FIERCE and is currently finishing her Master’s Degree in Gender Studies at the Université Paris 8 after completing her Erasmus at the Humboldt Universität in Berlin. She has a Double Bachelor of Arts in French and German Literature and Culture Studies at Université Paris 3 and the Freie Universität Berlin. She grew up in Rabat, Morocco and in Vienna, Austria before moving to Paris in 2016. Her Master’s Research is a comparative research on the mechanisms French and German activists put in place to fight against sexual violence without being instrumentalized by the far-right.

Since 2020, she is also a member of an ecofeminist collective based in Île de France called Voix Déterres and she has interned at the NGO ÉPhiScience, which specializes in critical thinking in 2021-2022 where she worked on designing a philosophical game around gender.

Marta Cillero

Marta Cillero

Studio Rizoma director & Communications Director

Marta Cillero is the managing director at Fondazione Studio Rizoma (Palermo) and communications director at EA. She graduated in Media Studies, Journalism and Communication (Madrid, Istanbul and Chicago) and has a master degree in Gender Studies (Rome). She has published several articles and research reports about gender violence in Mediterranean countries.

She is a member of the executive board and project manager at Chayn Italia, an award-winning organisation based in Italy, Pakistan, India and the UK helping women experiencing abuse and gender violence through open and free multilingual resources on online safety.

Martin Pairet

Martin Pairet

Berlin Hub Finances & Administration Assistant

Martin was the Network Manager of European Alternatives for five years until 2020. In the last years he became a French baker. In the Berlin Hub he was in charge of the development of the transnational community and network of the organisation.

Martin has been working in the non-profit sector for more than eight years with experience in membership development, communications and fundraising in international organisations such as IFOAM – Organics International and Oxfam France. He is also engaged as a member of SOS Méditerranée, a civic European organisation for the rescue of people in distress in the Mediterranean and of MitOst, an international network of cultural actors and active citizens. He has a strong interest on how activists and civil society organisations are articulating and organising themselves to influence European politics both at the grassroots and at the institutional level.

Since April 2023, Martin is supporting the team again as Berlin Hub Finances & Administration Assistant.

Myriam Zekagh

Myriam Zekagh

Programme & Evaluation Coordinator

Myriam Zekagh is coordinating EA’s programme and evaluation system. Myriam works on developing and evaluating projects with high social impact, engaging with local activists, civil society organisations and local authorities outside of Europe, most notably in North Africa, on behalf of European, American and international organisations. Through this work and her training in sociology, she has shown a real interest for social change, and gained solid experience and expertise in conflict resolution, community development projects and participatory processes.

Niccolò Milanese

Niccolò Milanese

Director

Niccolò Milanese is a poet and one of the founding directors of European Alternatives. He fosters the development of the organisation, its staff and the ecosystem around European Alternatives and is the focal point for the ‘learn’ stream of our work.

He is currently a visiting Fellow at EUI School of Transnational Governance in Florence, and a fellow of BI-Europe in Venice. In addition to longstanding work on transnationalism and political imaginaries, his current interests are in the planetary politics of desire, democratic education and fluid identities. His latest book is ‘Illiberal Democracies in Europe: An Authoritarian response to the crisis of liberalism’ available freely here.

He was previously a Europe’s Futures Fellow at IWM, Vienna, a visiting fellow at PUC Rio-De Janeiro and a visiting fellow at UNAM Mexico. He has been involved in founding numerous civil society initiatives and magazines in Europe and across the Mediterranean. He was educated in Cambridge, Siena and Paris.

Ophélie Masson

Ophélie Masson

Deputy director

Ophélie coordinates the programmes that aim at developing and implementing sustainable tools of participative democracy such as citizens assemblies and ECIs. She also co-coordinates the Citizens Take Over Europe coalition.

She focuses on defining new common narratives for citizens and residents of Europe who wish to enhance their political participation through innovative processes. As such, she is deeply involved in expanding European Alternatives partnerships with CSOs and movements that focus on training key individuals who develop and replicate diverse experimental citizens assemblies methodologies.

She has created and led campaigns at EU level, engaging with actors ranging from grassroots organisations to the European institutions.

Ophélie is also an LGBTQI activist and co-chair of the Board of IGLYO. She is also a Board Member of EUMANS, an organisation aiming at promoting civic participation through various instruments such as citizens assemblies, ECIs and petitions.

Seema Syeda

Seema Syeda

Head of Communications

Seema Syeda manages communications across European Alternatives. Working closely with Marta Cillero, this includes editing the European Alternatives Journal, renewing EA’s visual identity, updating EA website, social media and external communications, co-ordinating & delivering individual project communications including social media, videos, podcasts & other media, and helping plan and deliver trainings and assemblies.

 

Seema’s key project involvement includes Artsformation, the Transeuropa Festival, Youth Movement & Campaign Accelerator, Movement Learning Catalyst, Power to the People, Ukraine & the World, Decolonial Europe Day & more. She is active across EA’s ‘Inspire, Assemble, Train, Act and Research’ streams.

Seema also runs communications and Campaigns for UK-based campaign group Another Europe Is Possible, an alliance of progressives fighting the causes and consequences of Brexit. She has been active in grassroots climate activism to end fossil fuels and has worked as an editor and journalist. Her writing has been published in The Guardian and other outlets.  She is interested in the deconstruction and dismantling of racial capitalism. She is based in Marseille and London.

Ségolène Pruvot

Ségolène Pruvot

Director

Ségolène Pruvot is a Director of European Alternatives. Ségolène is a Doctor in Urban Sociology. In the course of her academic career and professional life, she specialised in the exploration of the intersection between arts, the city and social change. She trained as a political scientist and urban planner in France, the UK, and Germany. Segolene has developed extensive experience in designing and implementing transnational participative cultural programmes, activists transnational networking and collaborative research.

Viktoria Kostova

Viktoria Kostova

Project coordinator

Viktoria Kostova has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and just finished her Master’s degree in Management of Creative Industries and Cultural Organizations in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has worked for different NGOs in the sphere of culture and education locally and internationally, predominantly in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Tenerife, Sweden, UK and the USA. She is interested in sustainability in the arts, activism, youth engagement and audience development.