7TH EUVP ALUMNI WEBINAR - “2024: THE KEY YEAR FOR GLOBAL PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY”

Wednesday, 29 May 2024, 14.00-16.00 CEST 

The European Union Visitors Programme (EUVP) is pleased to announce its 7th EUVP Alumni Webinar! The Webinar will feature EUVP Alumni guest speakers from India, South Africa and the United States of America as well as representatives of the EU institutions.

Join us for a discussion about common trends, pressing issues and shared challenges in four of the world's largest and most defining elections.

AGENDA

14.00   Welcoming remarks by Ms Sanna LEPOLA, Director-General, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships, European Parliament

14.10   Insights from the EU Institutions

Speech by Mr Oumar DOUMBOUYA, Director for External Liaison Offices, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships, European Parliament

Speech by Ms Aude MAIO-COLICHE, Director for Strategic Communication and Foresight, European External Action Service

14.30   Insights from EUVP Alumni

Ms Tessa DOOMS (EUVP Alumna 2024, South Africa), Director of Programmes at Rivonia Circle - A hub for policy and political alternatives, Johannesburg, South Africa 

Ms Afton CISSELL (Alumna 2024, USA), Deputy Chief of Staff of US Congressman Mr Lloyd DOGGETT (Democratic, Texas), Washington D.C., United States of America

Ms Sheetal SHARMA (Alumna 2022, India), Associate Professor at the Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India 

15.00   Panel discussion moderated by Mr Jim MAHER, External Policies Desk Officer at the EP-ASEAN Antenna, DG PART, European Parliament

15.30   Q&A with online audience

15.55   Closing remarks by Mr Oumar DOUMBOUYA, Director for External Liaison Offices, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships, European Parliament (tbc)

INTRODUCTION TO SPEAKERS AND PANELLISTS 

Ms Sanna LEPOLA has worked in different functions in the European Parliament for 24 years.

Prior to her appointment, Ms Lepola was Secretary General of The Left group in the European Parliament, a position she held since May 2017, following a seven-year tenure as the group’s Deputy Secretary General. She began her career at the EP as a parliamentary assistant in 1999, before joining a political group, as a policy officer working on budgetary and constitutional affairs.
Sanna Lepola holds Master’s degrees in European and International politics and studied at the University of Leicester (UK) and Tampere University (Finland).

 Mr Oumar DOUMBOUYA is the Director for External Liaison Offices in the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships, which includes responsibility for the European Union Visitors Programme (EUVP).
Since 1996, he has held various management and leadership positions in the European Parliament both in the Administration as well at the level of Political Groups, including Deputy Secretary-General of the ECR Group. He has also served as Head of the Personnel Management Unit. He has an academic background in engineering, programming and IT network security from the Vantaa Institute of Technology (Finland).

Mrs Aude MAIO-COLICHE graduated from the University of Lille (France) in 1994, while studying part her curricula at the Universities of Warwick (UK) and Saarbrucken (Germany). She also holds a Postgraduate qualification in International Economy and Community Law and a Master’s degree in Political Sciences from the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium).
Mrs Maio-Coliche joined the European Commission in 2001 and worked on EU-Latin America Relations for 10 years, participating in the set-up of the new European External Action Service from within the Human Resources Department. She became EU Ambassador in 2013, first to Venezuela until 2017 and then to Argentina between 2017 and 2021. Back at the EEAS headquarters, she first took up EU-relations with ten countries in Central Africa, she was then appointed Director for Strategic Communications and Foresight in January 2023.

Ms Tessa DOOMS is a Director at the Rivonia Circle, a political think-tank.
Trained as a Sociologist, development practitioner and political analyst, Tessa started her career in academia. She has worked in diverse sectors including government, NGOs and the private sector, where she did work that aligns the objectives of various institutions and programmes with developmental objectives for the advancement of Africa.
She has 15 years’ experience as a development worker, trainer and researcher with expertise on governance, youth development and innovation, and has worked in over 10 African countries. She holds a Masters of Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand

Ms Afton CISSELL serves as Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas.  She supervises his staff in Washington, D.C. and oversees his legislative agenda as well as the work of the House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee.  Afton also works closely with the Congressional Progressive Caucus and its political campaign committee, where she assists the political campaigns of several Democratic candidates.
Afton was previously a Staff Attorney for the National Health Law Program, where she worked on access to reproductive health care.  She also served as a Legal Fellow in the U.S. Senate on the Foreign Relations Committee and the Judiciary Committee.  She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she worked as a Student Attorney for the International Human Rights Clinic. She also holds a B.S. in History and Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University.

Dr Sheetal Sharma is an Associate Professor at the Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi India. She holds a PhD in Sociology, and her research interests include Gender and empowerment of women, Culture and diversity, Diaspora studies, and Methodology of Social Sciences. 
She has been conferred the “JNU Research Excellence Award” for outstanding contribution and excellence in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities for the year 2018-19 in the Young Scholars Category. She has contributed immensely to the development of digital repository of educational resources, especially for schools, for the Ministry of Education of the Government of India.