Suad Skenderi

Suad Skenderi graduated Political science, International Relations and Journalism at FON University. During his studies he was a volunteer at the Humanitarian and Charitable Roma Association "Mesecina" - Gostivar and a club coordinator for the youth network "Blue Sky" supported by the British Council. In 2009, he was promoted as an assistant in the sector for Human Rights and Inter-ethnic relations at "Mesecina" - Gostivar. He implemented several projects related to inter-ethnic dialogue and Roma among the other ethnicities in Macedonia. Suad Skenderi is one of the first pioneers of community organizing in the Republic of Macedonia. Romano Avazi in 2012 was the first Roma civil movement with an aim for equal representation of Roma in the state and public administration. He successfully finished the "Roma Access Program" and enrolled for masters degree in the Political Science Department at the Central European University in Hungary - Budapest. His specializations in the field of political science are political representation of minorities, research methodology

Deniz Selmani

Deniz Selmani is one of the founder of Romalitico and first Executive director in the period 2016 – 2018. Selmani has graduated in Public Administration at the South East European University in Tetovo. He continued his master studies at the same university in the study program of Diplomacy. In the period May 2016 – January 2017, the Center for Economic Analyses – CEA hired Selmani to conduct research on otherness and entrepreneurship. Selmani has participated in the Mother Teresa School of Public Policy, which is supported by the Council of Europe. Selmani also took part in the First Public Policy Forum organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation – Skopje and the Progress Institute and in cooperation with a group of young researchers prepared a policy study on the student standard in Macedonia. Selmani, as a national expert of the OSCE Mission to Skopje worked on comparative analysis of the implementation of the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Macedonia, as well as a draft methodology for identifying persons without documents. His research interest is political parties, electoral models, as well as monitoring the implementation of public policies aimed at inclusion of the Roma community.

Albert Memeti

Albert Memeti is one of the founder of Romalitico, and also a Manager of the Program for Economic Development. His research interest is in the field of employment, budget monitoring, local finances and entrepreneurship of Roma. He holds an MA in Economic Policy in Global Markets from the Central European University, Budapest. Also, at the moment he is enrolled at the Frankfurt School of Business and Management, pursing executive program in the field of Risk management. Prior to join Romalitico, he was also a Country Coordinator at the NGO Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initative, responsible for coordinating a team of Business Facilitators in Bulgaria, establishing relations with the Microfinance institutions in Bulgaria. In addition, in 2014-2015 he was engaged as a Risk Analyst at the Social Investment Fund – CoopEst from Brussels, providing debt financing to Microfinance Institutions. While in CoopEst, Albert has completed several due diligence missions in Bulgaria, Armenia, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the period 2016 -2018, he was also a project manager of the project “Improving Roma Employment through Education and Employment”, supported by the EU fund and implemented by the Roma Education Fund and local partner organizations. Albert is committed advocate for advancing the position of Roma and economic empowerment of the Roma community in Macedonia and EU.

Elvis Shakjiri

Elvis Shakjiri is one of the founders of the Institute for research and policy analyses – Romalitico, and a manager of the Law program. In 2010 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the South East European University and later continued his MA studies in Budapest-Hungary at the Central European University in the Human Rights Program.  After completing his master’s studies, he is awarded with fellowship at the Policy Research & Consulting Institute – Political Capital in Budapest. During the engagement period his main focus is in the field of electoral models and political campaigns. Prior to the establishment of Romalitico, he worked in several non-governmental organizations as a legal advisor and coordinator of several projects. During his work, Shakjiri as an author is contributing for the researches and analyses carried out by the Institute.

Marija Sulejmanova

Marija Sulejmanova holds a BA degree in Law from the Law University “Iustinianus Primus” – Skopje and an MA degree in Human Rights from the Central European University – Budapest. After her master studies, she was an intern in the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest. Her research interest is analyzing laws, their constitutionality and collision among them, finding responsible institutions in advocacy research, and making a comparison between country policies and laws. Currently, Marija holds the position of a junior researcher in IRPA - Romalitico and she strongly believes that this experience will prepare her for future engagements as a human rights advocate and lawyer. Тhis opportunity will provide her a unique knowledge in dealing with Roma issues and in general, knowledge on the overall process of policy assessment. Therefore, she is more than motivated to learn continuously, work and develop in a creative and highly ambitious environment where the initial working criteria and principle is critical thinking.

Simona Simova

Simona Simova is a graduate marketing manager at the European University - Skopje. She continues her education at the Institute of Economics Cyril and Methodius - Financial Management. She acquired her first experience in marketing as an intern in MPM and Idea Plus, where she mainly worked on marketing research on the Macedonian market. In June 2016 she started as an intern in Croatia Insurance - Life to progress later in a Coordinator for billing and customer care. She continues her financial experience in the Institute for Analyzes and Public Policies - Romalitico, where she holds the position of financial assistant.