Homa Bazafkan

WAVE Office Intern

Homa Bazafkan is originally from Iran. In 2019, she graduated from the University of Vienna with a masters in International Development and she is currently doing her PhD in Gender Studies at University of Graz. During her masters, she engaged herself in different projects, including the integration of refugees, with a focus on Afghan refugee women in Austria. In this regards, she works with grassroot NGOs and aid organisation in Austria. She was also the co-author for a book project on the challenges of refugee women in the European context, which was conducted by the NGO Südwind in Austria. Recently, she was a student project assistant looking at the role of social media in female refugee’s perception of the European Union’s migration-integration policies at the University of Vienna’s communication department.

Kelly Blank (Maternity Leave)

Grant Development & Advisory Board Coordinator

Anca Ciupa

Membership & Legal Project Coordinator

Anca Ciupa has a Bachelor’s Degree in Law at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and a Master’s Degree in European and National Business Law also obtained in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Babes-Bolyai University. Additionally, Anca has obtained a postgraduate diploma in International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in June 2014. Before working at WAVE, Anca was a co-author on a research project, “Analysis of the draft law to permit the Rosia Montana mining proposal”,

Léa Dudouet

Office Administrator & Project Assistant

Léa Dudouet recently completed her MPhil in the Reproductive Sociology Research Group at the University of Cambridge. Her thesis focused on the use and experiences fertility-related apps which can be used to avoid pregnancy through qualitative interviews with women based in the UK, in order to understand the role of technology in contraceptive decision-making. Prior to this Léa completed her BSc in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2018, graduating with First Class Honors. Her studies were geared towards intersecting aspects of sociology, focusing on gender, race and sexuality. She was also the treasurer of the Intersectional Feminist Society for two years and acted as a Consent Champion in her final year where she helped facilitate consent and active by-stander workshops and campaigned to introduce mandatory consent training for all incoming students.

Elena Floriani

Communications & Research Officer

Elena Floriani holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural mediation and a Master’s degree in Comparative international relations. After study and work experiences in Italy, France, Germany, Tanzania and Austria, she joined the WAVE office as Communication and Research Officer in May 2019. In the last years, Elena made of her interest in feminism and women’s rights her area of research and work. Following an experience in the field of development cooperation in Tanzania, she decided to focus her Master’s thesis on the legal protection of women’s rights in Africa, conducting a research on the recent developments of the African Union’s human rights system.

Stephanie Futter-Orel

Executive Manager

Stephanie is passionate about fighting Violence Against Women and has a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Vienna as well as a Master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics. Austrian by birth, she has lived in London for the past 9 years and worked for over 7 years in women’s specialist organisations dedicated to fighting Violence Against women (frontline roles as well as Senior Management).

Maria Knaub

Grant Development & Advisory Board Coordinator

Maria has a Bachelor’s Degree in East Asian Studies and is currently finishing her Master’s in Development Studies at the University of Vienna. She is passionate about feminism, gender equality and social justice. Previously, she has worked in a variety of positions and industries, spanning from algorithm research to editorial offices. As WAVE’s interim Grant Development and Advisory Board Coordinator, she is looking forward to putting her prior experiences into social use for ending gender-based violence.

Beverly Mtui

Youth Ambassador Coordinator

Beverly Mtui is pursuing her Master’s in Development Studies as well as her second Bachelor’s degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. She did an exchange program with the Université de Genève in Switzerland, before volunteering at the Austrian Network for Refugees to teach German and English. In 2018, she interned with one of our Members “Work With Perpetrators European Network – WWP EN” for half a year. One of her main fields of interest is combatting human trafficking.

Lina Piskernik

Digital & Social Media Coordinator

Lina Piskernik is Digital & Social Media Coordinator, ensuring that WAVE’s many projects and achievements are as visible as possible across several social media networks. She is also Communications Coordinator for the Erasmus project DIS.CO & UN Women project CSSP, and assists the WAVE Step Up! campaign. She has a Bachelor degree in International Affairs & German from Florida State University as well as a Master of Science in International Relations & Environmental Technology from

Elizabeth Spouse

Data Manager & Researcher

Elizabeth has a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Political Science from the University of Washington in Seattle, and is currently completing her Master’s of International Development at the University of Vienna with a focus on Gender Studies. She is responsible for research and database administration; ensuring effective data collection for, as well as the creation of the WAVE Country Report. In addition, she manages the WAVE Fempower Magazine and the WAVE Newsletter, and is the co-organizer of the WAVE Gender Neutrality Working Group.

Renate Tomenendal

Accountant

After her traineeship in the retail trade and several years in this area as a manager, Renate Tomenendal completed a part time training course to become a proofed and graduated balance accountant and personnel accountant. After completing this training, I switched to a job as an accountant. After the birth of her son and her maternity leave, Renate resumed her employment in 2014 at WAVE, where she has now been working in the non-profit sector for 6 years. Currently she is working for the non-profit women’s rights associations AÖF and WAVE. In her very demanding job she is responsible for accounting, personnel administration, balance sheets, budgeting and reporting. As such, her working day is not only very varied but also entertaining and fulfilling.

Mária Trubanová

WAVE Office Intern

I finished my Master degree from political sciences and international relations at the Comenius University in Bratislava. During my studies, I have gained extensive knowledge from different spheres, mostly focused on international relations, international law, research, but also on gender equality policies, sexuality in public policies and many more. Moreover, I was able to study abroad thanks to the Erasmus+ Programme in Budapest, Hungary. During my Master degree I started to be deeply interested in the gender equality policies and the issue of violence against women and children.