EWORA Conference 2025

Vanesa Daza

Vice-Rector, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Vanesa Daza, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). She leads the Security and Cryptography research line within the WiSeCom group. Her academic journey began with a degree in Mathematics from Universitat de Barcelona and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from UPC, focused on linear secret sharing schemes applied to secure multi-party computation.
 

Throughout her career, she has combined rigorous academic research with active collaboration with industry. She worked at Scytl, designing secure electronic voting protocols, two of which were patented, and has since led several national and European projects, including the H2020 BAnDIT (European Industrial Doctorates) and PRESENT (RIA), as well as the Spanish ALICE project. She also directs the ARTEMISA International Chair on Cybersecurity, in partnership with INCIBE. In January 2026, she will join the Horizon Europe WEM4CYBER consortium, a project that aims to address the gender gap in the cybersecurity field and foster inclusive excellence across Europe. Her contributions to teaching have been recognised with multiple awards for innovation, reflecting her commitment to active learning and the integration of emerging technologies in education.

Her long-standing interest in distributed cryptography has evolved to tackle challenges in blockchain technologies and, more recently, in verifiable and responsible artificial intelligence. Her current research explores how cryptographic techniques — especially zero-knowledge proofs and privacy-preserving methods — can enhance transparency, accountability, and trust in AI systems. This work bridges cryptography and AI governance to contribute to secure and trustworthy digital infrastructures.
 

She has published widely in top-tier venues (CRYPTO, TCC, PKC, FC), is Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security and IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, and has collaborated with researchers from nine countries. She has supervised several Ph.D. students and regularly serves on program committees and as a reviewer for international conferences and journals.
 

In addition to her research and teaching activities, she has held various leadership roles at UPF, including serving as Chair of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies. Since March 2023, she has been Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer, promoting collaboration between academia, industry, and society.

Devorah Lieberman

President Emerita of the University of LaVerne

Devorah Lieberman is an accomplished and visionary leader recognized for her significant contributions to higher education, health care, and business both in the United States and globally. She served as the 18th president of the University of La Verne from 2011 to 2023, marking history as the first woman to hold this position in the institution’s 135-year history. Currently, she holds the title of President Emerita and leads as the principal of Lieberman & Associates, LLC. Currently, post presidency, in her consulting capacity, she works closely with the following clients: President-In-Residence (2025-2026), Harvard University, Graduate School of Education; The American Council on Education: Senior Advisor to the President; The Phoenix Philanthropy Group: Senior Consultant; International Association of University Presidents: Chief Strategy Officer & Advisor to the President; Executive Coaching: University Presidents/Administrators and Corporate Executives During her 12-year tenure as president, Lieberman led transformative initiatives that elevated the University of La Verne’s academic stature and reinforced its community presence. Key accomplishments under her leadership include: (1) Significant increases in student enrollment and the introduction of innovative academic programs; (2) Strengthened university partnerships regionally, nationally and globally; (3) Nearly doubled the operational budget ($118m-$220m); (4) Quadrupled the endowment ($36m- $151m); (5) Improved national university rankings (ranked #1 private institution nationally for Social Mobility- USNWR); (7) Significantly expanded campus facilities and resources, particularly for first-generation and low-income students, ensuring enhanced academic support and access. Lieberman remains active in academic scholarship, authoring Spotlighting Female Leadership: Strategies, Stories, Perspectives in 2024, published by the International Association of University Professors. Lieberman’s academic journey began at Mt. San Antonio College, where she earned her Associate’s degree. She went on to complete her Bachelor’s degree at Humboldt State University, followed by a Master of Arts in Intercultural Communication from San Diego State University. Lieberman holds a Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication and Gerontology from the University of Florida. Lieberman’s has extensive board leadership experience serving on corporate and not for profit boards.

Caroline G Parker

Professor Emeritus & Former Assistant Vice Principal Values , Glasgow Caledonian University

Professor Caroline Parker is an Emeritus Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University. With degrees in Psychology and Psychology, Computing and Artificial Intelligence and over 25 years research experience in applied Human Factors she has a passion for projects that make a meaningful improvement to life and work. For almost ten years Caroline led Glasgow Caledonian’s successful Values activity, delivering a range of mechanisms to embed the organisation’s core values into the working practices of the University. Using a ground-up and positively focused approach she developed a Behaviours Framework then guided its integration into key operations such as recruitment, induction, personal development, appraisal, team development and management training.

Glasgow Caledonian’s work on Values led to an ongoing collaboration with the Magna Charta Observatory (MCO). Caroline co-designed and led the MCO’s 2017 workshop on Values in Higher Education and was then invited to be part of the initial development team for their Living Values initiative and has contributed to several of the Living Values practical guides. She has been an MCO Values Ambassador since 2018.

David John Lock

Secretary General, Magna Charta Observatory

David Lock is Secretary-General of the Magna Charta Observatory and has led on the design and delivery of the MCO’s strategy, the globalisation of the Observatory’s work, and the development of the Living Values project, a self-evaluation instrument for university values. He facilitated the process of preparing and launching the Magna Charta Universitatum 2020 and the development of the MCO’s research initiative ‘the responsive and responsible university’.

Prior to the MCO David was Director of International Projects at the UK’s Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. He was the founding Registrar and Acting Chief Executive of the British University in Dubai where he structured, built and then led the University. He headed the administrations of two British Universities for a total of 14 years. A teacher and Chartered Secretary by background, David has served on a number of international bodies and undertaken a range of consultancy assignments including international development and UK HE governance projects.

Pamela Habibović

Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University

Prof. dr. Pamela Habibović is Professor of Inorganic Biomaterials. Currently, she serves as Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University. Initially trained as a chemical engineer, in 2005, Habibović obtained a PhD degree from the University of Twente, the Netherlands on the topic of materials for biomedical applications. Following postdoctoral research at Children’s Hospital Boston and McGill University, in 2008, she started her research group at the University of Twente. In 2014, she moved to Maastricht University, where she co-established and directed MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine. She served as the President of the European Society for Biomaterials between 2017 and 2021 and as an Associate Editor of the RSC journal Biomaterials Science between 2019 and 2022. In 2021, she was elected as a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry and in 2024 Fellow of the Biomaterials Science and Engineering. Habibović has published over 160 peer-review articles on the topic of biomaterials and regenerative medicine. In her current role as Rector Magnificus, her main focus is on quality assurance of education and research and student affairs.

Mia Rönnmar

Vice Chancellor, Malmö University

Mia Rönnmar is Vice-Chancellor/President of Malmö University.

She has served as Dean and Professor of Private Law at the Faculty of Law at Lund University and been a visiting scholar at e.g. London School of Economics, European University Institute and Sydney Law School. Her expertise relates to labour law and industrial relations in a Swedish, comparative, and international perspective. She has extensive experience of cross-boundary and international research cooperation and is a Past-President of ILERA, the International Labour and Employment Relations Association. She currently serves a member of the ILO Committee of Experts and is dedicated to gender equality and diversity.

Federica Rosetta

Vice President, Academic & Research Relations, EU Elsevier

Federica Rosetta, Vice-president of academic and research relations, EU & Nordics

In her current role, Federica Rosetta is responsible for external relations and strategic collaborations with policy and research communities in the EU and Nordics. In this capacity, her primary focus is on key developments around the European research and innovation agenda, with a keen interest in developing partnerships to advance open science, gender equality, sustainability and science communications. Her experience in scholarly communications, developed over 19 years at Elsevier, spans marketing communications, publishing, business development and policy. Her enthusiasm for publishing traces back to her studies in literature, press and publishing history.

Sondan D. Feyiz

Rector, Kadir Has University

Prof. Sondan Durukanoğlu Feyiz graduated from the Physics Department of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Sciences in 1989. She completed her Master’s in Physics at the University of Wisconsin (1992), and her Ph.D. at the Physics department of Kansas State University (1999). During her doctoral studies, Feyiz served as a teaching assistant at Kansas State University from 1994 to 1997, as a research assistant at the same university from 1997 to 1999, and as a postdoctoral researcher during 1999 and 2000.  From 2000, she continued her academic career as an assistant professor at Istanbul Technical University, becoming an associate professor there in 2006, and in 2011 she became a full professor at Sabancı University. Between 2010 and 2018, she served as the Vice Rector of Sabancı University responsible for Education, International Relations, Individual and Academic Support and Summer Schools.  She was then appointed as the Rector of Kadir Has University in 2018.

Durukanoğlu Feyiz has held numerous positions such as Member of the Senate Accreditation Committee of Istanbul Technical University (2002-2006); Visiting Scientist at Kansas State University (Summer 2002); Associate Editor in Chief of Istanbul Technical University Bulletin (2002-2007); Visiting Assoc. Prof. of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (2007-2009); Senior Researcher at Feza Gürsey Institute (2007-2009) and, co-translator of Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by David J. Griffiths (2010). She served as an Executive Board Member of the Nanotechnology Research and Application Center at Sabancı University (2014-2016), as the Chair of the Quality Assurance and Strategy Committee of Sabancı University (2015-2018).

Durukanoğlu Feyiz, who was the only female in 1991 to receive the Ministry of Education scholarship to study abroad in the field of physics (1991-1995), was also a recipient of the TUBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) Research Fellow Support Funding (BİDEP scholarship) and

Inga Žalėnienė

Rector, Mykolas Romeris University

Inga Žalėnienė is an alumna of Mykolas Romeris University (MRU), Vilnius (Lithuania), where she finished her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Law. After graduation she joined the Department of Law at Lithuanian Savings Bank and worked as legal adviser. In parallel, she lectured the discipline of Family Law at Mykolas Romeris University and started her academic career as university lecturer at MRU. Inga Žalėnienė defended her doctoral thesis "Representation in Civil Procedure (Theoretical and Practical Aspects)" and obtained her PhD in Law, in 2006. She was appointed as Vice-Dean of Law Faculty of Mykolas Romeris University in 2009 and was responsible for the development of education policy, formation and coordination of research groups, organization of scientific project activities, planning and accounting of scientific results. Inga Žalėnienė was appointed as Vice-Rector for Research and International Relations in 2012, then in 2017 as Vice-Rector for Education and Research and since March 2019, she holds the position of Rector of Mykolas Romeris University – was re-elected for a second 5 year term in 2024. In 2022, Prof. Inga Žalėnienė was awarded a honorary title of Dongseo University’s (Republic of Korea) Doctor Honoris Causa. Inga Žalėnienė is a Vice-President at the International Association of Universities (IAU) since 2023 and a member of European Women Rectors Association (EWORA) Board of Directors since 2021.

Birgit Riegraf

Former President, Paderborn University

Prof. Dr. Birgitt Riegraf, born 1961, studied political science, sociology, psychology and religious studies as well as the interdisciplinary supplementary course "Qualitative Methods in Social Sciences" at the Free University of Berlin. She did her doctorate in 1995 at the Free University of Berlin and completed her habilitation in 2004 at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. After visiting professorships and interim professorships at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Braunschweig and the Georg-August University in Göttingen, she has been Professor of General Sociology at Paderborn University since 2009. She has been the President of Paderborn University from April 2018 to April 2025.

Research Priorities

Social, justice and state theories, inequality, work and organizational sociology, science and university research, theories and methodologies of women and gender studies

Current Functions, Shortlist:

From 2021, board member of EWORA (European Women Rectors Association)

Since 2021, member of the working group “Research-Oriented Equal Opportunities Standards” of the DFG

Since 2020, Member of the speaker group of the LRK NRW

Since 2020, member of the "Expert advisory committee for cooperation between Qingdao and Germany"

Since 2019, Shandong Province Ambassador of Friendship

Since 2019, Member of the advisory board of the Sino-German Eco Parc Qingdao

Since 2019, chairwoman of the University Alliance (UA) 11+ / German University Alliance

Since 2018, Member of the HRK's Permanent Commission for Organization and Governance

Since 2018, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Johannes Rau Research Association
 

Since 2018, Member of it's OWL's Cluster-board
 

Since 2018, Elected member of the board of the Digital University of NRW
 

Since 2018, board member of the OWL Employment Initiative
 

Since 2018, member of the board of the association "Economy and Science for OWL e.V."
 

Since 2018, President of the University of Paderborn
 

Since 2018, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Heinz Nixdorf Institute
 

Since 2015, board member of the Gender Center of the University of Paderborn
 

Since 2014, member of the executive board of the NRW Research College Light - Efficient - Mobile
 

Since 2010, member of the women's and gender research network in NRW

Current publications, Shortlist:

Riegraf, Birgit (in collaboration with Lena Weber) (2021): FEMEN’s transnational fight for women’s rights: multiple modernities, transnational spaces, and plural gender orders. In: Winkel, Heidemarie and Angelika Poferl (ed.): Multiple Gender Cultures, Sociology, and Plural Modernities, Routledge, 252 S.

Riegraf, Birgit (in collaboration with Beate Kortendiek and Katja Sabisch) (ed.) (2019): Handbuch zur Interdisziplinären Geschlechterforschung, Reihe Geschlecht und Gesellschaft Band 65, Grundlagenwerk mit 168 Artikeln, sowohl in Print-Version als auch Online, ISBN: 978-3-658-12500-4 (Print); 978-3-658-12500-4 (Online), 1566 S.

Riegraf, Birgit (in collaboration with Barbara Rendtorff and Claudia Mahs) (2019): Struktur und Dynamik – Un/Gleichzeitigkeiten im Geschlechterverhältnis, SpingerVS, 185 S.

Riegraf, Birgit (in collaboration with Martina Althoff, Magdalena Apel, Mechthild Bereswill and Julia Gruhlich) (2017): Feministische Methodologien und Methoden. Traditionen, Konzepte, Erörterungen. Lehrbuchreihe zur sozialwissenschaftlichen Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung der Sektion Frauenforschung in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie Band 2, (2. erweiterte und aktualisierte Auflage) (1. Auflage 2001), Wiesbaden, 442 S.

Riegraf, Birgit (in collaboration with Romy Reimer) (2016): Geschlechtergerechte Care-Arrangements? Zur Neuverteilung von Pflegeaufgaben in Wohn-Pflege-Gemeinschaften, Reihe Arbeitsgesellschaft im Wandel, Weinheim/ Basel, 137 S.

Isabel Capeloa Gil

Rector, Universidade Católica Portuguesa

Isabel Capeloa Gil is the Rector of the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) and President of the International Federation of Catholic Universities. She is a Full Professor of Culture Studies at the School of Human Sciences. Having grown up in China, she studied in Lisbon (U. Lisbon), Munich (Ludwig Maximilian University) and Chicago and holds a PhD in German Studies (UCP). Previously, she was Vice-Rector for Research and Internationalization (2012-2016) and the Dean of the School of Human Sciences (2005-2012) of the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP). Isabel Gil has been especially interested in researching issues of diversity and conflict and has structured her work around the exploration of the disciplinary boundaries between the arts and other disciplines.
 

She is a passionate advocate of international education and works consistently to develop international research networks, exploring the different ways in which the practice of the arts and humanities is pivotal to advance a more sustainable and intellectually robust global education agenda. Her research is currently published in Portuguese, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. She is the author of over 182 publications, bridging cultural theory, interarts studies, visual culture, culture and conflict. Her latest books are Hazardous Future: Disaster, Representation and the Assessment of Risk (with Christoph Wulf, New York, 2015) and The Ballets Russes. Modern Times After Dhiaghilev (with PcPinto, Lisbon, 2018) . She was a founding member and is a senior researcher at the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC), where she coordinates the research group Culture, Art and Conflict (CAC). As an international scholar, Prof. Gil has held numerous visiting professorships at prestigious universities such as LMU University, Munich, Hamburg University,Ca’Foscari University, Venice, the Houston School of Film at the National University ofIreland, PUC Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and USJ (Macao). She was a Visiting Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Berlin) and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (U. Stanford). Amongst her honours are a Fulbright Fellowship, and DAAD, FLAD and Gulbenkian Scholarships.

 

Isabel Capeloa Gil has been a regular consultant for research foundations such as the Danish Research Council, FAPESP (Brazil), the FCT and FLAD in Portugal as well as the Luso-American Comission (Fulbright). She was an evaluator of the prestigious Excellence Initiative of the Germnan Federal Government and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and is Chair of the Humanities panel at the Danish Research Council.

Isabel Capeloa Gil is furthermore Honorary Fellow at the IGRS, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. In 2018, she became Chair of the Research Leadership Forum of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils. She is also a Member of the European Council of Foreign Relations, as well as a member of the Advisory Board of the Gulbenkian Foundation. Since 2016, she has been the President of the Board of the UCP Foundation.

Lucyna Wozniak

Vice Rector, Medical University of Lodz

Professor Lucyna Woźniak, PhD, DSc, graduated from the Technical University of Lodz. After PhD from the Polish Academy of Sciences and a post-doc in Kings College London, she got habilitation (DSc.) from The Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies Polish Academy of Sciences. Professor at the Medical University of Lodz (www.umed.pl) working in the field of medicinal chemistry and molecular biology. Research: diabetes in context of gestational diabetes (GDM) as an early predictor of T2M in women population, metabolomics, lipidomics. Vice Rector for Science and International Affairs, Head of Chair of Medicinal Biology & Department of Structural Biology at MUL, chairwoman of EIT HEALTH INNOSTARS (www.eithealth.eu/innostars) Supervisory Board, and Member of Supervisory Board of EIT HEALTH (www.eithealth.eu). Member of High Level Group on maximizing impact of EU Research and Innovation Programmes (Pascal Lamy Group), and Strategic Innovation Board of EIT HEALTH.

Eva Åkesson

Former Vice Chancellor, Uppsala University, Sweden

Eva Åkesson is currently professor of chemical physics and senior advisor at Lund University, Sweden. Eva Åkesson served as vice-chancellor of Uppsala University, Sweden, during the years 2012-2020. From 2003 to 2008 she was vice rector at Lund University, with special responsibility for undergraduate education and the Bologna Process. From 2009 to 2011 she was Deputy Vice- Chancellor, with responsibility for first and second cycle studies, quality assurance and enhancement, and related internationalization issues. After undergraduate and doctoral studies at Umeå University 1989, and a postdoc at the University of Minnesota, USA she was selected in 1996 by the Swedish Research Council as senior researcher in photochemical reaction mechanisms and joined the staff of Lund University. Eva Åkesson has primarily pursued research in femtochemistry – a field that makes use of ultrafast spectroscopy to follow chemical reactions and dynamics on the timescale on which chemical bonds are formed and broken. She has studied isomerisations, dissociation reactions and electron transfers. Her research has also addressed energy conversion in artificial systems for solar cells. Eva Åkesson is a member of the board of Chalmers. She has served on numerous boards, including the board of CSN (the Central Board for Student Aid), Kristianstad University, the Swedish Institute, and Council of the University of Tartu, Estonia. She has served as titular member, secretary and deputy chair of the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education, and currently a member of the Scientific Committee. Eva Åkesson is former chair of the Matariki Network of Universities and the Southern African–Nordic Centre (SANORD), and vice-chair of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities. She chaired the international expert panels for evaluating leadership and governance of education at Helsinki University in 2008, evaluation of Aalto School of Science in 2011 and the QQI institutional review of University College Dublin, Ireland in 2019 and chair of the audit team of the FINEEC evaluation of University of Eastern Finland 2022 and Arcada 2023. In 2015 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. In 2018 she was awarded H.M. The King’s Medal of the 12th size with the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim for “exemplary work in Swedish higher education” and in 2019 she received the Skytte Medal of the University of Tartu in recognition of her contributions to international cooperation.

Kerstin Tham

Former Vice Chancellor, Malmö University

Kerstin Tham was vice-chancellor of Malmö University from 2015 to 2024. She previously served as Deputy Vice Chancellor at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm. She has extensive experience from research, teaching and academic leadership positions within the field of health sciences.

Professor Tham is professor in occupational therapy (2009) and has a doctoral (phd) degree in Neurology (1998). Her research focuses on aspects of rehabilitation after stroke and the overall aim is to build knowledge, develop and evaluate personcentered health services for people with stroke and their families. Professor Tham has conducted internationally unique research identifying the lived experience of individuals with neuropsychological impairments after stroke, as unilateral neglect, by applying an occupational science perspective. The research has contributed to the development of new models, methods and strategies for rehabilitation after stroke. Professor Tham has extensive numbers of scientific publications and has served as supervisor of 15 doctoral students at Karolinska Institutet.

Professor Tham has led the strategic development of Malmö university which is the youngest university in Sweden. When the Swedish government decided on giving Malmö university the full research university status 2018, she has focused her work on strengthening the research and research education in interdisciplinary research centers and programs addressing complex societal challenges such as sustainable city development, migration and integration, life- and material sciences, internet of things and people and learning for change.

Malmö university has a strong global and societal engagement and has during the years built and extensive experience in widening participation in higher education. Collaboration with different societal stakeholders within public, private and the nonprofit sectors is very important for the further development of the university and professor Tham is therefore involved in several national, regional and local boards.

Pamela Gillies

Former Vice Chancellor, Glasgow Caledonian University

Pamela Gillies, CBE FRSE, is a Professor Emerita in Public Health and former Vice Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University where she held the role for 17 years. She currently Chairs the Board of The Circle, a charity founded by Annie Lennox to promote gender equality, women’s economic opportunities and to reduce gender -based violence globally. She also serves on the Research Committee of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, on the Board of the National University of Science and Technology in Oman and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She is an elected member of the Academy of Social Sciences, Royal College of Physicians and Faculty of PublicHealth. In her career she has worked with the World Health Organisation on HIV/AIDS prevention; been a Harkness Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health; established with Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Caledonian School of Nursing in Dhaka as a social business; partnered the development of the African Leadership University and, as its President, created the first international degree awarding College for the Common Good in New York City. She has served on many Boards including the British Council and RFK UK Human Rights and, with a PhD in epidemiology, has written widely on social action for health and inequalities reduction.

Arne Flåøyen

Director, NordForsk

Dr Arne Flåøyen is since 2018 the Director of NordForsk. He has spent the past 20 years at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, where he was Deputy Director General and Head of Department between 2007 and 2017. Dr Flåøyen studied at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, where he earned a DVM degree and two Ph.D. degrees. He also completed a Master of Management at the BI Norwegian Business School. From 2004 to 2006 he worked as National Expert and Project Officer in DG Research in the European Commission. Between 1998 and 2002, Dr Flåøyen chaired the Nordic Forestry, Veterinary and Agricultural University’s (NOVA) steering group for collaboration with developing countries. Dr Flåøyen was a member of the Research Board of the Division for Science at the Research Council of Norway from 2011 to 2015.