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Ana M Nacvalovaite
President and Chair
The founding of Lotus of Hope marks the nexus of all that Ana has been working for as a champion of human rights, and after years of travel and academic and professional inquiry, she sees this orgnization as the natural next step in her goal of improving the lives of women and children and as an agent of making lasting change.
A native of Vilnius, Ana has spent much of her life in Oxford, first as a child and then pursuing advance degrees in international law. She continues to spend part of her time at Oxford, where she is doing postgraduate work examining child labor practices among trans-Atlantic corporations. Ana splits the rest of the year between New York and London, where her authority in human rights law, especially as it relates to women and children, is highly in demand. In recent years, she provided input for the UN Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict in the DRC and Uganda, contributed to UNICEF's State of the World's Children Report, and participated in the strategic review of the 10th Anniversary of the Grace Machel Study on Children and Armed Conflict.
Ana is both a respected scholar, having authored numerous academic papers examining the implications and intricacies of universal human rights, and a skilled interpreter of esoteric international law for the general public. Her cogent analysis of complex human rights issues has made her a highly sought after contributor to a variety of international and domestic media outlets.
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Meagan Cignoli
Vice Chair
Born and raised in New York City, Meagan studied fashion design, photography and language at the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology and University of Habana. Currently based in Manhattan, Meagan works as a photographer both domestically and internationally. Her impressive roster of clients includes museums, foundations, magazines, publishing houses, and private clients alike.
Her incredibly diverse and extensive portfolio shows the true spectrum of her range and her ability to tell a story thoroughly and from multiple angles regardless of genre. She has photographed everything from high fashion runway shows to the recent power shift in Cuba to civil unrest in the Middle East.
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Linda Pratka
Director
A New York Native, Linda worked for years on Wall Street before opening a hugely successful and innovative boutique in Manhattan's competitive fashion market. Drawing on the finance and business skills she learned while studying at Georgetown, Linda saw a need in the world of women's fashion for affordable designer clothing, and acted on it. She has received tremendous national press and accolades for her innovation.
In addition to her work, Linda is an active member of the New York Junior League's fundraising committee and a member of the Georgetown Alumni Admissions Program.
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Liza Clark
Educational Specialist
For the last ten years, Liza has worked as teacher in both Ukraine and the US. She specializes in helping families achieve academic success for their children in spite of barriers such as mental illness and poverty that often stand in the way of scholastic growth. She also has a background in early childhood mental health and early childhood care and education. Currently based in New York, Liza is dedicated to the needs of the homeless and survivors of domestic violence. She is also researching the ways in which inefficiencies in the delivery of social services detract from the educational experiences of disadvantaged youth.
A Long Island University graduate and a native of Kiev, Ukraine, Liza holds a Master's degree in education and is a licensed EFL teacher. As a master teacher she works as a mentor for novice teachers and has consulted with principals and leader teachers in Eastern Europe to create professional development opportunities geared toward reforming middle school education in those countries.
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Lora Woellhaf
Educational Specialist
As a child in the Philippines, Lora knew early on that she wanted to be a teacher and that as a product of the Montessori system, she wanted to build a career using this respected methodology. After obtaining her Bachelor's degree in Educational Studies and Early Childhood Studies at Oxford, Lora split her time between Oxford during the academic year, where she taught at several Montessori schools, and her native Philippines on summers and holidays, where she maintained a commitment to improving the lives of women and children through her work with various non-profits and orphanages.
Having moved to the US to pursue a Master's in Education, Lora is now based in Arlington, Virginia, where she is the director of Montessori school with a special mission to serve the needs of its community by providing numerous scholarships for children within the Arlington Housing Community Project. Additionally, Lora helps to raise funds for and to advise the Arlington non-profit Foundation of Montessori Education (FOME).Lora continues to honor her commitment to improving education in the Philippines through her active involvement with the Mithing Pangarap Foundation, which assists underserved families in Manila access education.
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Lotus of Hope:
California , New York , London , Oxford , Zurich , Dubai , Luxembourg , Tel Aviv, Johannesburg , Kiev , Warsaw , Hong Kong
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