Biography

Jacki Davis is an experienced journalist and moderator of high-level events; a regular broadcaster on television and radio news; and a Senior Adviser to the European Policy Centre think tank. She has been based in Brussels for more than 30 years, and was previously the EPC’s Communications Director; editor-in-chief of the EU magazine E!Sharp; launch editor of European Voice, a Brussels-based newspaper on EU affairs owned by The Economist Group (now Politico); and Brussels correspondent of a British national newspaper.

Biography

Mónika Képe-Holmberg is Head of Evidence-based policy and evaluation at the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture at the European Commission. She is responsible for developing and analysing evidence to better inform the EU’s policy-making, in dialogue with international organisations.

Mónika has worked in Brussels for over 20 years in the areas of education, training and employment. Mónika holds degrees in economics, business administration and European studies.

Biography

Åsa Petri is the Chair of the Education Committee of the Council of the European Union during the Swedish Presidency (spring) 2023. She has worked for the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research for 13 years, out of which five as Education Counsellor at the Swedish Permanent Representation to the EU. Åsa Petri is currently on leave from the position of Head of Unit of the International Office at Stockholm University. She has previously worked for the Swedish National Agency for Erasmus and other funding programmes, for the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the Stockholm School of Economics and for CEMS - a global alliance of management schools.

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Biography

Tommaso Agasisti is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano School of Management, where he teaches Public Management. Since 2020, he is Associate Dean for International Relations and Quality at PoliMI GSOM - Graduate School of Management. Since 2019, he is member of the Governing Board of Politecnico di Milano. His research interests deal with the performance evaluation and innovation of public organizations, with a special attention to schools, universities and local governments. He authored more than 100 publications, which appeared in international, peer-reviewed academic journals. Between 2010 and 2019, he sat in the Evaluation Committee of various public and private Italian universities.

Biography

Lou Aisenberg is Strategic Development Manager for the Innovation, Data and Experiments in Education (IDEE) programme at J-PAL Europe.

The IDEE programme is a long term initiative supporting the generation and use of actionable evidence in education in France (and beyond). It is led by J-PAL Europe and implemented in partnership with the French Ministry of Education and a pluridisciplinary consortium of research labs.

Prior to joining J-PAL in 2021, Lou worked as a Programme Manager at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the UK Government-designated What Works Center for Education. Prior to that, she worked for five years as a Policy Analyst at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), conducting and coordinating policy research and advice on social innovation and education policies around the world.

Lou holds a master's degree in political studies from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and a bachelor's degree in political sciences and law from Panthéon-Assas, both based in Paris.

Biography

Bodille Arensman is currently working for the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science as a research coordinator with the Directorate for Higher Education and Study Financing. In the past years, she has been working as a researcher and advisor on monitoring, evaluation and learning processes, including the development of bridging knowledge processes and craftmanship in organisations. Bodille holds a PhD in the multidisciplinary field of international development, with a focus on the complexity of evaluating the effectiveness and relevance of international lobbying and advocacy programs.

Biography

Trudy Duffy is Head of Unit in the Evidence for Policy Unit of the Department [Ministry] of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in Ireland.

The Evidence for Policy unit was established in January 2022 with the aim of delivering a centralised research, statistics, data management and evaluation function for the Department, supporting and enhancing evidence-informed policy development across the tertiary sector. At a national level Trudy’s current responsibilities include the delivery of increased engagement between the higher education research sector and policy practitioners across the civil service as set out in Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy.

Trudy has over 15 years’ experience in policy development across the education and training sector from primary level education to international qualifications and further and higher education policy. Previous responsibilities include leading the development of national strategies including Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025; Technology Skills 2022 and leading an award-winning project designed to embed innovation within the day-to-day activity of the Department of Education and Skills. She was a member of the Governing Board of the European Training Foundation from 2019-2021. Trudy holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry, postgraduate qualifications in Equine Studies and eBusiness and a Masters in Economic Policy Analysis.

Biography

Rafael E. de Hoyos is the Program Leader in Human Development (HD) for EU member states. Based in Brussels, Rafael oversees education, social protection, and health programs in EU member states, focusing on Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia. He is a founding partner of “Xaber,” an NGO promoting using evidence to design and evaluate education policies in Latin America.

He has published in peer-reviewed journals and advised governments on school-based management, evaluation policies, strategies to reduce dropout rates, and other topics.

Previously, he was the chief of advisers to Mexico’s under-minister of education (2008-11). Rafael worked in the Development Economics Vice Presidency at the World Bank (2006–08), at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge (2005–06), and as a consultant for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico and at the United Nations World Institute for Development Economics Research in Finland.

He holds an MA in development from the University of Sussex and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Cambridge.

Biography

Paulo Santiago is Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division within OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills. He takes a leading role in the provision of evidence-based advice on education policy to OECD members and partner countries, both collectively and individually, across all sectors of education. Paulo Santiago joined the OECD in 2000.

As an analyst in the Directorate for Education and Skills, he assumed responsibility for a number of large scale cross-country reviews covering a range of education policy areas including teacher policy, tertiary education policy, educational evaluation and assessment, use of resources in school education and education funding. This work has generated OECD policy lines, comprehensive analytical frameworks, developmental work for future data collections as well as a wealth of information about country practices.

He has also led reviews of teacher policy, tertiary education policy, educational evaluation policy and school resource use in over 25 countries. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.

Biography

Rossella Cravetto is a policy officer at the European Commission. She works for the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. She has a master’s degree in international Relations and Diplomatic Affairs from the University of Turin. She has spent the last five years promoting investment in quality education and training at EU level.

She is the coordinator of the Learning Lab initiative.

Biography

Nuno Crato, GCIH, GCIP, is President of Iniciativa Educação, professor at ISEG, University of Lisbon, researcher, applied mathematician, economist, educator, and writer.
From 2011 to 2015 he was Portuguese Minister of Education, Higher Education and Science. During his tenure, Portuguese students achieved the best results ever in international surveys such as PISA and TIMSS, dropout rates were reduced to a half, English become mandatory for seven years in a row, and mandatory schooling was increased from nine to 12 school years.
He holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, worked many years in the U.S. as a university professor and researcher, before becoming a full a professor in the University of Lisbon.

He has several works published in the fields of education, science popularization, and history of science, and numerous research papers in mathematics and statistics. 

His most recent books are his co-organized Data-Driven Policy Impact Evaluation (Springer 2019) and his recently edited Improving a Country’s Education: PISA 2018 Results in 10 Countries (Springer 2021).

He has been consulting for education policy groups and think tanks. He is founding organizer of Lisbon Economics and Statistics of Education.

For his work, he has received prizes from the European Mathematical Society (2003) and the European Union (2007). He was awarded Commander (2008) and Great-Cross (2015) of Prince Henry Order and Great-Cross of the Public Instruction order by The Portuguese Presidency (2022).

Biography

Sylke V. Schnepf (Ph.D.) is a Senior Researcher in the Unit Science for Modelling, Monitoring and Evaluation of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy) and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labour IZA (Bonn, Germany). Previously, she was Associate Professor in Social Statistics at the University of Southampton.

Her main research interests regard patterns of cross-national educational inequalities and counterfactual impact evaluation of policies aimed to mitigate these inequalities. She is also conducting research in the fields of survey design, fairness and loneliness.

At the European Commission, Sylke contributes to DG EAC Learning Lab's goal of promoting the use of education policy evaluation practices in the EU. Previously, she conducted several counterfactual impact evaluations in the field of education, including evaluations of Erasmus+ and tertiary education dropout.

Biography

Josep Amer Mestre is a quantitative policy analyst on Impact Evaluation at the Competence Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation (CC-ME) of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC). He holds a PhD in Economics and his research topics are related to applied microeconomics, with a particular focus on labor, education, and public economics.

Biography

Ms. Ciresica Feyer is deputy Head of Unit in the unit in charge of Labour Market, Education, Health and Social Services in the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), the European Commission. Ms Feyer holds a degree in Political Science and two Master degrees in Political Science and International Relations and European Studies, at the University of Bucharest and the University La Sapienza, Italy.

Since 2021, Ms. Feyer is responsible for the coordination of the Education sector in DG REFORM. In this capacity, she coordinates the design and implementation of support projects with EU Member States, through the Technical Support Instrument of the European Commission. Education projects cover a broad variety of areas, such as inclusive education, national education and skills frameworks, school, higher education and Vocational Education and Training reforms, recognition of professional qualifications, green and digital skills, adult education.

Between 2008 and 2021, Ms. Feyer hold different positions in the European Commission, in the Directorate General Human Resources, the Internal Audit Service and the Directorate General Migration and Home Affairs.

Between 2000 and 2008, Ms. Feyer was active in the Romanian public administration as a project manager, spokesperson and head of unit in the National Agency of Civil Servants, Romania.  During this period, she published various articles dedicated to the civil servants professional ethics and the role of professional training of civil servants.

Biography

Kristof De Witte is a full professor in Education Economics and Political Economy at the Faculty of Economics and Business at KU Leuven, Belgium, and he holds the chair in ‘Effectiveness and Efficiency of Educational Innovations’ at United Nations University (UNU-MERIT) at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Kristof De Witte is further a Fellow member of the CESifo Network. At KU Leuven he is program director of the ‘Master in Economic Education’, and the founding member and director of the research group ‘Leuven Economics of Education Research’.

The research interests of Kristof De Witte comprise education economics, performance evaluation, and political economy. Thanks to funding from multiple national and international organizations, he has a strong track record in leading and coordinating large research projects. Stimulated by interdisciplinary research funding, his work touches upon multiple disciplines which is reflected in publications in the leading journals from various academic fields.

Kristof De Witte shows a deep commitment to public dissemination of his research. To increase societal impact, he is actively disseminating his research output to Dutch field journals, policy journals and media. De Witte’s work has been frequently featured in national and international media including CNN, the New York Post, the Washington Post, La Presse and El Pais. Multiple of his papers have had a documented impact on policy making. He served as an expert in the ‘European Commission Expert Group on quality investment in education and training’.

Biography

Giorgio Di Pietro is a Senior Researcher at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Seville. He is an education economics expert, applying a wide range of statistical techniques to investigate how human capital can be improved and how education impacts labour market outcomes.

Among others, he has published in journals such as Journal of Population Economics, Economics Letters, Economics of Education Review, Education, Finance & Policy, Regional studies, Empirical Economics and Applied Economics.

Biography

Marco Montanari is an economic analyst working in the area of investment and evidence-based policy in education the at the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bologna (Italy) and an MSc in European studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK).

He has held several positions as an economic and policy analyst at the European Commission, including as a country desk for Italy at the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and team leader for the future of education and work at the Joint Research Centre. Before joining the European Commission, he worked as a junior researcher in European economic integration at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). He has published several articles in international academic journals in the field of European political economy.

Biography

Veronica De Nisi is a policy analyst in the area of education at the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission. She works as country desk officer for Lithuania and Malta and she has been contributing to the European Commission’s initiatives on investment in education. She holds a PhD in economics from the University of Rome (Italy).

Biography

Rossella Cravetto is a policy officer at the European Commission. She works for the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. She has a master’s degree in international Relations and Diplomatic Affairs from the University of Turin. She has spent the last five years promoting investment in quality education and training at EU level.

She is the coordinator of the Learning Lab initiative.

Biography

Marco Montanari is an economic analyst working in the area of investment and evidence-based policy in education the at the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bologna (Italy) and an MSc in European studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK).

He has held several positions as an economic and policy analyst at the European Commission, including as a country desk for Italy at the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and team leader for the future of education and work at the Joint Research Centre. Before joining the European Commission, he worked as a junior researcher in European economic integration at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). He has published several articles in international academic journals in the field of European political economy.

Biography

Silvia Granato is Economic and Policy Analyst at the European Commission - Joint Research Centre, Competence Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation (CC-ME), specialised in ex-post policy evaluation through the use of micro data and counterfactual impact evaluation methods. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Queen Mary University of London.

Her research contributions are mainly in the field of economics of education, labour and gender economics.

At the European Commission, she contributes to DG EAC Learning Lab's goal of promoting the use of education policy evaluation practices in the EU.

Previously, she conducted several counterfactual impact evaluations of EU and national policies, including the European Social Fund Youth Employment Initiative in Portugal, the European Common Agricultural Policy, and RDI State aid in Slovenia.

Biography

Federico Biagi is Permanent Official in JRC Unit B.6 and Team Leader of a group of researchers in the area of education and human capital. He has experience and skills in public and welfare economics, economics of education, labour economics, demography and the economy, applied economics, general micro-economic theory, industrial organization, econometrics and counterfactual impact evaluation.

Biagi holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Biography

Manuel is a Policy Analyst at the Competence Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation (CC-ME) of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. His research interests revolve around the counterfactual impact evaluation of public policies, particularly in the areas of social and health policies. He has extensive experience in policy evaluation, having collaborated with national and regional governments such as the Health Minister of Portugal and the Social Services department of Catalonia, as well as international organizations like the World Health Organization.

Manuel has also held teaching positions at Bocconi University in Milan, Nova University of Lisbon, and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. He holds a PhD in Global Public Health/Health Economics from NOVA National School of Public Health at NOVA University of Lisbon, a MSc in Economic Development and Growth from the University of Warwick and Lund University, and a BSc in Economics from the University of Alicante.

Biography

Gyula Cserey is Head of Unit for Strategy and Investments in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC). His unit is the lead service for driving the implementation of the EU education flagship, the European Education Area that is meant to be achieved by 2025. Before moving to DG EAC in 2018, Gyula has spent more than 10 years in other Commission departments and EU institutions covering competition, external affairs and labour market policies. He holds a doctorate in law and political sciences.