Authors Biographies
and later, lecturer, from 1980 till 1992. A fellow of the Kosciuszko Foundation; he taught at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, US, (from 1998 to 2001) and the Pedagogical University of Cracow (from 2004 to 2006). Andrej Mirga is also co-founder of the first Polish Roma association after the fall of communism and its chair between 1991 and 1995. He acted as organizer during two historic events commemorating the Romani Holocaust in 1993 and 1994 in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Cracow; and represented the Roma at the Days of Remembrance ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., in 1995. As the OSCE ODIHR Senior Adviser on Roma and Sinti Issues, he was one of the speakers at the ceremony held on 27 January 2010 at the United Nations Headquarters in NY for the International Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust. He served as expert at the Committee of Experts on Roma and Travelers of the Council of Europe (former Specialist Group on Roma/Gypsies, since 1996), and its chair (2003–2005); also at the Poland’s Common Commission of the Government and National and Ethnic Minorities (2005–2006) and, at the High-Level Group on Labour Market and Disadvantaged Ethnic Minorities (European Commission, 2005–2007). Since 2014, Chair of the Board of the Roma Education Fund (REF). Karolina Mirga Karolina Mirga is a Roma youth activist, International Project Coordinator for Roma Educational Association Harangos in Poland and one of the founders and leaders of ternYpe International Roma Youth Network. Karolina led and worked on many projects dedicated to empowerment of Roma Youth on local, national and international level. Since 2010 she leads the Roma Genocide Commemoration project, she coordinated ternYpe campaigns Be Young Be Roma Campaign and the 1st International Roma Youth Summit in Cordoba in 2010, All in One Society campaign in 2011 which took place in all 9 countries of the network and various youth exchanges, trainings and workshops for Roma and non-Roma youth dedicated to human rights, Roma youth activism, empowerment and mobilization. From October 2014 - May 2015 she worked as a Project Assistant at OSCE ODIHR Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues (CPRSI), organizing the regional Roma youth conference and expert conference in Stockholm on the topic of education about Roma Genocide in Europe.
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