Expert Team: Staff

María Alejandra Fonseca Manosalva is an Intern at the Institute For Integrated Transitions (IFIT). She is based in the Bogotá office where she supports IFIT’s work in Colombia.

Before joining IFIT, María Alejandra worked at the Legal Clinic for Migrants at the Universidad de los Andes, providing legal assistance to low-income individuals facing immigration-related challenges. She has also been involved in academic and leadership roles, including serving as a student representative at her university.

María Alejandra is a soon-to-be graduate in Law and Political Science at the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Her areas of interest include international law, human rights, transitional justice, gender studies, and migration policy.

Working languages: English and Spanish.

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Maksud Sultanov is Project Lead for the Uzbekistan Expert Group at the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), focusing on advancing the green energy transition in Uzbekistan and Central Asia. With extensive experience across the industrial sector, international organisations, and IT, Maksud excels in fostering collaboration among government officials, industry leaders, and international organisations to develop impactful and sustainable green solutions.

Before joining IFIT, Maksud contributed to the implementation of development projects in Uzbekistan, specialising in agribusiness and agrotourism. He also worked in civil and industrial construction, where he was responsible for promoting and enforcing environmentally sustainable practices.

Maksud holds a Master of Science in Sustainable Leadership and Global Management from Nord University in Norway and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Bangor University in the UK.

Working languages: English, Russian, Uzbek, and Tajik.

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Diana is the Development and Impact Officer at the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT).

Prior to joining IFIT, Diana was the Institutional Development Officer at México Evalúa, a leading think tank in Mexico City dedicated to public policy evaluation. She also served as the Fundraising and Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator at La Cana, Proyecto de Reinserción Social, A.C., and as a researcher at the Centro de Investigación para la Paz México (CIPMEX).

Diana brings extensive experience working with civil society organizations, with a strong focus on gender issues, peacebuilding, and the rule of law. Her areas of expertise include developing and executing comprehensive fundraising strategies, managing national and international grant proposals, fostering strong partnerships with funders, overseeing project monitoring and evaluation, and organizing teams and logistics for psychosocial interventions in Mexican penitentiaries.

She also contributed to the development of the research project “Gender, Incarceration, and Peacebuilding: A Qualitative Study on Women Inmates in Mexican Prisons from a Peacebuilding Perspective”.

Diana holds a BA in International Relations, graduating with Honors from the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Working languages: English and Spanish.

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Camilo Torres Casanova is a Research Officer at the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), and is based in Bogotá. His areas of interest include international security, human rights advocacy, peacekeeping, armed conflict, democracy and authoritarianism.

Prior to joining IFIT, Camilo worked in human rights advocacy in the Americas at Human Rights Watch, security sector reform in Africa and the Americas at the UN Department of Peace Operations, and transatlantic security and diplomacy at the Center for European Policy Analysis. Camilo also worked on projects related to the implementation of the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement, victims’ rights and transitional justice in Colombia and Latin America.

Camilo has a BA in Law with a minor in International Studies from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). He also holds a Master in International Security with a concentration in Europe & Russia from the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po Paris), and a Master of Laws in National Security with a concentration in International Human Rights from Georgetown University (Washington D.C.).

Working languages: English, Spanish, French and Italian.

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Olivia Helvadjian is the Head of Communications at the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT). She is a communications, public relations and advocacy professional with 15+ years of experience in corporate communications, public affairs, advocacy, publishing and social media. 

Before joining IFIT, she ran the external communications of the German Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai for nearly a decade. Prior to working in China, she held various roles in communications, lobbying and public affairs at ministries, governmental and private institutions, with focus on the European Union and Asia.

She holds a Masters degrees in Law from the University of Vienna and an LL.M. in international Business Law from the the National University of Singapore. She also earned a diploma in Journalism from the Danube University Krems and an MBA from Hult International Business School. 

Working languages: English, German, French.

Conversational skills: Mandarin, Arabic, and Spanish.

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