Anna joined the SAIRA team in April 2018 and co-leads the Open Innovation Hub for Sustainable Development with Dominik. Having been a person on the move for most of the past decade, it only felt natural for Anna to start working at the Department for International Business Development at Fraunhofer and joining the Global Innovation Family WAITRO. Before she returned to Germany, she was with the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in Costa Rica, working in project development and migrant assistance.

What SAIRA means to Anna: “SAIRA is a platform that opens doors and provides access to a process of change for everyone with great ideas, especially for those who are often forgotten within these processes”

Her educational and professional background is the convergence of her interest in building bridges through communication and innovative approaches for advocacy. Anna holds a Master’s degree in Conference Interpretation as well as a Certificate in Conflict Resolution from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, for which she received a full scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Trying to find innovative and community focused approaches to solving problems, Anna was working in conflict resolution with at-risk youth and an international foundation that conducts participatory action research around the globe while studying and conducting classic research on political as well as social issues.

She speaks fluent German, English, Spanish, and French and is currently learning Portuguese.