Team - Demforum

Team

Leadership

Iryna Handziuk

Chair of the Board, All-Ukrainian Democratic Forum NGO; lawyer and attorney.

Iryna has many years of experience managing cultural projects. She has been part of the team behind the VIA CARPATIA International Forum of Central and Eastern Europe since 2018, and the Leave No One Behind Partnership project since 2024.

Iryna holds a key leadership position within the NGO. She coordinates the team, oversees every stage of project delivery and helps find solutions even in the most challenging organisational situations.

Her strengths include a systematic approach, attention to detail, analytical thinking and the ability to bring people together around a shared goal.

Vitaliy Portnykov

Deputy Chair of the Board, All-Ukrainian Democratic Forum NGO

Ukrainian journalist, essayist, political commentator and television presenter; recipient of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine and a member of PEN Ukraine.

One of Ukraine’s well-known analysts, specialising in international politics, Ukrainian–Russian relations and democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.

He began his journalism career in the late 1980s and started working with Radio Liberty in 1990. His writing has appeared in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, Den, Ukrainska Pravda, Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza and numerous other Ukrainian and international media outlets. Since 2013, he has worked at Espreso TV, where he created and hosts the political discussion programme Political Club.

In his writing and civic work, he consistently advocates democratic values, freedom of expression, Ukraine’s independence and European integration. He criticises Russian imperialism and authoritarianism, and stresses the importance of strengthening Ukrainian statehood, national identity and cooperation with European partners.

Team

Project Team

The people who deliver the organisation’s projects every day, from idea to outcome.

Uliana Pak

Leave No One Behind Partnership Project Coordinator

Lviv City Council member and Chair of its Legality Commission. Lawyer, civic activist and leader.

Zoriana Tyvin

Head of The EU Explained Project

PR specialist, communications professional, media project manager and journalist.

Uliana Panasiuk

NGO Communications Officer

Journalist, editor and strategic communications specialist. Assistant at the Department of Foreign Press and Information, Faculty of Journalism, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

Yurii Bedenko

Director of The EU Explained Project

Filmmaker and visual technology specialist.

Svitlana Kopanska

Editor of The EU Explained Project

Output editor, guest editor and screenwriter with many years of experience in television.

Mariia Horon

Leave No One Behind Project Manager

Civic activist and coordinator of charitable projects.

Yelyzaveta Matinova

Leave No One Behind Project Communications Manager

Specialist in social media and visual design for the organisation’s events and projects.

Petro Sitek

Leave No One Behind Leadership Camp Trainer

Winner of the Young Teacher category of Global Teacher Prize Ukraine 2023.

Maksym Koliada

Leave No One Behind Entrepreneurship and Innovation Camp Trainer

Serviceman in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and assistant lecturer in the Department of Applied Economics and Business, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ukrainian Catholic University.