Leonie hails from the cross-border region of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. She has a master degree in European public policy and administration from Maastricht University and in International and European law from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She has also lived in Budapest, Berlin and the Washington D.C. area.

Leonie has been active in JEF since the end of 2010, when JEF Netherlands was re-initiated. She was one of the co-founders of JEF Maastricht, has been active in many board positions in JEF Netherlands, ensuring that the organization would become a member section, and she stimulated inter-regional ties as one of the coordinators of the JEF Cross-Border Network. With her passion for communicating European politics and stimulating the political debate, Leonie has been active as Senior Vice-President for two mandates (2015 – 2019) and is full-time President since January 2020.

Michał was born in Poland and joined JEF Europe’s Secretariat after interning at the European Parliament and NATO as well as promoting human rights and youth civic engagement with several NGOs. Holding Master’s degrees in International Relations and Peace & Conflict Studies, he considers European integration the most successful peacebuilding process in history and is committed to taking it to the next level.

Théo Lecarpentier was born in France. He obtained two bachelor’s degrees related to sport sciences, during which he spent one year in Norway. He also holds a master’s degree in European Project Management. As part of his programme he interned the UNESCO WWAP Office in Perugia, Italy in which he worked on gender equality and water resources. He considers European Federalism as the most efficient way to tackle the biggest challenge of the humanity: climate change.
He is responsible of the 2020 Work Plan of Europe at School Programme: New Directives and works on the Youth SDGs project.

Alexandra was born in Munich, Germany and holds a Bachelor degree in Political Sciences and a Master degree in Intercultural Studies. Being involved in the Youth Peace Ambassadors campaign and working for the European Commission’s agency for education and culture made her passionate for European youth politics and active citizenship.

Alexandra is working on the administration of the daily finances of JEF Europe and is coordinating the Mindset project focusing on discrimination based on ethnic origin in cooperation with Euractiv. She is the coordinator of Next Chapter Europe – Youth voice on the Conference on the Future of Europe, organising local consultations and awareness raising events on the Conference on the Future of Europe for young people.

Elitsa Hadzhieva is a Political scientist from Ravda (Bulgaria). During her studies, she completed several internships in local and national governmental institutions like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bulgaria and the Municipality of Nessebar. She is finishing her Masters in European Integration and Diplomacy in the EU with a master thesis on Youth policy-making and the EU Youth Dialogue.

Elitsa has been involved in volunteering and Civic society organisations from the age of 16 and she has been a member of AEGEE for 6 years where she has worked intensively on the European elections campaign of the organisation (Y Vote project) and in raising awareness on the topics of Gender Equality and Mental health (Europe on Track project). She has experience in several Erasmus+ European Youth Together projects (“My Europe. My Say”; “I Choose Europe”).

Elitsa has joined the European Secretariat of JEF Europe in February 2020 and she is currently the project officer of “Y-FED: Europe is what we make of it” and working on the European Youth foundation International Activity “GreenY: Environmental sustainability practices in youth organisations ” as well as project development and project applications.

Sean Ellul is a creative, Maltese youth, who has a passion for disruptive technologies and digital communications.

Having over eight years of experience in the youth field, Sean has been involved in multiple youth organisations and spaces; from the National Youth Council of Malta, to the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. JEF Malta was one of the first organisations Sean joined in his first year of reading a Bachelors in European Studies with Communications, and has been a strong supporter of a federalist Europe ever since.

After finishing his Masters of Science in Risk Management, Sean began branching into the field of digital communications, due to its ever-increasing importance (and disruptiveness) in both the public & private sector, which eventually led to him to holding the Communication Officer position in the JEF Europe Secretariat.

Lorène was born in Bordeaux, France. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Political and Governance Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. She has been a member of JEF since 2015, volunteering at the local level, and was a member of the editorial board of The New Federalist. She previously worked in the think tanks and NGOs sector, and was a bluebook trainee at the European Commission.

Lorène is working on membership and engagement with JEF Europe’s sections, administrative tasks and project management support.

Mirjam was born in the Netherlands. She holds an M.Sc. degree in Human Geography, as well as in Human Rights and Diplomacy. It was during her first Master’s degree when studying conflicts based on territories that she developed an interest in looking beyond national borders in Europe. Especially her time spent on the island of Ireland during the Brexit negotiations in 2018 made her realise the importance of strong cooperation on an international level for peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

After working on internships at UNICEF Netherlands, the UN office in Geneva, and a project management traineeship focussed on sustainable energy in Brussels, she joined the JEF Europe team in October 2021 and is currently assisting with work related to the running of various different projects within the Secretariat.