Life and Organization Management in War-Torn Ukraine

Zoom
banner

Event Details

Life and Organization Management in War-Torn Ukraine

Wednesday, May 11
12:00 PM CDT | 20:00 EEST
Zoom Webinar

https://uchicago.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xb1EhPxrQU-wHhGzW24ZsA

A webinar and a panel discussion with Ukrainian non-profit, education, business, and policy professionals about life and work under the state of war. The panel participants will speak about how they have transitioned their organizations’ activities and management strategies to the realities of the ongoing war. They will share insights about crisis management strategies in the first days of the conflict and how they mobilized their teams to help Ukrainian people in need.  

Ukraine-based non-profit organization Enlightening Initiative will share their experience of repurposing their educational and career-building activities to the provision of humanitarian aid.

Other panel participants will talk about how the Ukrainian universities are operating today, how the healthcare system has repurposed to operate under siege, and how businesses continue to earn revenue while supporting the country. This event will be an opportunity to learn more about everyday life and living conditions in Ukrainian towns under attack, how each person has urgently acquired new skills to make their contribution to Ukraine’s victory, as well as about most urgent humanitarian needs Ukrainians are experiencing today and the best ways to help.

About Enlightening Initiative

The NGO "Enlightening Initiative" is a Regional Youth Non-Governmental Organization based in the cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukraine. Before the start of the full-scale war with Russia, its strategic focus was educational, media literacy and youth employability projects based on IT solutions and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Recent projects include administration and coordination of the semifinalists selection process, promotion and outreach activities for two international exchange programs of the U.S. Department of State, jointly with the U.S. Embassy at Kyiv, as well as Erasmus+ exchange projects funded by the European Commission. Currently it is fighting on the humanitarian front of this war, providing humanitarian and financial aid to Ukrainian families, children and volunteers near the frontline. Please follow the link to Enlightening Initiative's website for more details: https://enlight.org.ua/.

Speakers

Vadym Aristov

Vadym Aristov

Ukrainian doctor, strategic consultant. President Emeritus of Ukrainian Medical Association and director of the Revival Institute (think tank). Founder of the global medical initiative StingMD. 

Vadym will speak about the challenges of the healthcare sector during the war, and how healthcare administrators can ensure that smart aid is being delivered to the hospitals during the war.

Serving the Administration of Governor Saakashvili, Dr Aristov developed the first concept and guidelines for primary care reform for the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. He conducted a total redesign of rural healthcare for the Administration of President Poroshenko (budget $1,8B, 4 months from idea to funding, 7 months from idea to law). Dr Aristov also consulted Presidential Candidate Zelenskyi on the electoral program and healthcare reform. He developed private systems of disease control and prevention for big corporate clients (including NovaPoshta – Top1 Ukrainian postal and logistics provider).
 
His non-IT case of implementation of Agile management into public administration has shown results of the governmental project delivered 4x faster and 8x cheaper than with classic management.
 
Under Dr Aristov's leadership, Ukrainian Medical Association organized training for 30K+ Ukrainian doctors, reached a turnover of $1.2M, and won 3 awards from the KIAF festival.

Dr Aristov has an MD from Bogomolets National Medical University, MBA from KNTEU Business School, CSPO/CSM from Scrum Alliance, is the Certified LeSS Practitioner and Certified Service-Designer.

Olga Demianenko

Olga Demianenko

Director of the Department for Cooperation with International Agencies and Financial Institutions at Kharkiv City Council.

Activities and responsibilities:
- Carrying out activities related to the local policies formation in the field of interaction with international financial organizations, banking institutions, agencies, companies, corporations, associations from international cooperation and development, international organizations and other foreign partners, by coordinating and implementing projects and programs in various spheres of life using own and attracted resources.
- Full coordination of the main projects with the financing support of International Financial Organisations, Investment Funds, governmental and non-governmental organisations, which was implemented during last years in Kharkiv city.
- Creates a base of promising city programs and projects on the basis of proposals of the executive bodies of Kharkiv City Council, analyzes and prepares substantiated conclusions regarding their priority for the purpose of further implementation.

- Analyzes and processes information provided by the Kharkiv City Council with proposals for taking part in projects and programs aimed at developing the city's infrastructure.
- Carries out short-term and long-term planning of projects and programs for their further realization, coordinates their implementation.
- Conducts a permanent analysis and conducts an information campaign among potential partners for urban projects that require external financing.
- Involves executive bodies of the Kharkiv City Council, as well as utility companies, institutions and organizations for participation in city development projects and programs.
- Carries out methodological and organizational support for the preparation of relevant materials (questionnaires, applications, letters, etc.) for the participation of executive bodies of the Kharkiv City Council, municipal enterprises, institutions and organizations in projects and programs. Provides information and analytical support for projects and programs initiated by Kharkiv City Council.
- Conducts a monitoring assessment of project implementation and generates comprehensive reports on their implementation.
- Represents the interests of the Kharkiv City Council and its executive bodies in relations with foreign partners on matters within its competence.

Andrii Dykun

Andrii Dykun

Chairman of the Public Union “Ukrainian Agri Council” that unites more than 1100 profitable agricultural producers all over Ukraine. And its land bank is over 3,5 million hectares. Mr. Dykun is also the President of the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine, Director of the First Ukrainian Agricultural Cooperative, Chairman of the National Association of Sugar Producers of Ukraine. Founder of Ukrainian Pig Breeders Association. By leading all the mentioned associations his main task is to stand the interests of agricultural producers by lobby work in the field of agricultural policy (tax, land and other reforms). Andrii Dykun actively develops modern education and he is the founder of a number of educational institutions that implement European teaching methods: Ukrainian Agrarian Lyceum (2017), Youth organization “Future Farmers of Ukraine” (2017), Ukrainian Children’s Academy (2018). He initiated establishing of the Charitable Found “SaveUA” which helps with humanitarian issues and provides food, medicines etc. to the affected communities of the country. In 2014 Andrii Dykun occupied the position of Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and was responsible for food security in the Country at the beginning of war. Mr. Dykun has МВА of Baltic business School, University of Kalmar.

Andrew Ganin

Andrew Ganin

Ukrainian entrepreneur, businessman, IT specialist, marketing specialist, and tech editor. Founder of ActiveChat Inc., an AI-enabled contact center toolbox and a Natural Language training and processing tool. Being a marketer with an extensive background, Mr. Ganin has been seeking an ultimate solution to automate both front and back-end business processes during his entire marketer career, for the sake of both customer and business owner convenience. However, at the time, there wasn’t a solution like that on the market, each tool was lacking something one way or the other, so Mr. Ganin, being extremely passionate about everything high-tech and AI, decided to create one himself. Months of work led to the creation of an absolutely unique, ultimate customer care toolbox that is now known as ActiveChat Inc. Apart from that, as a former tech editor and analyst, Mr. Ganin has conducted a number of extensive researches in the field of Artificial Intelligence and neural networks which resulted in tight partnerships with multiple AI-oriented companies, including OpenAI which is well-known for creating the GPT-3 engine and Codex. In collaboration with them, ActiveChat Inc.’s functionality has been extended, and, in addition, leanto.me was born, an AI-based cold email generator for sales and marketing specialists. Mr. Ganin has an MA in Computer science, complexes, systems, and networks from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology. Participated in multiple conferences in Berlin, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, etc. as an expert on chatbots, AI, and automations.

Anna Harus

Anna Harus

Director of youth non-profit NGO "Enlightening Initiative". Anna will share the perspective of the non-profit sector in Ukraine - how most NGOs are repurposing their educational and youth activities into humanitarian aid, and why they believe it is necessary during the war. Anna has over 5 years' experience in leading teams in youth education and cultural exchange, and a proven track record in media research and data analysis. To increase employability and intercultural competences of Ukrainian youth, in 2017 Anna built up NGO "Enlightening Initiative" from zero and implemented innovative peer-educational projects in Kharkiv and in other cities of Ukraine. Since 2021, Anna has been in charge of technical administration of Ukrainian participant selection for the U.S. Department of State youth exchange programs, coordinated by the U.S. Embassy Kyiv. Since 2021 Anna has been a consultant on poverty and equity for the World Bank Office in Kyiv. In 2018-2021 Anna was a consultant on the EU and World Bank program “Supporting Transparent Land Governance in Ukraine”. Anna has conducted research on the impact of the introduction of fertilizers’ import quotas in Ukraine, the impact of decentralization reform on local budgets in Ukraine and research on the effectiveness of state support for Ukrainian agricultural producers. In addition, Anna did research on Ukrainian media business models at the Center for Excellence in Economic Journalism at Kyiv School of Economics. Anna has obtained MA in Economics at the University of Houston and Kyiv School of Economics (2020), and studied at Xavier University of Louisiana as a U.S. Department of State program participant.

Varvara Petrosova

Varvara Petrosova

Head of Foreign Languages Intensive Study Centre of Zaporizhia National University. Volunteer in Zaporizhia, in the east of Ukraine. Varvara will speak both from the perspective of a university professor and a local volunteer near the frontline. She will shed light on the current challenges to higher education in Ukraine, and describe how local volunteers have been helping people in need for over 2 months now in Zaporizhia, a big industrial city. In 2010, Varvara started working at the Foreign Languages Intensive Study Centre of Zaporizhia National University as a teacher of English language courses. In 2014, she became a senior lecturer at the Department of English philology. She taught groups of different levels, overall over 1,000 students. Since 2020, she has been the Head of the Foreign Languages Intensive Study Centre. Besides teaching, Varvara is a volunteer at Volunteer Centre of Zaporizhia national university, which is a group of initiative professors and students. Every day they help internally displaced people who come to Zaporizhia, elderly and disabled people, hospitals, organize food and essentials delivery to people in need on occupied territories of Zaporizhia region - overall they have helped more than 3,500 people. Varvara obtained her Master's degree in Philology, with the specialization in English language and literature, at Zaporizhia national university (2011).

Mykyta Shylenko

Mykyta Shylenko

Director of the Office's Department of Support Activity at Kharkiv Regional State Administration. Mykyta is a young Ukrainian professional in public administration. Prior to his appointment as a Director, Mykyta has worked as a Senior Specialist in the Department of Organization of International Events at Kharkiv Regional State Administration in the city of Kharkiv in the east of Ukraine. Previously, he also was an intern at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. Mykyta has obtained his Master's degree in Public Administration at The National Academy of State Administration of Ukraine and Bachelor's degree in International Relations, with a specialisation in foreign-language translation, at The National University of Ostroh Academy, Ukraine.

Scott Gehlbach

Scott Gehlbach

Scott Gehlbach is Professor, Department of Political Science and Harris School of Public Policy, at the University of Chicago. A political economist and comparativist, Gehlbach’s work is motivated by the contemporary and historical experience of Russia, Ukraine, and other postcommunist states. He has made numerous contributions to the study of autocracy, economic reform, political connections, and other important topics in political economy. Known for employing a wide range of methods in his research, Gehlbach has contributed to graduate education through his widely used textbook Formal Models of Domestic Politics. He is the author or coauthor of many articles in top journals, including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics; the award-winning monograph Representation Through Taxation: Revenue, Politics, and Development in Postcommunist States; and the forthcoming Cambridge Element Reform and Rebellion in Weak States.

Co-Sponsors

Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies (CEERES) at UChicago; Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) at UW Madison; Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute (REEI) at Indiana University; Institute for East European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at George Washington University; Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies (CSEEES) at Duke UniversitySlavic and Eurasian Studies Department at Duke University; Millikin University; Center for International Social Science Research at UChicago; Partnership for the Advancement of Refugee Rights; Berkeley With Ukraine; International House; Leading Women of Tomorrow; and Enlightening Initiative.