Head and Founder at The Oriental Studies Circle, PhD candidate, Ukraine

Nataliia is the head and founder of the NGO "The Oriental Studies Circle" working in the field of interreligious and intercultural dialogue. She is actively engaged in various non-profit activities for interfaith harmony, social inclusion, and peacebuilding. Over the years, she has organized more than 50 educational projects for young people in Ukraine, Europe, and Asia. Nataliia also served at the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Affairs and Freedom of Conscience and the World Council of Churches. 

She was a member of the International Working Group on Preventing Violent Extremism in Belgium and worked with unaccompanied minor refugees from the Middle East and North Africa empowering Christian-Muslim dialogue in Austria. Since the beginning of the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, she has been engaged in social activities with IDPs and Ukrainian refugees in Romania.

Nataliia holds two Master’s degrees in Philosophy and Ecumenical Studies from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine), and a Licentiate degree in Jewish-Christian Relations from the Pontifical Gregorian University (the Vatican). In 2019, she received a prestigious Russell Berrie Fellowship to study interreligious dialogue at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. 

Currently, Nataliia is a PhD candidate in Philosophy, ACWAY Fellow, and the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue Leader.