In addition to over 30 academic publications, Krista has published 4 books: The Punk Turn in Comedy; the co-edited Video Games and Comedy; Double Binds of Neoliberalism: Theory & Culture After 1968; Comedy & Critical Thought. She is co-writing a book on precarious work conditions in higher education, and another on Shakespeare and the horror film. She has presented her work internationally. With degrees in law, literature, drama, education, her work is highly interdisciplinary. She is a researcher in refugee law with the Max Planck Institute; research fellow at University of Kent; Higher Education Academy Fellow; management committee member on 2 EU COST actions: Global Digital Human Rights, and Grassroots of Digital Europe. Since 2009, she’s taught at the University of Malta, University of Kent (where she completed her PhD), Jagiellonian University and SFSU. Krista contributes to the local community in various ways, e.g. by community teaching and as an invited speaker at public events.

Dr Edward Duca is a Science and Innovation Communication Lecturer at the University of Malta, co-runs the science communication STEAM Summer School, involved in several large EU funded projects, and has created and managed several science communication events through the NGO the Malta Chamber of Scientists. The largest activity being the national science and arts festival Science in the City attracting 6% of Malta’s population annually. He’s recently been appointed as Rector’s Delegate for STEM Popularisation (Engagement) and EUSEA board member. My aim is to continue developing transdisciplinary research and activities to develop evidence for the effective communication of research that will encourage a scientifically aware society leading towards an informed democracy and active citizenship. I want to embed a culture of public engagement and research that benefits society.

Accountancy was a subject I enjoyed at school, and when I left I had the opportunity to work as an Accounts Clerk. I was doing very basic accounting tasks but I was then promoted first to Accounts Technician and then to Accounts Supervisor within the same company. This led to a job offer from a different company, for the role of Assistant Financial Controller – I took the post and was promoted again, this time to the position of Financial Controller. I wanted more than just experience, I also wanted a qualification and I chose ACCA. I have to admit that it wasn’t easy – it took a lot of effort to keep up with both my workload and my studies. I’m now Head of Academic Support for SBR (delivered by ACCA Guru Mr. Tom Clendon) and AAA (delivered by ACCA Expert Tutor Mr. Ben Wilson) at FME Learn Online, an online platform which provides courses via top independent tutors for students sitting professional qualifications exams, including ACCA.

Alexandra is the co-founder and COO of Invent 3D Ltd. Starting out with a couple of printers in her living room churning out car keychains and a little bit of patience, she has helped scale Invent 3D into a 500m2 factory space hosting 150 printers that are constantly on the go. She aims for Invent 3D to be the go-to partner for 3D printing solutions, helping industries change their mindset about 3D printing to see it as a sustainable solution rather than just a tool to print prototypes and knick-knacks. Invent 3D has successfully tapped into many niches and industries, with projects being completed in the medical, dental, cosmetic, automotive, fashion, table top gaming industries while complementing the manufacturing industry with the production of prototypes, jigs and fixtures. Alexandra’s role in all this is juggling sales, design, finances, client and supplier relations, project management and organisation.

Giselle Borg Olivier is the Manager at the Foundation for the Promotion of Entrepreneurial Initiatives (FPEI) and at Zaar Crowdfunding Malta. She runs the operations of both entities helping entrepreneurs and startups raise funds for their projects through crowdfunding. She is also involved in the organisation of funded projects that provide opportunities to people across various sectors. Giselle also set up her freelance writing business, Content for Success in 2009. She has written for several local publications such as Times of Malta, Tech.mag and MONEY Magazine and proofread several dissertations over the years. With over 15 years of experience in marketing communications, she is passionate about entrepreneurship, business operations and strategy, and project and event planning. Giselle obtained an MBA from the University of Suffolk in 2022, and has a degree in Marketing Communications from the University of Malta. She is also the proud parent of a son, Thomas.

Nicole is an active believer in bridging LGBTIQ+ and disability in the local context. She raises awareness of this by devising a targeted social media campaign by CRPD (in collaboration with MGRM) during this year’s Pride Week. The campaign focuses on persons with a disability who also belong to the LGBTIQ+ community, since their stories are often overlooked. These stories show that identity is a complex construct which is not defined by one single aspect but can intersect with other experiences, to create narratives which are diverse, rich and human.

I am currently a student at the University of Malta and also a member of Moviment Graffitti, a leftist organisation that is active against the oppression and exploitation of people, the environment and animals. Together with my fellow members, I fight for important issues, such as the rights of women, migrants and workers, amongst many others. I believe that when we all stand together, we can achieve even the most seemingly unattainable goals.

Eman Borg (he/him) is an award winning human rights advocate. Through his leadership as Founder and Coordinator of LGBTI+ Gozo and his role as Secretary General of the National Youth Council of Malta. He played a vital role in the access to sexual health medical services in Gozo. He is the brain behind the first ever Gozo Pride March that rewrote history. He was also the pioneer among other youths for the Maltese Parliament to call a State of Climate emergency in Malta and led the first ever Sustainable Development Goals Youth Conference in Malta. Borg is a Social Policy graduate from the University of Malta, and is currently working towards his M.A. in International Sports and Events Management, is passionate about sport as a medium to eradicate social poverty. Borg was awarded the Queen’s Young Leader Award in 2017 and was recognized as the first Maltese Commonwealth Youth Ambassador in 2020. He currently serves as youth advisor to the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.

– 21-year-old writer, performer with Down Syndrome.
-Passionate inclusion advocate. On panels and interviews with newspapers, online platforms and TVM.
– Part of Opening Doors theatre for adults with disabilities, writes blog “No Assumptions, please”.
– Artivisti award from Arts Council Malta & Agenzija Zghazagh for activism through the arts.
– Member of Young People’s Disability Rights Forum (2021-2022), and Executive Committee Member Commonwealth Children and Youth Disability Network (2021-2022).
– Co-moderator for Girls2Leaders webinar “Inclusion” (G2L Campaign is a collaboration between Business and Professional Women and the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society using as a roadmap BPW’s Charter of the Girls’ Rights).
– Appeared in UN Girls’ Education Initiative “Girls with disabilities have an equal right to education” video, where inclusion advocates from around the world shared their recommendations to world leaders.
– Spoke at World Down Syndrome Congress 2021

Claire Farrugia (b.1992) holds a Master’s degree in Pharmacy and is an MA graduate in Fine Arts from the University of Malta’s Department of Art and Art History. Dividing her time between her art and her pharmaceutical profession, her artistic work focuses very much on the figurative as well as installations. Through her art, she seeks to understand truth and reality in relation to images, particularly images that are available online and on social media. Her current work seeks to manifest how social media images may be a form of post-truth in their complete disregard towards truth and reality. In doing so she hopes to create awareness regarding our apathy towards lies and truth, and in doing so stimulating critical thinking.

Nik Keter (born in 2002) is a self-taught queer artist who hails from the small village of Mqabba, Malta. He makes iconography inspired, surrealist acrylic paintings and poetry that bring together the symbology of the old with the issues of the current, focused on reviving the feminine divine, re-alighting the spiritual in an increasingly secular world through the artist’s earnest personal experience with the divine; using both the internal journey, through dreams and meditation, and the external connection with the unique landscape of Malta to create visual representation of the different aspects of the Mother, and their relevancy in today’s world.

Annalisa is a freelance Artistic Director, Event Producer and Manager. Amongst other work in the creative industry, in 2021 and 2022, Annalisa was heading the APS Summer Festival as Artistic Director, giving a professional platform to artists to bring their whole selves to the stage and to audiences to be entertained and inspired by the Festival’s ecosystem after the difficult pandemic stretch that has impacted the creative industry harshly and for a long time. As Artistic Director, Annalisa created a safe space for creatives of any background and nationality to explore, create, discuss, dream, learn and achieve, while safeguarding their artistic profession in securing a fair Festival ecosystem that puts people before profit, at every step. Together with APS Bank, Annalisa was able to create a Festival with a Purpose, that fosters the values of inclusion, sustainability and collaboration – by producing a Festival that programmes Autism Friendly content, that is Environmentally Sustainable and a Festival that is Contemporary, Non-Main Stream, Affordable, International and that draws inspiration on actions from the UN SDGs.

Born in the beautiful, culturally rich city of Birgu, local designer Marco Parascandalo who is better known as the creative director of the self-named PARASCANDALO fashion brand skyrocketed to fame with his debut, ready to wear collection SKANDLU which was first shown at Malta Fashion Week in 2014 to wide public acclaim. Known for his unique take on streetwear, Marco pays special attention to the wearability and durability of his items, Marco Parascandalo integrates aspects of Maltese culture, politics and environmental issues into his pieces to produce a very modern melange, the ultimate social commentary in motion. Parascandalo’s earliest collections were more focused on Menswear, In 2016 he introduced his Women’s wear and started showing both genders in one show. Although PARASCANDALO is a brand with local roots, Marco’s experimental approach to fashion and his cutting edge ideas have allowed him to expand his brand internationally.

Omar Rababah, 30 years old. I am a warranted Social Worker and have been in practice for the last 6 years and a few months. I started off as a Community Social Worker where I spent the first 3 years of my career and I am currently serving as a Social Worker at the Migrant Learners’ Unit within the Ministry of Education. I have read for a B.A. (Hons) in Social Work and an M.A. in Access to Education, specializing on Culturally Responsive Education. I am involved in human rights activism, particularly in anti-racism and anti-discrimination towards minority groups. My activism takes various shapes and forms such as using social media for advocacy and to pile up pressure on authorities, lecturing to different groups, participating in various meetings, joining other groups in demonstrations and liaising with professionals from different fields to try and make the country a better, safer place for minority groups.

Since school, Matthew has been speaking up against injustices, particularly towards the LGBTQIA+ community. After advancing to post-secondary they set up their activism online, highlighting experiences that the local community faces. Through meetings with Ministers and Presidents, Matthew discussed the community’s pressing. One of their many achievements is the installation of gender neutral bathrooms, along with having their new name added on academic systems for staff to use the correct name. Matthew proceeded to volunteer with MGRM and is now part of the Youth Sub-Committee where they help organise fundraisers in aid of Dar il-Qawsalla. This will be the first assisted accommodation center for the LGBTIQ+ Community. Last September, Matthew was invited to discuss their activism within the local community at EuroPride Serbia. Throughout the years, Matthew has been part of various programmes and documentaries which shed a light on the community’s progress and issues left to be tackled.

As the Maltese scouts, Chief Commissioner, Anton Heads up the Maltese leadership team, a group of volunteers who provide leadership and management across the Maltese islands, along with specialised support in areas like programme and adult support and safety. Anton Pisani has volunteered with scouts for over 20 years and has held a variety of roles, including international commissioner and Deputy Chief Commissioner. He has had various programme roles in the local groups which have given him an exceptional understanding of the hard work and dedication it takes to run scouts. Anton was elected as Chief Commissioner in 2018 at the age of 32 focusing mainly on delivering and implementing policies in the areas of keeping young people and adults safe, financials, group support and leadership management. During the pandemic, Anton and his team, strived to support the adults within the Groups by shifting the focus on leader retention. Post-pandemic, this resulted in an increase in leadership volunteers across Malta and Gozo and positive decrease in the average age of our leadership pool, having more young leaders actively contributing to society.

Karl Grech, a Masters graduate in Transcultural Counselling with an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Karl has taken on different roles within the NGO Victim Support Malta; Project Manager, Head of Service, Clinical Strategist and recently he took on the role of Director.

Karl worked tirelessly in the creation of Suicide Prevention Outreach and Therapeutic (SPOT) service at Victim Support Malta. Karl has always been passionate about helping individuals who have been affected by suicide, and VSM provided the avenue to help create such a service for the community. As Karl develops his identity within the social field, he strives to continue developing local services in order to serve the community through maintaining positive mental health.

Daniel is a 28-year-old software engineer and visual artist with a passion for the environment. He holds an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Malta. Daniel has held the position of President for the local eNGO Rota for the last year, having previously been part of the NGO as an Events Officer and Public Relations Officer subsequently. His initial interest to join the NGO was after he made the shift from using his car to using a pedelec. From his travels in Europe, he also noticed that the quality of living in cities which prioritise active mobility seems much better than others which do not. In Rota, he aims to formalise the work and make it easier for future committees to come. He is also working on a project that aims to democratise air pollution data in Malta.

Mais Taha is an international eco-designer and award-winning entrepreneur, a member of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature since childhood, 1996. The founder of Celtis, REMEmed, MTiPx, XEROWASTE, and Shukran. The Association of Energy Engineer recognized her as Western Europe Region Energy Innovator 2022. Her Master thesis in Zurich University of Applied Sciences was among the pioneer studies in addressing workplace wellbeing as he sixth biller for sustainability. The study included the green certification systems EDGE, LEED, BREEAM and DGNB as a reference to create tangible wellbeing measures and was shortlisted for The EuroFM Master Poster Competition 2014. Nowadays, Mais is based in Malta works in the filed of eco-digital design technologies. As an architect-Engineer she is involved in kinetic and interactive architectures and designs for arid regions. She worked product design manager across her country and developed product with socio-economic impact.

I am an agronomist by profession. I graduated from the University of Malta in collaboration with the University of Perugia with a Bachelors in agro eco systems management in 2012 and a masters in Rural sciences in 2017 in collaboration with the University of Catania. I grew up in a family of farmers very close to the land. In 2019 my parents retired and together with my wife, we decided to switch the farm to grow flowers. Sustainability is at the core of our business as we both are very passionate about sustainability and the environment. Over the past 3 years we have grown our business at the farm, in our shop and online significantly. In our fields we developed water conservation systems, growing techniques that do not require any chemical pest control. We do a lot of composting from left overs from our shops. At our shop we use no plastic wrapping and have many recycled materials.

I am a 29 year old weightlifter who recently became Malta’s first female weightlifting Olympian at the Tokyo 2020 Games. I’ve lifted weights around the entire world, and have competed at every major meet I am eligible for. This year I was also named an IWF ambassador for the world for my sport. I am also graduated with a BSc in Maths and Statistics and I am currently reading for an MSc. in PE and Sports. I currently work as a content creator for 4 major international brands including the globally renowned apparel brand, gymshark. I absolute love sharing my journey with my followers through social media, talking about everything from my training routines to my mental health struggles in hopes of inspiring other women and men to train hard and stay positive.

On the 24th February, my friend Wojciech and I had a conversation about how we could help out at the border and it pretty much took off from there. We headfirst into the unknown. We rented cars and I headed off a few days later not knowing what we will find and the initiative mushroomed from there. We also quickly started getting aid into Lviv where we also pulled out approximately 150 Ukrainians from there via Buses and Mini Van trips. This kept on going and we have aided close to 2000/3000 in Poland through temporary shelter, food, relocation and transport. We have performed multiple supply runs to affected areas including Mariupol (8 pallets of medicine and generators) and multiple trips to Kharkiv and Izyum with medical and essential aid being also delivered to Kupyansk and Lyman. Together with the team, we have dived head first collecting funds, buying essential aid and getting it to where it needs to be with me leading 2 trips deep into the country with more to happen.

Jacqueline is a first-generation MSc student at Háskóli Íslands and Malta´s first physical volcanologist. During her geology degree, she researched the explosive phases of past eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula to provide authorities with data for hazard and risk assessments of future eruptions. The 25-year-old also joined the HÍ Physical Volcanology Research Group, where she did extensive field- and lab work on the 2021 Geldingadalir and 2022 Meradalir eruptions in Reykjanes. Jacqueline presented her work in conferences in Reykjavík, Vienna, London, and Rotorua, and will publish her first manuscript in an international journal in 2023. Additionally, her experience with eruptions and unique career sparked the curiosity of many, and have seen the young researcher joining news interviews, podcasts, and televised programs, both locally and abroad. Jacqueline was recently chosen for a PhD, where she will study the Whakaari and Tūhua volcanic islands in New Zealand for the next 3 years.

Eve Borg Bonello is the youngest ever Member of Maltese Parliament and the current youngest exponent of any national legislative chamber in the world. Her political career started through activism passionately participating in, and organizing protests since the age of 12, she garnered a national profile when she spoke during national protests after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, protests which removed then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. She contested the 2022 general election at 18 years old and now is the Shadow Minister of Climate Change. Eve wants to continue to focus her politics on justice, human rights and the environment. She is currently a law student progressing to the second year of the university course

Beppe Galea (26) lives in Gozo, Malta. He is the Chairman of the European Democrat Students and is a Master graduate from the University of Malta specialising in Strategic Management & Digital Marketing. Beppe has been active for over 7 years in various positions at EDS, including as Vice-Chair and Secretary General. While leading the Secretariat he has ensured EDS becomes the most active young centre-right organisation,featuring the most events, activities and high quality content and receiving great feedback from political stakeholders including from the European People’s Party. Beppe has strong skills and contacts from his academic, political and professional roles, ranging from working full-time for three MEPs, to leading all Digital Communications for his Party, to representing the National Youth Council of Malta at the European Youth Forum, and serving for 6 years as a journalist in a national media organisation, among many others. He is now the Local Assistant of MEP David Casa.

Dr. Martina Caruana is the Co-Founding Partner of PB&C. At the University of Malta, she read law and completed her studies by successfully submitting her doctorate thesis on the incorporation of the provisions of the Istanbul Convention onto the Maltese Criminal Code. She furthered her studies in leading change, public international law & human rights at the University of Cambridge, the International Nuremberg Principles Academy and the Institute for International Criminal Investigations. A women’s rights activist since her teenage years, Martina frequently represents domestic violence victims and sexual assault survivors in court. In 2017, Martina co-founded the Network of Young Women Leaders, and in the following years went on to lead an international network of lawyers coming together to protect and assist refugees, genocide survivors, & persons living in conflict zones. Martina has won a number of awards including the Queen’s Young Leader medal bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II.

I am a customer obsessed entrepreneur at heart. I have been taking businesses from idea to revenue in Malta & Ireland since 2014. I employ an incredible team of ladies & gents who make it possible to be proud of Celeryhq.eu – the ‘Made in Malta’ SaaS product for Hospitality. In my spare time I volunteer as the executive treasurer of Fondazzjoni Wens – a pillar of the community safeguarding the interests of citizens with intellectual disabilities & succouring their families.

Ing. Matthew Spiteri is the founder and managing director at Altern Limited, a local company focused on providing services and solutions related to sustainability, renewable energy and efficient lighting. Matthew holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Master’s in Business Administration and is a certified Energy Auditor. Throughout the years, he has been responsible for a number of local and foreign projects within the areas of energy auditing, building energy design, renewable energy and storage, and architectural lighting. Matthew has a passion for research on innovative energy solutions, has been involved in national level strategies related to sustainable development and occasionally lectures on such subjects. Today Matthew focuses on growing the business through quality projects, a highly skilled team, and unique technological offerings, aimed at offering a truly sustainable future.