Alžbeta Brozmanová Gregorová – president, trainer
She works at the Faculty of Education at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. In her scientific, research, teaching and publishing activities she has long been involved in the issues of volunteering, service-learning, the third sector and NGOs, project creation and management and other topics. From 2002 to 2018 she was the head of the Volunteer Centre in Banská Bystrica and since 2011 she has been a member of the board of directors of the Platform of Volunteer Centres and Organisations. She has coordinated a number of international and national projects in the field of volunteering, such as the project for the development of quality standards for the management of volunteers, research on volunteering in Slovakia, the preparation of the Concept of Education and Training of Children and Youth for Volunteering and others. In practice, she also works as a project assessor, lecturer, consultant and as an accredited supervisor in the social field.
Ing. Ida Adolfová (since 02.04.2019) – finance project manager
She studied at the Faculty of Economics at the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (2002) and during her studies she discovered volunteering, which became part of her life and later her professional practice. A three-month volunteer work in South Africa (2008) and a three-month study at the City University of New York (2013) had a great influence on her life and way of thinking. Since 2003, she has worked at the Healthy City Community Foundation, where she has been involved in the economics and management of the Foundation’s projects and programmes. She has experience in volunteering both domestically and internationally, both as a volunteer and as a coordinator of volunteer programmes. She is active in the Volunteer Centre in Banská Bystrica, where she works as a coordinator of foreign volunteers, trainer, project manager of Erasmus+ projects and economist. Since 2018 she has been an economist in our organisation and since April 2019 has decided to spend more time working in the Platform, as she was attracted by the organisation’s activities, projects and, last but not least, the people who work in the organisation. She sees it as a challenge and an opportunity to grow professionally and as a person and last but not least she wants to be part of positive changes in the field of volunteering in Slovakia.
Mgr. Dominika Hradiská – director
She graduated in Psychology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Prešov. During her studies, she joined OZ Žabky, where she coordinated volunteers working with children and youth. On the basis of this experience and thanks to learning about the state of volunteering in the Košice Region, she became a founding member of the Volunteer Centre of the Košice Region in 2011 and later its chairwoman. In 2017, after her maternity leave, she joined the team of the Prešov Volunteer Centre, which she led for two years. She has experience in sending volunteers abroad and hosting foreign volunteers. During the whole period she participated in the activities of the Platform and monitored its activities as a statutory member of the member organisation. Since April 2019, she has been an active part of the Platform team, working mainly on quality standards for voluntary organisations and participating in current international projects.
Mgr. Jana Šolcová, PhD. – member of the board of directors, trainer
She has been a trainer for our accredited Management of Volunteers training course since 2016 and has worked on several international and national projects as a researcher and team member. She has also worked as a coordinator and trainer of volunteers for over 10 years. In her spare time as well as in her professional life, she focuses on working with children and youth. She participates in a series of educational activities aimed at increasing the competences of professionals, as well as volunteers working with children and youth. She works as a co-worker and committee member in several NGOs focusing on children and youth in various adverse social situations. Currently she is a coordinator in two organisations – Pathfinder Club (a scout type civic association with nationwide scope) and the Volunteer Centre Banská Bystrica with regional scope coordinating the Spojivko programme. Her pedagogical as well as scientific activity is also focused on innovative forms of social skills development, informal education of children and youth, theories of social work through activities at the Department of Social Work of the Faculty of Education of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica.
Mgr. Silvia Cochová, PhD. – member of the board of directors
She graduated in Environmental Education and completed her postgraduate studies in biodiversity conservation at the Technical University in Zvolen. After her PhD, she stayed on at the Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Science as a university lecturer, but eventually decided to work outside academia after maternity leave. Currently, she holds the position of director at the non-profit organisation Volunteer Centre in Banská Bystrica, where her years of experience in the third sector will bear fruit. She is directly involved with volunteering not only in her work, but has been an active volunteer in Slovak Scouting for over 20 years (she served for 6 years on the board of directors at national level).
Ing. Eva Ščepková, PhD. – PR manager
She graduated in Tourism at the Faculty of Economics at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica and in Personnel Management and Organisational Development at Masaryk University in Brno. During her studies at the university, she founded the EnviroFuture civic association, whose mission is to raise people’s environmental awareness, improve public spaces and organise educational events. From 2013 to 2018 she worked at the Ekopolis Foundation, where she was responsible for PR and marketing. In 2016, she founded LINK CoWorking Banská Bystrica, a civic association dedicated to educating and networking entrepreneurial people. Currently she is also working in the 365.labb community co-working centre in Banská Bystrica.
