Jury & Selection Committee

Dr.-Ing. Claus-Peter Echter is a conservationist, urban planner and sociologist. Echter is a scientific heritage consultant working in private practice since 2008 and based in Munich, Germany. He has extensive experience working in favour of cultural heritage at European and international level. Claus-Peter Echter was a member of the World Heritage Panel of ICOMOS for the evaluation of World Heritage nominations in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 and has been a member of the ICOMOS Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) since 2015 and of the ICOMOS Task Force on the New European Bauhaus since 2021. He is ICOMOS focal point for the UN Habitat World Urban Campaign (WUC), elected CO-Chair of the WUC Partner Constituent Group Professionals and member of the WUC Steering Committee since 2020.

Claus-Peter Echter has been a member of Europa Nostra and ICOMOS since 2007 and was a Council member of Europa Nostra 2012-2021, and Honorary member of Europa Nostra Germany since 2019. He was Vice-President of Europa Nostra Germany from 2009 to 2019 and again from 2021. He has acted as a local assessor for the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards for many years.

Claus-Peter Echter began his studies in sociology, receiving a Diploma from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, he has completed postgraduate studies of urban planning and heritage conservation at the Technical University Munich (Certificates) and defended his Ph.D. in engineering (architecture) at the Technical University Berlin. He wrote a doctoral thesis on “Monument Topography: A Recording Tool and Cultural History Enterprise“ (2005).
He was Senior Researcher at the German Institute of Urban Affairs with the main tasks Heritage conservation and History of Urban Architecture from 1981 to 2007 and has written many books and articles and lectured on Architectural History and (Urban) Monument Preservation.

Adriaan Linters has extensive experience in the field of industrial cultural heritage. He received an MA in Contemporary History in 1973 and later worked as a researcher at the Centre for Industrial Archaeology from 1974 to 1975, at Flemish Heritage Agency from 1975 to 1979; for industrial heritage at the province of Limburg from 1980-1985; and as a lecturer at St.-Lucas School of Architecture from 1985 to 2003. Adriaan Linters worked as an independent heritage consultant from 2003 to 2018. He is Chairman of the Vlaamse Vereniging voor Industriële Archeologie, winner of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards in 2019 in the category Dedicated Service to Heritage.

Anđela is an Italian language professor with MA degrees in Cultures in Dialogue, EMJMD European Literary Cultures, and UNESCO Chair for Cultural policy and Management. Her academic journey and interest in different cultures took her to Italy, Senegal, and France, where she learned that heritage is not only where we come from, but also what gives us a sense of belonging. She is passionate about building stronger connections between youth and cultural heritage, with particular interest in endangered, neglected, unwanted and misused heritage. Currently she is an intern at Europa Nostra Serbia.

Sadi Petrela has been Executive Director of the Gjirokastra Foundation for the past 15 years, an organisation which has undertaken over 20 years of uninterrupted activity in culture conservation and development in the UNESCO site Gjirokastra in Albania. Previous to this role, Sadi Petrela has gained extensive experience in journalism, media ethics and history teaching.
Year on year, the Gjirokastra Foundation developed an intense and multifaceted activity in the conservation and development of the vast heritage in Gjirokastra (both town and surrounding area) and, in some cases, elsewhere in both Albania and neighbouring countries.
They have developed more than 50 projects, both large and small, covering almost all different areas of cultural heritage in Albania. Their fundraising and various projects with new innovative approaches have earned the Foundation a strong reputation at both national and regional levels.
The Foundation’s projects include, among others: the restoration and revitalization of traditional buildings; the preservation and development of traditional arts and crafts; creating a new historic museum of Gjirokastra and opening up a tunnel from Communist times as a tourist attraction; the development of traditional cuisine. The Gjirokastra Foundation uses a participatory approach and community involvement in culture heritage management, connecting the city with similar historic centres. Their activities are considered groundbreaking and example creating for Albania and the wider area, especially considering the difficult political, economic and social environment in which they are undertaken. Gjirokastra Foundation is a winner of European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Award in the category of Dedicated Service to Heritage for the year 2021.

Marianne R. Ytterdal, Assistant Professor at Aalesund University College in Norway, covering Mercantile, Maritime, and Technical English, Cultural Differences and Project Presentations, recently retired. She studied English and American Languages and Background, History of Art, Nordic languages and literature and Educational Science at the Universities of Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim. She has been active within Europa Nostra since 2000, in the years 2007 – 2009 in the new governance group. She is currently President of the Board of the Kjell Holm Foundation in Norway, which she joined in 2003. For 25 years, the last five as President, she was a board member of Fortidsminneforeningen: The Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments, an NGO that owns and maintains 41 properties of cultural significance. Other cultural heritage boards of interest are: the European Network of National Heritage Organisations, Jugendstilsenteret (The Norwegian Art Nouveau Centre), and Den norske Kulturminnedagen (European Heritage Days). Ytterdal has also published a number of textbooks for the teaching of Technical and Practical English, the most recent having been released in 2015.

Barbara Cordero graduated in Hispanic Philology from the Autonomous University of Madrid and obtained a Master in Audiovisual Communication from IEPA (Institute of Specialists in Audiovisual Journalism).
She has extensive professional experience in media and corporate representation.
She has worked in the Hispania Nostra Association for more than ten years, assuming coordination in 2015. During all these years, she has actively promoted the conservation and preservation of cultural and natural heritage, managing numerous activities, such as the Hispania Nostra Award, the annual Hispania Nostra Forum, and Hispania Nostra Journal, to name a few.
Among the most prominent projects they have developed in Hispania Nostra, there is the Exhibition of the Europa Nostra Awards given to Spanish projects.
She is the author of numerous articles and she has participated in a number of seminars and conferences related to citizens’ activism and engagement.

Davida de Hond is a member of the management team of Museum Arnhem, a museum located in the eastern part of the Netherlands. As head of public and program, de Hond is responsible for education, marketing, communication, programming and exhibitions. Previously I have worked as an entrepreneur in the cultural field, focus on heritage and community building. I have a focus on participation and education through heritage and art. I also worked for Erfgoed Nederland, the national heritage agency, with a role in the team that focussed on heritage in an international perspective. For the Reinwardt Academy I have worked on international cooperation projects that focussed on new museology, eco museology, community building and innovation in heritage education. Besides my different employments, I am also active as an advisor on committees regarding culture and heritage subsidies. Currently for the Mondriaan Fund, and in the recent past for the municipality of Rotterdam through the RRKC, Provincial committee on culture and heritage in Gelderland and the fund for Cultural Participation.

Jelena was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia. Her professional background is in architecture and currently she studies ‘World Heritage’ in Cottbus, Germany. She loves dogs, food, hiking, running and is interested in religion, beliefs, tradition and how intangible shapes the tangible world around us.

Baiba Mūrniece is a head of the Development division in the National Heritage Board of Latvia. With an educational background in arts and international relations she has more than 24 years of experience in the heritage sector. She holds a Master’s degree in public administration. In her work, Baiba Mūrniece pays special attention to cultural heritage management, the public funding of heritage, international heritage cooperation, participatory governance and awareness-raising of cultural heritage. With her expertise in national and international heritage policies, she has participated in the drafting of various international documents, including the “European Quality Principles for EU-funded Interventions with Potential Impact upon Cultural Heritage”.
Mūrniece represents Latvia at several international heritage cooperation platforms. She has been member of the Bureau of the Governing Board of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe,” has been the national coordinator of the European Year for Cultural Heritage. Mūrniece has chaired the Baltic Region Heritage Committee and the heritage expert group of the Latvian State Cultural Capital Foundation and was one of the co-founders and former president of ICOMOS Latvia.

Dr. Natalia Moussienko is a Europa Nostra Council member, and member of the Internal Advisory Committee of Europa Nostra and is a Board member of the NGO “Initiative for St. Andrew Passage” in Kyiv, Ukraine which has been a Europa Nostra member-organization since 2014. She was previously a member of the jury for the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards in the category Dedicated Service to Heritage.

Dr. Moussienko is currently a leading research fellow in the Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine in Kyiv. She is an expert of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation in cultural heritage. She studied philosophy at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where she obtained her master’s degree and subsequently at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine where she received her doctorate. She is the author of numerous articles and five books on the theory and history of culture, cultural diplomacy, urbanism and cinema and has been published internationally.

Dr. Moussienko initiated and organised four Cultural Diplomacy Forums in Kyiv, notably “Cultural Heritage matters to Cultural Diplomacy” in June 2018 in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. Furthermore, she serves as a Board Head of the Ukrainian Fulbright Alumni Association that produced a Ukrainian translation of the Europa Nostra documents.

Dr. Moussienko is a voice for cultural heritage on a national level, writing for national magazines “Ukrainian Culture”, “Monuments of Ukraine” as well as a national weekly newspaper, “Culture and Life”. In addition, she was co-editor of three issues of “Agora”, a publication devoted to the theoretical bases of cultural diplomacy and its practical application.