Heritage Awards Jury

Jacek is a Polish architectural historian and economist. After completing his studies at the Krakow University of Economics (UEK), he obtained a doctorate in art history from the Jagiellonian University in 1983.
He is now a professor in both institutions. He heads the Department of Economic and Social History and the Department of Cultural Heritage and Urban Studies of UEK, as well as the Department of European Heritage at Jagiellonian University. Member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the founder of the Krakow International Cultural Center, of which he was the director until 2018. From 2000 to 2016, he chaired the Council for the Protection of Monuments of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
Jacek Purchla is also a member of several associations and international organisations related to heritage, including Europa Nostra, the International Committee of Art History and the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on the theory and philosophy of conservation and restoration. He is the author of several Polish publications on Krakow’s architecture and heritage. Since 2015, Jacek Purchla has been President of the Polish National Commission for UNESCO. In 2017, he chaired the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee in Krakow.

Eugen Vaida is an architect at Asociatia Monumentum, which has been a member organisation of Europa Nostra since 2019. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Architecture and Urban Planning “Ion Mincu”, in Bucharest. Among his many projects, Eugen coordinated the Daia Heritage Valorization Plan, developed by the Global Heritage Fund in 2017-2018 and co-founded The Ambulance for Monuments project, which won an Award and the Public Choice Award at the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2020. In his role of director for The King’s Foundation in Romania he had a defining role in the development of the summer school movement in Romania which has its key mission in educating young architects and students. Eugen Vaida published numerous literary works on cultural heritage, including “Saving the Culture of the Other” (Alţîna, 2021) and “The Architectural Guidebook For Contextual Planning in the Saxon Area” of the Order of Romanian Architects (The Rural Working Group). He became an Ashoka Fellow in November 2021, benefitting from a lifetime bursary to continue his work in the field of heritage from the world’s leading social entrepreneurship organisation. For its dedicated efforts in the education of the public of all generations, Asociatia Monumentum, led by Eugen Vaida, was knighted by The Romanian Presidency in 2021

Alessandra Vittorini, an esteemed Italian expert in monument restoration and urban planning, has dedicated her career to preserving cultural heritage. Architect graduate in Monument Restoration with a PhD in Territorial and Urban Planning from “La Sapienza” University in Rome, she has held a prominent position within Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism since 1990. Following the devastating 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Vittorini was appointed head of the Superintendency for the region in 2012, where she led an integrated approach to cultural heritage protection and recovery.
Her leadership in restoring the Basilica of Collemaggio stands out; the project not only revived a key historical site but also earned the prestigious European Heritage Award/ Europa Nostra Award in 2020 for its excellence. Throughout her career, Vittorini has overseen numerous landmark restoration projects and contributed to international discussions on cultural preservation. She is also active in academia, frequently lecturing and publishing on architectural restoration and landscape conservation. From 2020 to 2024 she directed the “Fondazione Scuola dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali”, an international institute founded by the Ministry of Culture for training, research and advanced studies, including in the international field, for the care and management of cultural heritage.

Dr. Johanna Leissner, trained as a chemist and material scientist, has been managing cultural heritage research for over 20 years. She focuses on the climate change impact on cultural heritage, environmental monitoring of cultural property, and fostering the green transition by implementing sustainability concepts for Green Museums and heritage buildings.

Dr. Leissner chairs the EU OMC expert group Strengthening Cultural Heritage Resilience for Climate Change and is a member of the EU Commission’s Cultural Heritage Forum, founded in 2019. Since March 2024, she has been a Supervisory Board member of the EIT Culture & Creativity programme (2022-2029). She coordinated the German research project KERES (2020-2023), which aimed to protect cultural heritage from extreme climate events and increase resilience, and the EU project Climate for Culture (2009-2014). She is a partner in the Austrian Academy of Science project on future climate change impacts on museum pests and fungi (2021-2024) and the German project on damage prevention for cultural assets in times of climate change (2022-2024).

Dr. Leissner is the German delegate for the Council of Europe’s Strategy “European Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century” (2018) and a member of the UNESCO World Heritage Expert Group on climate change impacts (2017). Since 2005, she has represented the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft at the European Union in Brussels. She co-founded the German Research Alliance for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in 2008 and the Fraunhofer Sustainability Network. From 2001 to 2005, she was the National Expert for “Technologies for the Protection of European Cultural Heritage” at the European Commission in Brussels.

Elena Dimitrova is an Associate Professor at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia with over thirty years of teaching and research in spatial policy and planning. She has a Master’s in Architecture, awarded in 1976 and defended her PhD in 1990. Dimitrova’s professional expertise and research interests are in the spatial and sociocultural aspects of sustainable development, participatory planning approaches, and interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue on heritage as a factor for urban sustainability. She is a team leader in several international research projects; and the author of numerous publications in the fields of urban development and planning, higher education and research, and cultural heritage preservation for sustainable development. Dimitorva is and has been a participant in numerous European academic networks and international conferences.

Elena Dimitrova has been a member of ICOMOS-Bulgaria since 2005 and Vice-President since 2011; a member of CIVVIH (International Scientific Committee on historic cities, towns and villages) since 2010, CIVVIH Advisory Committee member (2018-2021) and Board member (since 2021); representative of ICOMOS-Bulgaria in ICOMOS SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Working Group since 2019. She is a member of the Expert Group on European Quality Principles for EU-Funded Interventions with Potential Impact on Cultural Heritage, jointly developed by ICOMOS Europe and the European Commission (DC Culture and Education), which was adopted by the ICOMOS General Assembly in 2021. She was Invited to be a panellist (Theme II: ‘Community engagement through culture for sustainable local development’) at the UNESCO Conference on ‘Culture 2030 | Rural-Urban Development: The Future of Historic Villages and Towns’, organised in Meishan, China, in 2019.

Elena Dimitorva has extensive experience in scientific article reviews, ICOMOS missions and desk reviews and the evaluation of educational and research projects in European and national academic and research programmes. She has also been a local assessor for the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards since 2018.

Sara originally trained as an architect and holds an MSc in Architectural Conservation. She began her professional career working for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) where she undertook various roles including running the casework and education teams and leading the Europa Nostra award-winning Faith in Maintenance training project.
She then spent time with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), where she was Head of Historic Environment – providing advice and strategic direction to the Board and Executive on grant giving, and policy issues and building strategic relationships with historic environment organisations across the UK – before moving on to become CEO of Icon (the Institute of Conservation) and leading the organisation through a digital transformation as well as publishing a new long-term strategy with a renewed focus on skills and accreditation.
Sara is currently CEO of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting but retains her passion for heritage. She is a trustee of the National Heritage Science Forum, the Chair of the BEFS Places of Worship Forum, the Chair of Historic Buildings and Places, and the Chair of Europa Nostra UK.

Jermina Stanojev, PhD, is an independent expert in the field of cultural heritage and international cultural relations. She is a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University with a focus on circular economy and cultural heritage and holds a PhD in participatory and integrated governance of cultural heritage in the Western Balkans. She is currently appointed as an individual expert by the European Commission to the “Commission’s expert group on cultural heritage”. Her work focuses on culture-led, sustainable, regional development, policy design and evaluation for trans-disciplinary challenges through different governance frameworks and geopolitical levels. Since 2009 she is an advisor on the role of cultural heritage in international cultural relations within the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and since 2016 supports the European Union in engaging in international cultural relations within the framework of the EU strategy for international cultural relations through Cultural Diplomacy/Relations Platform of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, with a global geographical mandate, under which, among others, developed recommendations “European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018: International Perspectives”. She has established competences and wide experience in fields of international cultural relations and cultural heritage working with different international organisations and institutions (UNESCO, European Commission, Goethe-Institut Brussels, European Cultural Centre Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia etc.). She has an extensive experience in research, policies and numerous projects such as the EU Horizon 2020 project, “Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse”, Erasmus + HERITAGE-PRO, the report of the Structured Dialogue with the EC on “Skills, Training and Knowledge-transfer in the Traditional and Emerging Heritage”, the OMC working group of Member States’ experts report on “Fostering cooperation in the EU on skills, training and knowledge transfer in cultural heritage professions” etc.

Pavlos Chatzigrigoriou is a Civil Engineer with a Master’s in Protection, Conservation, and Restoration of Monuments, a Master’s in Environmental Planning, a PhD in Architecture (digital cultural heritage), and a postdoc in Digital Heritage at the University of the Aegean. In 2015, his research project HERMeS earned him the prestigious European Heritage Award/Europa Nostra Award. The Council of Europe has recognised HERMeS as part of the Best Practices for Strategy 2021 and is currently being expanded to several historic cities. He has been invited as a guest speaker at international events, including the EU Cultural Forum, Best in Heritage, EU Best Practices in Public Administration, Digital Heritage, and Strategy 2021. Pavlos was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the UNESCO Chair for Digital Heritage at the Cyprus University of Technology. Currently, he teaches digital cultural heritage at the University of the Aegean, serves as Chairman of the Jury for the European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Awards in the category Citizens’ Engagement and Awareness Raising, and is the Co-founder of the non-profit NGO Heritage Management e-Society (HERMeS) for the digital management of heritage. He is also Chairman of the Syros Institute’s board of directors and Project Officer for EU Funding in the South Aegean Region. Since June 2024, he has been appointed Managing Director and Scientific Responsible for the Historical Museum of Hermoupolis, a collaborative initiative of HERMeS NGO and the Lyceum of Greek Women of Syros. In this role, he oversees the development of innovative, inclusive activities, positioning the museum as a centre for Syros’s knowledge and cultural heritage.

Dr. Natalia Moussienko is Europa Nostra Vice-President. She served as a member of the jury for the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards in the category Dedicated Service to Heritage (2019-2020) and later as a member of the Selection Committee in the category Citizens Engagement and Awareness Raising (2021-2022). Furthermore, she was on the Selection Committee for the European Heritage Hub Competition (2024).

Natalia Moussienko is a leading research fellow at the Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine in Kyiv. She studied philosophy at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and subsequently at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine where she received her doctorate. She is the author of numerous articles and books on the theory and history of culture, cultural diplomacy, urbanism, and cinema.

Dr. Moussienko pays special attention to the issues of art and cultural heritage at war: she lectures internationally and speaks on radio, television, and other mass media. In 2022–24 she presented her lectures in Ukraine, USA, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Cyprus, Serbia, Germany, and Italy. She was a coordinator of the International Heritage Solidarity Fellowship for the Ukrainian Defenders of the Cultural Heritage, launched by Europa Nostra (2022-2023).

Natalia Moussienko is the author of the research on the strategy and institutional development of cultural diplomacy and an educational course for Ph.D. students “Cultural Heritage as a Vector of Cultural Diplomacy”. She initiated and organized four Cultural Diplomacy Forums in Kyiv, notably “Cultural Heritage Matters to Cultural Diplomacy” in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage (2018).

Petr graduated from the Pharmaceutical Department of Charles University followed by a doctoral degree in pharmacology (1985). In 1989, he started developing business for ICI Pharmaceuticals in Czechoslovakia and moved to the UK for ICI/Zeneca in 1992, where he worked in various positions for the UK as well as for a number of European and Asian markets. In 1998 he became the Managing Director for Zeneca in Finland. Consequently, he acted as the Managing Director for AstraZeneca, Novartis and Baxter in CZ/Slovakia. When completing the restitution process of inherited estate at the turn of the century, he gradually moved to its management. He joined the Czech Association of Castle and Manor Houses Owners (AMHZ), was elected to the Board and consequently as Vice-President in 2013. He served as Vice-President for four terms till spring 2024. Petr has been actively representing AMHZ at the European Historic Houses Association (EHHA) meetings, as well as at other national Association meetings e.g. Austria, UK, NextGen. He was also present at the International Cultural Heritage Conference in Dublin in June 2017. In 2018 he was elected to Europa Nostra Council. He initiated and consequently completed the establishment of Europa Nostra Representation in the Czech Republic in 2019 of which he is the Head. In 2022 he was elected as Vice-President of Europa Nostra. He is also a Chairman of the Czech-Liechtenstein Society since 2021.

Graduated in 1978 with a Master’s degree in Architecture from l’Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – EPFL, with a thesis on the revitalisation of an industrial quarter in the city of Geneva. Over the course of her professional career, she has participated in several studies on the improvement and assessment of historical urban quarters, mainly in Geneva. After working as an architect and city planner for the Regional Service for Monuments and Historical Sites, in the Department of Public Works in the state of Geneva, she was its director from 2002-2008. This was followed by the position of Director of the General Office for Heritage and Historical Sites for the state of Geneva from 2008-2019. This agency comprises three services: the service for Archaeology, the service for Monuments and Historical Sites, and the service for the Inventory of monuments. As part of her duties, she has served on several architectural competition juries, organized lecture series, edited publications on cultural heritage and written articles, most notably on the urban and architectural development of Geneva, the legal framework of urban development and Geneva heritage. From 1999 to 2011, she was a member of the Federal Commission for the Conservation of Nature and Landscape. From 2012 to 2023, she was a member and vice-president of the Federal Commission for the Preservation of Historic Monuments. Since May 2024, she has been President of ICOMOS Switzerland.