Romania

Dorottya-Lilly Makay (born 1971, Cluj County, Romania) is a civil and structural engineer specialising in built heritage conservation, with over 30 years of experience in heritage protection and structural design. She holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, focusing on Baroque roof structures, and completed early international internships with ICOMOS UK (1996) and US/ICOMOS (2003), enhancing her expertise in historic structure research and conservation.

Her career bridges academia, professional practice and heritage advocacy. Since 2018, she has been an Associate Lecturer at “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia and previously taught at Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca on historical load-bearing structures and built heritage conservation. Professionally, she has led projects as administrator, project manager and structural engineer at IROD M Ltd. (founded 2003) and CONSOLIDEM Ltd., covering restoration of historic monuments as well as civil and industrial constructions.

Dorottya-Lilly has contributed to over 350 technical assessments and more than 360 restoration and reinforcement projects, including St. Michael’s Church, Cluj-Napoca (European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Award, 2024) and Calvaria Roman Catholic Church (Europa Nostra Award, 1998). She has published widely, presented at international conferences, and lectured in heritage protection training programmes. Actively involved in NGOs and committees for heritage preservation, she works with the Kelemen Lajos Association for Monument Protection, the Transylvania Trust Foundation, and other national and local historic monument committees.

Karla is a graduate of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Law, and of Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where she completed her Master’s degree in Arts, Culture, and Society.
Upon her MA, she has gained knowledge in Qualitative and Quantitative Research that she has applied in various individual and group projects within the topics of Creative and Sustainable Cities, Cultural Policy, Sociology of Culture and Critical Heritage Studies. Her research interests span across various disciplines, looking at the intersection of the human with its surroundings. From urban development and gentrification processes to heritage as a catalyst of social well-being, she aims to explore how these dynamics play a role in society and in the individual. She has been active in the cultural scene through volunteering, but also within bottom-up initiatives such as an animation film festival that she co-founded this year in Cluj-Napoca.

She had the opportunity to present her MA thesis at two international conferences, the Arts and Cultural Management Conference 2024 in Vienna and the II Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies: Central and Eastern Europe Chapter at the University of Warsaw in 2025, aiming to continue her studies in the future.

She is a member of the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage (ESACH) and a Young Member of Europa Nostra.

Sorina is a cultural manager with a strong background in cultural heritage and the NGO sector. She has developed expertise in areas such as cultural heritage management, project coordination, youth and volunteer engagement, museum education, and art history. Passionate about heritage-related writing and reporting, she is dedicated to promoting the value and visibility of cultural heritage. Sorina is deeply committed to enhancing public awareness of heritage’s importance in everyday life and sustainable development.

Since December 2020, she has been part of the ESACH (www.esach.org) coordination committee for the European Heritage Youth Ambassadors Programme and currently serves as the President of the Network. Additionally, she represents the Cultural Association “Patrimoniu pentru Viitor” (www.patrimoniu-viitor.ro)