Yuliya van Polanen
Executive Director of AFEW International
Roman Dudnik
Executive Director of AFEW Kazakhstan
Natalya Shumskaya
Director of AFEW Kyrgyzstan
Elena Voskresenskaya
Executive Director of AFEW Ukraine
AFEW Partnership
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Yuliya van Polanen (Director (interim) of AFEW International)
Having extensive experience in management and strong leadership qualities, Yuliya knows how to build and sustain a high-performing team. She has a long and successful career in management of several international organisations, developing and implementing their strategic and business plans. During the last 5 years she has worked as Director of Finance at AFEW International, being responsible for all financial processes of the organisation, HR and support. She has been a member of the Management Team from 2017.
Yuliya has substantial expertise in collaborating with international, national and local partners and other stakeholders, including donors, partners within the AFEW Partnership and local civil society organisations. She has extensive experience with strengthening and transforming organisations, and creating business opportunities for them. Having an economic background, Yuliya is strong in company management, effectively responding to challenges and finding new opportunities for organization development.
Roman Dudnik (Director of AFEW–Kazakhstan), is a social worker by degree from the Moscow State Social University. Roman has been working in the field of HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for more than 20 years. He joined AFEW in 2002 as a patient advocacy adviser and later became regional director for Central Asian republics. After a two-year break, he returned to AFEW in Kazakhstan in 2014 to lead regional “HIV React Project” and head AFEW in the country. Roman speaks Russian and English.
Natalya Shumskaya (AFEW Chairperson in the Kyrgyz Republic), graduated from the faculty of pedagogics and psychology from the Osh Pedagogical Institute. Later she studied developmental psychology and acmeology in the graduate school of the Kyrgyz-Slavic University. Natalya started her work in HIV-prevention programmes in 1998 in “Médecins Sans Frontières” (MSF) as an outreach worker and a trainer. In 2001 she became the head on NGO “Podruga” in Osh. Since 2005 she has been the Director of AFEW-Kyrgyzstan. Natalya speaks Russian, English, Kyrgyz and Uzbek.
Elena Voskresenskaya (Director of AFEW-Ukraine) has a Master Degree in Public Health received from Emory University, Atlanta. She has been working in the field of international health in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for more than 15 years. Prior to joining AFEW in 2004 as a Deputy Regional Director, Elena has been working for the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) in Kyiv, managing projects on health partnerships in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. Elena speaks Russian, English, French and Ukrainian.
Victoria Dollen (Director of AFEW-Russia) graduated from the philological faculty of the Moscow Humanitarian Institute named after Dashkova, specializing in linguist-translator of European languages (English, French), and also has a professional education in financial management.
She has been working in the field of HIV prevention among key population groups since 2001, starting with the Russian office of the Dutch division of Doctors Without Borders. She has experience in managing network service and training projects at the country level – from Global Fund programs to government projects. Victoria has headed the Russian office of AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW Russia) in the spring of 2019 and is now reviving the organization after a break in project activities.
Anke van Dam (Strategic Advisor to the Director of AFEW International) graduated from Erasmus University in Rotterdam as a medical doctor in 1983, received a specialist degree as a general practitioner from Rijksuniversiteit in Leiden in 1985, and graduated as a community health specialist from the Netherlands School of Public and Occupational Health in Utrecht in 1998. She began her career as a general practitioner near Rotterdam, providing care to many immigrants from Turkey and Morocco. She then moved from the clinical setting and began working on issues related to sexual health and HIV as a trainer, an advisor and a consultant, including proposal writing and programme evaluation. Before joining AFEW, she held a senior management position at Rutgers Nisso Groep, the Dutch Expert Centre on Sexuality. In addition to this breadth of knowledge, Anke’s work experience spans the globe from Southeast Asia and Africa to Eastern Europe and Central Asia. She joined AFEW as Director of Programmes in January 2008. From 2012 to 2020 she has worked as Director of AFEW International. Following her formal departure, she remains active on a voluntary basis as Strategic Advisor to the Director of AFEW International.
