3) Education, Training & skills

Ola Fjeldheim has been working as Secretary General for Fortidsminneforeningen, The National Trust of Norway for the last nine years. Fjeldheim lives on an old farm outside of Oslo, and has been restoring it for the past twenty years. Fjeldheim has a university degree in environmental studies, and worked for nine years as a teacher. During those years he also earned a degree in cultural studies (ethnology. history
and art history). In 2005 his career took a new direction, working for two years on a Norwegian-Swedish Interreg project on crafts and heritage in the border regions between the two countries. Fjeldheim then started as a cultural heritage advisor in the local community of Ullensaker. In 2012, he completed a master’s degree in architectural conservation at the Oslo School of Architecture. Due to his interest in traditional carpentry, he has acquired some skill in practical work on old wooden buildings. During these years he has written a number of peer-reviewed articles on heritage subjects, and held a large number of lectures and practical courses.

Sara Crofts originally trained as an architect and holds an MSc in Architectural Conservation, having written her thesis on Interpreting Cultural Significance. She recently left her role as CEO of ICON (the Institute of Conservation) having led the organisation through the pandemic and completed a number
of key projects including digital transformation, relaunching the members’ magazine, and publishing a new long-term strategy which includes a renewed focus on skills and accreditation.
She joined ICON from 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. Prior to this, she served as Deputy Director of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) where she undertook various activities including running the casework and education teams and leading the award-winning Faith in Maintenance training project.
She is currently CEO of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. She is also a trustee of the National Heritage Science Forum, the Chair of the BEFS Places of Worship Forum and the Chair of Europa Nostra UK.

Brixhita Deda is an architect and heritage consultant. She studied Sustainable Heritage at The Bartlett, UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment. In 2020, she joined Ecocietystudies to research the post-conflict collective memory in Kosovo and address the reuse of the buildings through a participatory process. Brixhita encourages active citizenship to advocate for heritage preservation.

After law school and the Ecole du Louvre, Pâquerette joined the French Heritage Foundation, managing a tax incentive program for private heritage restoration. She expanded the Foundation in the South East,
focusing on financial development. With experience in local governments and freelance fundraising, she joined Acta Vista in 2014, overseeing partnerships, communications, and development, while implementing educational and cultural initiatives. In September 2021, Group SOS appointed her Executive Director of Acta Vista, BAO Formation, and La Citadelle de Marseille: three entities operating in Fort D’entrecasteaux.
Pâquerette has a strong background in managing educational, training and back to work programmes related to heritage restoration industry, especially for people with limited access to training opportunities and labour market. In the latter years, she has also impulsed discovery programmes for young people to introduce them to ancient masonry and craftmanship related to heritage restoration.
Recently, she initiated European and Mediterranean projects to carry out this work at a larger scale and start to cooperate with other international actors in this field.

University professor Oliver Reisner, born 1964 in Hannover, Germany. Studied Eastern European, Middle and Modern History and Slavic Studies in Göttingen. Doctorate in Eastern European History for Education in Georgia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Research associate at the Humboldt University Central Asia Seminar as coordinator of the post-graduate program “Central Asia-Caucasus” (2000-2003). Research stays in Tbilisi, Georgia. Head of Human Rights Program of World Vision Georgia (2003-2005) and Project Manager at the Delegation of the European Union in Georgia (2005-2015) in charge of education, research and culture. Since 2015 Professor of European and Caucasian Studies, since October 2016 Jean Monnet Professor at the University of Ilia University. Publications on the history and presence of Georgia and the Caucasus among others on interethnic relationships, social and cultural history such as on remembering and forgetting or how to deal with the Soviet past in Georgia, the forms and consequences of Europeanization in the Caucasus, and the history of Caucasian research between science and politics. Since 2015 he is the president of the non-governmental “Association for the preservation of German cultural heritage in the Caucasus” implementing several projects with German and Georgian authorities to preserve material cultural heritage.

Alexandra Stoica is the deputy director of restoration at the National Heritage Institute (NHI) and is actively involved in heritage and adaptive reuse projects concerning Romania’s protected sites and historic structures.
Her previous experience in nongovernmental and startup heritage projects includes Monumente Uitate (Forgotten Monuments) for the inventory of castles and manor houses (2010-12), Adopt a House in Roşia Montană at coordinating working sites and project design (2010-15), and the Calup urban regeneration project repurposing vacant spaces in Bucharest (2015-18). She earned her architectural education in Bucharest (2010) and specialized in preservation in Rome, Italy (2013).
During the pandemic, she established her architectural practice and continues to assist private projects that preserve heritage landmarks in her hometown of Brașov. She has been a part of the NHI team since 2021, being responsible for implementing Romania’s National Program of Restoration for Historical Monuments and directing NHI activities on two UNESCO site restoration projects in development until 2024.
She has served on various commissions and working groups within the Ministry of Culture since 2016, reviewing projects for NHI heritage stamp funding beginning in 2020 and assisting with UNESCO listing processes for Rosia Montană (2016-17, 2022-23) and Brâncuși works (2022-23). Her most recent research focuses on energy-efficiency tools for historical structures in Romania and how to associate quality principles with interventions on contemporary uses of heritage properties.