Team

Federica Risi is the Senior Policy and Project Officer for EUKN. Federica holds an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College London and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from LUISS Guido Carli. At the EUKN since 2019, she speaks native Italian, fluent English and Spanish, and intermediate Portuguese. A natural connector and active practitioner, Federica sees her urban development expertise as a key entry point to unpacking and healing cities’ relationship with the natural world. Consistently evolving her approach, she’s found synergy with the EUKN’s culture of policy co-creation to craft sustainable urban transformations.

Isotta MacFadden is the Professor of Sociology at the University of Salamanca as well as a member of the Affiliate Social Work Department at Arizona State University. Isotta has many research interests which include  Social cohesion and exclusion,  Urban studies and participatory processes, Inclusive health and well-being, and Education and prevention in adolescence.  Isotta has worked on H2020 Project In-Habit as a postdoctoral researcher also. She is an active member of the Spanish Federation of Sociology and a member of the HUM-971 Group research group in the line of Inclusive Education and Social Intervention.

Dr. Joanne McVeigh is a Lecturer at the Department of Psychology and the ALL (Assisting Living & Learning) Institute, Maynooth University. Previous appointments include a Lectureship at the School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork. Her work is inter-disciplinary, focusing on the interface between psychology, global health, policy and law. Supporting psychosocial well-being, social inclusion, rights, and organisational justice, particularly for marginalised populations and occupational groups at high risk for stress, is a core focus of her work.

Kai Gensitz is a PhD student at the University of Bern for the H2020 project GoGreenNext. Kai’s research is based around recordinging human health as a multidimensional construct and in a simple way via the smartphone of the citizens of the project’s pilot regions. As well as this, the focus of research interest is how technological innovations (e.g. artificial intelligence) can be used to promote physical activity and thus human health. Kai also has experience in research in sports psychology and health behaviour and has led multimodal stress courses and has been a  personal coach for sport and nutrition.

Kirsty Vella is the Senior Manager for the R&D team for Project Green in Malta. She is dedicated to driving innovation and sustainability in urban environments. Kirsty’s role involves overseeing our research initiatives and innovative project ideas, focusing on developing cutting-edge solutions for urban greening tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities presented by urban landscapes. She graduated from the University of Malta with a B.Sc (Hons) in Earth Systems in which she discovered her key interests and decided to enrol herself in her current Master’s Degree, focusing on Water Engineering and Management.