Our Structure

Kopin is directed by a Board of experts who are passionate about fostering social justice, sustainable development and human rights.

Our day-to-day work on global education, migrant support and development cooperation in East Africa is managed by an equally passionate team of culturally diverse professionals, who are staff members, collaborators and volunteers.

Our Board Members

William Grech
William GrechExecutive Director and Board Member
William has a first degree in Maltese and a Masters in European Economics, Politics & Law. William has been active in the international cooperation for development and global education fields since 2002. Appointed as Executive Director of Kopin (VO/0200) in July 2013, he had previously held the role of Coordinator since January 2009. In his role, he oversees the strategic direction and development of the organisation as well as its administration. He provides training on the relation between sustainable development and forced migration through participatory methodologies to educators and civil society activists.

William was a board member of SKOP (Solidarjetà u Koperazzjoni – the National Platform of Maltese Development NGOs – VO/0366) between May 2007 and November 2017. He is national focal point of the Maltese AidWatch Working Group of SKOP and helped set up the Development Education and Awareness Raising working group. He represents SKOP in CONCORD structures, particularly in advocacy and monitoring of international aid for sustainable development.

William enjoys reading, travelling, good food and spending time by the sea. He has a keen interest in Italian football, especially strategy and tactics, the arts and global politics.

Dominik Kalweit
Dominik KalweitDeputy Executive Director and Board Member
Dominik is Kopin’s Vice Executive Director and Director for Projects & Initiatives. He holds a Diplom (ISCED 7) from the University of Augsburg, Germany, in Political Science and Communication Sciences and has been active in international development cooperation, education and human rights related fields since 2005, and in migration since 2008.

In his work, he focuses on strategic planning, project development, team management, networking, training, advocacy and research. Dominik is a Steering Committee member for Destination Unknown, an initiative for the rights of children and youth on the move, and the coordinator for the campaign’s efforts in the Euro-Mediterranean region (Europe, MENA). He is active in Malta’s Development NGO platform SKOP and its working groups AidWatch and DEAR and represents Kopin in the planning group for the ‘Free the #ElHiblu3’ campaign.

In his free time, Dominik enjoys outdoor activities with his family, friends and dogs, travelling, good food and the sea. He is passionate about other cultures, education and experiential learning as well as global politics.

Michael Gatt
Michael GattBoard Member
Michael Gatt is a university graduate in education and educational leadership. He is an educator and administrator by profession and works as an assistant head in a state primary school. He is one of the founders of Kopin and SKOP, the National Platform of Maltese NGDOs. He was Kopin’s first coordinator between June 2000 and December 2008 and the Platform’s first coordinator, until May 2007.

Michael has been involved in different development NGOs since 1983 and has participated in various activities and campaigns, occupying different roles along the years. His main interests are advocacy work in relation to development policy, as well as capacity building. He has represented Kopin in seminars and meetings both locally and on a European level, and has experience in a number of development cooperation initiatives. He is Kopin’s liaison officer with Eurostep and Social Watch. He is also the coordinator of SKOP’s AidWatch Working Group.

Daniela DeBono
Daniela DeBonoBoard Member
Daniela DeBono is Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFAS Fellow at the Global Governance Programme, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute and Senior Lecturer in International Migration and Ethnic Relations at the Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University.

Her main research interests primarily lie in the migration-human rights nexus. She has mainly used ethnography as a method in the larger projects, other forms of qualitative methods and policy analysis for shorter projects. Daniela has published on irregular migration, deportation, human rights, EU migration policies, EU border policies. although she has also produced work in other fields notably citizenship, children’s rights and social policy. Her work has been published internationally in academic journals and books. Daniela has volunteered for many years with different non-governmental organisations in the field of justice, human rights and migration with local, national and global interests.

Stefano Moncada
Stefano MoncadaBoard Member
Stefano Moncada (twitter @stefanomoncada) was born in Rome in 1976. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Malta, where he lectures and conducts research in the areas of development economics, climate change, island studies, sustainable development, and impact evaluation techniques.

Stefano’s recent research activities include health and economic assessments, in the face of climate change, of urban communities in Africa and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Prior to join academia, Stefano worked in the Italian Parliament as manager and policy analyst. He also worked as a consultant in several development projects based in Albania, Mexico, Mali and Ethiopia, mainly in relation to socio-economic, health, and environmental funded activities. He has worked with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) as senior research officer, where he was in charge of the development of impact assessment tools. Stefano is also member of the board of the Islands and Small States Institute of the University of Malta, and part of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Development and Training Institutes (EADI). He is active in numerous outreach and knowledge-transfer initiatives, including training courses and consultation sessions for public, private, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Maria Zahra
Maria ZahraBoard Member
Maria is a Senior Accountant at SmartCity Malta Ltd and serves as Kopin’s Treasurer.

Our Executive Team

Federica Di Giulio
Federica Di GiulioGlobal Citizenship Education Coordinator
Federica has an educational background in Cultural Mediation and Development Cooperation and holds an MA in International Studies. She has been working with Kopin since 2013 as a project manager and activity coordinator within different projects, focusing mainly on Development Education, Migration and Children’s Rights. In March 2019, she has taken on the role of Global Citizenship Education Coordinator.

She is primarily involved in the planning, supervision and implementation of educational and awareness-raising initiatives targeting the general public as well as primary and secondary schools and University, focusing on topics related to sustainable development, global citizenship, human rights and migration. She also supports the team in the development of international projects and the delivery of training on a variety of topics. Federica coordinates Kopin’s volunteers offering support services to refugees, asylum seekers and other communities in Malta.

Federica is a member of the National Maltese NGDO Platform SKOP’s DEAR Working Group; she represents the platform within CONCORD Europe’s Global Citizenship Education Group, of which she is a Steering Group Member since 2018.

Karen Hartburn
Karen HartburnProject Manager
Karen is a project manager at Kopin and has been working within the fields of international development and human rights since 2011. Originally from the UK, Karen spent many years living in Bolivia, where she worked on and developed a number of rights-based community projects.

Karen focuses on projects and initiatives that deal with children’s and young people’s rights, refugee and migrant support and gender-based violence. She has an interest in the use of community, empowerment and collaboration as tools to bring about positive change and has a specialist interest in supporting vulnerable populations through this approach, especially within the migrant population. Karen has a background in journalism, in which she completed her first degree, and has done post-graduate studies in sustainability, where she explored the intrinsic links between social and climate justice. Karen enjoys snorkeling and exploring new cultures, cities & wide open spaces.

Marthese Formosa
Marthese FormosaEducator & Instructional Designer
Marthese has diverse experience related to project management, training facilitation and educational projects, both short term and long term. Marthese has worked with both local and international NGOs. In the past they worked with Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust and have worked on educating about fair trade and different supply chains; especially of tropical products. They have also worked with the People for Change Foundation, Right To Smile Foundation, We Are – The LGBTQQI+ Youth & Student Organisation, MGRM – Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement, Green House and Kopin – Malta. With Kopin – Malta Marthese has also worked delivering training to students and school staff on migration, the Sustainable Development Goals and food..