Board

President

Víctor Petuya

He is University Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (www.ehu.es). He is currently the Chairman of the IFToMM International Technical Committee for Linkages and Mechanical Controls (http://iftomm.net/).

He is married with Maria Victoria and they have five children aged from 8 to 18 years old. They are the main reason why he is very interested in school education and very active in parents’ associations.

He has been a member of the Parents’ Council of his school since 2006 and its President since 2008. In addition, since 2008 he has been the President of FAPAE (Federation of Parents` Associations of Euskadi). One of the projects developed in FAPAE has been the implementation of Parents’ Schools in order promote long-life learning of parents in areas related to the education of their children. In November 2018, FAPAE organized the EPA General Assembly and FAPAE conference Equitable access to education: new models to include all children with a participation of 75 EPA and local delegates.

In May 2019, he was elected a member of the EPA Board as its Vice-President and Secretary. In November 2019, he was elected as EPA President during the EPA General Assembly held in Vienna.

Treasurer, board member and vice president

Valérie Gardette

Specialized in marketing, Valérie has been active for EPA’s member APEL for 10 years on regional and national levels (member of the board of Apel national in Paris since 2015), as responsible for communication, association life, sustainability and global ecology as well as for international relations during the last two years on the national board.

Apel is the biggest parents`association in France and represents 947,000 parents. It has been in existence since 1930. Apel works closely with the French government education and all the principals and teachers of the Catholic schools in France. The objective is to enhance and improve the education system and make children succeed at their schooling, as well as their scholar orientation and vocation. Apel proposes many training, advice and information to all the families and is part of all the Catholic schools’ boards. This specific organisation makes it a very strong and solutions-oriented association on parenting and scholar issues.

Her expertise fields are mainly marketing and communication since she has been a marketing and communication manager for 22 years, but due to her 10 years dedicated to education as a volunteer in the Apel association, she has been trained to the positive discipline and she is passionate by the positive psychology and the science of happiness. She wishes to develop these important topics in the education system as she is persuaded that it will make children happier and help them to learn better.

BOARD MEMBER AND VICE PRESIDENT

Elena Odysseos

Elena comes from Cyprus, she is married with Michael and she is a mother of three children aged 22, 19 and 16. She has a BSc in Business Management and a diploma in PR. She has been working in the Bank sector for 18 years.  She has since left the sector and went private in 2018.  Today she is working as a freelance consultant, organizing seminars and she is also working in her family’s business.  

She has been an active member in parents’ associations for more than 15 years. She has served as member of the board of Cyprus’ National Parents’ Association (PCPASE). She is also a member of the Board of School for Parents organization that is supported by Cyprus Government and she is participating in other Voluntarily Organizations.

Board member, vice president and secretary

Boštjan Bobič Zabreščak

President of the school Parents Council (2013-2018), Vice-president of the regional Parents Council (2014-2018), Vice-president of the Slovenian Parents Association (2016-2018), Bostjan has gained vast experience in training parents for active participation in school boards and other school related bodies, in working with policy makers on different levels, in collecting good practices and implementing them in new contexts as well as managing projects and cooperating with different stakeholders. Coming from the IT sector (vocational school for engineering) he is very analytical and systematic and used to achieving his goals through collaboration and teamwork.

Board Member and Vice President

Silvija Stanic

Her academic background is Psychology and her professional interests have always been directed towards improving the quality of life and personal development, so she continued specialist post-graduate education in the field of Children’s rights and finished the four-year training in Gestalt Psychotherapy and currently on PhD in the field of Social Work and Social Policy.

For the last 16 years she has been working in Parents’ Association Step by Step, involved in several programs aimed at promoting the quality of life of parents and children. She was actively involved in programs aimed at providing psycho-social assistance and support to disadvantaged families (underage and young parents, parents, former prisoners, single parents) and also the author of several publications aimed at young people, parents and professionals in the field of family protection

From 2008-2022, she was actively involved in the Coordination of Association for Children in Croatia, involved in monitoring the implementation of the National strategy for children and making Shadow Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the UN.

Throughout her work so far, she has been involved in numerous projects both nationally and internationally through strategic partnerships that seek to promote parental empowerment and involvement in children education.

Since June 2022, she has been a member of the EPA Board of Directors.