The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences – Washington, DC
The Embassy of the Czech Republic
Invites You to
The Six Minute Challenge
June 7th, 2017 at 6 p.m.
At the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, DC
Come and join a group of interesting indviduals living in the Greater Washington DC Area linked by origin or the nature of their work to the Czech and Slovak Republics. A panel of six professionals and one team of high school students will each have six minutes to present their work/projects to a listening audience. Attending guests can then participate in a Q&A session and later have the opportunity to network during a reception where one can enjoy a selection of Czech wine and beer as well as delicious food prepared by the Embassy’s Master Chef. Tickets are free of charge. All that we ask is that if you RSVP but realize you cannot attend, please cancel your registration on Eventbrite by May 31st so that others may reserve your ticket. The RSVP deadline for this event is June 4th, 2017.
Moderated by Natalie Safertal Masri, Founder of Brave May
Panelists
Martina Hrvolova PhD. LL.M.
Martina Hrvolova manages the Europe Program at the Center for International Private Enterprise in Washington, DC, one of the core institutes of the US National Endowment for Democracy and the US Chamber of Commerce affiliate. Previously, she served as a human rights expert of the Slovak Foreign Service as the Executive Secretary of the Slovak Chairmanship of the Council of Europe. Between 2010 and 2015, she was posted to the Slovak Missions to NATO and EU in Brussels, Belgium, primarily advising on public affairs, NATO Partnerships, EU expansion in the Balkans. Martina is passionate about volunteering at OSCE election observation missions in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. She has earned her a degree in International and Comparative Law at George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC and a PhD. in European Civil Law from the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Joseph Harvey, Nick Kiefer and Abby McGovern
This team of high school students from Frederick Maryland will share their experience working on their project for National History Day, a nation-wide history competition in which students present historical research based a yearly theme. The trio took on the challenge of this year’s theme of “Taking a Stand in History” and created a documentary depicting Dubcek’s Prague Spring democratic reforms and the Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968 that consequentially led to the self-immolation of Jan Palach. They will share their research on how Jan Palach’s actions inspired the citizens of Prague and impacted the Czech democracy movements twenty years later when the student march on the anniversary of Palach’s death eventually lead to the spark of the Velvet Revolution.
Ivo Jeník
Ivo Jenik studied law at Charles University in Prague, the Sorbonne in Paris and Columbia Law School in New York. He practices international law working at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. Among other things, he is responsible for activities related to supervisory capacity building, innovative finance, regulation of complex products, and dispute resolution. Previously, he worked with the Responsible Financial Access team at the World Bank where he specialized in financial consumer protection and alternative dispute resolution, providing technical assistance to client countries including Indonesia, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, and many more. Before joining the World Bank, Ivo was Head of the Collective Investment Department of the Czech Financial Ombudsman.
Roman Kostovski
Roman Kostovski has degrees in Russian Language and Linguistics from the College of William and Mary and University of Maryland. He holds a post graduate certification from Charles University in Prague. He has taught Czech at George Washington University and worked as a Central and Southeastern European Media Analyst at Georgetown University. He translates poetry and prose from Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Slovak into English. His translations have appeared in numerous journals, including Absinthe-New European Writings and Watchword Press. His translation of Arnost Lustig’s Porgess was published by Northwestern University Press in 2006, and his translation of Viktor Dyk’s Czech classic The Ratcatcher was published by Plamen Press in 2014. He is a recipient of the 2017 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for the translation of Hana Andronikova’s novel Heaven Has no Ground. He founded Plamen Press in 2013, an independant publishing house promoting literature from Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe throughout the English-speaking world. He works and resides with his three children in Washington, D.C.
Natalie Masri
As Founder of Brave May, Natalie Masri consults with organizations on strategic solutions and impactful partnerships in the areas of women’s economic empowerment and leadership, diversity inclusion, and sustainability. Her most recent work involved managing a multi-stakeholder partnership with the United Nations on the role of business in women’s economic empowerment and as well as a partnership with the U.S. India Business Council on investing in women and youth in India. As a former Senior Director of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Center of Women in Business Masri worked with women executives and entrepreneurs, military spouses, corporations to promote economic, financial, and social advancement of women into leadership positions. She developed strategies for companies to better incorporate women at every level, promoting mentorship, sponsorship, networking, and the significance of how women are reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape. Natalie spent time working in Prague, Czech Republic, at the Center for Democracy and Free Enterprise (CDFE), a non-governmental organization dedicated to integrating the Czech Republic into NATO and the European Union and to promoting active citizen involvement in democratic processes. She resides in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband and three children.
Jiří IURRO Stavovčík
Jiří Stavovčík spent his childhood in Cuba and Czechoslovakia. In 1995, he graduated from Palacký University in Olomouc where he studied history and political science. In 2003, he received his MBA in bank management from Moravian College, PA. Currently, Jiri works as a negotiator for development projects in Africa. Jiří is also an artist. He studied figurative drawing at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia and Spring Studio in New York City. His art has been featured at various group shows and solo exhibitions in New York City, Washington D.C. and Nagano (Japan). He is currently represented by Artspace 109 in Alexandria, VA.
Vladimir Wolf
Originally from Eastern Slovakia, Vladimir Wolf studied Biology at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. He completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Bern in Switzerland where he focused his research on breast cancer. After completing his PhD, he relocated to Bethesda, Maryland and began work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) where he furthered his studies in the biology of cancer. Vladimir later broke out of academic research and began working for the biotech companies Trophgen and QIAGEN. After receiving an MBA he founded an independent consulting firm, Pleiades Consulting LLC. For the past two years, along with fellow Slovak scientist Pavol Cekan he established MultiplexDX Incorporated, a company based in the US and Slovakia that focuses on developing a reliable, accurate, quantitative and inexpensive diagnostic test for breast cancer – Multiplex7+TM. His company’s primary goal is to eliminate misdiagnosis in breast cancer testing. MultiplexDX was the Overall winner of the 2016 StartUp Slovakia Award. It was also listed among the 100 most innovative Slovak companies. After receiving funding from the European Union, MultiplexDX built a new R&D facility in Košice, which is the first of its kind. Vladimir continues to live in the area with his wife Eva, a virologist and his 14 year daughter.
