Governance
The ISSA Council is the heart of ISSA governance. The Council is composed of all Full Member organizations and guides the Association’s strategy and the work of the Secretariat. The Council holds a General Assembly Meeting annually in which it discusses Association business and elects a Board of Directors.
ISSA's Board members work on a voluntary basis. The Board meets in person at least twice a year. The ISSA Secretariat conducts the official business of the Association and is responsible for delivering services to ISSA members and ensuring that the ISSA objectives are met.
All members of the ISSA Board, the ISSA Council, the ISSA Membership Committee and the Program Committee are unremunerated for their duties.
ISSA Board
Henriette Heimgaertner
Henriette Heimgaertner is the Co-founder & Managing Director of the Berlin Early Childhood Institute for Quality Development. She has more than 25 years of experience in developing sustainable early years programs in various European countries including Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Henriette co-authored the statutory early years curriculum for the region of Berlin.
She has served on ISSA’s Board and other bodies in the past, and brings a great deal of experience both in board advising and as a speaker at conferences and seminars.
Jeroen Aarssen
Jeroen Aarssen is a Senior Education Consultant, CPS. Previously, he has been working for ISSA member Sardes for 19 years. His areas of expertise include language development, multilingualism and executive function. As a project leader, Jeroen worked on numerous projects: TINK ('14-'18), a nationwide in-service training program for childcare staff in the Netherlands; several international ECEC and primary education projects, including a recent Erasmus+ multilingual project for refugee children. Jeroen is author of De Basis Voorbij (Beyond the Basis), a reference book in a training program for preschool professionals in the Netherlands.
Carmen Lica
Carmen Lica is the Director and founder of Step by Step Center for Education and Professional Development (CEDP) Romania. Since 1998, Carmen and her team have worked to expand the Step by Step network of preschools and schools, making a difference in over 500,000 children’s lives in the past 25 years.
Carmen is a recognized expert on teacher training and education programs for children age birth to three in Romania. She has introduced several innovative educational programs, such as the FasTracKids Program — the first ICT program in schools to support the development of life skills — and ReadyNation Romania a business network advocating for increased public and private investments in ECD in Romania. She is also a member of the ECD Working Group with the president’s office.
In November 2019, Carmen was decorated with the title of “Knight” by the President of Romania in recognition of her important contributions to education reform and policies in Romania.
Michel Vandenbroeck
Michel Vandenbroeck is the Head of the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, at Ghent University, Belgium. Michel Vandenbroeck is also the Chair of VBJK – Centre for Innovation in the Early Years, one of ISSA’s member organizations.
In the first part of his career, Michel gained extensive experience in setting up projects of innovation in early childhood education, both in Belgium and more broadly in Europe. These projects included professional development of staff and leadership, advocacy and working with policy makers. Later, in his academic career, where he combines research and teaching, he has pursued themes around the respect for diversity, accessibility of services for children from families in precarious situations, inclusion of children with special needs, quality and professionalism, including issues of working conditions for the early years workforce. He has authored many articles and books in the field, constantly challenging paradigms with the lens of social justice in child- and family-focused policies and pedagogy. Michel Vandenbroeck brings to ISSA his extensive experience in advocacy and influencing theory and policy, both locally and internationally, as well as his insights on approaches to create stronger synergies between practice, research and policy.
Since the late 1990s, in his capacity of VBJK President and also as an internationally recognized expert in the early years field, Michel Vandenbroeck has had regular contacts and collaborations with ISSA in diverse partnership projects and initiatives.
Deepa Grover
Deepa Grover has an extensive experience in the areas of child development and child rights, gender, human development and behaviour change communication. As Regional Advisor at UNICEF’s Office for Europe and Central Asia (until 2019), Deepa provided technical leadership and programming support for strategic responses to ECD in the region.
Deepa joined the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority in 2020, where as a Senior Advisor she is contributing to the establishment of a comprehensive ECD system in the Emirate. Deepa has an academic background in Child Development and holds a doctorate from the University of Sussex, UK.
Gerda Sula, PhD
Gerda Sula is an educationalist and researcher with a strong focus on improving the quality of education in Albania. She is the Executive Director of Step by Step Center, an NGO focused in quality and equality in early childhood education in Albania. Also, she currently teaches at the Masters' programs of the University of Tirana, where she focuses in preparing teachers for student-centered education.
Dr. Sula's areas of interest include early childhood education, life-long learning, VET, with a passion on inclusion, and equal educational opportunities. Her belief that teachers are the key to a school's success is reflected in her primary focus on quality continuous professional development. Her research skills are complemented by her practice-oriented abilities, making her a valuable consultant for both government and non-governmental organizations, among which World Bank, UNICEF, SwissContact, Open Society Foundations.
Miroslav Sklenka
Miroslav Sklenka holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Management and a PhD. in Social Sciences. He is well known in the field of Early Childhood Development, with a career spanning over two decades. He has been associated with the International Step By Step Association since 1999, initially as a project manager with the Wide Open School Foundation, one of the founding members of ISSA. Presently, he serves as the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Skola dokoran – Wide Open School in Slovakia, a position he has held since 2012.
Throughout his career, he has been instrumental in the establishment of several non-profit organizations and civic associations, focusing primarily on Early Childhood Development. His expertise in capacity development, financial management, and risk management has been pivotal in driving organizational growth and ensuring long-term sustainability.
Miroslav Sklenka has managed numerous projects connected with socially disadvantaged gorups and migrants. His professional experience extends to governmental and international spheres. He worked at the Government Office of Slovakia managing projects financed by the European Union and served as National Project Officer for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Sarah Klaus
Sarah Klaus is an adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Child and Human Development. She was the director of the Open Society Early Childhood Program, prior to its closure at the end of 2020. Over a period of 26 years, the program advanced the rights of young children by supporting ambitious initiatives and advocacy to reshape early childhood development practices and institutions, on the one hand, and scaled up the power and capacity of civil society groups and professionals, on the other. The program aimed to improve services and policies for all children, with a specific focus on Roma children and children in other minority communities, children with disabilities, refugees, and children living in poverty and in remote areas. Beginning in 2006, Sarah expanded its original focus in Central Eastern Europe and Eurasia to include Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. In 1994, Sarah helped launch Step by Step, the Foundations’ flagship early childhood program, and in 1999, the International Step by Step Association, a network established to support early childhood professionals in Central Eastern Europe and Eurasia. She served as the association’s Executive Director from its inception to 2006.
Sarah holds a doctorate in international early childhood education from the UCL's Institute of Education in London, an MA in developmental psychology from Columbia University Teachers College and a BA in Russian studies from Brown University.
Liana Ghent
Liana Ghent is Director of ISSA since 2006. Under her leadership, the association expanded its programmatic portfolio and grew significantly, with member organizations from across Europe (East and West) and Central Asia. Over these years, ISSA also broadened its scope to address various aspects of Early Childhood Development.
Liana has over 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience. Previously she was Co-President of the Civic Education Project (CEP), an organization working in higher education in Europe and the former Soviet Union. She served on several boards, including the Consultative Group for ECCD and the Leadership Council of the Global Compact for Early Childhood Development. Currently, she is a member of the Executive Group of the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN) and WHO's Advisory Group for the Nurturing Care Framework. Liana is a certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher.
