Our Team & Editors

Director, Cultural Exchange, The Asia-Europe Foundation
Sabina Santarossa is ASEF’s Director of Cultural Exchange. Prior to her appointment, she served as First Secretary at the Permanent Representation of Italy to the UN Organisation in Rome (2007 – 2009). She also served as First Secretary at the Italian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand (2004-2007), and held the position of Chief of Cultural Events at the Department for Cultural Promotion, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rome (2000-2004). Before becoming a career diplomat, Ms Santarossa worked as a journalist and broadcast producer for different European media organisations (Rome, Brussels, London and Amsterdam). She obtained her MA in Political Science from the Università La Sapienza in Rome; studied under the Erasmus Scholarship with the University of Leiden; and attended an MA programme in Area Studies (South Asia) at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Assistant Director Department of Cultural Exchange
Katelijn Verstraete is Assistant Director of the Cultural Exchange Department at the Asia-Europe Foundation . In the last 15 years Katelijn has built up an extensive experience in the field of cultural management, international cultural cooperation between Asia and Europe with a focus on China, cultural policy dialogue, virtual platforms in the cultural sector and cross-cultural communication/mediation. After working for 6 years in the business sector in Germany and China, she she co-founded in 1999 BizArt, the first autonomous art space in Shanghai. From 2003 to end 2006 she worked in Brussels with the KunstenFestivalDesArts and IETM. She initiated the Asia activities for IETM and was project manager for on-the-move.org. Katelijn holds an MA degree in Sinology (K.U.Leuven – Belgium); a Chinese language degree from the Nanjing Normal University (China) and an MA degree in Marketing Management from the Leuven-Ghent Vlerick School for Management (Belgium).

Project Executive
Valentina Riccardi, an Italian national, joined ASEF in January 2009 as a Project Executive with the Cultural Exchange department to focus on the development of the culture360.org online platform. In the last six years, she worked in Rome with Monti & Taft, an organization focusing on cultural management and heritage related projects. Her main focus has been on projects which help enhance cultural resources of regional and local territories within the European Union. She also worked on the launch, design and content development of an online magazine Tafter.it, which specialises on the economy of culture in Italy and Europe. Prior to entering the cultural sector, she worked in Rome and New York in fashion and marketing. Valentina holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Rome – La Sapienza. She obtained her MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art Singapore – University of Manchester and completed a thesis on the validation system of Indian contemporary art.

Project Officer
Ramona Laczko David joined the ASEF in 2010.

Before this, she worked as a Project Assistant at the Interarts Foundation (Barcelona, Spain), where she was involved in organising the Euro-African Campus for Cultural Cooperation and the International Seminar on Cultural Diplomacy. She also interned at the International Guangdong Modern Dance Festival in China.

She participated as a young expert in the international capacity building programme “U40 – Cultural Diversity 2030” initiated by the German Commission for UNESCO and conducted research for the European Festival Research Project, an informal international consortium of researchers from various disciplines focused on analysing the dynamics of artistic festivals today.

Ramona holds a Master’s degree in Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management and Education from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Technical and Social Media Coordinator
Jeffrey was brought on to culture360.org because of his hybrid IT/Culture background. His first degree was in computer science. In 2000 he was part of a team developing the online community @ iAgora.com. From there he went to the Technology for Social Justice, Reach for the Clouds Project, a “resident-maintained networked community”. It was from these early experiences, that he became fascinated with the Internet and all its possibilities, particularly community building and participation.

From 2004-7 he completed a Master in Sustainable Heritage Development at the Australian National University, worked in an ICT capacity at UNESCO Bangkok’s Culture Unit and The Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center. There he witnessed the difficulties the culture sector faced attempting to harness the power of the Internet, with limited IT skills and financial resources.

He is a keen advocate of Creative Commons and Open Source technologies, as they are essential tools and platforms for new media arts and culture, and represent cultures of collaboration, sharing and promotion of access to tools and knowledge.

Europe Editor
Judith Staines is Europe Editor of Culture360.org. She is a freelance writer, researcher, editor and project manager based in the UK who specialises in European cultural cooperation and international mobility issues. She has worked on many projects for European cultural networks, contributed to EU studies and was General Editor of www.on-the-move.org 2004-2009. She is co-author The International Co-Production Manual (2011, IETM & KAMS), wrote Excited Atoms (2010, On-the-Move) on virtual mobility and new media in the performing arts, and co-authored Moving Art, a bilingual guide to the mobility of cultural goods between Russia and the EU (2007). She was English Editor of the EU-China Cultural Compass on Europe-China cultural collaboration, published 2011 by the Goethe-Institut, British Council & Danish Cultural Institute. Her background is in European languages and literature with a degree from London University in French and Romanian and postgraduate studies in European cultural project management.

Asia Editor
Born in Yokohama, Japan, Sali Sasaki is a communication designer, researcher, and writer specialized in cities and cultural development. She is the former manager of UNESCO’s Creative Cities, an international network of 28 cities, from over 15 different countries. Since 2008, she is freelancing with international organizations in Europe and Asia. She has developed several cultural projects including the Design DNA Workshop for the International Design Center in Nagoya, and Cities x Design, a transmedia publication on the role of design in urban environments. She is also an Ambassador for the INDIGO Indigenous Design Network by ICOGRADA, a consultant for the World Design Capital, and a visiting tutor at Parsons Paris School of Design. Sali holds a Master of Arts degree in Communication Design from the Royal College of Art (UK). She currently divides her time between Paris and Tokyo.