Ionela Maria Ciolan is a Brussels-based foreign policy and security expert and Board Member of the Transatlantic Alumni Network. Until recently, Ionela worked as a Research Fellow at the European Policy Centre (EPC) think tank in Brussels.
In addition, Ionela is a 2021 James S. Denton Transatlantic Fellow at Center for European Policy Analysis (Washington D.C.). She previously gained experience as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley, and through her work at the European Parliament (Brussels) and the Centre for EU-Russia Studies, University of Tartu (Estonia), and National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Romania).
Ionela has a PhD degree on the Eastern Partnership between multilateralism and power politics (with a focus on Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia). She presented parts of her research at conferences organized by the International Studies Association in Toronto, Ohio State University, the Council of European Studies at Columbia University, U.C. Berkeley, the London School of Economics and Political Science, College of Europe – Natolin campus, the European Parliament, and at various events in Romania.
Her policy work was published by CEPA, EPC, and GLOBSEC and she was cited in media outlets in the US, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, and Romania.
Ionela is a grantee of the OSCE and U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs Scholarship for Peace and Security (2019), a New Security Leader of the Warsaw Security Forum (2018), and a Professional Fellow of the U.S. Department of State (2015).