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Meet the Team
Co-Founder + Director of Programmes
Marie-Claire Graf
Marie-Claire Graf (she/her) is an environmental justice advocate and activist, former Swiss climate negotiator and co-founder of the Youth Negotiators Academy (YNA), where she serves as Director of Programmes.
It’s her aspiration to enable intergenerational leadership by supporting young people to be meaningfully, impactfully and effectively engaged in policy, diplomacy and decision-making processes to create a momentum for systemic change. She was initiating and is leading several associations and movements on the intersections of climate action (e.g. Youth Constituency YOUNGO of UN Climate Change, Swiss Youth for Climate, UNESCO Youth Climate Action Network (YoU-CAN)), youth and women representation (e.g. World Future Council, Global Shapers by World Economic Forum), food systems transformation (e.g. Real Food Systems, UN Food Systems Summit) and education (e.g. Sustainability Week Switzerland and International). She studied environmental and political sciences in Zurich, Switzerland (ETH and University).
She loves to be connected with the vastness and abundance of nature as a passionate sailor, hiker, swimmer, diver and skier.
Co-Founder + Director of Institutional Relations
Veena Balakrishnan
Veena Balakrishnan is a political scientist, entrepreneur, and a social worker. She started doing social work as a 7 year old - as a caregiver, campaigner and educator. Veena started her career in ethical fashion, focusing on eradicating inhumane practices in garment labour, and setting up fair trade and fair labour standards in factories. Veena is a Co-Founder of the Youth Negotiators Academy, where she dabbles between Governance, Fundraising and Resource Mobilisation and external affairs. Most recently, Veena has completed her MA thesis on modern leadership in climate negotiations for achieving Paris goals.
CYNP Training Manager
Millie May
Millie is a climate change educator and youth engagement advocate who has worked in international climate education and policy spaces since 2020. She has worked with NGOs including WWF, ClimateScience, and ClimaTalk, as well as the University of Cambridge’s Cambridge Zero, delivering youth capacity‑building programmes, documentary projects, curriculum design and global climate education initiatives. Millie served on the Steering Committee for the COP29 Children and Youth Pavilion and is a member of UNESCO’s Youth Climate Action Network. She is currently completing her master’s at the University of Cambridge, focusing her research on youth participation within the UNFCCC system. In her free time, you can find her hiking in the Austrian Alps.
LYNP Training Manager
JulietGrace Luwedde
JulietGrace Luwedde (she/her) is a Ugandan environmentalist, environmental justice advocate, and youth leader who believes climate action should be bold, inclusive, and community-rooted. With over eight years of experience at the intersection of land restoration, climate policy, gender equality, and youth leadership, she turns big ideas into high-impact programs that actually move the needle.
A detail-loving development strategist with a heart for systems change, JulietGrace has coordinated multi-stakeholder platforms from grassroots communities to global policy spaces while ensuring young people and women are not just in the room, but shaping the agenda. She thrives at designing and facilitating dynamic policy dialogues, capacity-building journeys, and learning experiences that spark confidence, deepen participation, and drive meaningful transformation.
At her core, she’s passionate about building bridges: between generations, between policy and people, and between ambition and action.
Programme Associate
Ekow Adu-Mensah
Ekow Adu-Mensah is a Ghanaian youth sustainability advocate passionate about systems thinking, nature-positive economic transformation and regeneration in Sub-Saharan African economies and societies.
He harnesses his skills in writing, speaking, and engaging in policy discussions to amplify youth perspectives on contemporary crises of the 21st century and co-creates solutions addressing complex interconnected challenges.
Ekow is a member of Chatham House’s Common Futures Conversations and the 50 Percent, where he engages policymakers and global youth leaders on inclusive governance and sustainable development.
In these spaces, he has presented policy solutions on just transitions and responsible Artificial Intelligence to high-level policymakers. He also co-authored the Young Person’s Guide to Systems Change, a flagship youth-led systemic transformation handbook of the 50 Percent, that reached 100,000+ readers in 2025. Ekow holds a degree in Business Administration (Accounting).
Institutional Relations Manager
Manon Frezouls
Manon Frezouls (she/her) is a French expert in international relations, climate change, and youth engagement. She holds a Master’s in International Relations and Diplomacy, a Maîtrise in International Law, and a diploma on Conflict Analysis and International Justice. After interning at the French Embassy in San Salvador, she joined UNESCO in 2019 to create the Youth Climate Action Network (YoU-CAN). From 2019 to 2025, she worked in UNESCO’s Youth Programme, promoting meaningful youth engagement in policy, research and programmes, and serving as the Youth focal point on the Climate Change Task Force. In 2022, she also contributed to transformative education and research across the ENLIGHT European university network, covering topics such as health, digitalization, climate, energy, and equity. She speaks French, English, Spanish and is currently learning Arabic.
Institutional Relations Officer
Luan Werneck
Luan Werneck is a Brazilian climate activist and researcher, currently a Master’s candidate in Political Science with a degree in International Relations. His work focuses on international climate politics and pathways toward a more just and sustainable world. He began his activism in 2020 through the global climate movement Fridays for Future, advocating for stronger climate policies and quality climate education. Alongside his advocacy work, he conducts research on international climate politics at the Observatório Interdisciplinar das Mudanças Climáticas (OIMC). Luan is passionate about nature, cultural exchange, music, and good books, and believes that knowledge, dialogue, and collective action are essential for driving meaningful change.
Community Enabler
Aurelie Villaespesa
Aurélie Villaespesa (she/her), born in the Amazon rainforest in French Guiana and raised in the arid region of Northeast Brazil, embodies a blend of creativity, fervent dedication to community engagement, and commitment to environmental conservation. With a legal background and international project management credentials from Sciences Po Paris, she spearheaded notable initiatives such as the Paris Peace Forum Scale-up Programme, fostering mutual learning among global civil society leaders.
As a Youth Ambassador for the ONE Campaign in 2023, she championed climate justice. Dedicated to fostering inclusive global governance, Aurélie adeptly navigates diverse cultural terrains, boasting fluency in four languages and enriched by her experiences residing in four countries and working at UNESCO. Her dream? A world where everyone has a say in important decisions on our planet’s future and she's working hard to make it happen at the Youth Negotiators Academy.
Project Manager
Léah Le Piver
Trained in law and international relations, Léah is an expert in project management and high-level events operations. She coordinated programs cycles at the Paris Peace Forum and supported innovative global initiatives tackling key governance challenges, reinforcing civil society voice, from gender equality and climate action to cultural heritage protection and conflict prevention.
Comfortable in multicultural environments, she works to build bridges between diverse actors, fostering communities of changemakers and amplifying their impact. Thriving in fast-paced project cycles, she brings structure, creativity and strong team organization skills to every mission.
Driven by a deep commitment to fairness and sustainability, she aims to use her energy, experience, and solutions-oriented mindset to contribute to a better world, for people and the planet.
Communications Manager
Caroline Cassinelli
Caroline Cassinelli (she/her) is a communicator that focuses on how we make sense of ourselves as humans and our relationship to the planet we live on. She's passionate about telling stories on every scale, from the global to the microscopic. She builds on her academic background in history and visual and media anthropology to communicate about sustainable development, global citizenship, and accessibility.
Caroline served as Project Officer for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Associate Programme Officer at the UNESCO Youth Section. She also has previous experience at the Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, University of Toronto, Future Skills Centre, and UBC Museum of Anthropology. She loves to meditate, watch films, and visit museums in her free time.
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