MEET COSMODERNITY CONSULTANTS TEAM
Cosmodernity is a company striving to redefine a broad vision and successful strategy towards goals and objectives
The Cosmodernity consultants team are a group of highly regarded and respected professionals in their specific areas of interest. The composition of the team provides us with a broad, global reach and an extensive network of experts to select from. The inherent diversity of the team’s
educational and professional backgrounds is a particular strength and added value of the company.
Allied to their dedication and strong work ethic, Cosmodernity consultants can ensure quality driven services to all clients.
Larry Olomofe is the former deputy head as well as advisor for combatting racism and xenophobia/training coordinator in OSCE ODIHR’s Tolerance and non-discrimination department. He ran the portfolio on racism and xenophobia, providing advice to various governments on issues such as racism and anti-racism, non-discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance against Christians, hate incidents and hate crimes across the OSCE region. He also designed, managed, and coordinated ODIHR’s Training Against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) their flagship training/capacity-building programme for law enforcement in the OSCE region. Additionally, he oversaw trainings for prosecutors, judges, and civil society organisations on responding to and prevention of hate crimes and European and domestic anti-discrimination law, as well as ODIHR and OSCE field offices’ staff, human rights commissions and ombuds institutions. During his professional career, Mr. Olomofe has conducted trainings, lectures and a variety of workshop/conference contributions in over forty (40) countries.
Prior to his OSCE work, Larry Olomofe was employed as the Human Rights Trainer/Director at the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in Budapest, Hungary, and was an associate professor offering courses on nationalism, critical race theory, social and political theories and philosophy, cultural studies and international human rights law and structures at a variety of Hungarian universities including the university of San Francisco (Budapest programme).
On completion of his OSCE mandate in 2018, Mr. Olomofe co-founded People of African Descent LINK (PADLINK) a public interest non-governmental organization to promote the interests of people of African descent (PAD) across the diaspora. Its primary focus is to combat discrimination and xenophobia faced by people of African descent and to address the needs of people of African. PADLINK provides resources to PAD communities wherever necessary and possible offers its expertise in the fields of legal representation (including strategic litigation) human rights training and capacity-building programmes, advocacy and outreach initiatives, research, monitoring and reporting, human rights education and intercultural exchange programmes.
Dr. Margaret AmakaOhia-Nowak is a linguist, a critical discourse analyst, and a diversity and anti-discrimination trainer. She is the President of “Word Idea”, a training company for promoting diversity and cross-cultural communication, and combating racial discrimination, and the violation of human rights of people of African descent in Poland. In 2010 she graduated from the Black Europe Summer School and Dimensions of Citizenship, Race and Ethnic Relations, a research seminar on racism, xenophobia, black women equality and human rights. In 2012 she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to conduct her doctoral research at the Department of African–American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. She was then a Visiting Fellow at the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley with specific focus on race and gender relations in public discourse. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Race, Ethnicity and Migration, City UniversityLondon. In 2014, she received her doctoral degree with the thesis ‘Racism against people of African descent in Polish language and public discourse’ from the University of Wroclaw. She received the Empowering Women of Color Award. She currently teaches at the Open University at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, and Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin.She primarily focuses on anti-black racism, stereotypes, and hate speech. She authored and co-authored lesson scenarios, educational materials and scientific publications on cross-cultural, human rights, anti-discrimination and global education topics. She has also published and presented academically on race and racism in contemporary public discourse, racist discourse and representations of black ethnic minorities portrayed by media discourse in Poland and CEE. She conducted trainings for Wrocław Teacher Training Center, Warsaw Center for Educational and Social Innovation and Training, Polish Humanitarian Action, Global Learning & Education Network, Facebook, British Embassy Warsaw, the Critical Education Association and the WrOpenUp Foundation amongst others. She is a member of the Never Again Association, Association of Poles of African Descent (SPPA) and SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research. Margaret was born and raised both in Poland and Nigeria.
James Omolo is the founder of Africa Connect Foundation, an advocacy organization on Human Rights issues affecting People of African Descent. He has gained substantive skills in organizing and facilitating various training sessions and workshops, providing necessary support to project team and partners, facilitating participatory planning and budgeting, project database management, report writing and coordinating, linking, and leading collaborations with various organizations and institutions.
In December 2019, James achieved a United Nations Fellow on People of African Descent under United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). He authored two books on race relations including; Strangers at the gate: Black Poland, and Crossing the color line: Interracial marriage and biracial identity. His past publications also include; Chinese foreign policy in Sudan and, Poland and Africa: past, present, and future.
James previously served as a lecturer at the University of Social Sciencesand Humanities (SWPS), Centre for Postgraduate Studies and Training on Africa Business and Beyond: Success and Failure case studies in organizations with expatriate management. He has also provided guest lectures on race relations in several universities in Europe including the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, Germany, MA Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights, and the University of Vienna, Austria, Department of African Studies.
An active Human Rights activist, James has gained valuable experience in planning many events within human rights, such as workshops, training, seminars, conferences, and roundtable meetings, participating in various International events within the framework of Human rights.
Dominika Pasterska is a UK-qualified researcher and translator who has been based in Warsaw since 2007. Prior to moving to Warsaw she was Senior Researcher in political and business risk with Kroll Associates, London and Head of Kroll’s research team in Moscow. She has worked in Paris and the Caucasus on environmental risk and conflict resolution projects, focusing on dialogue-building initiatives between ethnic minority groups following civil conflicts. As part of her postgraduate degree (MSc Environmental Management, Edinburgh University) she carried out independent environmental assessments in the Republic of Georgia and worked on EU-(TACIS) funded civil-society projects in Tbilisi and Yerevan, Armenia. Further postgraduate studies included EU environmental policy issues (Birkbeck University, London) and Russian language and international relations at the universities of St.Petersburg and Moscow State University.
Since moving to Warsaw, Dominika has worked as a freelance translator (Russian/Polish/French to English) researcher and editor. Clients have included environmental NGOs, EU sustainable development programmes, the Polish Institute for International Relations (PISM), museums in Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands and children’s, academic and literary publishers. She has also been involved in environmental awareness and educational outreach initiatives for children and teens. Most recently she has worked at a human rights NGO and women’s shelter in Warsaw gathering testimonials from Chechen asylum seekers and is hoping to translate a series of books for children about racism and xenophobia from Russian to English. In addition, and as part of her continuing professional development, Dominika has completed MOOCs in visible racism, anti-racism and Anti-Semitism.
Nathalie Tran
Nathalie Tran is a French-Asian legal specialist with close to fifteen years of experience in human rights, rule of law, and international criminal justice. She worked in various international governmental organizations [Rule of Law Officer at OSCE/ODIHR (2012-2017), Rule of Law Officer at the OSCE Mission to Skopje (2009-2012), Legal Consultant at the Organization of American States (2005-2006)]. In these positions, she managed projects and research initiatives on criminal justice reform, judicial independence, access to justice for marginalized communities, human trafficking, and gender, diversity and justice systems. In particular, she designed and organized expert meetings and training for judges, prosecutors, lawyers in Central Asia, the Western Balkans and the South Caucasus on topics relevant to fair trial rights and access to justice. She also contributed to judicial reform initiatives, trial observation and judicial appointments monitoring in North Macedonia.
While at the OSCE/ODIHR, Nathalie was elected staff representative for two terms (2014-2017) to safeguard the interests of staff. In this capacity, she acted as a bridge between the staff and the senior management on professional working environment-related issues. She supported and provided legal advice to staff members alleging misconducts and other violations of professional working environment which amounted, at times, to harassment/bullying, discrimination, or retaliation. Her main takeaway from this experience remains that while individual misconducts must be addressed through the adoption and enforcement of ethical rules on “workplace vivre ensemble”, many abusive behaviors at work can be prevented early on through firm yet empathic corrective actions, especially from managers.
After earning her qualification as a French lawyer (2008), Nathalie worked in various law firms in Paris (2008). Since January 2020, she is a Legal Officer in the Pre-Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the hybrid tribunal in charge of trying the most responsible Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during the period of 1975-1979.
Nathalie holds a Master’s degree in public international law from Université Paris Nanterre (2006) and an LL.M. in international human rights protection from Washington College of Law, American University (2005). She plans on starting a PhD in law and behavioral science/social psychology at the University of Hamburg in January 2021.
Expertise/areas of interest: Human rights; rule of law; professional workplace environment; international criminal justice; diversity and gender; behavioral science and social psychology.
Adekunle Adebayo AYOOLA is an entrepreneur based in Poland under the brand name Afro-Euro Investments. He holds a bachelors degree in Political Science and Masters Degree in Politics and Society track. He is currently the President and Founding partner at the Global African Dialogue, member Afryconnect, President of Africancamera Media Trust and President, Omooba Concepts Nig.Ltd he has organised several projects on African culture and business exchange. He is committed to promoting strong economic growth and development in Africa with interest in International Security and Entrepreneurship as a way to reduce poverty in global south.