Albin Kurti is the Leader of the political party Vetevendosje Movement, as well as the fourth and sixth prime minister of the Republic of Kosovo after the declaration of independence. On April 23, 2003, Albin Kurti graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Prishtina, majoring in Telecommunications with Computers. Albin Kurti has been a member of the Vetevendosje Movement in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo for three consecutive terms. He also served as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo in the years 2011-2014. In three consecutive parliamentary elections in Kosovo, in 2017, 2019 and 2021, Kurti has been the party's candidate for prime minister. Albin Kurti has published over 550 articles, and has been invited to present at various famous universities both at national and international level. He is fluent in Albanian, English and Serbo-Croatian.

Ardian Gjini is the Mayor of Gjakova and Vice President of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK). Gjini has served as a Member of Parliament for two terms (2007-2014) and as Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning. He completed his studies in International Relations and European Studies at the University of Kent in Canterbury.

Atifete Jahjaga served as the fourth, and the first woman President of the Republic of Kosovo. Jahjaga is Kosovo’s first non-partisan candidate, the first female head of state in the modern Balkans, and the youngest female world leader to be elected to the highest office. Jahjaga constantly participates in national and international conferences and initiatives aimed at empowering women and supporting the survivors of sexual violence during the war. She continues to be resolute in her fight against violent extremism and radicalization and a staunch promoter of peace and stability for the Balkans and beyond. During her presidency, Jahjaga worked diligently to bring women to the forefront of Kosovo’s political, economic, and social life as a means of ensuring a long-lasting democracy. In this context, in 2012, she hosted the International Women’s Summit "Partnership for Change— Empowering Women," which was attended by 200 leaders from Kosovo, the wider Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East.The summit provided a venue for women from the region to cross ethnic barriers and come together to launch and promote a platform for their empowerment as women throughout the Balkans. The discussions led to the creation of the Pristina Principles which affirm the rights of women to political participation and representation, economic resources, and access to security and justice, and calls for actions to make these principles a reality. These principles were adopted as a resolution by the Kosovo Assembly. Jahjaga is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders since 2012 and is recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Durham (2013), the Leadership in Public Service Award from the Clinton Global Initiative (2014), and the honorary degree of Doctor of Law from the University of Leicester (2015). In March of 2018, President Jahjaga established the Jahjaga Foundation- an initiative that focuses on youth and women empowerment towards achieving social change in Kosovo.

Doarsa Kica-Xhelili is a Member of the Parliament from the ranks of Guxo List. She is Chair of the Committee on Local Government, Regional Development and Media. She has worked in the civil society sector for a while. In 2012 she worked in the organization "Diaspora for Development” as a Legal Researcher, while in 2013-2014 she worked as a Program Officer in the Program for Civil Rights in Kosovo. From 2015, until the moment when she joined the initiative of Vjosa Osmani, she worked as a Lawyer in the Law Association "Sejdiu & Qerkini" in Pristina. She completed her Bachelor studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Prishtina. She was a recipient of a scholarship to Loyola University in Chicago, USA, where she completed her Master's degree in 2014 and received her Master in Rule of Law and Development.

Edi Gusia is the Chief Executive Officer of the Agency for Gender Equality in the Prime Minister’s Office of the Republic Kosovo. As of February 2017, she serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Agency for Gender Equality of Kosovo in the Prime Minister’s Office and leads the work of Kosovo’s gender machinery spread out at all levels of Kosovo state and public institutions for the fulfillment of the Kosovo gender equality agenda.In 2005, she was assigned to the Agency, initially as a consultant to support the newly established Agency for Gender Equality. A year later, she officially joined the Agency as a civil servant, and until 2016 she led the Agency’s Division of Reporting and Monitoring. During her career with the Agency, Mrs. Gusia has contributed in designing capacity development programs on gender issues, proposing legislative initiatives, organization regional and international conferences. She has a vast experience in the drafting of key policy documents for the advancement of gender equality agenda in Kosovo, as the most important ones: Law for protection from Domestic Violence, Kosovo Program for Gender Equality 2008-2013; 2020-2024, National Strategy for Combating Domestic Violence, and National Action Plan for the Implementation of the 1325 UN Resolution. She holds a Master Degree in Comparative literature, with concentration in Women writing. In addition, she has participated in key formal training courses that regard leadership and change management, public policy, gender budgeting and gender statistics, etc. She speaks fluent Albanian, English,Italian, and Serbian –Croatian language.

Eliza Hoxha is a Member of the Assembly of Kosovo from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). She is also a member of the Committee for Education, Science, Technology, Innovation, Culture, Youth and Sport and Committee for Gender Equality, Human Rights and Missing Persons. Hoxha is also a board member of the Women Caucus. She graduated in 2002 from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Pristina. She completed her postgraduate studies in 2006 at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, focusing on the field of urban planning. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at TU in Graz, Austria.

Emilija Redzepi is the Leader of Nove demokratske stranke party and Third Deputy Prime Minister for Minority Issues and Human Rights. Ms. Redzepi has been a Member of Parliament for the past three legislatures. Ms. Redzepi ran for Mayor in the 2017 local elections in Prizren and she served as the minister of the Ministry of Local Government Administration. She was the Deputy Speaker of Prizren and Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Energy. Redzepi earned her Master’s Degree in Political Science and International Relations.

Jacqueline O’Neill has a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Alberta and a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Throughout her career, Ms. O’Neill has supported the creation of national strategies and policy frameworks for more than 30 countries, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the United Nations. She has helped establish the field of women, peace, and security and its application in governments, security forces, and multilateral organizations. She has advised the Government of Canada on the country’s first (2011-2016) and second (2017 to present) national action plans on women, peace, and security. As President of the Institute for Inclusive Security, Ms. O’Neill directly supported coalitions of women leaders in Colombia, South Sudan, Sudan, Pakistan, and beyond. Through this work, she advocated for women’s meaningful inclusion in peace negotiations, national political dialogues, and policy making. She also worked at the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan and at Khartoum’s Ahfad University for Women. Along with former Lt. General Roméo Dallaire, she helped found the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative to eliminate the use of children during conflict. Prior to that, Ms. O’Neill was a policy advisor to Canada’s Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific region. Most recently, she was a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Canada Institute, an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, and a member of the board of directors of the Canadian International Council.

Ambassador Jeffrey M. Hovenier, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister Counselor, is the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo. He presented his credentials to President Vjosa Osmani Sadriu in Pristina on January 10, 2022. Throughout his more than 30-year career and in various capacities, Ambassador Hovenier has represented U.S. strategic priorities and commitments to Kosovo and the Western Balkans. In 1999, while serving at the U.S. Mission to the OSCE, he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Rambouillet Process. In 2001, he served as the U.S. lead negotiator for the OSCE Bucharest Ministerial and the Agreement on Stability under Dayton Article V, and he represented the United States at the OSCE’s Political-Military Forum on Security Cooperation. In 2001 he established and led the Embassy Branch Office in Presevo, South Serbia. In 2002, he led the U.S. office in Podgorica, Montenegro. In 2006 he served as a member of the UN team led by UN Special Envoy Martii Ahtissari responsible for negotiations on Kosovo’s status. During his service at Embassy Zagreb from 1995-1998, he was a member of the international team that negotiated and implemented the Erdut Agreement, achieving the peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia. Later in his career, he served as Director for Central and Southeastern European Affairs at the National Security Council, developing White House policy towards the Western Balkans, including issues concerning Kosovo-Serbia normalization. From 2002-2004, he also served as Deputy Director in the Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibility for NATO and Central European Affairs. Ambassador Hovenier most recently served as the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey from 2018-2019 and as Deputy Chief of Mission there from 2019-2021. He also served as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy to Germany and at U.S. missions in Greece, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru. Ambassador Hovenier holds a Master of Arts in Government from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Brigham Young University. He speaks German, Greek, Croatian, and Spanish, and is studying Gheg Albanian.

Lumir Abdixhiku is a Member of the Assembly of Kosovo and Leader of Lidhja Demokratike e Kosoves (LDK). In the elections of 2019, Abdixhiku was the 9th most voted politician in Kosovo. Lumir Abdixhiku completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pristina. He also received his Master of Science degree in 2006 from Staffordshire University in Britain, in the field of Fiscal Morals. In 2013 he received his Ph.D. in economics from Staffordshire University after four years of research and research in the field of determinants of business tax evasion in transition countries. Mr. Abdixhiku is also the Executive Director of the Riinvest Institute. He joined the Institute in 2005 and since then has been involved in several types of research, advocacy, and development projects – in Kosovo and abroad. Mr. Abdixhiku also holds a regular weekly column in Kosovo’s most prominent daily newspaper, Koha Ditore.

Marqe Tanushi Selmanaj is the Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Klina from the ranks of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. She worked as an Albanian language teacher in several schools from 2003 to 2021. During the years 2009/2013 she worked as a school principal, where she showed maximum success in the field of management and organization of school work. In 2018 she was re-selected as a school manager for a second term. She graduated from the Faculty of Albanian Language and Literature at the University of Prishtina and has also attended several special programs for teaching, educational leadership, and other trainings from international organizations in the field of pre-university education including International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) organized by United States Department of Justice. Marqe speaks fluently in serbo-croatian language.

Ambassador Verveer is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. She previously served as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, a position to which she was nominated by President Obama in 2009. She coordinated foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women, traveling to nearly sixty countries. She worked to ensure that women’s participation and rights are fully integrated into U.S. foreign policy, and she played a leadership role in the Administration’s development of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. President Obama also appointed her to serve as the U.S. Representative to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. From 2000-2008, she was the Chair and Co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO that she co-founded to invest in emerging women leaders. During the Clinton administration, she served as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady. She also led the effort to establish the President’s Interagency Council on Women, and was instrumental in the adoption of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. She is the co-author of Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose (2015). Ambassador Verveer has a B.S. and M.S. from Georgetown University and holds several honorary degrees. In 2013, she was the Humanitas Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge and in 2017, she was selected to deliver the Tanner Lecture at Clare Hall College, Cambridge. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, and she serves on the Boards of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Atlantic Council, as well as the World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development. She has also served as the Special Representative on Gender Issues for the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary of State’s Award for Distinguished Service. In 2008, the President of Ukraine awarded her the Order of Princess Olga.

Memli Krasniqi is the Leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). Krasniqi has his sixth mandate as a Member of Parliament and was the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development (2014-2017) and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports (2011-2014). Upon the establishment of PDK’s Cabinet for Good Governance, Krasniqi was appointed to lead the Department of Youth, while in October 2006 he was elected the Chairman of the Democratic Youth of Kosovo – the youth organization of PDK that represents its members aged 16- 30. Moreover, Memli Krasniqi was the Deputy Leader of PDK and Head of PDK Caucus as well as Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo. He graduated with a BA in Political Science and Public Administration from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prishtina and obtained a MSc degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Krasniqi is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Albanian studies of the Institute of History, Albania.

Ambassador Soderberg serves as NDI’s Senior Resident Director for Kosovo. She joined NDI with three decades of experience promoting democracy in the U.S. Congress, the White House, at the United Nations, and leading non-profit organizations. She also has significant experience supporting U.S. presidential campaigns, working in state and local politics, and running for elected office. She is an expert in conflict resolution, peacekeeping, and advancing the role of women in democracy. Ambassador Soderberg was appointed in 1995 as the first woman Deputy National Security Advisor and later in 1997 as the Alternate Representative for the United States to the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador. From 2011 – 2014, she served as Chair of the Public Interest Declassification Board. She has also served as President of Connect U.S. Fund, a foundation initiative to promote U.S. engagement in national security challenges, and as Vice President of the International Crisis Group, a global conflict-prevention organization. Ambassador Soderberg serves as Vice-Chair of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She ran Congress for Florida’s 6th Congressional District in 2018. She also teaches at the University of North Florida. Soderberg earned her Masters of Science in Development Economics from Georgetown’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program and her Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University. She is a regular commentator on national and international television and radio as well as the author of several books and numerous articles on American foreign policy. She speaks English and French.

Rachel Weston Eschenbacher is the Regional Policy Specialist on Political Participation and Governance for the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office. She holds over a decade of experience in political participation and governance and has worked in many European and Central Asia region countries and beyond. Prior to joining UN Women she worked as an independent consultant, as the Election Analyst for NDI Ukraine, and as the Program Manager for the women’s political participation program at NDI Jordan. She previously served three terms as an elected member of the Vermont House of Representatives, serving on the Tax Committee, the Energy & Environment Committee, and as a member of the Women’s Caucus. She is a United States national, and speaks functional Turkish in addition to her native English. She holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Vermont. She is currently completing a Master of Law in Constitutional and Human Rights Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ramush Haradinaj is the Leader of Aleanca per Ardhmerine e Kosoves and a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). From 2004 to 2005 he was the Prime Minister of Kosovo and from 2017, he was re-elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo and served until February 2020. After the war with the transformation of the Kosovo Liberation Army into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) he was appointed Deputy Commander of the KPC. In April 2000, he left military life and founded the Aleanca per Ardhmerine e Kosoves (AAK) party, of which he is still the leader. On December 3, 2004, he was elected Prime Minister of Kosovo by a majority vote. On March 8, 2005, the war crimes tribunal in the former Yugoslavia issued an indictment for war crimes against him, and as a result Haradinaj resigned as Prime Minister of Kosovo the same day in order to face the indictment filed by the tribunal. He voluntarily went to the Hague Tribunal the next day, where he was imprisoned upon arrival. After several months in custody he was temporarily released until the start of his trial. Haradinaj lived for several years outside Kosovo, mainly in Switzerland, where he also learned French and English. Haradinaj emigrated to Switzerland, where he lived and worked for 8 years. In Switzerland, he joined patriotic movements, from which the KLA originated.