Koleva, Neli Ph.D.

Dr. Neli Koleva has 10 years of experience in social entrepreneurship. In 2011, she became a part of the founding team of Teach for Bulgaria, an NGO working towards modernizing Bulgarian education and ensuring that every child in Bulgaria has access to the quality education they deserve. She currently serves as the Chief Officer of Public Partnerships and a member of the Senior Leadership Team, responsible for overseeing public partner engagement at the organization. She also serves as the Teach for All networ’s liaison and project manager for key projects in policy innovation in the field of education with the European Commission. Dr. Koleva has been leading workshops and events for social entrepreneurs in education in the US, New Zealand, Australia, Peru, India and across the EU since 2015.

Prior to joining Teach for Bulgaria, Dr. Koleva split her time between the US and France for 12 years, studying and teaching at Sorbonne III in Paris, Rice University in Houston, TX and Universite de Haute Bretagne in Rennes, France. She holds a BA in American literature from Middlebury College, VT, USA (2003) and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rice University, Houston, TX, USA (2011).