Board 2025-2029
President
Dr. Marko Ivanišin
Dr. Marko Ivanišin is an experienced project manager who has worked at universities for 15 years, in industry for 8 years and since the early 2020s he is taking leading positions in the NGO sector. He obtained his PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Vienna in 2005. Until 2016 he researched and taught at the Institute of Media Communication at the University of Maribor, Slovenia. In 2017, he founded EdUman – Educational Management that designed, conducted, and organized courses first in media literacy and later in programming, robotics, and 3D production for children. In 2022, he changed the scope of work to projects in education. He has gained 20 years of experience in project management in application, leadership, coordination, and participation as a partner in national and European projects. Since 2019 he has been a member of the supervisory board of the Red Cross Maribor and since 2025 its president.
For one year (2023 – 2024) he was the president of the Society for Education, Information and Media “Johan Amos Comenius” in Berlin, Germany, in which he was a member of the executive board for 6 years and a member for 20 years.
In 2025 he became a member and the president of the Society for Consulting in Projects in Education, Culture and Related Fields “Project Poetry” in Maribor, Slovenia, and the president of the Society for Education and Communication (ESEC) in Vienna, Austria, in which he has been a member since its beginning.
2024 – 2026 he is fully employed in a 3-year national project on educating youth on working conditions and terms by the Travelling Association of Slovenia in Maribor.
Contact: marko.ivanisin@esec.wien
Deputy President
Dr. Tilia Stingl de Vasconcelos Guedes
Dr. Tilia Stingl de Vasconcelos Guedes is an academic expert, lecturer and project leader at FHWien der WKW with a focus on management, digital innovation and communication. She has a solid background in systemic organizational development and organizational communication. In her career, she co-founded a high-tech start-up and led funded projects as well as workshops and seminars on organizational development in Europe and Brazil.
Tilia Stingl studied computer science with business applications at the Vienna University of Technology (TU-Wien), completed the university course for magazine journalism in cooperation with “profil” and “trend” at the University of Vienna and obtained her doctorate in communication science on the subject of knowledge management. Today, her research interests lie in the areas of systems theory, sustainable management, organizational communication and digital innovation. Her scientific publications testify to a profound understanding of the complexity of sustainable change.
Contact: tilia.stingl@esec.wien
Secretary
Cornelia Funovich
Cornelia Funovich is an entrepreneur, speaker, and strategic consultant specializing in AI-driven education and digital transformation. With a professional background in Business Informatics, she bridges the gap between technology and pedagogy through hands-on expertise and a deep understanding of learning systems.
She has over ten years of experience as a trainer in adult education and more than six years of specialization in gamification and microlearning for digital knowledge transfer. Her career includes key roles in international education projects across Europe, where she has led the development and implementation of scalable e-learning solutions in diverse, multilingual contexts.
Cornelia focuses on the strategic design and technical realization of digital and hybrid education products. She advises companies and institutions on the responsible and effective use of artificial intelligence in learning and organizational development. As the founder of KIQ, she is building a strong brand for practical, human-centered AI in education. In addition, she is engaged in entrepreneurship in the UK and regularly appears as a guest speaker and lecturer on AI-related topics. She also collaborates with leading educational institutions on forward-thinking training programs.
Contact: cornelia.funovich@esec.wien
Treasurer
Mag. Michael-Bernhard Zita, Bakk.
Michael-Bernhard Zita is a doctoral researcher in the area intersecting digital infrastructure, media institutions providing services for the common good (PSM and community media) and educational programmes, especially those that include media literacy. His guiding research question is how to connect these structures in a societal process for a sustainable outcome. Ideally, this will be established as a ‘European digital public sphere’ as an alternative to structures that promote data capitalism or state control of data and citizens.
He studied communication science at the University of Vienna, where he was also involved in organising courses and lectures. In addition to research, he works in the field of project management of EU projects and the promotion of media education and the European idea in Austria. He has been following the activities related to developing a European digital public sphere as a member of projects, organisations and networks for the last six years.
In his full-time job, he works as Research, Projects & Network Manager for the Council for European Public Space, a think- & do-tank dedicated to the establishment of a European public sphere based on shared digital infrastructure. In this position, he is also listed in the Transparency Register of the European Union for his advocacy activities. In addition, he has been involved in the International Association of Public Media Researchers (IAPMR) since 2021 and is also part of the board team there.
Contact: michael.zita@esec.wien
Board 2021-2024
President
Prof. Dr. Thomas A. Bauer
Dr. phil, Dr. h.c Thomas A. BAUER is professor emeritus at the Institute of Communication at the University of Vienna. Over the years he developed a research and teaching program in the fields of media cultural studies, media literacy research, media theory, media philosophy, and media epistemology. Other research and teaching areas include film studies, futurology, cultural studies, environmental communication, health communication, transcultural dialogue of religions, migration, minorities, and social change issues.
In addition to theoretical work, he is committed to a critical-reflexive interrelationship between theoretical analysis and innovative media practice, which led, among other things, to the co-founding of OKTO Community TV Vienna.
Among other things, he is president of ESEC (European Society for Education and Communication), which organizes the European Media Award (Erasmus Media Award) for outstanding educational media, which has been awarded annually in Vienna and Berlin since 2006.
His academic work has always been international in scope, and he has established academic collaborations with universities in the EU, Asia, Latin America, the USA, China, Turkey, and the Balkan countries.
He worked as the scientific coordinator of the Eramus+ CBHE project MEDLIT with academic partner universities from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Germany. He also has experience as coordinator and partner of various European projects under GRUNDTVIG; LEONARDO; ERASMUS and ERASMUS+ programs, especially in the field of media, communication, media literacy, and media change.
Vice-President
Dr. Bernd H. Mikuszeit
Dr. Bernd H. Mikuszeit studied sports science and mathematics at the Technical University Karl-Marx-Stadt and the Pedagogical University Potsdam. Diploma in education, teaching degree in physical education, and mathematics for upper secondary schools. Several years of teaching experience at secondary schools in the district of Bad Freienwalde. Aspirantur and 1981 doctorate in general education, media in the classroom, at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in Berlin.
From 1971 to 1990, Dr. Mikuszeit was a research associate at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in Berlin for research and development work on teaching media for physical education and mathematics. He coordinated research on media in sports in cooperation with the sports science sections of colleges and universities.
Since 1991, Dr. Mikuszeit has been managing director of the Institute for Education and Media of the Society for Education, Information and Media e.V. and project manager and project coordinator for German and European media projects. Dr. Mikuszeit is vice chairman of the Gesellschaft für Bildung, Information und Medien e.V. (Society for Education, Information and Media).
Dr. Mikuszeit’s work focuses on media didactics, media documentation, evaluation of media and media projects. Numerous publications on educational media for physical education, media for contemporary history, ethical and digital education, and media didactics.
VIce-President
Dr. Marlies Bitter
Dr. Marlies Bitter, graduated in Contemporary History (MA, Nijmegen) and holds a PhD in Educational Technology on knowledge Support for Virtual teamwork. She worked in secondary education as a teacher trainer and held a research position as Assistant Professor at the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) concurrently realizing Edumedia applications. Her R&D interest focuses on Media & AI literacy, education for sustainable development (ESD), open education (OER) business modelling, co-creativity and, self-organized professional learning.
Her endeavor to find new methods and applications that meet the learning needs of adults led to the foundation of the company “Bitviser” (2018), where she currently works as an independent researcher and developer and consultant, and participates in various EU Projekts Digimedia (2019-2022), CRAIQ-EUmedia 2022- 2023 und „NachQualiMedia“ 2023-2025. She was a board member of ESEC, Vienna (European Society for Education and Communication) and is a member of GPI (Gesellschaft für Pädagogik, Information und Medien e.V.Berlin).