Sociologist and political scientist, has been heading the CISR e.V. since its creation as the CEO of the organization. She is involved in the development and realization of numerous projects. Elena specializes in the organizational structure of NGOs and is a coach and trainer in the area of team development, social startups, analysis, and consultation of internal organizational processes as well as presentation and moderating skills. Elena studied sociology at the St. Petersburg State University for Marine Technology and finished her doctorate in political science at the University of Mannheim, regarding „Conscription and Citizenship Crises within Russia: Strategies of drafting and of refusal". Up until March 2017, she was the project manager for various projects and programs at the DRA e.V. Her first sociological experiences were gathered at the Centre for Independent Social Research in St. Petersburg.

Anastasia Puschkarewa has been implementing various non-formal educational, cultural and exchange projects between Eastern Europe and Germany/Western Europe since 2007. Since 2019, she has been working for CISR e.V. and coordinating civil society projects to support, train and network urban initiatives, activists, artists and media makers, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, the EU Erasmus+ programme, the European Solidarity Corps, the EVZ Foundation, etc. She studied German language and literature at the Pedagogical University in Omsk, Russia. As part of her interdisciplinary Master's degree in East-West-Studies at the University of Regensburg, she explored questions of European integration, intercultural relations as well as political cultures and civil societies in Central, (South)Eastern and Western Europe.

Oleg Pachenkov is a sociologist and urbanist, specialist in the fields of sociology and anthropology of the city. He received his Doctor degree (Candidate of Science in sociology) at sociology department of St.-Petersburg State University in 2009. Now he is a projects leader of the Center UP (Urbanism & Participation) and director of the CO-URBANISM educational program at the European University at St. Petersburg. In 2005 he received a Bundeschancellor scholarship by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is a participant and coordinator of more than 50 academic and applied research projects, author of over 40 publications in Russian and English. In addition to conducting academic and applied research, he acts as an advisor on urban development and urban processes to businesses and civic initiatives. Since 2016 he has been working as an expert at CISR e.V. in Berlin in the projects of horizontal education and training for the civil society in post-socialist countries.

Lilia Voronkova is a social anthropologist, and a curator. She has been working in the Center for Independent Social Research (CISR, St.-Petersburg, Russia) since 2003 as a researcher, and since 2011 as a producer of art-social science projects (leading projects and curating exhibitions). In 2010 she received a Bundeschancellor scholarship by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and in 2018 became a CEC ArtsLink Arts Leadership Fellow for Contemporary Art curators (in New York, USA). She is a participant and coordinator of more than 20 academic and applied research projects and of 30 interdisciplinary and artistic projects. Now she works in interdisciplinary projects on urban art and urban research, organizes and manages non-formal educational and exchange programs for urban activists and artists. Since 2016 she has been working as an expert at CISR e.V. Berlin.

Sevil Huseynova studied law at the State University of Baku. She has been active in diverse sociological projects in the post-Soviet space, as well as in Germany, since 2007. 2007-2010 representative of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation in Azerbaijan. Ph.D. in the area of Ethnology at the Humboldt University to Berlin. She is the author of over 50 scientific publications. She has been a member of the CISR e.V. since 2015 and manages numerous projects for the organization. Her scientific interests are urban anthropology, conflicts, and migration.

Sergey Rumyantsev studied sociology at Baku State University. From 2003 to 2014, he was a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology, and Law at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. From 2010 to 2012, he was a postdoctoral fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Institute of European Ethnology at Humboldt University of Berlin. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation (Washington/Tbilisi). From 2014 to 2015, he was a guest professor at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (Braunschweig). His academic interests focus on conflicts, nationalism, historical and memory politics, urban anthropology, migration, and diasporas. He is the author of more than 50 academic publications. As a journalist and editor, he collaborates with various media platforms and analytical publishers. Since 2015, he has been a permanent editor of caucasusedition.net. Since 2015, he has also been a board member of CISR e.V. Berlin and the head of the “Mass Media and Conflict Transformation” project.

Born and raised in the North Ural in a Russia Germans family. Artist, curator, contemporary art researcher. Studied philology at South Ural State University and theatre arts at Chelyabinsk Academy of Culture and Art. Attended a course at the Institute of Contemporary Art Baza in Moscow. Founder and curator of the educational platform Kultzavod at the OkNo Contemporary Art Gallery in Chelyabinsk. Author of a course of lectures on twentieth-century art. One of the first residents of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Studios. Participant in exhibitions in Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, New York. Research and art interests: performative practices, gender and queer studies, intercultural communication, Russia Germans in Russia and abroad.

Lev Vladov is a founder of the open independent social association „Cheljabinskii Urbanist" and a well-known Russian urban blogger and activist. His area of interest lies in studying the mutual influence of urban planning and civil society, focusing on finding the most successful practices for improving the well-being of urban populations within the framework of sustainable construction technologies and environmental care.

Oleg Lutohin directed the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Museum at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in Yekaterinburg. Since 2016, he has developed a program of public activities for the Center as the head of the educational department. Since November 2022, with a scholarship from the international exchange programme Memory Work funded by the 'Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung', he interviewed museum professionals to understand how emotions convey nostalgia for the communist past in museum exhibitions in Russia and Germany. He continues his work as an independent researcher and museum administrator, focusing on the intersection of media, memory, and civic activism in post-socialist societies.