Sandra Pralong advises the UN in Romania on gender and civil society. Previously, Sandra served as advisor to the President of Romania. She returned to Romania in 1990 from Newsweek in New York in order to set up and to manage the Soros Foundation for an Open Society. In 2010, Sandra published an award-winning collective volume entitled “De ce m-am intors in Romania” (Why I returned to Romania), where 39 returnees encourage Romanian people to reconsider the merits of their country. Ms Pralong holds a PhD from the ‘Institute of Political Sciences’ in Paris, a Master of Philosophy from Columbia University in New York, a Master in International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Tufts University in Boston and the equivalent of an MBA from ‘HEC School’ of University of Lausanne, Switzerland.