Ioana is a Communication and External Affairs Expert with 7+ years of experience in international development. Ioana works at the World Bank where she leads the communication activities for the Urban Development portfolio in Romania under the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice. Previously, she has worked on projects across almost all sectors of development, including Social Protection and Jobs, and Competitiveness & Innovation in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Croatia, and Slovakia. Her favorite tasks at work include citizen engagement-oriented activities meant to increase administrative capacity and equip institutions, cities, and regions with proper tools and knowledge in order to better respond to the citizens’ needs, as well as knowledge dissemination via data visualization, communication campaigns and online tools.

She is passionate about technology and how can IT tools be harnessed to increase the efficiency of governance, accountability of civil servants, and quality of public services and bring people together by closing the poverty gap. Since 2018, she leads the communication activities for Bucharest.ai, the first artificial intelligence community in Romania, part of the global initiative, City.ai. Ioana is also a Global Shaper within the Bucharest Hub, part of a World Economic Forum initiative.

Ioana has a BSc in International Business and Economics and an MSc in International Relations.