Members of the 2025 jury

Ulli Mayer
Head of Administrative Department Equity, Gender and Diversity, Jury Chair

Therese Kaufmann
Head of Research Support Office

Christine Lang
Institut für Film und Fernsehen - Filmakademie Wien

Constantin Luger
hmdw

Rosa Reitsamer
Head of the Institute for Music Sociology

Trainers and lecturers 2025/26

Dr. Denise Bergold-Caldwell is currently a visiting professor of education with a focus on gender studies at the University of Flensburg. She is employed at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Innsbruck (CGI) at the University of Innsbruck. Her research focuses on theories of care, education and subjectification in the context of educational science issues, expanded to include Black feminist theory and critical post- and decolonial theories. Current publication: Die Kolonialität der Bildung. Formation und Konstitution eines Macht- und Herrschaftsverhältnisses In: Akbaba, Yaliz; Heinemann, Alisha M. B.  (Hrsg.) (2023) Erziehungswissenschaften dekolonisieren. Theoretische Debatten und praxisorientierte Impulse. Beltz Juventa, S. 93 – 110

Aliette Dörflinger studied international business administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and spent several periods studying abroad in France, Belgium, and Spain while completing her degree. From 2004 to 2016, she worked for KMU Forschung Austria/Austrian Institute for SME Research, where she conducted numerous studies and evaluations concerning cultural and the creative industries, innovation, and new forms of entrepreneurship. As a trained facilitator, coach, and dance and movement pedagogue, she has been working with participative, co-creative and dialogue-oriented approaches in small and large group settings since 2013 independently, and she is a co-founder of the organisation Wiener Salon für Wandel. Since 2016, she has been an external lecturer on cultural management at the university of applied sciences FH Kufstein. 2017/18 saw her work for the Arts Department of the organisation Red Noses Clowndoctors in the area of organisational and artistic development. And since 2018, she has been a programme manager for the development of a new programme for transdisciplinary research.

Dr Lisa Horvath, psychologist, university and organisational consultant; 10 years of international research on gender equality issues; coach for university executives and staff, lecturer, trainer in and designer of university career programmes for female academics; member of GenderWerkstätte, GMEI (Gender Mainstreaming Experts International) and hochschulberatung.at.

Mag.a Ute Riedler is a communication trainer and coach, former university councillor (KUG Graz) and lecturer.
After many years as a radio and television journalist, Ute Riedler now specialises in strategic consulting for scientists. Her work ranges from career planning, presentation training, negotiation skills training, job application and appointment training to science-specific public relations and management training. 
Key areas: Strategic career planning, application and appointment procedures, management training, negotiation skills and presentation techniques, work-life balance and time management in academia. www.uteriedler.at 

Michaela Rosen is an actor, and she has also taught for many years at leading universities in the USA (Harvard), Germany, Austria (mdw – Max Reinhardt Seminar), and Australia (VCA) alongside her artistic activities. Since March 2016, Michaela Rosen has been an instructor for “Communicative Competence , Status Games, and Empathy” at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Her coaching focuses include communicative competency, personality development, and leadership; “artful making” – processes of change (personal and organisational); and status games and empathy. She has been training and coaching leaders (above all in the arts and culture field) since 2002, and she is a passionate supporter of female executives. She provides support in preparing hearings, presentations, applications, etc. (for professorships, scholarly presentations, and leadership posts).

Carefully selected practical exercises and methods from the actual practice of theatre and film, along with the special effects that the performing arts have on human beings, significantly reinforce communicative competencies and key qualifications such as resilience, expressive power, empathy, and natural authority while also cultivating an understanding of effective leadership competencies. www.beyond-acting.at

Coaches 2025/26

Dr Lisa Horvath, psychologist, university and organisational consultant; 10 years of international research on gender equality issues; coach for university executives and staff, lecturer, trainer in and designer of university career programmes for female academics; member of GenderWerkstätte, GMEI (Gender Mainstreaming Experts International) and hochschulberatung.at.

Dr. Susanne Lummerding, is an Art and Media Studies Scholar, Certified Coach and Supervisor, (ÖAGG, ÖVS), Certified Organisational Consultant (SVZ Berlin) Susanne Lummerding provides academic coaching for faculty and (post-)graduates, management and boards as well as coaching for creative professionals. She supports her clients in making decisions and shaping changes, working on themes like teaching/research/supervision, transformational leadership, cooperation and team building, conflict and power dynamics, gender_diversity, anti-discrimination, communication and critique skills, shaping career paths, life-scopes-balance etc.

For more information see: www.lummerding.at

Mag.a Ute Riedler is a communication trainer and coach, former university councillor (KUG Graz) and lecturer.
After many years as a radio and television journalist, Ute Riedler now specialises in strategic consulting for scientists. Her work ranges from career planning, presentation training, negotiation skills training, job application and appointment training to science-specific public relations and management training. 
Key areas: Strategic career planning, application and appointment procedures, management training, negotiation skills and presentation techniques, work-life balance and time management in academia. www.uteriedler.at