Shqipe Neziri Vela is the co-founder of Kosovo Women in Energy and Mining, an organization that works to increase women’s participation in decision-making at all levels of the energy and mining sector. Previously, Vela has worked as a Programme Assistant with USAID, Consultant with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Consultant with the OSCE, Coordinator at the World Bank, Research Fellow at the U.S. House of Representatives, Project Manager with the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Project Manager at UNDP, Monitoring and Evaluation Expert at UNICEF, and Chairperson of the Board at the Association of Women in the Energy Sector in Kosovo. In addition to Shqipe’s work with Kosovo Women in Energy and Mining, she serves as a Country Representative for the Erasmus Mundus Association, Program Specialist in Energy with the U.S. Department of State, and is a lecturer of energy policy studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology.