Justyna Maciaszek, PhD

Doctor of social science and assistant professor at the Branch Faculty of Law and Science of Society of the Catholic University of Lublin in Stalowa Wola. She is also the Deputy Head for Inhabitants Matters at the John Paul II Social Assistance Center “BARKA” in Janów Lubelski.

Research interests: social work with individuals suffering from mental disorders, rights of individuals with mental disorders, mental and social functioning of individuals with mental disorders, community psychiatry, ethical dilemmas in social work, functioning of total institutions, family violence (mainly towards people with disabilities), violence in care centers.

Wioletta Jóźwiak-Majchrzak, MA

I am a social pedagogue and a social worker. I graduated from the University of Łódź and pursued my education in national and international university centers. I am fascinated by the process of accompanying the other man in the recovery process, working on his/her change and boosting his/her forces in order to change his/her living environment. My professional space is dominated by topics of single motherhood and various forms of foster care. To define in one word my field of work, which actually combines these two areas of interest, I would say this is about “empowerment”.

For 7 years I have been working for the Single Mother House as a social worker. I acquired my professional experience as a counsellor of pregnant women, under the umbrella of the Motherhood Protection Fund in Łódź. I cooperated with several NGOs involved in such areas of action as homelessness, single motherhood, disability or autonomy issues among children in foster care. I coordinated social assistance projects in these fields.

 
When assisting the other man in the process of gaining or regaining his/her strengths, I am driven by the vision of a shared journey which I described in my Social Worker Diary. The vision reads as follows:

Assistance in overcoming a difficult situation is first about going one step ahead of the helped one to show him/her direction. Next, it is about going together with him/her to remind him/her of his/her objectives. Then, it’s about following him/her one step behind, remaining silent, and speaking up only to protect him/her from stumbling. Finally, it’s about becoming invisible and letting the helped one walk by himself/herself, with self-confidence and skills acquired along the way and packed into his/her rucksack.

Privately I am the wife of Łukasz and the mother of Lenka and Marysia.

Teresa Stankiewicz, PhD

Doctor of humanities, she received her PhD degree in philosophy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University where she also studied theology and bioethics. Since 2009 she has been working for the Warsaw Family Alliance Institute of Higher Education where she teaches philosophy, logics and ethics and where she holds the position of the dean of the Social Sciences Department and of the deputy president of the Institute. Her research interests include philosophical anthropology, philosophy of education, philosophy of Africa and bioethics. She is the member of the Editing Council of the Scientific Journals published by the Institute, and namely of their pedagogical series focused on philosophy of education. Between 2009 and 2013, on behalf of the Institute, she coordinated the project co-financed from the European Social Fund, as a part of the “Human Capital” Operational Program. The project, under the name “From a small school to the big world”, concerned the development of pupils’ skills in key competences, and in particular in mathematics and in natural sciences. Her most recent publications discussed the issues from the field of education and upbringing. Privately she is the wife and mother of three.

Wojciech Kowalski, MD

Graduate of the 4th Stanisław Staszic Secondary School in Sosnowiec and of the Medical Department of the University of Medicine of Silesia. Medical doctor at the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Unit of the 7th Independent Public Clinical Hospital of the Upper Silesia Medical Center in Katowice-Ochojec. Participant of the conferences of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Nervenheilkunde in Berlin, in 2014- 2015. He teaches English-speaking and Polish-speaking students at the University of Medicine of Silesia.

Marcin Olszówka, PhD

Doctor of law, assistant professor at the Chair of Constitutional Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, Lazarski University in Warsaw. He is the coordinator of the Team for Legislative Analyses at Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw. In November 2016, at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw, he defended cum laude his PhD dissertation on “The influence of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997 on the system of sources of denominational law”. Between 2010-2014 he worked as an assistant at the Department of Constitutional Law and European Studies of the Institute of Legal Science at the Polish Academy of Science. He has authored several dozens of scientific papers, mainly from the field of constitutional law and denominational law.

Jennifer Castañeda, MD, PhD

She specializes in clinical genetics and works at the Department of Medical Genetics of the Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw. She graduated from Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, and next wrote her PhD thesis in hemato oncogenetics at the Pomeranian University of Medicine in Szczecin. She followed a specialized training in clinical genetics at the Institute of Mother and Child and graduated from the post-master studies on “Ethics and medical practice in perinatology and pediatrics” organized by the Institute of Mother and Child and Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée. Her post-master thesis discussed “The ethical requirement of a-directedness of genetic counselling in prenatal diagnostics”. Upon the presentation of the paper which focused on the notions of pediatric bioethics in the context of the fetus as a patient in prenatal diagnostics she was awarded the Pediatric Bioethics Certificate by the Children’s Mercy Center for Bioethics (Kansas, USA). She is the member of the Scientific Council of Ordo Iuris Bioethics Center. 

Marek Kawa, PhD

Doctor of humanities, philologist, anthropologists and specialist of American Studies. He cooperated, among all, with the University of Opole, the Polonia University in Częstochowa and Legnica University of Management. At present, he is a lecturer at Janusz Korczak Pedagogical University in Warsaw. He served as MP of the Fifth Term Sejm, and since 2014 he is the deputy chair of Opole Municipality Council. He has been involved for years in setting up windows of life in his home town - Opole. Community activist and member of local government.

Author and columnist. His papers were published, among all, in Polish News (Chicago), First Things, Mysl.pl quarterly, Cywilizacja journal and Kwartalnik Opolski quarterly.

Iwona Wrześniewska-Wal

Medical doctor and doctor of laws

At present she works as the Head of the Department of Economics, Law and Management of the Public Health School, at the Post-Master Medical Training Center. She gives lectures and provides trainings for medical doctors. In the field of the healthcare legislation she cooperates with the University of Warsaw and with the Warsaw School of Economics. In 2013, she received the official title of legal counsel. She specializes in civil and administrative law in the field of healthcare and health insurance, and in food law. She has authored a number of scientific papers and reports on medical law.

Tymoteusz Zych, PhD 

Member of the Board and Head of the Team for Legislative Analyses at Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. He received his MA and PhD degrees at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw. He is also the graduate of Inter-University Individual Studies in Humanities (Artes Liberales Academy) where he studied social and political sciences, at the University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. His PhD dissertation was awarded with the prize in the best monography competition organized by the Foundation for Polish Science. He has authored a number of expertise reports for public authorities and of scientific papers. At present, he is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

Katarzyna Jankowska, MD, PhD

• specialist in internal medicine
• specialist in endocrinology
• specialist in clinical andrology

She works at the Endocrinology Clinic of the Post-Diploma Medical Training Center in Bielański Hospital in Warsaw.

She deals with infertility diagnosis and treatment. Recently, she has been involved in clinical research on andrology.

Professor Marian Gabryś, MD, PhD

Specialist in gynecology, obstetrics and gynecologic oncology, also dealing with ethics and sociology of procreation, gynecological surgery and modern obstetrics in the form of intensive obstetrics care in severe pregnancy complications.

Graduate of the Medical University in Wrocław, he received his MD diploma in 1973. After his studies and internship he worked in district hospitals in Świebodzice and in Wałbrzych where he received the first-degree specialty in anesthetics at the Anesthetics and Intensive Care Unit. In 1980 he became a senior assistant, and in 1987 an assistant professor at the 2nd Chair of Obstetrics of the Medical University in Wrocław. He gained his specialty in gynecology and obstetrics in 1981. His PhD and post-doctoral theses discussed the topic of the intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). Since 2000 he worked as an associate professor, first at the 1st Chair of Gynecology and Obstetrics, next at the 2nd Chair of Gynecology and Obstetrics, to become the head of this unit between 2001 and 2006. Since November 2006 he worked as the associate professor at the 1st Chair of Gynecology and Obstetrics. In 2008 he was awarded with the official title of professor, and next year received the specialty in  gynecologic oncology. Since 2001 he has been working on the position of full professor. He is the member of the Scientific Council of the Life and Fertility Foundation and of the Woman and Nature Foundation. Happily married for 40 years, father of two, grandfather of six.