Elena is an intern at The Hague Academy for Local Governance. She supports training programmes on rule of law, urban governance and fiscal decentralisation. She is French and Bulgarian and grew up in Paris and Shanghai. Elena completed a Bachelor of Science at Leiden University College in the Hague, where she majored in Governance, Economics and Development. She also attended the International University of Tokyo for six months for a minor in International Relations. Before joining the Hague Academy, Elena did a six month internship at the Global Center on Adaptation, an organisation focused on pushing climate adaptation on the international agenda.