Our Team
Every day, the United by Love team works to advance human rights and create more peaceful communities.
Brendan Schultz
President and Executive Director
Brendan Schultz is a second-year undergraduate student at Pitzer College, a liberal arts college in the Los Angeles area. At Pitzer, Brendan studies Politics, Philosophy, and Sociology. In 2016 and 2017, Brendan studied in Macedonia on a Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program scholarship, a U.S. State Department-sponsored high school student exchange program implemented after 9/11 to help maintain diplomatic relationships with predominantly Islamic countries. Brendan leads United by Love as the organization’s President and Executive Director. In his free time, Brendan enjoys traveling, meeting people from different cultures, and exploring the outdoors.
Hristijan Zafirovski
Southeastern Europe Region Director and Board Member
Hristijan Zafirovski is a twenty-year-old, second-year student at the Faculty of Law Iustinianus Primus in Skopje. He gained significant debate experience through six Model European Parliament sessions, including the forty-fourth international session, where he was a representative on the Macedonian National Delegation. In the past, Hristijan has been involved with various initiatives in his local community, trying to improve the quality of life of discriminated and marginalized individuals in Ohrid, Macedonia. He now serves as the Executive Director of South Eastern Europe for United by Love. Hristijan enjoys reading, swimming, hiking, and socializing with friends during his time off.
Maxwell Myers
Board Member and Secretary
Maxwell is a cadet at The United States Military Academy in West Point, New York where he is studying for a B.S. in Sociology with an Applied Statistics minor. At an early age, he began to foster a passion for cultures, diplomacy, and politics which led him to apply for YES Abroad, a Department of State exchange program. After his time in Macedonia on YES Abroad, he began attending West Point where, upon graduation, he will commission as an officer in the U.S. Army. Maxwell hopes to take the experiences he gains into a career of public service after the military and possibly teach in a university as well. Maxwell enjoys running, hiking, and climbing in his limited free time.
Bela Gligorova
Board Member
Bela is a teacher and translator, residing in two cities, Belgrade and Skopje. While on a Fulbright Scholarship Student Grant, she began her graduate studies, at the University of Kansas, College of Arts and Sciences, the American Studies Graduate Program in the US. Her focus, then, and later on at the University of Leeds (UK)’s School of English post-graduate program, at the School of English (American Literature and Theatre Studies), has been fueled by two key questions plaguing the fields of performance theory and American Studies, respectively: the workings of memory in layered textuality and the incorporation of auto/ethno/biographical elements in critical pedagogy. A sample of this enquiry was published, in 2009, as part of the Life Writing: the Spirit of the Age and the State of Art, eds. Meg Jensen and June Jordan (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Currently, she is working on staging her second play.
Isaiah Kramer
Board Member
Isaiah Kramer is a second-year student at Pitzer College. At Pitzer, Isaiah studies economics and environmental policy, with a concentrated interest in energy and water management. In 2014 and 2015, Isaiah worked on sustainable human development projects in the Dominican Republic, focusing on education, community, and access to necessities. At United by Love, Isaiah looks to expand peacebuilding programs to Middle East conflict regions.
Sumesh Shiwakoty
Southern Asia Region Director and Board Member
Born in Bardiya, Nepal and raised witnessing the civil war of his country, Sumesh Shiwakoty founded a non-profit in Nepal named Grassroots Movement for Justice (GMJ), with a founding vision of assisting and achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the country. Sumesh Shiwakoty studied International Relations at Pitzer College on a full scholarship. He regularly contributes op-ed articles on international affairs and foreign policy issues. His work has appeared in many prominent publications, including The Diplomat, The Asia News Network, and The Kathmandu Post. Some of his additional interests include writing poems and lyrics, some of which are recorded in the voice of popular Nepali singers.