Elena Archipovaite is an urban development and reconstruction practitioner with eighteen years of experience in humanitarian emergencies, stakeholder coordination, capacity building in formal and informal education and complex project management in crisis and stable development contexts. Elena is trained as an architect and urban planner. Since 2016, Elena has been part of the NRC/NORCAP standby expert roster, a global provider contributing to solving humanitarian, development and peacebuilding challenges.
Her last three years of deployments focused on Ukraine emergency housing coordination needs and green recovery and reconstruction efforts in positions: From 2022 to 2024, expert support was provided to the UNHCR Ukraine operation, first as the Interim Shelter Cluster coordinator and later as the Localisation and Liaison Officer, focusing on housing humanitarian assistance. From 2024 to 2025, expert support was provided to the NRC Program in Ukraine and neighbouring countries impacted by the Ukrainian crisis, as Green Recovery and Reconstruction Coordinator.
For the last fourteen years, her focus has shifted towards sustainable development, action research and live studio pedagogy, humanitarian emergency response and reconstruction in urban and rural settings. During her professional life, Elena has been deployed to the emergency missions, worked with local and national governments and has been teaching and conducting research in: Norway, Ukraine, Uganda, Kenya, Brazil, India, Lebanon, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, ROC, Angola, DRC, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Lithuania. In these contexts, she has focused on humanitarian assistance in emergency shelter and settlement planning, coordination and development of city strategies in emergencies, and development of national territorial strategic planning frameworks.
Elena has also worked for the Lithuanian government on a long-term vision for 2050 and a comprehensive territorial planning for 2030. She has experience leading and coordinating governmental, multifunctional, multidisciplinary technical expert teams and facilitating design and co-creation processes of affordable, incremental housing strategies. Elena has engaged in research projects based on the publicness of space in informal settlements and participatory planning approaches. In addition, she has experience mediating conflicts and stakeholders' engagement at various levels and stages of urban development projects, conducting capacity building training for municipal staff and practising engineers and architects.
Elena has taught multiple courses, including fieldwork preparatory courses for urban planning, medicine, engineering, and architecture students. She has mentored live studios in India, the Philippines, Uganda, and Norway.
Elena holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture degree from Vilnius Tech University in Lithuania and an MSc in Urban Ecological Planning at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.
Change takes time and only happens when ownership of the causes behind inequality is shared and tackled by building unity around stakeholders who come together to address it.Elena Archipovaite