Alumni Perspectives 2026
Alumni Perspectives 2026

Get to Know the Speakers

 

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Anne Bach

Presentation from 15:50 -16:05 in Heerlenzaal

I work as a psychologist at the university clinic of Düsseldorf in Germany. My role is to provide psychological support to people with a terminal illness and their relatives. This means that I am visiting patients in the clinic, either on our palliative station or in other areas of the hospital, for example the intensive care units. My goal is to be there for people in difficult times and help eas the emotional pain that can include anxiety, anger and hopelessness. For the previous 5 years I has a similar job in the university clinic of Tübingen, where I also conducted research.

My background in psychology and cognitive neuroscience helped me to develop the basic psychological skills I need in my current job, as well as to conduct research at a university clinic. Specifically, the master's taught me how to develop study designs, collect data, analyze, and interpret. An understanding of brain function is helpful in working with people who have brain tumors or other neurological impairments due to disease. Studying psychology in general gave me the tools to work with and understand people who are in difficult situations.

In my free time I enjoy being with my partner, friends, and family. I love being outside on a sunny day, no matter if it is warm or cold. My job shows me every day how important it is to live in the moment, so that's what I am trying to do.

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Vita Bogdanic

Presentation from 16:10 - 16:25 in Akenzaal

Master's Degree: International Joint Master of Research in Work and Organizational Psychology (studied in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain).

Current job: Psychologist in the European Commission (Brussels)

I have a background in organizational psychology and research, and I currently work in the public sector for the European Commission - the EU's main body responsible for policy and lawmaking. My work is dynamic and stimulating, allowing me to engage with diverse people, apply research and psychology in practical ways, and contribute to meaningful policy-making at the heart of Europe.

Previous positions: Strategic Workforce Planning in the European Commission (2022-2025 Brussels), Consultant for Talent Acquisition at Merck Sharp & Dohme (2022, remote), intern in HR at TxGroup (2019, UK)

Balancing Two Careers: During the week, I work in the EU institution and on weekends, I am specializing to become a psychotherapist. I have training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches. I'm passionate about mental health, delivering training and helping individuals navigate personal challenges.

What to expect? I'll share with you my journey - the ups, the challenges, and the lessons learned along the way. I'll also share practical tips to help you navigate your own career with confidence and purpose.:)

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Yara Bouckaert 

Yara completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Emmanuel University in Georgia, USA. Inspired by her courses, particularly the focus on practical and research skills, Yara became intrigued by the study of human behavior in the workplace. Driven by this interest and her desire to study abroad, she applied to the International Joint Master of Research in Work and Organizational Psychology program from Maastricht University, Leuphana University Lüneburg, and the University of Valencia.

After graduating, Yara started working as PhD researcher in Work and Organizational Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel where she researches the interpersonal dynamics of trust-building in leader-follower relationsships. By uncovering the specific behavioral patterns that foster or restore trust, her work aims to help practitioners integrate trust-building as a care leadership competency.

To gain practical experience, Yara volunteers as a consultant for WOPOYO, an evidence-based HR nonprofit consultancy founded by fellow IJMRWOP students.

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Ministery of Defense

Presentation from 16:50 -17:05 in Akenzaal

 

Nicole Catena 
Ever thought of working as a selection psychologist at the Ministery of Defense? Nicole Catena, a medior advisor, will take you behind the scenes of the military examinations: from psychological evaluations and assessments to field exams. She will talk about her own work experience, as well as the requirements for new employees, the internal courses and future career options within the field. As a note: being fluent in Dutch is one of the requirements to apply for the position, but anyone is welcome to join the presentation!

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Daelzicht

Presentation from 17:10 -17:25 in Heerlenzaal

 

 

Guyenne van Kleef
Guyenne van Kleef works as a behavorial scientist at Daelzicht, with a focus on supporting elderly with an intellectual disabilities. Within Daelzicht, she is also a member of the Works Council, where she participates in several committes.

In addition, Guyenne serves as the treasurer of the Care for People with Intellectual Disabilities (ZMVB) section, part of the Netherlands Instituter of Psychologists (NIP). The ZMVB section focuses on the professional development and support of psychologist working with people with intellectual disabilities.

Guyenne obtained her Master's degree in Developmental Psychology from Maastricht University. She has further specialized in areas such as mentalization-based support (assessment of) dementia, and conducts evaluation interviews in cases of suspected sexual abuse.

Outside her professional work, Guyenne has been active for many years with Global Exploration, where she guides and trains young people on topics such as global citizenship, intercultural understanding and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Last year, she traveled with fellow supervisors and 16 young participants on their world citizenship internship to Kenya.

 

Christin Maass
Christin Maass is a licensed healthcare psychologist (GZ-psycholoog) working in disability care at Daelzicht.

In 2005, she moved from Germany to the Netherlands to pursue her studies. After completing her Master's degree in Developmental Psychology at Maastricht University. she specialized in working with people with mild intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior. During het post-master's training as a healthcare psychologist, she worked with a wide range of client groups, from young children with intellectual disabilities to young adults in youth mental health care who fall just outside the conventional paths (those with mild intellectual disabilities or high intellectual potential).

Driven by curiosity and compassion, she continuously seeks to connect behavior, context, and meaning. In her work, growth, resilience, and connection are central themes; she combines empathy and analytical insight with a systemic approach to achieve sustainable change together.

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Erik Kikas

Presentation from 16:30 -16:45 in Heerlenzaal

Erik was born and raised in Estonia before he made the decision to move to the Netherlands to pursue his BSc in Psychology and Neuroscience at UM. Following his graduation in 2019, he took a year off to work on a project that involved transitioning to Canvas. In 2021, Erik completed his MSc degree in Neuropsychology where he explored the use of Virtual Reality (VR) glasses in measuring pupil dilation as part of his research internship. This project sparked his interest in the collaboration of technology and psychology, which he continues to explore in his work and personal life.

Currently, Erik is working as as Student & Career Counsellor at the School of Business and Economics, which is a faculty of UM. He is passionate about helping student achieve their goals and engages in daily discussions on various topics, including motivation, study skills, time-management, (mental) illness, and personal circumstances. Erik is also involved in leading projects such as the development of an online platform for blended counselling.

Aside from his professional interests, Erik is an avid enthusiast of technology and loves being outdoors. He also enjoys building things, - two of his favorite projects have been building a camper van and an electronic longboard.

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Amber Khan

Presentation from 15:50 -16:05 in Akenzaal

Amber was born in Belgium, to a Belgian mother and a Pakistani father. She studied Psychology and Neuroscience at Maastricht University (B.Sc.). After that, she finished a Master in Health and Social Psychology at Maastricht University (2016) and a double Master in Public Policy and Human Development at United Nations University/Maastricht University. Due to her multicultural upbringing and unwavering interest in migration, she specialized in Migration Studies. In order to build a brig between Migration Studies and Psychology/Mental Health she started working as a research assistant with UNU-MERIT. After realising she wanten more practical experience, she started working as a manager in an NGO which supported migrants who voluntarily return to their country of origin. Now, she works as a senior international advisor for the Ministry of Justice and Security where she works as a liaison between the authorities of countries of origin and the Dutch government on return migration.

While at first glance it may seem like she ventured away from psychology, she still uses it a lot in her daily work.

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Sebastian Klein

Presentation from 16:50 -17:05 in Heerlenzaal

Sebastian is a PhD researcher at Ghent University in Belgium, specializing in entrepreneurial well-being. In his research he tracks both physiological and psychological markers of well-being and focuses on team dynamics, stress regulation and coping strategies in startups. He employs both computational & simulation methods and employs longitudinal modeling techniques to analyse well-being over time. Prior to his current position, he completed the Joint Master of Science in Research and Work and Organizational Psychology from Maastricht University, Universitat de Valencia and Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Maastricht University. This academic journey has prepared Sebastian well for his current position in research. The exposure to diverse academic environments, research methodologies, and international perspectives over the last years have provided him with a well-rounded academic skillset. Together with fellow alumni from his master's, they launched a consultancy to develop and apply evidence-based strategies for improving well-being and resilience in organizations. He has already been involved in two consultancy cases, experiences that proved invaluable and further validated his evidence-based approach in real-world settings. Outside of his work, Sebastian enjoys traveling, spending time with friends, hiking, and practicing photography.

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Ilona de Kooter

Presentation from 15:10 - 15:25 in Akenzaal

Ilona completed her bachelor degree in Liberal arts and sciences in 2014 at the University in Tilburg. In 2015 she obtained her first Master degree, Health and Social Psychology, at Maastricht University. This degree was followed up with a second master degree, Mental Health, which she obtained in 2017. After finishing this degree she started working as a psychologist in training at HSK. HSK is a mental health organization geared towards aiding people with mental health complaints such as depression, anxiety, compulsions, and trauma. In 2021, she completed a 2-year training to become a fully licensed CBT-therapist and in 2024 she completed the 2-year postgraduate to become a GZ-psychologist. As part of her training to become a GZ-psychologist she has worked at a different mental health care institute for a year. This institute is specialized in autism and comorbidity.

 

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Lea Krapp

Presentation from 17:30 -17:45 in Akenzaal

Lea has a passion for human behaviour in the dynamics of the workplace. Her journey began with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2018. Seeking to delve deeper into the intersection of psychology and organisational dynamics, she pursued a Master of Science in Work and Organisational Psychology at Maastricht University in 2022.

Lea embarked on a career path blending psychology and recruitment. Over the past 5 years, she has been dedicated to sourcing, engaging, and hiring top talent. leveraging her expertise to drive organisational success. Her strategic approach goes beyond simply filling roles but rather encompassing the development of comprehensive recruitment strategies and the integration of data-driven methodologies while also coaching candidates through their career processes, enabling them to excel in their next steps.

Currently, Lea works as a Talent Acquisition Partner at LinkedIn, based in Dublin. In this role, she is responsible for managing the hiring for the DACH region by selecting top-tier talent to drive growth and innovation.

Outside her professional life, Lea finds balance through her love for sports and shared adventures with her dog in Ireland.

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Eveline Persoon

Presentation from 15:30 - 15:45 in Akenzaal

Eveline Persoon works as a programme coordinator for professional development at EDLAB, Maastricht University's Centre for Teaching & Learning. In this position, Eveline organises activitis that help Maastricht University's teachers and educators develop their professional competencies further. Next to this, Eveline teaches a university course on developmental psychology. Getting to this position did not necessarily happen through the "conventional" route. After high school, Eveline decided to become a primary school teacher. After three years of doing internships in various primary schools and learning a lot about pedagogy and didactics, Eveline felt that there was more to explore within the field of the developing mind. Studying psychology and later developmental psychology felt like a logical next step and led her to become a child and adolescent psychologist. Building further on her studies, Eveline decided to do a clinical internship, during which she realised that her heart really lied with teaching. Her desire to combine all her interests - teaching developmental psychology while helping other teachers develop themselves professionally - brought Eveline to her current position at EDLAB. In her private life, Eveline loves spending time with her partner and their newborn son, cooking, baking, taking long walks and going to the movies.

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Ethan Rich

Presentation from 16:10 - 16:25 in Heerlenzaal

At the moment I'm a total tech bro: software, hardware, local or even cloud-based. Neuroscience requires custom solutions to unique use cases and since my master's in Maastricht I've built it all. I work for a very small company in the lead developing measurement and stimulation devices: EEG, tES, TMS, and much more. We get requests from all over the world from researchers who want to do challenging experiments. Naturally, the requested technology must be sufficiently complex and user-friendly. If you want to find out more, come talk to me.

I wasn't always building technology, though. I have a bachelor's in psychology and then I did the one-year master's in cognitive neuroscience in Maastricht. A truly excellent time, by the way. I found out in that year that I actually enjoy building research tools more than I like doing science. Programming was interesting to me, although it did not come easily. Nothing against my wonderful internship supervisors, Lars and Bettina! Thanks to them I picked up on some good habits and a relaxed attitude. Now I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful job doing what I love.

In my spare time I love to spend time with my wife (whose profile is also somewhere on this page) and I enjoy many hobbies.

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Paulien van Rymenant

Presentation from 17:10 -17:25 in Akenzaal

After completing the Master in Legal Psychology, I started my career as a business consultant and later moved into a role in User Experience and innovation. As a user researcher and digital strategist, I'm responsible for ensuring the usability of my clients' digital products, such as websites, apps and chatbots. I support them with psychological insights, user research, and workshops, helping them make customer-centric decisions for their digital products. 

In addition, I run my own company, Kartoffel, where I coach teams to collaborate more effectively and efficiently towards their shared goals.

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Jocelyn Tang

Presentation from 16:30 - 16:45 in Akenzaal

Jocelyn was born and raised in Malaysia where she obtained her Bachelor Sc (Hons) Psychology. She then pursued her master's education in Maastricht University under the Work and Organisational track, graduating in the class of 2016-2017. Passionate about people and data, she is currently in the Global Subject Matter Expert Manager within HR Reward, Digital and Analytics team at Versuni, servicing 45 countries in her scope. In her current role, she works toward delivering modern and intuitive HR system solutions to users across the globe while sharing best practices on maintaining and using people data in the system for evidence-based decision-making. What excites her most about her current role is having the ability to collaborate with people of different backgrounds and cultures, as well as having the autonomy to think outside the box when it comes to building system solutions.

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Gabriëlla Warning

Presentation in Dutch from 17:30 -17:45 in Heerlenzaal

Gabriëlla Warning was born and raised on a sunny Caribbean Island called Curaçao. A few days shy of her 18th birthday, she moved to Maastricht, the Netherlands, to pursue an education in the social sciences. Maastricht University seemed exceptionally interesting to her due to the problem-based learning method and of course, the uniquely vibrant atmosphere of Maastricht itself.

She started her student years with a bachelor's in health sciences. In the second year, she chose the 'Mental Health' track, and she thoroughly enjoyed the deep dive in psychology. One of her topics of interest were sexual boundaries from different perspectives. Afterwards, she obtained a master's degree in Mental Health. During this study, she was able to make her acquaintance with the intellectual disability sector of mental health which turned out to be surprisingly fitting for the kind of healthcare professional she aspired to be. After this internship, Gabriëlla was not quite ready yet to say goodbye to her student chapter and decided to pursue a second master's degree in Global Health. This master's program zoomed out from one profession to the every-changing global dynamics of health from an economic, political, historical, financial, and cultural perspective. At the end of this study (and after three dissertations), Gabriëlla was undoubtedly ready to finally start working. She was able to return to her previous internship as a well-prepared psychologist (in Dutch: Gedragswetenschapper) for people with an intellectual disability and additional psychological disorders at Maasveld, Koraal. She has been in this sector for almost four years and was also able to continue to work on the topic she was enthusiastic about: Sexuality. In September 2024, she started a specialization to become a consultant for Sexual Health within the organization.

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