Maria Stefanova
Zonta International Director
2012-2014
Maria Stefanova is a member of the Board of
Directors of Zonta International, a global organization of executives and
professionals working together to advance the status of women worldwide through
service and advocacy. Zonta’s culturally
and professionally diverse membership includes nearly 30,000 members who belong
to more than 1,200 Zonta clubs in 63 countries across six continents. For more than ninety years, Zontians all over
the world volunteer their time, talents and support to local and international
service projects and educational programs that benefit women in their local
communities and around the world.
Ms. Stefanova also serves as a Director for the
Zonta International Foundation, the official charitable foundation of Zonta
International. Through the Foundation,
Zonta International helps women and girls overcome gender barriers to
educational and professional advancement; provides opportunities for women to
earn higher wages and achieve economic independence; ensures that women and
children have access to quality, affordable health care; and strives to end
violence against women while helping survivors of violence rebuild their lives.
During the 2012-2014 Biennium, Zonta will provide
a record US$1 million each to continue its efforts to prevent mother-to-child
transmission of HIV and gender-based violence in Rwanda and to work towards the
elimination of obstetric fistula, a debilitating childbirth injury in Liberia. Supporting projects that seek to end violence
against women and girls will also remain a priority. This biennium, Zonta will provide an
additional US$1.1 million to support the Safe Cities Program in Honduras,
empower women in rural Samoa to combat violence and fund anti-violence popular
media strategies in Bangladesh, Nigeria and 9 additional countries where the
incidence of violence against women is most prevalent.
Through the Foundation, Zonta also seeks to
increase women’s education and participation in the traditionally male
dominated fields of aerospace-related sciences and engineering, business
management and public affairs through the Amelia Earhart Fellowship program,
Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship program and Young Women in
Public Affairs Award program. During the
2012-2014 Biennium, Zonta will direct more than US$1 million towards these
education programs.
In addition to
her work with Zonta, Ms. Stefanova’s professional background includes
numerous roles in television and radio broadcasting, including reporter, anchor
and editor-in-chief. She is currently an
entrepreneur and PR and media consultant with VIA Consulting Ltd. From 2001 to 2010,
she served as a member of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), the
regulatory authority for radio and television in Bulgaria. She also served as Chairperson of the Council
from 2006 to 2008 and was an elected member of CEM from the Bulgarian
Parliament. From 1999 to 2001, she
served as Project Manager for Trafficking in Women in Bulgaria for the
International Organization for Migration; and, from 1998 to 1999, she worked as
a PR and media consultant for UNDP in Bulgaria.
Ms. Stefanova joined Zonta International in 1995 and is
currently a member of the Zonta Club of Saint Sofia in Bulgaria. Prior to her election as International
Director, Maria served as club president, , area director, lt. governor, and
most recently as Governor of District 30, a geographically large district
comprised of 8 countries.
Ms. Stefanova studied journalism at Sofia University St.
Kliment Ohridsky. Prior to that, she
studied at the English Language School and the Russian Language School in Sofia
and is fluent in both English and Russian.
She is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists and the
International Organization of Journalists and is a Grand Officer of the Grand
Priory of Bulgaria, OSMTH.
