Bridging Silence and Story: Member Spotlight — Marijana Nedić

For Maya Nedić, mediation is more than a skill, it’s a calling rooted deeply in her life experience, being raised in Serbia in the aftermath of the Balkan wars. Maya’s early environment shaped her understanding of the profound need for conflict resolution and peacebuilding while she wondered: Why don’t some wounds ever get named? What happens when entire communities are expected to move on without voicing their truths?

“I started noticing that conflict doesn’t end with ceasefires, it lingers in how people speak, or don’t speak to each other,” she reflects. “The absence of dialogue, the heaviness of unresolved pain, the way people disconnect from each other after violence, that’s what I wanted to understand.”

This realization led Maya to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, trying to get closer to the human condition and the mechanics of individual and collective suffering. But the more she learned about personality traits, individual differences, the clearer it became: personal change wasn’t enough. “I kept seeing that individual healing happens inside systems. And if those systems are violent, discriminatory, or neglectful, people can’t truly thrive.”

Pursuing High Education and Her Multifaceted Career

That realization pushed her to pursue a Master’s in Human Rights and Multi-Level Governance at the Università degli Studi di Padova. Her thesis focused on how international media can influence the global response to war and humanitarian crises, specifically on the examples of Ukraine, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Yemen and Ethiopia. “I was asking how international media narratives can mobilize empathy, sway public opinion and either instigate or suppress sending lifesaving aid. I was trying to show that number of casualties and fatalities in the media weren’t just numbers, they were actual human lives we were reporting on.”

Throughout her career, she has worked across multiple sectors, from grassroots NGOs, state institutions, and international organizations.

• At the Center for Foster Care and Adoption in Belgrade, she confronted the complexities of childhood trauma and systemic protection “I learned that being ‘in the system’ doesn’t equal being safe. I remember working with children and youth who had already lost so much trust in adults and institutions. That experience taught me that consistency, listening and witnessing matter more than we expect.”
• Later, at the Autonomous Women’s Center in Belgrade, Maya deepened her commitment to gender There, she started to understand what it takes to support women surviving domestic and intimate partner violence, an experience that required presence, courage, and an unflinching look at institutional gaps. “You witness strength and pain in the same breath,” she recalls. “And you ask yourself constantly, how do we build systems that actually protect instead of retraumatize?”
• But she didn’t stop at Her curiosity led her into correctional facilities,shadowing psychologists working with incarcerated individuals at the Belgrade District Prison. It was here that she began exploring post-penal reintegration, human rights inside prison walls, and the social perception of guilt. “People often forget those in prison are still people. I wanted to see what accountability and restoration look like in the least forgiving spaces.”
• That thread, of dignity in hard places, continued in her long-term role with the Victimology Society of Serbia. Over four years, Maya worked with survivors of all crimes, including those facing multiple layers of marginalization. She served as a Project Assistant and volunteer in the Generalized Victims Support Service for over three years. “As we (SOS responders) were providing information or referrals; we were also bearing witness. Holding space for pain and making sure it didn’t go unheard.”

After years of witnessing harm, inside institutions, communities, and relationships, she kept asking: what are the different ways to repair and move forward? When she discovered mediation, it felt like a homecoming. “Mediation, for me, is belief that our differences are our advantage,” she says. “It’s a space where people are seen as whole, not just as problems to be fixed. That resonated deeply with everything I’d been doing up to that point.”

Connected to MBBI

Her involvement with Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI) began in 2022, during the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war. She joined the Trauma-Informed Peacebuilding initiative co-led by MBBI and the National Association of Mediators of Ukraine. There, she helped design and deliver trainings for mediators and dialogue facilitators, many of whom were navigating active trauma. “Sure, through the program we shared skills and resources, but the main thing was emotional sustainability. We were asking: How do we keep going, ethically and humanely, in the face of mass suffering?”

Though the internship formally ended after six months, Maya stayed engaged. Today, she’s an active member of MBBI’s Europe Regional Cooperation group and the Membership Committee. “What I admire most is MBBI’s commitment to local leadership. It’s not about outsiders imposing solutions, it’s about working together to find solutions.”

In 2023, Maya was one of the representatives of MBB Europe Regional Group at the MBBI Nairobi Peace Congress. At the Congress, the Europe group received the “Collaboration Region of the year” award in recognition of their collective efforts to respond to crisis with solidarity, care, and inclusiveness. “It was affirming to see our work recognized in a space that values both impact and intention,” Maya reflects. “It reminded me that peacebuilding means building something more connected and enduring, not just reaching resolutions.”

Award celebration and the Award, MBB-E Members, Nairobi Peace Congress, 2023

Current Work

In the meantime, Maya also joined the Office of Emergencies and Resilience (OER) at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. There, she bridged her interests in mental health, human rights, and crisis response. “I used the opportunity to integrate capacity-building, gender mainstreaming, mental health advocacy, and my thesis research into some of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies, all while supporting teams in the field. I saw how policy and people interact in real time.”

Maya currently resides in Rome, where she says she is in the midst of the most exciting part of her career, building her practice Sub Rosa Personal Development and Mediation Services. Sub Rosa offers one-on-one consulting, group sessions, trainings, conflict resolution services, coaching and a diverse array of workshops. Her work blends trauma-informed care, human rights, and transformative mediation. She also volunteers remotely as a court-connected mediator with the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Oregon, where she’s facilitated over 25 successful small claims mediations. “There’s something deeply human about supporting people through everyday tensions, family disagreements, broken deals, unmet needs. What matters is creating space where people feel seen and can find their way forward.”

In addition to her work as a mediator, Maya is a passionate educator committed to making key psycho-social skills more accessible. She has designed and facilitated workshops on topics ranging from trauma recovery and mental health to assertive communication, emotional intelligence, gender equality, and intentional goal-setting, prepared for both academic institutions and grassroots settings. For Maya, one of the most pressing challenges in the field of mediation is the limited availability of quality, supervised training for those entering the profession. “There’s a real gap between theory and practice,” she observes. “People are drawn to mediation for good reasons, but often lack meaningful opportunities to practice in a supervised environment.”

Still, what sustains her is witnessing the shift that happens when people reconnect with their own sense of agency. “When someone realizes their story matters, that they have the right to be heard and the tools to speak, that changes more than a single conflict. It shifts how they relate to themselves and their community.”

Looking ahead, Maya wants to deepen her work in peace education, connecting inner work with systemic change. She dreams of co-creating spaces where youth, women, and marginalized communities lead the way. “I want dialogue and conflict resolution to be as normal as going to school. Not something you’re forced into when things fall apart.”

Maya hopes, additionally, that new mediators feel empowered to integrate all of their unique identities into the work that they do, and stay true to them even when the work feels overwhelming, her advice is: “Bring your whole self into the work. You don’t have to choose between your identities, passions, or past experiences. They all have something to teach you, and something of value to others, even if it’s not clear to you right away.”

Through her work with MBBI and beyond, Maya Nedić embodies the heart of peacebuilding: compassion, courage, and an unwavering belief in the power of human connection. She’s proving that peacebuilding isn’t just for tables of negotiators, it lives in the choices we make and the stories we hold.

Article by Sarah Stenovec, MBBI Writer