CASS Support

The Centre for Applies Social Sciences project managers are supported daily by a number of other employees, whose job is to ensure the centre's and its projects' needs are continuously met without a hitch.

Learn more about our members, who work all across the centre!

Centre Director
Helen Urmann
MA (Democracy and Governance)
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
Head of Centre, 0.8 p
Faculty of Social Sciences
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
Teacher of Comparative Politics, 0.2 p
Lossi 36–312
+372 737 6377
Communication team
Ali Haririan
MSc (Human-Computer Interaction)
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
Graphic Designer, 0.5 p
Lossi 36–419
Grant Office
Project Writing
Graphic Disainer, 0.2 p
Ali is a designer with MS in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). He's been working as product designer and design lead in many international companies for more than 10 years. The passion for design makes him able to work in different areas of design, from UX to visual design and illustration.
Maria Kristiina Prass
MA (Communication Management)
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
Project Communication Specialist
Lossi 36–419
Maria takes care of the dissemination and channel management, and produces Estonian-language content. She has BA from the University of Tartu in International Relations, an MA in Communication Management, and more than a decade of marketing-communication-project management experience from both the private and public sector.
Anastasiia Turusinova
MA (euroopa liidu - venemaa uuringud)
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
Specialist in E-Learning and Marketing Projects
+372 737 6579
Lossi 36–419
Anastasiia is an e-learning specialist at the University of Tartu specialising on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). She has designed more than 10 online courses for different European projects. One of her courses was nominated for the best course of the year by Estonian Quality Agency for Education (HAKA). After that she has been involved in evaluating online courses participating in this competition.
Assistents
Saara Sasi
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
Project Assistant
Lossi 36–418
Saara helps project managers with anything and everything they need for a smooth workflow, offering support for different projects, general paperwork, event organisation, etc. She also aids other team members with running tasks whenever necessary.
Keit Simmulmann
MA (Organisation of Educational Technology)
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
Assistant-Analyst
+372 737 6378
Lossi 36–303
Keit has a Masters from UT in Education Management. At CASS, she supports project managers and analysts with both organisational and research activity related assignments. Keit contributes to the seamless conducting of research by formatting documentation and research data, questionnaires and interviews, as well as editing and formatting reports - amongst other things. Additonally, she organises CASS events and supports the team in daily work questions.
Finance
Riin Teugijas
MA (juhtimine ja turundus)
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
The Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS)
Finance Manager
Lossi 36–419
Riin has an MA in Economics. She specializes in financial management for various projects related to green topics and domestic violence. Riin works with different funding programs, including Horizon Europe, LIFE, Interreg, CERV, and Erasmus+.