About Us
Project Ollie is an international, volunteer-run effort to support Ukrainian students and educators. We are led by Jing Li, who served in Ukraine with the Peace Corps. Living in the Kharkiv region, Jing taught English to students and forged lifelong friendships in her host village community. When Ukraine came under invasion by Russia, the Kharkiv region was struck by attacks overnight. Jing immediately reached out to her friends, former students and colleagues including fellow teacher, Liliia Galperina, about how to provide humanitarian support. Within weeks, Jing kicked off a grassroots effort in the San Francisco Bay Area to raise funds that would directly support Ukraine's students and teachers.
With the initial funds she raised, Jing began working with her Ukrainian school contacts to purchase goods for the Kharkiv region. But as Jing tried to get the supplies to those in need, she quickly encountered the complex logistical challenges created by international borders and dangerous, occupied territories. Long-time London-based entrepreneur and Kharkiv native, Sergiy Tsymbal, jumped in, activating his network of logistics operations in Europe and across Ukraine. Volunteers also stepped up to transport goods safely to their destinations.
Inspired by this scrappy, humanitarian effort for Ukraine, US-based Peter Anders and Betsy Corcoran pitched in their talents to help bring structure and additional resources to the team. Together, they began to build Project Ollie in early 2022.
Founders
MEET JING LI
Executive Director & CEO
Jing Li served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the village of Shevchenkove, Ukraine from 2010 to 2012. She taught English as a foreign language to students at the Lyceum from 3rd through 11th grade. She also focused on youth and community development projects including HIV/AIDS education, human trafficking awareness, and environmental sustainability.
Jing is now a Senior Manager at Accenture, based out of San Francisco. She specializes in product development and innovation strategy, with a focus on software and platforms clients. Her strengths include growth strategy and creating new products to solve business challenges (e.g. IoT sensors to help capture food waste data, NTT tokens on blockchain to improve social commerce shopping experiences, etc).
Jing holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech, where she was a member of the inaugural class of the Honors Program and a division 1 letterwinner in swimming. She loves open water and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the South End Rowing Club.
MEET PETER ANDERS
Director of Operations - North America
Peter Anders worked in the esports industry on Team Undying and Evil Geniuses beginning in 2020. He focused on global travel and visa acquisition, developing and executing plans to bring international talent to countries such as Romania, USA, and Sweden. During this time he worked with several Ukrainians, was shown their incredible generosity, and developed many close friendships with Ukrainians in the esports industry.
Peter now works in esports talent management, helping enable the growth of young promising players around the world. His strengths include project management, organizational infrastructure development, and navigating international travel restrictions.
Peter studied cognitive systems with a focus on philosophy at the University of British Columbia. Outside of work and esports, he enjoys fictional story telling and hopes to travel to Ukraine in the future.
MEET LILIIA GALPERINA
Director of Operations - Ukraine
Liliia Galperina worked as a teacher in the Lyceum of the Shevchenkove for 13 years, where she taught English to students from 1st through 9th grades. During her time at the Lyceum, she worked on many projects with the environment, sustainability, health and HIV/AIDS education in partnership with Peace Corps Volunteers.
Liliia also worked for two years in Kharkiv School 95, teaching English to students across the 1st-8th grade levels and actively led a collaboration project with German youth/educational organizations.
Since the war started, Liliia has relocated to Berlin, Germany. She currently leads local projects with migrants that are aimed at the development and support of children.
Liliia has also written about her experiences in supporting the children of Ukraine while living abroad in the article, “Living With Guilt.” (Here is a link in German and Ukrainian).
MEET SVITLANA OVCHARENKO
Practical Psychologist - Shevchenkiv Lyceum No. 1
Svitlana's psychological services at the lyceum were presented at the XII International Exhibition "Modern Educational Institutions - 2021", and won the nomination "Psychological support of educational reforms in the activity of the psychological service" - awarded with a gold medal and a winner's diploma.
Svitlana provides psychological support to children and adults affected by the war, and is currently pursuing a degree at the Southern Ukrainian National Pedagogical University at the Department of Psychiatry, Medical and Special Psychology.
Board Members
MEET SERGIY TSYMBAL
Board Member - Secretary
Sergiy Tsymbal is a serial entrepreneur and seasoned executive manager. He helps small and medium services companies as well as startups to understand, define and solve their business challenges.
He has a track record of creating, improving and implementing strategic initiatives in companies of 20-300+ people; increasing revenue (and optimizing sales processes) to hit break-even points and become profitable fast; growing companies and branches from 0 to 30+ employees in weeks; building and launching new products.
Sergiy is currently CEO of Wow-How Studio, an on-demand creative services company. He also co-founded the Software and Computer Museum in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. He grew up in Kharkiv.
MEET BETSY CORCORAN
Board Member -
Treasurer
Betsy Corcoran is an entrepreneur, journalist and education thought leader. In 2011, she founded and served as CEO of EdSurge, an award-winning news and information hub. She currently is a director of the design-thinking consulting group, Lede Labs.
Betsy has received national recognition for her work as a journalist at organizations that include The Washington Post, Forbes Media and Scientific American magazine. She is a Fellow with the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellows Program. She has also been a Fellow in the Knight Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has a B.S. in economics and math from Georgetown University.
Betsy admires the spirit and determination of Ukrainian educators and students and believes that all children have a right to a rich and joyful education experience.
