Our Team
Bartosz Rybinski serves as the Vice President for European Operations. He has a Master of Arts degree in Ministry and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing from Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, OK and a Bachelor degree in Management from Warsaw School of Management and Marketing. Prior to joining EEM, Bartosz served as the Single Adults Minister at Memorial Road Church of Christ in Edmond, OK. He also worked as a project manager in the IT industry and did short-term mission work in Europe and Central America. Bartosz is a native of Warsaw, Poland. Bart enjoys skiing, hiking, international travel, and spending time with his family.
Scott Hayes is the Director of Publishing. He holds a double Bachelor degree from Oklahoma Christian University in Business and in Bible. He is also certified in Austria as an offset printer and a print manager. Scott joined EEM in 1984 to work with distribution, offset printing, and bookbinding . Beginning in 1992, he also started preaching for the local congregation and organizing the Austrian church camps. As EEM's Director of Publishing, Scott is responsible for working with editors, translators, and correctors to prepare EEM’s materials for printing. Scott has three teenage boys (Benjamin, Alexander, and Daniel) who are all faithful followers of Christ. His Austrian wife, Sabine, teaches English to children. Scott’s favorite hobbies include carpentry, biking, and hiking in the Austrian mountains.
Verena Helms serves as the Administrative Assistant at the EEM office in Vienna. She has a Master of Arts degree in German Language and Literature from Philipps Universtiät Marburg (Germany). Verena joined EEM in 2004. She was on a maternity leave from 2006 till 2008 but has rejoined EEM since. Her little daughter Aisha is now attending kindergarten. Prior to joining EEM, she worked for several companies in Germany and Austria, editing books and writing software manuals. In her rare spare time as single mom, she likes meeting with brothers and sisters from her church, reading books, and writing letters and emails to her friends all over the world.
Elina Sinyavskaya serves as the President of EEM’s partner organization in St. Petersburg (Eastern European Educational and Humanitarian Fund). She was born and grew up in Leningrad, USSR (later St. Petersburg, Russia) and graduated as a Specialist in Museology and Excursion Studies from St. Petersburg University of Culture and Arts. PIn her professional career, Elina worked for the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, served as a tour-guide at one of the palaces in St. Petersburg, and was an English teacher. In her spare time, she enjoys travelling with her husband and friends, photography, playing badminton, camping, and watching figure skating.
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Daria Novikova began serving as the National Coordinator for Ukraine in May 2011. She earned her bachelor’s degree in International Business from the Donetsk State Technical University in 2003. Her previous work experience includes serving as the Foster Care Program Administrator and later the President for the Christian Benevolent Mission “Gospel for Ukraine”. In her previous role, Daria worked closely with orphanages in the Donetsk region helping Ukrainian Christian families to take many of the orphans into their homes as foster children. She was also responsible for printing and delivering the newsletter “Turtle” to more than 174 orphanages throughout Ukraine. Since becoming a Christian in 1994 during an evangelistic campaign in Donetsk, she has been an active member of the Church of Christ in that city. She is married and has a daughter, Maria. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends, traveling, and cooking.
Nickoli Plaksin serves as the Distribution and Special Projects Manager at EEM’s office in Donetsk, Ukraine. He received education in music and teaching at the Donetsk National University, Donetsk Conservatory, and Donetsk State Musical College. Nick joined EEM’s team in a full-time role in January of 2008 but has been involved in various aspects of EEM’s work on part-time basis for many years. He has a diverse professional experience as a photographer, teacher, worship leader, youth minister, newspaper editor, and sound producer. Nick has been a Christian since 1999.
Inna Kuzmenko serves as the Ukrainian Summer Camp Program Coordinator. She is a native of Ukraine and a graduate of the Gorlovka Teacher Training Institute of Foreign Languages. Her involvement in mission work started in 1991 after she became a Christian and began translating for missionaries in Ukraine. She also worked for World Wide Youth Camps – a non-profit summer camp organization – and for “Families International” – an agency that helps American families adopt Ukrainian orphans. She is a proud “adoptive” mother of 5 wonderful Ukrainian children who now live happily with their new families in the US. Since 2003, Inna has been involved in EEM camp work. Inna and her husband Andrej live in Kharkov and have one daughter, Valerie. They enjoy travel and camp work, and soccer.
Helen Girshman began working at EEM on a part time basis as an Assistant Publishing Director in January 2011. She graduated from Donetsk National University with the degree of English teacher and translator in 1995. She previously worked as an assistant administrator and main editor at the Mission Outreach Center “Blagovest” and later the director of the Benevolent Foundation and Publishing House “Libre”. Like EEM, this organization was involved in publishing and distributing Christian literature and also helping several orphanages and pensioners’ societies. For two years, she was a freelance translator working in different fields, her favorite being medical translations. Among her interests are psychology and the study of the French language. She enjoys reading, watching good movies, spending time with her friends and of course traveling.