Tetiana Kotelnykova

About

Tanya founded Brave Generation after being forced to flee her home twice because of Russia’s war against Ukraine: first in 2014, when Russian-backed forces occupied her hometown of Horlivka in the Donetsk region, and again in 2022, when she fled Kyiv during the full-scale invasion while completing her law degree.

A lawyer by training, Tetiana graduated summa cum laude from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2022. She gained legal experience through internships with the Kyiv City Administration and the Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office, and as a part-time judicial assistant at the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal.

In fall 2022, she became the first Ukrainian to receive Columbia University’s scholarship for displaced students, and she moved to New York to pursue an M.A. in Human Rights. In her first semester, she founded Brave Generation in response to the growing educational, leadership, and mental health needs of Ukrainian youth affected by war. What began as a volunteer initiative has grown into a nonprofit registered in both the United States and Ukraine, with teams in both countries. She went on to earn a second M.A. in European and Russian Studies at Yale University, where she served as a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Political Science for three years. In 2025, she completed Harvard Business School’s program in strategic nonprofit leadership.

Tetiana has received the Columbia University Alumni Award and the Yale University Public Service Award. She has collaborated with Ukrainian and European members of parliament, the United States Institute of Peace, and UN Women, and has written on Ukraine, war, and human rights for Foreign Policy, the Atlantic Council, and The Atlantic.