Team

Kimberly Bianchini-Scudellari

Founder and Executive Director

Kimberly Bianchini-Scudellari is AMITY’s founder and chair. She founded AMITY out of the need to provide housing and support to hundreds of thousands of refugees, who fled the war in Ukraine in early 2022. AMITY benefits from Kimberly’s real estate expertise and network, acquired over years of real-estate management.

Since early childhood, Kimberly has always felt better giving than receiving. The joy of doing for others later led her to pursue a medical career in nursing. As a mom of five, she understands how vulnerable kids are and how important it is to provide them with stability, especially during crisis times, hundreds of miles away from their homes.

Kimberly is a registered medical nurse in the USA. In 2011, she relocated from the USA to Europe and later joined AMRES, an asset management real estate company, which she owns together with her husband.

Blanka Smith

Donations & Fundraising

Blanka Smith is an enthusiastic social activist and changemaker. For over 15 years, she has organized fundraising events, benefiting many charities and hospitals in the Czech Republic, including the CowParade Prague public art exhibition and charity auction. Alongside her social activity, Blanka managed private business projects, such as the ParkLife cookbook, featuring the Czech cuisine, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Czech Republic as an independent country.

Leveraging on her extensive experience, Blanka supports the donation and fundraising efforts at AMITY.

Side by side with her social and business activities, Blanka is a devoted mother of two amazing daughters and a loving wife to her husband. The American-Czech family lives in the heart of Prague, where it feels most at home.

Cheryl Kimball

Medical Support

Cheryl discovered her love of Labor and Delivery nursing in 1984 while in Kenya. Bearing witness to the birth of a baby was life changing and instantaneously became her focus and passion. She completed her Bachelor’s (1988) and Master’s in Nursing (2010) with a focus on Leadership and Education. She worked in US and Singapore hospitals in Labor and Delivery for 24 years.

Caring for vulnerable women and children, the underserved, the forgotten and the marginalized became her mission. Since 1988, she has dedicated her professional life to nursing, has traveled in the US and overseas with medical mission organizations and has leaned into the understanding and delivery of culturally competent care; which is a lifelong process. She is fascinated with people and culture and customs. She is known for her smile and her hugs and loves to walk alongside and ‘be present/be with’ her patients.

She is interested in Hospice/End of Life care, patient/family focused care, maternal/child teaching and more generally is eager and willing to help anyone who needs help. Before the Ukrainian refugee crisis, she volunteered with a non-profit for refugees in Prague and subsequently joined Amity’s medical team.

She has been married for 36 years and has two adult daughters and a son-in-law. As a family, they enjoy water sports, bike riding, walking, scuba diving and world travel. Their home base is in the US and they lived in Singapore for seven years before moving to Prague in 2021.

Maggie Lanzarotti

Food & Welfare

Maggie has experienced more than 25 years of relocating across continents and knows the importance of establishing a home with each move, providing stability and security for her family. With AMITY, Maggie is now helping displaced families find a warm and safe ‘home’ in Prague.

Her appreciation and love of good food, together with a growing interest in nutrition and a healthy lifestyle, is a natural fit for her role with AMITY. Maggie brings a positive and practical approach to liaising with food sponsors and to the weekly deliveries of wholesome foods to the families sponsored by AMITY.

After her Bachelor’s degree in French and Italian, Maggie worked in financial services and television. It was while living in India that Maggie began to volunteer with charities helping disadvantaged children: setting up a school library, providing sports equipment, and living essentials for a care home.

Nicole Anderegg

Food & Welfare

Nicole joined AMITY in May 2022 and works on food distribution for its families. Swiss-born, she moved to the Czech Republic in 1993 to set up a beauty salon at the age of 22. She ran and owned the business until she sold it in 2007.

As a mother of 3, she started to develop her interest in healthy nutrition in 2012 when her elder daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. She is self-taught and applied her knowledge on her daughter and her family, supporting the successful healing process of her daughter.

Additionally, she started with a couple of close friends, a fundraising event called Spin for Kids which supported facilities and patients’ families going through the experience she lived. All of the above gave her the impulse to help people in need as she was the recipient of lots of help from people around her when she was in need herself.

Ravit Avidor

Job Placement

Ravit Avidor joined AMITY in its very early days and had led its job placement effort since then. For over 20 years, Ravit has served in senior business positions in the high-tech industry and formed a business network that cumulatively employs thousands of employees, and serves as a good resource for job placements.

Ravit was born in a small immigrant town in the southern desert of Israel, to parents who immigrated from Morocco. Her hometown brought together people from different social and cultural backgrounds, making her aware of the needs of different groups. Her childhood experiences made her socially mindful and led her to participate in numerous philanthropy initiatives.

Ravit holds a Bachelor of Laws and MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has also acquired executive education from INSEAD business school in France. She is a Founding Partner at Lighthouse Ventures, an early-stage venture capital based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Rineke Smits

Food & Welfare

Rineke joined AMITY during its early days. Being of the opinion that the essentials of a happy person revolve around good health, having a roof over your head, and a full stomach; Rineke was more than happy to explore the Potravina Banka (“Food Bank”) for the Ukrainian refugees. The food run also enables Rineke to stay in frequent touch with the families supported by AMITY.

Having had a child that suffered from cancer, Rineke learned the importance of what food can do for you. She also experienced during this time how heart-warming and encouraging help offered by – relatively speaking – complete strangers can be.

In a previous life, Rineke headed up the EMEA legal department of a large software company.

Roberto Massa

Accounting

Roberto, born in Bologna in 1971, has lived in Prague since 1997.

He has always loved Italian and Czech culture, as he is of an Italian father and a Czech mother.

Co-founder of the accounting and tax firm BS&P Czech Republic a.s. , he is a freelancer working in the field of business consulting, with a predilection for financial statement analysis. He follows various business ventures and tries to do his work with seriousness and commitment.

Since 2012 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian-Czech Chamber of Commerce and in 2022 he was elected as the president of COMITES Czech Republic, the official Committee of Italians living abroad under the control of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his spare time, besides devoting himself to his beloved family, he loves to delve into contemporary history topics.

Sona Lippmann

Educational Placement

Soňa is an international education enthusiast and a strong believer in the positive effect of international exposure in education on individuals and society. She has over 10 years of experience in the field, gained in the private, non-profit and government sectors. She currently works at the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research, an organization within the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

Soňa holds a Master’s degree in International Relations & Diplomacy from the University of Economics in Prague. She managed international study programmes in Europe for American and Asian universities, handled alumni relations at the United World College South East Asia in Singapore, and promoted the Czech Republic abroad by leading the official national Study in the Czech Republic initiative. She has also launched the Czech Republic’s alumni programme for all international alumni of Czech universities.

Stacy Eckstein

Educational Placement

Stacy Eckstein joined AMITY in its early days and helped to form the educational placement team. Coming from a background in management consulting, Stacy brings years of experience in strategic planning, organizational efficiency and problem solving. Since moving to the Czech Republic 7 years ago, Stacy has focused on helping other families acclimate to their new environment, including adjusting to new schools and a different educational system.

Stacy has a passion for giving back and has been involved in several nonprofit organizations and boards helping refugees, foster children and the homeless both in Europe and the US.

Stacy holds a Master’s degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and has been involved in international education since she was herself an exchange student in Japan in the late 1980’s.

Stella Kuttner

Community Building

Since her early childhood, Stella Kutner has been a dedicated advocate for human rights, actively involved in supporting refugees from conflict-ridden regions. Her commitment to this cause began in the 3rd grade when she chose to focus her school community project on addressing the Syrian refugee crisis. By the time she reached 9th grade, Stella was ready to take direct action. She embarked on a journey to a Syrian refugee camp in Greece, where she witnessed the plight of those affected by the crisis.

Two years later, when the Ukraine war erupted and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees sought shelter in the Czech Republic, Stella found herself at the heart of another humanitarian crisis. It was clear that her calling was to make a difference. She became an early member of AMITY, an organization dedicated to helping refugees, and, over time, developed a comprehensive program aimed at fostering community, providing family support, and organizing events for Ukrainian refugees.

In addition to her humanitarian work, Stella is a high school student at the International School of Prague. She is a competitive runner and an active member of the Dukla Praha Club. Her unique triple citizenship – American, Italian, and German – has enriched her perspective and reinforced the importance of embracing cultural diversity.

Vera Newbold

Job Placement

Vera joined Amity in May 2022 to contribute to educational placement and job placement efforts. She has more than 20 years of experience in talent sourcing, talent development, HR marketing and recruitment for both head hunting companies as well as multinational corporations. Vera intends to use her knowledge of the Czech job market, her experience in project management and sourcing as well as her local Czech network to help with job placement and education of Amity clients.

In the past, Vera has cooperated with other Czech nonprofit organizations as project manager and fundraiser. She is Czech, born in Prague, and grew up in a disadvantaged part of Prague’s Zizkov neighborhood where there were lots of Roma children. As Vera was growing up, she saw how much ethnic origin can paralyze and determine your future regardless of your talents. That experience was very formative for her, and she has always tried to help disadvantaged people to move ahead. She holds a degree from Charles University in Philosophy and History.