Alina Kleinn studied international relations at the Freie Universität Berlin, and holds a bachelors degree in social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge. While pursuing a masters degree, she spent a year at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. Subsequently she worked on a research project about the policy influence of international organizations at the University of Potsdam before joining an education and social policy consultancy in Brussels. As a Mercator Fellow, she will explore the possibilities of improving education systems worldwide through the transfer of best practices.