Ivana Cvetković Bajrović Chairwoman of the Board
Ivana Cvetković Bajrović is a human rights and democracy expert with over two decades of international development experience. For over fifteen years, Ivana served at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a leading global democracy development foundation. As NED’s Associate Director and Interim Senior Director for Europe, she designed and managed assistance to hundreds of civil society and human rights organizations, independent media and production houses, and think tanks across Europe.
Currently, Ivana is the production director at Method, an independent production and design company in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is also a board member at Dokufest, the premier documentary and short film festival in Southeast Europe and the largest film festival in Kosovo, with an annual selection of more than 200 films from around the world.
As a recognized Southeast Europe regional expert, Ivana has advised key decision-makers in Washington and in Europe, delivered lectures at leading universities and foreign policy think tanks, and made a number of media appearances, including on NPR, PBS, Voice of America, AlJazeera English, and BBC Radio. Ivana has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees, as well as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Her writing has appeared in publications such as the Journal of Democracy and the World Affairs Journal. Her book, Mistakes Donors Make: Civil Society and Democracy Assistance in the Balkans, was published in 2011 and identifies best practices and lessons learned from foreign assistance to civil society in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia.
Ivana holds an MPA from Bowie State University and an M.A. in Democracy and Human Rights joint degree from the University of Bologna and University of Sarajevo.