Since 2018, John has served as the International Republican Institute’s Resident Program Director in Georgia, designing, overseeing and implementing programs on political party and public policy development, women’s political participation, youth political and civic engagement, public opinion research, election observation, conflict resolution and dialogue, as well as national and sub-national governance. From 2014-2018, he served as IRI’s RPD in the Kyrgyz Republic. During his time at IRI, John has advised a range of political parties, along with national and local leadership across Asia, Eurasia and Europe. He has also overseen multiple international election observation and assessment missions, in addition to observing across the Eurasia region.
Prior to joining IRI, he worked as the Operations Manager with International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Central Asia, where he oversaw reporting, monitoring, evaluation and learning, procurement, budgeting, proposal development, donor outreach and event management. Before this, John served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Kyrgyz Republic, designing and managing region-wide programs for a local human rights and gender equality NGO. During this time, he secured funding to establish one of Kyrgyzstan’s first shelter for victims of gender-based violence. He also served on USAID Kyrgyzstan’s national gender assessment team, co-authoring the gender analysis for the Country Development Cooperation Strategy (2015-2019).
Prior to joining the Peace Corps, John spent two years as a Human Capital Consultant with a legal consulting firm in Chicago. He also interned with both the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, as well as a United States Senator, in addition to working on an Illinois Gubernatorial campaign. He holds a BA in Political Science from Loyola University Chicago, as well as a MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies. John is proficient in Russian, Kyrgyz, Italian and Spanish, and speaks conversational Georgian.