Project Director

Ambassador Adrian A. Basora is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Director of the Project on Democratic Transitions, an in-depth assessment of the political, economic and social transitions of Central and East European fifteen years after the fall of communism. More...
 

Research Fellow/Lead Research Coordinator

Jean Farneth Boone is a scholar whose work, in both academic and policy-oriented settings, has focused on the political economy of reform in the post-communist region.    An adjunct professor since 2005 in Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies (CERES), Dr. Boone currently teaches a graduate-level course on economic issues in Russia and Eurasia.  Over the last 20 years, she has contributed to a wide range of research on economic reform in the region. More... 
 

Research Associate

Yaryna Basystyuk is currently a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing her M.A. in Government Administration. A native of Ukraine, she is particularly interested in the role of the U.S., the EU and major NGOs in promotion of democracy.

Ms. Basystyuk holds two Masters degrees, in International Law (from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University) and International Economics (from Ternopil National Economic University). Upon completing her MA in International Law in 2005, Ms. Basystyuk worked for more than two years at the United Nations in Ukraine, initially as a Project Assistant to UNDP’s Energy and Environmental Programme, and later as a Coordinator of the National Human Development Report.

Research Assistants

Artyom Matusov is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He received his B.A. from Fordham University in International Studies and Philosophy and wrote his thesis about contemporary Russian politics. Upon receiving his B.A. he worked as a guest researcher at the Silk Road Studies Program in Uppsala, Sweden where he researched energy security in Northeast and Central Asia. More...
 

Jessica Bartos is in her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in European History with a minor in Italian Studies.  She was on the Dean’s List for both the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years and has just been accepted to the History Honors program.  Jessica first became interested in democracy in Eastern Europe while interning at the Council of Europe.  Over the summer of 2007, Jessica worked with the Council on a university network for promoting democratic culture in European higher education.  She has also worked with the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Think Tank and Civil Societies project.   Jessica is fluent in Italian and will be studying at the Universita` di Bologna during her 2007 spring semester.

Rafael Zuidema is an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in International Relations with a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies. Her particular interest is in the role of the U.S., the E.U. and major NGOs in the promotion of democracy in the Middle East. Rafael believes that the study of democratic transitions in Eastern and Central Europe can yield valuable lessons for democracy promotion throughout the world. More...