Swathi Balasubramanian

Swathi Balasubramanian currently oversees the DRL-funded Justice and Dignity for the Middle East and North Africa initiative – a rapid response mechanism designed to address immediate, rights-focused needs in the region – as well as a conflict mitigation program in Lebanon. She also works on the Kazakhstan-based BOTA Foundation program, providing additional support to BOTA’s Social Service Program. She has been working in IREX’s civil society division since 2007 assisting with technology for development programs throughout the former Soviet Union and youth-led civil society development programs in Egypt and the Levant. She is an active member of IREX’s youth and conflict communities of practice.

Prior to joining IREX, Swathi lived in Russia and conducted research on how communities in Russia were transitioning to a market economy, lived in Tajikistan and examined issues related to labor migration, also worked at a non-profit in North Philadelphia. She holds an MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and a BA in Russian from Bryn Mawr College. She speaks Russian and knows some Turkish and French.