Mehri Druckman serves as the country director for Ukraine and senior advisor for Global Programs at IREX. 

In her role as Ukraine country director, Mehri oversees IREX’s largest office, guiding strategic program development for a $100M portfolio and providing senior managerial support to 130+ staff implementing complex, multi-donor portfolio, ranging from a media and information literacy program that is being embedded into the education system, to veteran’s reintegration, supporting public diplomacy, tackling disinformation, and supporting independent media. 

Previously, Mehri served as a chief of party and oversaw all aspects of implementation of the $58M USAID-funded Ukraine National Identity through Youth (UNITY) activity from 2020 to 2024. She provided visionary leadership, ensuring timely achievement of program objectives. Mehri ensured that the IREX Ukraine office adeptly navigated the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, maintaining continuity and adaptability of IREX programs. Under her leadership, UNITY initiated efforts to restore access to education, addressing the disruptions caused by the invasion. 

Before UNITY, Mehri designed and managed the Learn to Discern project, an innovative approach to countering manipulative information that reached over 15,000 Ukrainians and was implemented in 2,500 schools across Ukraine. This methodology has since been adopted in over 24 countries and featured in prominent publications such as  The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wilson Quarterly, World Economic Forum's Global Agenda, Project Syndicate, Columbia Journalism Review, and in reports by the Center for European Policy Analysis and Legatum Institute. 

Mehri also served as the global technology advisor for IREX's Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Beyond Access project, where she helped enhance the capacity of public libraries to deliver effective community services.