Ayla Bakkalli
Ayla Bakkalli serves as the Representative of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis at the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues; she additionally serves as an Executive Member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars. She has written and lectured extensively about Crimean Tatar-Ukrainian relations and Crimean Tatar-Russian relations.
Ivanna Bilych
Ivanna Bilych is President of Volya Institute for Contemporary Law and Society, an organization, dedicated to generating and promoting intellectual leadership in the field of civil society, human rights and the rule of law. Ivanna is a lawyer and activist. She led the group of international lawyers and scholars in co-authoring on behalf the following reports: The Crisis in Ukraine: Its Legal Dimensions; Human Rights on Occupied territory: Case of Crimea.
Valeriy Chaly
Valeriy Chaly presently serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States. He came to the post immediately after having held the position of Deputy Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine. Before his political and foreign services appointments, Amb. Chaly worked a number of years as Deputy Director General of Ukraine”s leading NGO, the Razumkov Center and gained recognition in Ukraine as well as internationally for his efforts at the institution.
Refat Chubarov
Refat Chubarov has held the post of Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People since November 2013. Earlier, he served as Deputy Chair of the Supreme Council of Crimea (1995-98) and as People”s Deputy of Ukraine (1998-2007). Mr. Chubarov has also served as the President of the Worldwide Congress of Crimean Tatars since 2009. In 2014, he called the Crimea referendum a “circus” and described it a tragedy, an illegitimate government “put in place by the armed forces of another country”.
Colin Cleary
Colin Cleary is an interagency professional in residence at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Mr. Cleary joined USIP in August 2014. He is a foreign service officer whose most recent assignment was as political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. He has also had postings at embassies in Moscow, Madrid, Warsaw, Kampala and Mexico City.
Eugene Czolij
Eugene Czolij was called to the Quebec Bar in 1982 and is a senior partner at Lavery, de Billy, one of the largest law firms in Quebec. He pleads before the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as all court levels in Quebec. In 2008, he was elected as president of the Ukrainian World Congress and was re-elected for a second term in 2013. The UWC is the international coordinating body for Ukrainian communities in the diaspora representing the interests of over 20 million Ukrainians.
Orest Deychakiwsky
Orest Deychakiwsky is senior staff advisor at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe whose country responsibilities currently include Ukraine, Belarus and Bulgaria. He has served as a member of U.S. delegations to numerous OSCE/CSCE meetings and as an international election observer in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Bosnia. Mr. Deychakiwsky has authored or co-authored a sizable number of speeches, statements, resolutions, and articles on issues pertaining to Ukraine or U.S.-Ukrainian relations.
Nadia Diuk
Nadia Diuk is Vice President, Programs for Europe, Eurasia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a private nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Congress to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. For over twenty years prior to her appointment as Vice President, she supervised NED programs in Europe and Eurasia where she worked on programs and strategies for the underground democratic movements before 1989, through to the dissolution of the USSR, Yugoslavia, and beyond.
Katie Fox
Katie Fox is deputy director of the Eurasia department at NDI. Prior to joining the Institute more than 15 years ago, Ms. Fox was legislative director for a large labor union as well as serving as an aide to two U.S. senators and a congressman. In her current role, Ms. Fox oversees NDI election monitoring, civic organizing and political party development programs in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova.
Paul Goble
Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn. While there, he launched the Window on Eurasia” series. Prior to joining the faculty there in 2004, he served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Fr. Leo Goldade, OSBM
Fr. Leo Goldade, OSBM is presently Provincial Vicar, Superior and Master of Novices at St. Josapaht”s Monastery in Glen Cove, NY. He was formerly Consulter General for the Basilian Order and Spiritual Director for Graduate Students from Ukraine at the Istututo Della Patrocinio BVM in Rome from 1976 to 2011. During his tenure as Consulter General, the good pastor traveled to the Russian Federation to get a better sense of the condition of Ukrainian Catholics living in the said country; his findings were rather disturbing.
Glen Howard
Glen Howard is President of The Jamestown Foundation; he is fluent in Russian, proficient in Azerbaijani and Arabic and is a regional expert on the Caucasus and Central Asia. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, and Jane”s Defense Weekly; he has served as a consultant to private sector and governmental agencies, including the U.S. DOD, the National Intelligence Council and major oil companies operating in Central Asia and the Middle East.