Dr. Alexandra Vacroux is the Davis Center's executive director, on leave for the 2024-2025 academic year. Her scholarly work addresses Russian and Eurasian policy issues, including the war in Ukraine. As director of graduate studies for the Davis Center’s master's program in regional studies, she has mentored dozens of Harvard’s best and brightest students and regional experts. She also directs the center's Scholars Without Borders program.
As of July 1, 2024, Alexandra is spending one year on leave, working with the Kyiv School of Economics as its vice president for strategic engagement. In this role, she will be helping this leading Ukrainian educational institution expand its engagement with top faculty, schools, and programs around the world, further strengthening KSE as a platform for nurturing Ukraine’s human capital as the country recovers from Russia’s invasion.
Alexandra lived in Moscow from 1992 to 2004. While there she was a consultant for the Russian Privatization Agency, partner and head of sales at the Brunswick Warburg investment bank, and an active member of the board of United Way Moscow. While completing her dissertation on corruption in Russian pharmaceutical markets she was affiliated with the Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR), a Russian think tank associated with the New Economic School. Prior to joining the Davis Center in 2010 she lived in Washington, DC, where she was a scholar at the Kennan Institute, part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
She holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.
