Staff
Natia Chankvetadze is a peace-building scholar-practitioner and took the helm of the Program on Georgian Studies at the start of the 2024-2025 academic year. Prior to joining the program, Natia was a visiting fellow at the center under an American Association of University Women fellowship (2023-2024) and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute’s Black Sea Program (2020-2022). Natia’s areas of research and publication include everyday peace, conflict transformation, trade facilitation, youth engagement, and conflict memories and narratives. She is a Chevening Scholar and a recipient of the 2022 Bertha Von Suttner Peace Prize for her work promoting peace education in her native Georgia.
Professor Stephen Jones is a senior researcher of the Program on Georgian Studies and served as its founding director until summer 2024. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His books include Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917 (Harvard University, 2005), and Georgia: A Political History Since Independence (I.B. Tauris, 2012). More recently he edited with Neil MacFarlane Georgia from Autocracy to Democracy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020). Professor Jones became a foreign member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences in 2011 and received an honorary doctorate from Tbilisi State University in 2012 and from Ilia State University in 2018.
Allison Hart is the program coordinator for the Program on Georgian Studies. Prior to joining the Davis Center, she received her M.A. in political science from the American University in Cairo, where her thesis focused on regional security in the Black Sea region. In 2022 she spent two months researching legacies of the Rose Revolution while working as a Black Sea Title VIII fellow.
Mzia Shanava is a Georgian language instructor. She is a linguist, journalist, and educator. She studied Georgian language and classical humanities at Ivane Javakhishvili University in Tbilisi, Georgia. After immigrating to the U.S., she worked as a Georgian translator for the Department of Justice and as a Georgian instructor for the Department of Defense, where she taught Georgian to the diplomatic corps and developed a course on modern Georgian language.
Nini Sikharulidze is a research assistant for the Program on Georgian Studies. She graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School as a biological sciences major. She is originally from Tbilisi, Georgia. As a member of the Harvard graduating class of 2025, Nini is exploring human developmental and regenerative biology with a secondary focus on global health and health policy. Her current interests include medicine, education, and healthcare strategies in developing nations.
Advisory Board
Dr. Stephen Jones chairs the Advisory Board. (See bio above.)
Dr. Neil MacFarlane joined Oxford University as the Lester B. Pearson Professor of International Relations in 2006. He has a wide range of research interests, which focus on the theory and practice of international relations of the former Soviet space, as well as Georgian regional foreign policy
Zaza Pachulia was a professional player in the NBA for over 16 years, and a member of the Golden Warriors’ 2017 and 2018 NBA Championship teams. He went on to become a consultant with the Golden Warriors and founder and leader of the Zaza Pachulia Basketball Academy in Georgia.
Ambassador Natalie Sabanadze is the Cyrus Vance Visiting Professor in International Relations at Mount Holyoke College. Previously she held positions as Georgia’s ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the European Union, as well as a senior adviser/head of section at the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities.
Dr. Mamuka Tsereteli has more than 30 years of experience in academia, diplomacy, and business in the Black Sea and Caspian regions. He is president of the America-Georgia Business Council, a senior fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the American Foreign Policy Council, and senior adjunct professor at the School of International Service, American University, in Washington, DC.
Ambassador Kenneth Yalowitz is a retired career diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to Georgia and Belarus. Since retirement, he has been a faculty member at Dartmouth College and Georgetown University and an adjunct at Washington and Lee, Mount Holyoke, and Virginia Tech.
Elizabeth Zaldastani Napier is a trustee of the G. Zaldastanishvili American Academy in Tbilisi and board member of American Friends of Georgia. She has worked at Harvard Business School, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. She led the Georgian American Diaspora organization from 1995 to 2005 and helped launch the America-Georgia Business Council.
Tamara Kalandiya is a financial executive and nonprofit leader, currently serving as Chief Financial Officer at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES). With extensive experience in cultural exchange, education, policy, and humanitarian aid, she has founded and advised numerous organizations. In 2013, she established the Academy of Georgian Heritage in Maryland, promoting Georgian language and culture among young students. As the former CFO/COO of the Middle East Institute, she launched the Frontier Europe/Black Sea Program and continues to serve on its advisory board. Tamara is also a Board Advisor for the Georgia Nation Harmony Foundation, where she fosters cultural exchange through the arts. Her humanitarian work spans over a decade, with significant contributions in the North Caucasus and the Middle East. A CPA, Tamara lives in Maryland with her husband and three children. She brings expertise in nonprofit financial management, cultural advocacy, and international development to her advisory roles.