Sally Blair
Director, Reagan/Fascell Program

Before joining the NED staff in 2001 to establish the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program, Dr. Sally Blair worked as a program officer in the Jennings Randolph fellowship program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. She has taught courses on international relations at George Mason University and Stanford University's semester program in Washington, D.C., and has held dissertation fellowships with the Fulbright-Hays exchange program, the Brookings Institution, the Kennan Institute, and Harvard University's Academy for International and Area Studies. She holds a masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Ph.D. in political science and Russian studies from Columbia University.

Nadia M. Diuk
Senior Director, Europe & Eurasia

Dr. Diuk serves as Senior Director for Europe and Eurasia at the National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Congress to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. She has supervised NED programs in this complex region since 1987, before the East European revolutions, when most democrats could work only underground, through the period of the first free elections of 1989-92, up to the present time of consolidating the transitions in the new independent states of Eurasia as well as assisting those democrats who continue to work in authoritarian countries in that region.

Prior to her appointment at the NED she taught Soviet Politics and Russian History at Oxford University; was a research associate at the Society for Central Asian Studies, England; and editor-in-chief of the London-based publication Soviet Nationality Survey. Her publications include two co-authored books The Hidden Nations: The People Challenge the Soviet Union (New York: William Morrow, 1990) and New Nations Rising: The Fall of the Soviets and the Challenge of Independence (John Wiley & Sons, 1993) and articles in the Washington Post, The Washington Times, Journal of Democracy, Orbis, The World and I, Azerbaijan International, and in the Russian Journal of Public Opinion. She has appeared on CNN International, National Empowerment TV, and Worldnet TV. Her radio interviews have included National Public Radio, BBC, Voice of America, and Radio Liberty. She has been interviewed by Russian radio and is a frequent commentator on Ukraine's Channel 5 TV. She has given testimony on Capitol Hill before the House International Relations Committee. Her latest research project, "The Next Generation of Young Leaders in Key Post-Soviet States" will soon be published as a book by Rowman & Littlefield.

Dr. Diuk is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Advisory Board of the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center. She gained a B.A (with honors) in History at the University of Sussex (United Kingdom). Her M.Phil in Russian and East European Studies and D. Phil. in Modern History were gained at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford.

Barbara E. Haig
Vice President, Programs, Planning & Evaluation

Barbara Haig is Vice President for Program, Planning and Evaluation at the National Endowment for Democracy, where she has worked since 1985. The staff which she oversees is responsible for the programmatic development, monitoring and evaluation of the Endowment's international grants program, which covers six regions of the world. In recent years, she has overseen a vast expansion of the Endowment's program in the Arab Middle East, especially Iraq, and Afghanistan. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, she oversaw the development and implementation of several large and complex democracy programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in South Africa, Nicaragua and Central and Eastern Europe. From 1981 to 1985, Ms. Haig was Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Programs, and then to the Director, of the United States Information Agency. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and has studied or worked in Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.

David E. Lowe
Vice President, Government & External Relations

David E. Lowe is the Vice President for Government and External Relations at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. foundation that promotes democracy in over ninety countries around the world. In this capacity he heads the President's Office, which is responsible for outreach to Capitol Hill, as well as the Endowment's government and media relations, publications, events, and Board-related activities. Lowe also oversees the operation of the World Movement for Democracy, a global initiative that brings together democratic activists from around the world through the Internet and periodic World Assemblies for mutual support and cooperation, and the Center for International Media Assistance, a new initiative that seeks to strengthen U.S. support for independent media abroad. He is also the liaison to NED's general counsel and to the New York Democracy Forum, a joint project of the Endowment and the Foreign Policy Association.

Lowe joined the Endowment in 1989, having served previously as an official in the national office of the Anti-Defamation League and a member of the political science faculty at Drew University. At Drew, he served as Director of the University's off-campus programs in Washington and London. While in the latter role, he was a frequent speaker for the U.S. Information Agency in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Lowe holds M.A. and PhD. degrees from Johns Hopkins and a B.A. from Brandeis. He has been an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management and a lecturer on the U.S. Congress for the Graduate School of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Dave Peterson
Senior Director, Africa

Dave Peterson is the Senior Director of the Africa Program of the National Endowment for Democracy, a privately-incorporated, publicly-funded grant-making organization in Washington, DC. Since 1988, he has been responsible for NED's program to identify and assist hundreds of African non-governmental organizations and activists working for democracy, human rights, free press, justice and peace. He was formerly executive director of Project South Africa of the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, and a freelance journalist in Africa and Turkey. He has a BA from Columbia College and an MA from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York, as well as an MA in African Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. He has visited more than 40 African countries since 1984, and has published numerous articles on African politics.

Sabina E. Silkworth
Director of Accounting

Sabina E. Silkworth is the Director of Accounting at the National Endowment for Democracy. Mrs. Silkworth has been with the Endowment since September 1994. Prior to joining the Endowment, Mrs. Silkworth was the Controller at the American Association of Community Colleges and prior to that spent 7 years in government contracting. Mrs. Silkworth directs all accounting operations including all financial reporting and monitoring. She has implemented policies and procedures, ensured compliance with tax laws and regulations and managed the Endowment's annual external audit. Since her arrival, the Endowment has received clean opinions on A-133 audits and audits conducted by the Department of State's Office of Inspector General. A Washington, DC native, Mrs. Silkworth graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Catholic University of America with a B.A. in Financial Management and Summa Cum Laude from George Washington University with a Master of Accountancy. She is married and has four kids and resides in Maryland.