Elaine Papoulias named executive director of CES

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies is very pleased to announce that Elaine Papoulias has been selected as its new executive director. Papoulias is the former director of the Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe at the Harvard Kennedy School, and is a long-time affiliate of CES and co-chair of the center’s Southeastern Europe Study Group.

Papoulias received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a MALD from Tufts University. During her tenure at the Kokkalis Program, she enabled more than 600 individuals from Southeast Europe to participate in educational programs at HKS. Prior to Harvard, she worked as a public affairs consultant at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, a researcher at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an educational adviser to the Kuwaiti Foreign Service, and at the U.S. Embassy in Athens. Her research interests include democratization and development in the former Yugoslavia and Turkey.

Founded in 1969, CES is an interdisciplinary research institution dedicated to fostering the study of modern European history, politics, culture, and society. As the new executive director, Papoulias will be tasked with providing strategic leadership and management at the center and developing new programs and initiatives to advance the academic, research, and programmatic mission of the center.