Lisa Coll is president of Eurasia Foundation. Prior to this role, she was vice president of EF’s Washington, DC office, where she was responsible for overseeing EF's program portfolio and helping EF achieve its strategic goals. She has over 20 years of international development experience in the democracy and governance sector. Since 2001, Coll has played a key role at Eurasia Foundation, including guiding the localization of EF’s regional offices between 2004 and 2010 and spearheading the development of the Capacity Mapping Assessment tool, an organizational assessment method custom-built for EF’s partner foundations. She sits on the board of the East Europe Foundation in Moldova. From 1999-2001, Coll served as EF’s Central Asia director, based in Tashkent, overseeing a small grants program in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Prior to joining EF, Coll spent four years in Russia working on various development projects, including an electricity sector reform project implemented by the International Finance Corporation and a program to strengthen health-care civil society organizations across the Russian Federation. She holds an M.A. in comparative and regional studies of Russia and Central Eurasia from American University’s School of International Service and a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Russian language and literature. Coll is proficient in Russian.

Rob O’Donovan is vice president of Eurasia Foundation. Prior to this role, O'Donovan served as senior director of programs, where he oversaw an innovative portfolio of civil society and e-governance programs in Ukraine, Russia, China, and the Middle East. He previously served as EF's director of civic engagement and governance and director of business development, where he helped launch EF’s U.S.-Russia Social Expertise Exchange and civil society strengthening program in Belarus. Before shifting to program development in 2010, O’Donovan served as EF’s senior program and evaluation officer in Washington, DC, where he regularly assessed the organizational capacity of EF’s legacy foundations across the Eurasia region. From 2001–2006, O’Donovan was based in Tbilisi, Georgia, and led EF’s South Caucasus Cooperation Program, a cross-border initiative strengthening connections among leading civil society organizations from the region.

O’Donovan got his start in international development as a Peace Corps volunteer in southeast Kazakhstan (1996 – 1998) and has also worked for Chemonics International in Washington, DC. He received a B.A. in English literature from the University of Vermont, an M.S. in development management from American University, and is fluent in Russian. 

Hrach Topalyan is director of Eurasia Foundation's Education, Leadership, and Exchange division, where he oversees a portfolio of projects in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United States. Prior to joining Eurasia Foundation, Topalyan worked with the International Executive Service Corps, the World Bank, and the Duke Center for International Development on various development projects in Eurasia. He holds a master's in international development policy from Duke University and bachelor's and master's in political science from the Russian-Armenian Slavonic University in Yerevan, Armenia. Topalyan is fluent in Armenian and Russian.

Sara Shirzad is senior director of Eurasia Foundation’s Innovative Training Solutions division, where she leads the development and implementation of technology-based training programs suitable for locations with limited bandwidth and accessibility. Since joining Eurasia Foundation in 2012, Shirzad has developed and managed numerous training programs aimed at empowering community leaders to identify novel solutions for pressing problems, such as poverty, youth underemployment, health issues, and exclusion of minority groups, including persons with disabilities. These programs have built the capacity of local organizations to protect and address their constituents’ needs more effectively by engaging beneficiaries and other key stakeholders.

Before joining EF, Shirzad worked as the co-founder and managing director of a leading recruitment, assessment, and training consultancy firm, where she led HR consulting projects for industry-leading companies such as Danone, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, as well as international organizations such as UNICEF. She holds an advanced degree in Human Resources Management from the University of Bolton, UK, where she completed her dissertation on Innovative Training and Development Techniques with a first-class mark.