 Daniel
Blessington, a native of
Boston, Massachusetts, has worked in the Balkans since
1996 in the areas of electoral, public and international
law and administration.
He became the IFES Project Director for Macedonia in July
2000. Prior to working in Macedonia, he served in Pristina
as legal advisor to the Director of Election Operations
and Head of Registration under the authority of the United
Nations Mission in Kosovo.
Previously he was a member of the OSCE Kosovo Verification
Mission. In 1998, he became the first director of the IFES
Field Office in Tirana, Albania. In 1996, he served as Chief
Prosecutor of the Election Appeals Sub-Commission in
Sarajevo, a quasi-judicial body that enforced the electoral
provisions of the Dayton Agreement.
He has also worked on democracy projects in Armenia,
Montenegro, Uzbekistan, Kyrghizstan and Ukraine. From 1979
to 1993, he was an attorney with the Federal Election
Commission in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Blessington holds an LL.M. in International and
Comparative Law from Georgetown University Law Center in
Washington, D.C. He is the author of From Dayton to
Sarajevo: Enforcing Election Law in Post War Bosnia and
Herzegovina, 13 Am. U. Int'l L. Rev. (1998).
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 Hristina Koneska-Beroska, has served as a Program Coordinator at the IFES Macedonia
office since 2000. In addition to being the top assistant
to the project director, she has established working relationships
with SEC members. She is also responsible for maintaining
contact with representatives from the political parties
and other state institutions involved in the preparation
and conduct of elections. Before working for IFES, she
worked as a Project Coordinator for the Center for Civic
Initiative, a local NGO. She was also involved in several
domestic election observation missions within
Macedonia. She has a degree in English from Skopje’s
Cyril and Methodius University.
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 Jelena
Stefanovic-Bogdanovska
joined the IFES Macedonia office in February of 2001 as
a Program Assistant. During the 2002 Parliamentary
Elections she served as an assistant to the Voter
Education Consultant and was involved in the development
and preparation of the voter education materials. She is
a point of contact for state bodies and organizations
with whom IFES cooperates. She is also responsible for
coordinating the flow of correspondence, reports and
other documents, and for maintaining the IFES Resource
Center. She has also worked for other USAID projects
such as the Public Administration Project in Macedonia
and the Macedonian Business Resource Center. She has a
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Bojan Dumaloski, a student at Cyril and
Methodius University in Skopje, has been with IFES since
July 2000. He serves as the IT/Finance Coordinator. He
oversees computer and website maintenance and is responsible
for financial reporting. He also helps with translation,
preparation of statistical data and procurement.
Dumaloski also provided technical support to the
voter registration observation and his multifaceted contributions
to the program were essential to its success.
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 Mirjana
Krsteska, joined the IFES Macedonia office in May 2003 as
a Legal Program Assistant. Her work involves legal analysis
of the legislation, drafting legal documents and advising
on domestic law. Ms. Krsteska graduated from the Faculty
of Law in Skopje in 2000. Prior to joining IFES she worked
in a law firm and private company in Skopje.
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INTERNATIONAL
CONSULTANTS
 Catherine Barnes served as voter education advisor to the SEC in
Macedonia for elections in 2000 and 2002. She entered
the democracy and governance sector in 1990 and has subsequently
worked in 24 countries throughout Central Europe, Eurasia,
and Asia. Her expertise includes public information,
outreach and advocacy; political party development; electoral
reform; and NGO sector support. She is experienced
in the areas of design and implementation as well as project
management and evaluation, both at headquarters and in
the field.
Ms. Barnes has been established as a consultant since
1997, specializing primarily in public information campaigns
and project management in transitional countries. Ms.
Barnes holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication
and Political Science from the University
of Delaware and has completed coursework toward a Master’s
in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She
has authored several articles on political developments
in and foreign assistance to the Balkans and the former
Soviet Union.
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 Bruce
Hatch,
an IFES consultant for several years, has worked in the
area of election operations and logistics since 1993.
In his capacity as Operations Advisor to the State Election
Commission of Macedonia, he coordinated election material
supply and logistics for the 2002 Parliamentary Elections
and 2003 special local elections.
He is a member of the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) Participatory Elections Project’s technical team
with responsibility for developing an overview of the
practices, standards and policy issues surrounding forced
migration and post-conflict elections. He worked
as IOM’s Operations Coordinator on refugee voting in Kosovo
and Serbia.
Hatch has been an operations and logistics advisor to
election commissions in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania,
and Haiti, and to implementing agencies in Bosnia, Kosovo,
East Timor, and Serbia.
He holds a degree in Business Administration.
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 Steven Gray is a dual citizen of
New Zealand and the United States. Steven has over 25
years of experience in program evaluation and training
having worked for non-profit, governmental and philanthropic
organizations in North America, Africa, Asia, New Zealand
and Europe.
He served as Training Consultant to IFES Macedonia for
the 2002 general elections. He has also served as an election
training expert in Ghana, Bangladesh, Albania and Yemen.
The focus of his work is helping local, national, and
international organisations improve their effectiveness
in responding to critical social issues facing their communities.
He has an M.A. in Public Affairs from the Hubert H. Humphrey
Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Steven’s client list is diverse and, in addition to IFES,
includes the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade; Oxfam New Zealand; Minnesota Department of Health;
United States Peace Corp; the Environmental Support Center;
the Minnesota HIV Services Planning Council; the American
Refugee Committee; and numerous community and neighbourhood
organizations.
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