Timothy Blauvelt, Ph.D., Country Director

Tim first came to Georgia as an American Councils Outbound Scholar, to conduct research on his Ph.D. dissertation in 1999-2000. He then returned to Georgia in the 2002-03 academic year as a Visiting Fulbright Scholar, and lectured on American Foreign Policy at the Tbilisi Institute for Asia and Africa, the American Studies Center of Tbilisi State University, and at the Independent Diplomatic Academy. Besides Georgia, Tim has worked and studied in Russia and Ukraine, and worked as a program administrator for the International Soros Science Education Project at George Mason University in Virginia.

Irma Barbakadze, Ph.D. - JFDP, Open World Program Coordinator

Irma is a 1999 alumna of the Community Connections program. At that time, American Councils administered the program in Georgia. She has worked in the Tbilisi office as the Program Coordinator for the Community Connections (CC) from March 1999 till September 2000. She used to be Program Coordinator for Awards for Excellence in Teaching (TEA) and Partners in Education (PiE) for several years. Currently Irma is busy with the JFDP and OW programs.

Maya Giorgadze – Programs Assistant

Maya Giorgadze is FLEX alumna 2005. One year she studied in Perry High School, and lived with her host family in Perry, NY.As she says she had a great year and gained a good experience in the USA. Then she returned to Georgia and was accepted at Georgian Technical University, majoring in Business Relations.
As an alumna, she has participated in numerous activities and was awarded as the most active alumna of 2005. Currently, she works as a Programs Assistant and at the same time supervises numerous kind of Paper Based Tests at American Councils.
Maya enjoys working for American Councils, in this wonderful and friendly environment.

Tamila Vatcharadze won FLEX program in 2000. She graduated from Kutaisi St. Nino Gymnasium and has spent 2000-2001 years studying as a Senior at South Salem High school, state of Oregon. In 2006 she graduated from State Technical University and obtained her BA in International Communications. Tamila has over 8 years experience working in Social field, project writing and supervising. She recently received her MA degree in Public Administration as a GIPA graduate.

Eka Rostomashvili – Program Coordinator, GHSEP

Eka is a successful alumna of FLEX program as part of which she spent 2005-2006 year in Greenville, Michigan. Upon returning in Georgia, Eka became active in alumni association and took part in organizing of several grant projects, as well as initiated some events.
Currently Eka is in her fourth year of the BA program in Political Science at Tbilisi State University. Besides for FLEX, she has studied abroad on another scholarship exchange program at the University of Tartu, Estonia for a year. Spheres of Eka’s special interest are minority studies and human rights.
She first started working at American Councils as an intern. In June, 2009 Eka was hired to assist with the administration of GHSEP and FLEX programs, both secondary school exchange programs. As of January , 2010 Eka performs as a Coordinator for GHSEP program.

Zura has worked at the American Councils as a Test Center Administrator since April 2000. He is thoroughly trained and familiar with the administrative instructions and very much enjoys working at the test center because of the friendly atmosphere at the American Councils office. He has composed a list of English synonyms and plans to publish them. He likes traveling, meeting new people, sports, reading, photographing, etc. He travels a lot and meets many people from different cultures and gains a lot of experience by meeting people from different nations. He hopes that the test center will be enlarged and that more examinees will have the opportunity to take computer-based tests.

Erekle Mardaleishvili - Financial Manager

Erekle Mardaleishvili has worked at American Councils since September 2002. Previously he worked as a consultant on accountant reform issues in Georgia for Sibley International, a USAID contractor, and as a financial manager for Overseas Strategic Consulting (OSC). Erekle enjoys music, sport, politics, and studying foreign languages. He is always eager to improve and further develop his knowledge. He is happy to work with the pleasant staff members at American Councils in Georgia.

Ani Bochorishvili - Alumni Coordinator

Ani Bochorishvili is a FLEX alumna of 2008, spending her FLEX year in Athens, Ohio, as a senior at Athens High School. Nowadays, she studies at Tbilisi State University, Economic Faculty. Both, in US and Georgia, she’s been actively involved in various types of activities, such as community work/volunteering, school clubs, sports teams, etc.. Therefore, it’s not surprising that as an alumni coordinator, her plans include organizing charity actions, FLEX clubs, seminars with interesting guest speakers, parties, sports competitions and even summer camps and reunions.