Ann Tsurtsumia-Zurabashvili, is Marie Curie Fellow at Dublin City University, and has extensive experience working in international development projects in Georgia. She led the Political Party Assistance Programme at the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and Parliamentary Communications Center at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) (2009-2013). She has served as a Policy Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Security and International Studies (GFSIS) (2011-2012).
Ann has expertise in strategic planning: in 2012 she contributed to the book Strategic Planning for Political Parties: A Practical Tool as a researcher. In 2012-2013 she provided strategic planning consultancy to the biggest watchdog in Georgia, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), and the East-West Management Institute. Furthermore, Ann has contributed to number of research projects on strategic planning in political parties, achieving gender balance in the parliament and the role of civil society in policy formulation.
Ann brings a long and successful track record in youth activism: she is a co-founder of European Youth Parliament – Georgia and a Supervisory Board Member of Youth Atlantic Treaty Organization. She has taught modules on EU Welfare Regimes and Strategic Planning at Ilia State University (Georgia). She holds and MA in European Studies from Tallinn/Tampere Universities, and BA in International Relations from Tbilisi State University.