About the Kokkalis Program
Founded at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in 1997, the Kokkalis Program is an integrated network of educational, research and outreach activities that aim to enhance the quality of democracy, governance, and institutional vitality in Southeast Europe and neighboring regions. The program works toward this goal by bringing together senior policymakers, scholars and students and training individuals for public leadership and service.
The Kokkalis Program has significantly increased knowledge about the Harvard Kennedy School's degree programs in Southeast Europe at a time when it is critical for the region to foster the training of its human capital in the area studies offered at the School: public administration, public policy, leadership and international development. To date, the Kokkalis Program has supported 42 students from Southeast Europe for master's studies at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS).
Furthermore, the Kokkalis Program has made possible the training of over 250 senior officials from the public and nonprofit sectors in HKS executive training programs on campus and in Athens. HKS executive training programs offer participants leadership and management tools that are critical for advancing important individual and organizational goals in an era when global competencies are essential. The program has also supported student internships and fieldwork, and Harvard faculty and independent research culminating in publications.
Having organized over 200 major lectures at Harvard and in the region, the Kokkalis Program ranks as one of the university's most active and respected programs. The program creates vibrant links between Harvard and Southeast Europe by supporting lectures by prominent leaders - including presidents, prime ministers, Nobel laureates, NGO leaders, journalists, and pioneering academics - from Harvard and the region, in an effort to unite practitioners of public policy and students in debate and knowledge transfer.
Through all of these diverse initiatives, the Kokkalis Program aims to create global networks of communication and cooperation among those vitally concerned with Southeast Europe's advancement, and to provide innovative educational opportunities for the region's human capital.
The program was established by Mr. Socrates Kokkalis, founder and chairman of Intracom Holdings and INTRALOT, the largest Greek multinational technology groups with operations in over 60 countries worldwide. The Kokkalis Program, Kokkalis Foundation, and Athens Institute of Technology are a product of Mr. Kokkalis' visionary commitment to supporting stability and development in the region through education.
A note from the founder
In the last decade we have witnessed overwhelming changes in the international environment. These changes have posed tremendous challenges to the countries of Southeastern and East-Central Europe. To stand up to these challenges a number of reforms should be guided and implemented by highly skilled individuals who will demonstrate leadership, talent, integrity and persistence in serving these goals.
With Kennedy School expertise, we can infuse the next generation of leaders with strong economic, political and moral skills. We can tap into the enormous resources of the School to promote research and build networks for peace, as a way to foster lasting stability and prosperity in the region.
Greece, as the area's oldest and strongest democracy, is intensely interested in the development of open and democratic societies. To this end, I invite all imaginative and visionary people to join this program's efforts.
-Socrates P. Kokkalis
Staff
Brian Mandell, Faculty Chair
Brian Mandell is the Faculty Chair of the Kokkalis Program. He is lecturer in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. His current teaching and research address the theory and practice of negotiation, emphasizing third-party facilitation and consensus building in domestic and international protracted policy disputes. He writes about contentious disputes and is completing a book on scenario planning for conflict managers and negotiation practitioners. Before coming to Harvard, Mandell taught at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. Previously, he was a strategic analyst for the Canadian Department of National Defense, specializing in UN peacekeeping and the implementation of arms control agreements. A Pew Faculty Fellow and Senior Research Associate at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Mandell holds a PhD from the University of Toronto.
E-mail: Brian_Mandell@harvard.edu
Elaine Papoulias, Director
Elaine Papoulias received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Wesleyan University and a Master's Degree in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Her academic training and research focused on international affairs, law and security, Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.
Papoulias, who has served at the Kennedy School since 1999, oversees the Kokkalis Program's strategic operation and development and promotes intellectual engagement with Southeastern Europe across Harvard. She also contributes to the development of advancement strategies related to external university relationships and priorities, particularly those with global scope.
Prior to her post at Harvard, Papoulias worked as a public affairs consultant at the Rasky-Baerlein Group, where she devised and implemented communications and crisis management strategies, as well political, grass-roots and public information campaigns for corporate, non-profit and government clients. Papoulias has served as a U.S. State Department intern at the U.S. Embassy in Athens, a consultant at Cambridge Energy Research Associates and as a training advisor to the Kuwaiti Foreign Service. Her interests include Greek-Turkish relations, terrorism, political Islam and media, politics & public opinion. She speaks Greek fluently and has working knowledge of Persian.
Papoulias co-chairs the Southeastern Europe Study Group at Harvard’s Center for European Studies.
E-mail: Elaine_Papoulias@harvard.edu
Mikhala Stein, Associate Director
Mikhala Stein received a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and a Bachelors Degree in International Relations from Wellesley College. Prior to joining the Kokkalis Program, Ms. Stein worked for a negotiation and alliance management consulting firm, where she worked with clients to consistently achieve better negotiated results, to build and manage stronger partner relationships, and to successfully execute strategies that depend on effective collaboration. Ms. Stein’s professional background has also included work in the fields of international development and conflict management with research and non-governmental organizations based in the United Kingdom, Latvia and the Russian Federation. Her professional interests include the political, economic and social aspects of post-communist transitions; corporate social responsibility; public relations/public affairs.
E-mail: mstein@hks.harvard.edu
Ilyana Sawka, Program Coordinator
Ms. Sawka received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Yale University. Her academic training and research focused on issues of culture, national identity, and migration in modern East and Southeast Europe. While at Yale, she was actively involved with the Hellenic Studies Program; she also completed coursework at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute, and pursued language training in Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Ms. Sawka's interests include language policy, the Black Sea region, and performing arts. She is responsible for organizing the Kokkalis Program's lecture series, publicity of the program's diverse events and activities, and outreach to student groups, academic departments, and other organizations in Boston and worldwide.
E-mail: Ilyana_Sawka@hks.harvard.edu
Andrew Hall, Staff Assistant
Andrew Hall received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Latin from Oberlin College. In addition to Latin language and literature, his other academic interests while at Oberlin were ancient Greek, philosophy, and film studies.
Mr. Hall is responsible for the administrative functioning of the Kokkalis Program, manages the website, and supports program staff directly.
Andrew has a professional background in events as a conference manager at The Ohio State University. Before joining The Kokkalis Program in 2007, Andrew worked as a program manager for a fundraising department in the private offices of Ambassador Swanee Hunt building databases and coordinating administrative support.
E-mail: Andrew_Hall@hks.harvard.edu
Staff
From the Founder
Current Kokkalis Fellows
Harvard Kennedy School
HKS Admissions
HKS Degree Programs
Executive Education
Institute of Politics
Center for European Studies
Kokkalis Foundation
Kokkalis Program
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: +1.617.496.0175
Fax : +1.617.496.5700
kokkalis_program@ksg.harvard.edu