Susan CORKE

Susan Corke is currently Director of Programs for Eurasia at Freedom House. This role oversees the strategy and all of Freedom House’s programs in Europe and Eurasia. Ms. Corke is a skilled practitioner in supporting human rights and democratic reform in Europe and Eurasia. Before joining Freedom House, she spent seven years at the State Department, the first two as a Presidential Management Fellow and most recently as the Deputy Director for European Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), where she worked to promote human rights and democratic reform in some of the most repressive countries in the region, and had the lead on Russia. She oversaw the editing for the State Department human rights country reports for Europe (including Russia) and supervised the DRL Europe teams management of 25+ civil society, media, and human rights programs in Europe. In particular, she twice authored the U.S. government’s Democracy Strategy for Russia which was approved by the Interagency policy process.

She also did stints at U.S. Embassy Moscow, U.S. Embassy Prague, in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, and the Bureau of Public Affairs. Prior to the State Department, Ms. Corke helped found and manage the U.S. Foreign Policy Institute at the Elliott School of International of Affairs at George Washington University. She has also worked at the German Marshall Fund and as a media strategist at several advertising agencies in New York. Ms. Corke has a Master’s degree in International Affairs from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and a Bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary.