Marina Mkhitaryan

Marina Mkhitaryan is a development professional with around 20 years’ experience managing international development programs, media outlets and social innovation initiatives. Marina has worked with the OGP Support Unit in the capacity of a program manager in the Eastern Partnership program.

Prior to this, Marina has lead the first social venture incubator at UNDP Armenia – Kolba Social Innovation Lab, managing cutting-edge governance innovations and helping to incubate “acupuncture” solutions through tech start-ups in human rights, environment, urban development and healthcare. She has spent the past six years evangelizing a shift towards human-centered design in public and civic domains, which helped to position Armenia as a leader in open governance fora.

For more than 8 years she has managed a portfolio of programs at Eurasia Partnership Foundation including those on Good Governance, Alternative Media, Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility. She has designed and managed the InfoVillage national network of community-based telecommunication centers.  Marina was also a sessional lecturer of “Negotiations” at the School of Journalism of Yerevan State University. She is also the co-founder of Kiraki Development Foundation, the Armenian chapter of the European Living Labs.

Marina is a frequent public speaker at development and innovation events. Her ideas on gender dimension in development aid were featured in TEDxChange Armenia, and transformed into e-learning courses on Social Innovation. Marina has provided international consultancy across UNDP platforms, applying a strong expertise in governance innovation and system transformation to support innovative reforms in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Serbia, and Syria.

Marina has a dual degree in Philology and Law from the Yerevan State University. She has also completed a mid-career course on International Law and Legal Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University, US). Marina is a fellow of many leadership programs, including UK’s flagship John Smith program, the European Alpbach Program and the Social Leader Program.