Gretchen Birkle
Director, Women's Democracy Network

Gretchen Birkle returned to the International Republican Institute (IRI) in June of 2006 to fill the newly created position of Director of the Women's Democracy Network. In that role, Gretchen oversees IRI's initiative to empower women for greater participation in their country's political and civic life. The network reaches women in developing democracies around the world.

Prior to her return to IRI, Birkle served as Senior Coordinator in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), a position she held since June 2004. In DRL, Birkle oversaw the implementation of the bureau's human rights and democracy funding and programs, and coordinated the department's democracy promotion strategies with regional bureaus. She also served as the senior DRL representative on issues related to labor diplomacy and human rights violations in Darfur, Sudan.

Prior to joining DRL, Gretchen worked for more than five years at IRI as Deputy Director for Eurasia Programs. Birkle managed the organization's activities in nine countries of the former Soviet Union. She conducted the Institute's first in-country programming in Belarus, and helped develop IRI's flagship offices in Central Asia.

Birkle also served as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) from 1997 to 1999. While working on Capitol Hill, she covered defense, foreign affairs and energy issues for the Senator, and managed the Senator's appropriations requests on the Defense and Foreign Operations Subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee.

Birkle developed her expertise on international energy policy through her work at Ogilvy, Adams & Rinehart, where she specialized in assisting nonprofit and corporate clients in the energy industry between 1993 and 1997. She began her work in international affairs as an Editorial Assistant at a regional business magazine in 1992 where she wrote extensively on investment risks and opportunities in the former Soviet Union.

Birkle has a bachelor's degree in political science from Pennsylvania State University and a master's degree in international relations with a specialization in Soviet studies from The Johns Hopkins University, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. She speaks Russian and has carried out extensive fieldwork in Belarus and Ukraine.