Olena Vlasova
Senior Project Manager
Public Administration Reform and European Integration
Olena has fourteen years of experience in managing international projects and leading сross-sectoral teams. She coordinates areas of cooperation between the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (SCMU), central executive bodies (CEBs), and international partners, as well as the preparation of analytical materials for the endorsement of the Public Administration Reform Strategy 2026-2030. Olena has initiated and organised events focused on public administration reform within international platforms, including the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin (2024) and Rome (2025). She has professional experience in scaling up projects, negotiating international support, change management and crisis response.
Before joining the Recovery and Reform Delivery Office of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Olena (since 2011) served as Senior Manager for the Media Partnership Programme in Ukraine at the international organisation IREX, where she also led Information resilience and grant funds for civil society organisations and media outlets. Following the onset of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine, she designed and managed a rapid response support fund for media, NGOs and communities in frontline regions of Ukraine.
In 2023, Olena mentored a Ukrainian group within the CAS Rebuild Ukraine project, which provides Ukrainians with practical recovery skills through leading Swiss universities.
In 2014, she co-founded the NGO “Professional Government Association” (PGA), and since 2023 has served as Chair of the Board. The organisation focuses on uniting Ukrainian alumni of international universities around the agenda of reforms in Ukraine – especially public administration reform – through advocacy for competitive recruitment processes, drafting of legislation, and cooperation with the Government of Ukraine and National agencies.
Olena is co-author of several PGA studies:
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2019: Organisational Culture of the Civil Service (in partnership with the SCMU, Stanford University and Kyiv School of Economics);
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2024: Youth Engagement Strategy for the Civil Service (in partnership with the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service and EU4PAR).
She has developed PGA’s international hubs and business model, engaging international partners in joint events and successfully securing the organisation’s first grant project in 2025 (PAR4UA), aimed at supporting public administration reform and building a civil society coalition around the reform agenda.
From 2002 to 2011, Olena combined her studies and professional practice in Germany, the Czech Republic, the United States, and Brussels, where she interned at the Mission of Ukraine to the EU and the European Parliament. In Germany, she worked on a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Olena holds four higher education degrees, namely English and History, Translation, Public Administration, and Euroculture. She is a recipient of an ERASMUS scholarship and a FLEX Alumna, and has completed additional training in conflict resolution (Fletcher School, USA), digital governance (University of Tartu, Estonia)