Melissa Estok

Melissa Estok "has more than 15 years experience in democratic development and grassroots community development. She specializes in elections and election monitoring, civil society development, civic education, and project design, implementation and evaluation. Ms. Estok is internationally recognized as an expert on quick counts or parallel vote tabulations. She has particular expertise in building volunteer networks to monitor elections and to implement related programs to strengthen democracy.

"Ms. Estok is a skilled trainer and has designed training programs to promote the participation of women in politics and to build the skills of young political party leaders on several continents. While living in Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama and Yemen, she has been a principal technical advisor to civic groups. She also has provided technical assistance to civic organizations and political parties in Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Russia and Venezuela.

"Ms. Estok has worked for more than 10 years as a senior advisor, consultant and senior program officer at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). She also has worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department and other organizations to evaluate democracy assistance, design democracy and governance programs, and assist nonprofit organizations with strategic planning. Ms. Estok was a trainer for the U.S. Peace Corps and a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1988 to 1992. She has an M.A. in Counseling Psychology and a B.A. in International Relations and Spanish. Ms. Estok currently lives and works in Panama." 

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