Dr. Maia Mikashavidze

Dr. Maia Mikashavidze is a media and communications professional, scholar and educator. She founded GIPA’s Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2001, and served as its dean until 2011. Under her leadership, the school expanded from a grant-based project designed to educate one hundred Caucasian journalists into one of the leading graduate schools in the Caucasus, launched student Radio GIPA FM and Frontline Media Club. In 2010, Mikashavidze co-founded Management Academy, an executive-level training program in Tbilisi, Georgia. Currently, Maia Mikashavidze is professor of media and communication at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs and the deputy director of Internews’ media support project active in seven countries of the Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

Maia Mikashavidze holds Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of South Carolina, master’s degree in Public Administration from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), and specialist diploma from Tbilisi State Conservatoire. Mikashavidze has received two meritorious honor awards from the U.S. Government, and provided expert media consulting services to the US Government, Council of Europe, OSCE, Freedom House, and other international and local organizations.