Directors and Officers

Jeanne Bourgault serves as Internews Network’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Senior Vice President for Programs, overseeing the operation of Internews’ 23 offices and programs worldwide. Bourgault joined Internews in 2001 as Vice President for Programs. Her expertise is in democracy promotion and media development. 

Prior to joining Internews, Bourgault served for six years with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (1990-1996), including three years working on Latin America programs followed by three years as Director of the Office of Democratic Initiatives at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.  While in Moscow, Bourgault managed a $250 million portfolio of democracy assistance and educational exchange programs through a period of dramatic democratic transition, including an attempted coup and Russia’s first democratic parliamentary elections.

From 1997-2000, Bourgault worked in the former Yugoslavia, serving as a strategic advisor for media development programs in post-war Kosovo, as well as manager of community development projects in Serbia and Montenegro.  In late 2000, Bourgault re-opened USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives program in Belgrade following the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.

Bourgault has consulted on international development program design and evaluation to the Open Society Institute, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Research Triangle Institute, and the United Nations Centre for Human Rights, among others.

Bourgault speaks Russian and holds a Master of Arts in International Studies and a Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Washington.