As director, Evan Tracz provides technical leadership and quality assurance for the Communities & Governance practice group at IREX. He leads a global team of over 120 professionals in the areas of good governance, community and civil society development, safe migration, and gender and social inclusion.

Evan brings over 20 years of experience managing and designing civil society, community development, media, technology and security cooperation programs to his leadership of the Communities & Governance practice.

Prior to joining IREX’s senior management team, Evan led IREX implementation of programs under the USAID global CSM-STAND Leader with Associates award. The CSM-STAND programs, with a combined funding ceiling of $452 million, foster innovative design and implementation of civil society and media programming, while partnering with local change agents to foster global learning. During his tenure, IREX launched CSM-STAND programs and activities in El Salvador, South Sudan, Sudan, Guatemala, Georgia, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, and Nepal.  

Before transitioning to the IREX home office, Evan successfully led the USAID Strengthening Media Systems project in Serbia (2018-2022) and launched the five-year USAID and Sida-funded Mediji.Inovacije contract, which have helped independent media outlets bring in over $1 million in new revenue through improved data usage, focused digitalization strategies, audience-based funding models, partnerships and alternative revenue streams. He also managed the Novateca program in Moldova (2011-2018), a seven-year project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that provided Moldovan citizens with access to relevant information and locally tailored services through a network of more than 1,000 modernized public libraries countrywide.

Evan previously served as NATO’s Liaison Officer to Central Asia, facilitating partnerships, projects and political dialogue between NATO and the five Central Asian former-Soviet republics. He also spent four years at the OSCE mission in Turkmenistan as Project Coordinator, where he developed and managed over 100 projects addressing security, economic and community development.

Evan received a MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, a BA in English from Boston University, and served as US Peace Corps volunteer in Turkmenistan.