Mischere Kawas was sworn in as Senior Development Advisor for USAID/Albania in May 2021.
Prior to her assignment to Albania, Ms. Kawas served as the USAID Country Representative to Turkmenistan. There, she served as the Ambassador's Senior Development Advisor, Interagency Country Assistance Coordinator, and Mission Disaster Relief Officer among other roles.
A career Foreign Service Officer, Ms. Kawas previously served as the USAID Desk Officer for the South Caucasus countries of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan and also supported USAID/Haiti via a long-term TDY assignment in Port-au-Prince. Her overseas tours include Kosovo, Peru, and the former USAID Regional Mission in Hungary, from which she supported North Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, and Cyprus.
Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Kawas worked as a legal intern at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva, Switzerland and at the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security in Washington DC. Ms. Kawas served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in both Nepal and Vanuatu, where she specialized in the field of education. She has a B.A. from the University of Florida and a J.D. from Georgetown University.
Ms. Kawas is a resident of Sarasota, Florida, where her family still resides. A native English speaker, she has attained professional proficiency in French, Spanish, and Russian.