CASANDRA BISCHOFF East European Studies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004-3027 Tel: 202-691-4084, Fax: 202-691-4001 Emails: BischoffC@wwic.si.edu, Mail@casandra.info

Career synopsis

Policy research and project management with six years experience of working with international organizations, government, NGOs, and academia. Primary strengths include: research, strategy and planning design; client orientation; innovative solutions to move a project from concept to successful implementation; partnership/consensus building.

Professional summary

Accomplishments (selection)

Policy research - publications

"Local Administration Reform: Decentralizing and Monitoring the Process” (forthcoming): Contributed to the chapter on decentralizing the social assistance system in Romania. The paper identifies policy options for decentralizing the public services and the fiscal intergovernmental system in Romania (www.grasp.ro).

“Why laid off people won’t take new jobs?” (forthcoming): The policy paper looks at how household vulnerability impacts the participation of former miners and their families in social mitigation programs designed by the government. The paper argues that the passive attitude towards existing and coming policies is determined by high social and economic vulnerability, which makes any behavioral change outside familiar patterns too difficult to make (http://www.policy.hu/bischoff/international.html).

‘Determinants of entrepreneurship in France”: paper written at the Institute for Development Strategies, Indiana University, in collaboration with an Erasmus University team. Looked at economic and non-economic factors that determined the dynamic of entrepreneurship in France between 1964 until present (http://www.spea.indiana.edu/ids/pdfholder/ISSN-01-4.pdf).

“Romania’s Readiness to the Networked World”: Based on a methodology of CID at Harvard University the paper assesses the countries’ “readiness to the networked world” and offers policy recommendations(http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciditg/resources/guide.html)

Creative problem solving in project management

Under the GRASP objective to assist local government increase efficiency of social services, worked on the design and implementation of a complex technical assistance package for local government managers and NGO leaders in three counties in Romania (Salaj, Bihor, Arad).

Designed a one-year External Affairs Strategy for the World Bank office in Bucharest, through interviews with the staff and focus groups with external stakeholders.

Managed all aspects of a pilot project “Capacity Building for the Serbian Communications Departments” which involved needs assessment, choosing a client-oriented methodology, one-to-one consulting work to increase the strategic management skills of the Directors of the Communications Departments in 7 reform ministers in Serbia. The results of the pilot will be used for designing a more comprehensive capacity building program using local expertise.

Facilitated, built support in Romania for a partnership between the Presidency, the Parliament, the Cabinet and the academia, and ran the Interns in Romanian Public Institutions project. Identified a new host for the program and facilitated the transition to the new organization, Pro Democracy Association. The project has become nation-wide and helps some 100 students yearly become young professionals in the most prestigious public institutions in Romania.

EDUCATION

Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Bloomington IN, May 2001

University of Bucharest - Dept. of Social Communication and Public Relations, Romania

LANGUAGES