Nix Stephen

Stephen NIX is the Regional Program Direction for the Eurasia Program at International Republican Institute (IRI). He joined IRI in October 2000, and currently he oversees programs in Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine. Prior to IRI, he served for two years as the Senior Democracy Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Mr. Nix is a specialist in political party development and judicial and legal reform in the former Soviet Union. During the three years of living in Kyiv, Mr. Nix served as outside legal counsel for the Committee on Legal Reform in the Ukrainian Parliament. He also assisted in the drafting of crucial reform legislation in Ukraine, including the constitution of Ukraine, the presidential and parliamentary election laws, and the law on the Constitutional court of Ukraine. Additionally, Mr. Nix served as a member of the Parliamentary Special Committee on the Law on the Election of Deputies in Ukraine. He held lectures on electoral law and judicial reform in a number of law schools throughout Ukraine. In 2008, Mr. Nix served on the litigation team for Presidential Campaign of John McCain and was posted to Columbus, Ohio. Prior, he served as legal counsel to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Ukraine and Russia and has written extensively on legal and political reforms in the region. Among his publications is The Compendium of Election Laws of Central and Eastern Europe (1994). From 1989 to 1994, he worked in the litigation section of the law firm of Baker & Hostetler in Washington, DC, where he specialized in election law and international law. Prior to entering the practice of law, Mr. Nix served as Midwest Field Director for the National Republican Congressional Committee and was the campaign manager for the Republican candidate in Indiana’s Second Congressional District. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1989.