Kristen Sample

Kristen Sample is the Director of NDI's Democratic Governance team. Ms. Sample has more than 20 years of experience in democratic governance programming. During her previous tenure as Director of Global Programs for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), she was responsible for overseeing the Institute’s global comparative research in elections, parties and parliaments, constitution building, gender and diversity, and democracy “delivery” for development. During 2004-2012, Ms. Sample was International IDEA’s Senior Programme Officer and Head of Mission for the Andean Region was based in Lima with oversight for programming and activities in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In deeply polarized contexts, her team supported political reform and democratic dialogue efforts aimed at inclusion, anti-corruption, legislative strengthening and economic development. She also coordinated International IDEA’s gender and democracy activities throughout Latin America, including election observation with the Organization of American States, media monitoring with UN Women, and political party benchmarking with the Inter-American Development Bank and UN Development Program.

From 2014-2019, Ms. Sample worked as a consultant and evaluator for NDI, UN Democracy Fund, UN Women, Inter-American Development Bank, Open Society Foundations, Club de Madrid, Global Partners Governance, Resonance Global, and others. She has also published extensively on issues related to anti-corruption, citizen security, political representation, and gender