More about Mzia | NISPAcee Information Portal

Mzia Mikeladze was a graduate of the Georgian Polytechnic with her specialisation being information technologies. She received a PhD in IT from the Moscow Institute of Control Problems and an MPA from the Georgian Institute of Public Administration (GIPA). From 1997 to 2002 she served as Dean of GIPA. In 2003-2006 she worked as Director of Civic Education, Youth and Gender Programs at the Urban Institute, an American NGO, which dealt with the improvement of local governance in Georgia with the financial support of USAID. In addition, she was one of the founders of the Caucasus School of Business where she was a Dean of the School and delivered various courses in management for graduate students until her death. In 2003, she became involved in the introduction of the School of Public Administration in Kutaisi, the second largest city of Georgia. The School provides in-service training courses for local government employees. Mzia developed a curriculum, participated in the selection of the Director and faculty and served as Head of the Governing Board of the School. In 2006, she became an Administrative Director of the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET). This is a two-year graduate program in economics, introduced through a World Bank initiative. At the same time, she served as a Deputy Director of ISET. She was also a member of the Governing Board at the Centre for Training and Consultancy (CTC). Since 1997, Mzia was involved in various short-term projects dealing with the Georgian government and the ongoing public sector reforms.

Mzia Mikeladze served on the NISPAcee Steering Committee from 2001 to 2004 and was re-elected as a member of the Steering Committee in 2006 and again in 2009. She served as NISPAcee’s President from 2006-2008 and was re-elected to this position in 2010. In all her capacities she was a constant contributor to NISPAcee’s development and helped achieve the organisation’s recognition not only in the region, but world-wide.

Though in no way complete, this list of her achievements is certainly remarkable. Were it not for her sudden and premature death, Mzia would have continued to impress us all through her determination to make things happen and change things for the better.

With Mzia’s sudden passing, her family, Georgia, NISPAcee and the entire international community has lost an extraordinary personality who devoted her life to making this a better world. She was not only a prominent person and irreplaceable professional, but also an open, cheerful, friendly, human personality, always ready to provide help and support.

We will keep her in our minds and our hearts and we will always regard it as an honour and privilege to have known her personally. NISPAcee will follow Mzia’s vision and work hard towards the improvement of governance in the region to achieve a better life for all.