Kira Ribar
Kira Ribar is a former democratic congressional staffer who worked as the senior director for strategy at the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, a nonprofit entity that was solely funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She previously worked at the National Democratic Institute and worked in foreign policy issues in the office of then-U.S. Representative Bob Menendez (D-NJ). 1 2
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Background
Kira Ribar earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin America Regional Studies from Georgetown University and a master’s in Global Politics and Global Civil Society from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Early in her career, she worked on foreign policy issues for then-U.S. Representative and later U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ); managed private-sector teaching staff in Santiago, Chile while volunteering in a micro-credit program; and worked at Freedom House on a global human rights program where she “helped develop internal policies and procedures for a then-new consortium of rapid response emergency funds.” 1
Ribar was later a program manager at the National Democratic Institute where she ran programs in Colombia, Honduras, and the Andean region. She managed “programs addressing issues of citizen security, political party strengthening, youth and women political engagement, electoral reform, and domestic election observation.” 2
Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening
Kira Ribar is among several former staffers of the National Democratic Institute, including managing director Jerry Lavery and database manager Dad M. Hamdard, who later went to work for the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening, a nonpartisan organization funded by federal international development grants that observes and monitors election infrastructure around the world. It consists of three organizations: the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the International Republican Institute, and the National Democratic Institute. 3 4 1
From 2016 through 2020, the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Elections and Political Transitions (GEPT) award. In January 2022, the GEPT award was ended at USAID. Soon after, CEPPS was given USAID’s Democratic Elections and Political Processes award to continue its funding for five years. 5 6
Ribar was initially administrative director at CEPPS and later became the senior director for strategy and operations at the group. Her now-archived biography on the organization’s website stated that she was “the Senior Director for Strategy and Operations for the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS), which currently holds the Democratic Elections and Political Processes (DEPP) leader with associates awards from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Ms. Ribar has over 16 years of direct experience in the democracy and governance sector, during which she has overseen successful proposal development, donor negotiations and the day-to-day administrative and compliance aspects of large, complex USAID-funded governance programs.” 1
The status of CEPPS and its staff was unclear as of mid-2025, as the organization was targeted by the second Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which announced cancelled contracts in February 2025 including “486M [sic] to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening,” including $22 million for “inclusive and participatory political process” in Moldova and $21 million for voter turnout in India.” 7