Lala Zinkevych joined the Basel Institute on Governance in October 2024 as a Programme Manager. She brings over 15 years of experience leading governance and human rights programmes across Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Before joining the Basel Institute, Lala served as a Programme and Policy Adviser with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), where she led large-scale protection and recovery programmes in Ukraine. Previously, she managed multimillion democracy support programmes at the National Democratic Institute and advised the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice in Washington, D.C., with a focus on anti-corruption and justice sector reforms in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus.

From 2015 to 2018, Lala supported key governance, anti-corruption and information security reforms as part of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine’s Reforms Office.

Lala holds a Master of Science in Social Policy from the University of Oxford.