Dr. Marsha McGraw Olive

Marsha McGraw Olive, Ph.D., is a scholar and practitioner of Russian and Eurasian affairs. She is currently on the faculty of Johns Hopkins SAIS, an Advisory Board member of the Caspian Policy Center and Eurasia Foundation, and Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. In March 2024 she moderated the B5+1 Forum in Almaty, the first public-private dialogue ever held in Central Asia. Earlier she received a George F. Kennan Fellowship to develop a new US regional strategy in Central Asia. Dr. Olive’s thirty-year career in the region began in 1991-92, when she joined the newly-created Soviet unit in the World Bank and participated in its first mission to Central Asia. She led strategic planning and managed investment and grant portfolios in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia with the World Bank and as Senior Vice President of the Eurasia Foundation. As the Bank’s Country Manager in Tajikistan, she participated in major regional infrastructure and water projects such as CASA-1000 and the Rogun Dam feasibility study. From 2018-2022 she was the lead consultant on the World Bank’s Regional Engagement Framework for Central Asia (REFCA). Dr. Olive earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins SAIS. She is the author of monographs on Russia and Central Asia. Her most recent book is Owning the City: Property Rights in Authoritarian Regimes (Agenda Publishing 2022).