You're reading: Most Influential Expats: Christina Pendzola-Vitovych

Christina Pendzola-Vitovych, 39 #19 Most Influential

Christina Pendzola-Vitovych hails from the influential U.S.-based Ukrainian diaspora.

She learned Ukrainian as a child, and marriage took her to Ukraine in 1993, the second full year of post-Soviet independence.

Courtesy photo

She found work at the American Councils for Education, which had just set up in Ukraine the previous year. She has been there ever since, making a big impact on Ukraine’s future generations.

The American Councils is the main player connecting young people and students in Ukraine and across the former Soviet Union with their peers in the United States.

It organizes U.S. government-financed study abroad programs for students, education professionals, independent travelers and local leaders. Her work has opened a window on America for a whole generation of young Ukrainians.

Pendzola-Vitovych became country manager of American Councils in Ukraine in 2002. She can see the results of her work in the many changes that have taken place in the country.

Pendzola-Vitovych names the Orange Revolution, when young Ukrainians spearheaded mass protests against the rigged Nov. 21, 2004, presidential election, as the high point of her career in Ukraine.

The most rewarding part of her work, she said, is helping young people from Ukraine see how things are done in another part of the world, and then watch what they do when they return to their native country.