Jana (Darejan) Javakhishvili is a clinical psychologist who has been working in trauma research, training and treatment since 1995. Since 2002 she has been heavily engaged in the field of conflict transformation as a facilitator for peace building processes in Georgia and the South Caucasus. Jana works with the Foundation Global Initiative on Psychiatry – Tbilisi, directs Institute of Addiction Studies (Addictology) at Ilia State University. She is a co-founder and teacher at the two innovative masters programs in the same university: Mental Health Masters Program (functional since 2012) and Addictology Masters Program (starting in 2015). In June 2013 she was elected as a president of the Georgian Society of Psychotrauma, since July of the same year she became a Board of Directors Member and Secretary of the European Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (https://www.estss.org/about/board/ ). She is a Contact Person for the Dart Centre for Journalism and trauma in the South Caucasus (http://dartcenter.org/staff). She is a co-author and co-editor of a number of books and scientific articles in Georgian, Russian and English published in Georgia, Armenia, England, Norway, Russia and the United States.
Eka Chkonia is an associate professor of psychiatry at Tbilisi State Medical University and a clinical director of the central university hospital “Tbilisi Mental Health Centre”. Since 1999, she has carried out and leaded more than ten collaborative research projects with German, Swiss and Britain colleagues in clinical and social psychiatry and published more than 50 scientific articles in the high ranked medical journals (e.g. Schizophrenia Bulletin, European Neuropsychopharmacology, Plos One, etc.).
She has been awarded with JFDP Junior Faculty Development Program Fellowship at Rutgers University (US, 2010) and Alberto Vilar Medical Internship at the General Hospital (AKH) in Vienna in 2003 and 2012.She has received research grants from the Royal society, Volkswagen Foundation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), The National Centre of Competence in Research (Swiss National Science foundation) and from other national and international foundations. Dr. Eka Chkonia is a president of the Society of Georgian Psychiatrists and an ECNP ambassador in Georgia.
Tamar Gurchiani was born on January 27, 1980. In 2003, she graduated from Tbilisi State University, Sokhumi branch- faculty of Law. During 2004-2010 she worked at The Georgian Young Lawyer’s Association (GYLA) as the coordinator of the information and anti-corruption program.
During 2007-2009 she was the instructor of human rights at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 2010-2011, she graduated and received a Master's degree from the William and Mary College, in Virginia, USA. During the same period she did internship in the following organizations: The National Security Archive and Sunlight Foundation, in Washington, USA. During 2011-2015, she worked as a consultant in various countries in the following areas: human rights, monitoring of elections and capacity building of civil society. Tamar Gurchiani is the blogger of Georgian bureau at the radio Liberty, writing regularly about human rights issues.
Currently, Tamar Gurchiani is the manager of the project “Development of civil society and civic engagement”at the East-West Management Institute”.
She is a board member of the non-governmental organizations: Fair Elections and International Society for Democracy, Georgian Young Lawyers Association and “Orbeliani".
