Sandra Stanic joined ISC in July 2006 as a Consultant to help launch the start-up of ISC's Civil Society Advocacy Initiative (CSAI) Program in Serbia. From November 2006, Sandra worked as a Civil Society Specialist with managerial responsibilities over the ISC Grants Team and the entire grants program. As of November 2009, Sandra has worked in the capacity of Deputy Chief of Party for Programs. Her duties and responsibilities include the following: management of day-to-day operations of the CSAI program, including supervision of grant-making, technical assistance, outreach activities, coordination with local implementing partners and strategic guidance on all program-related activities.

Sandra has over 13 years of professional experience in grant-making, civil society programming and managing multi-year USAID-funded programs (both within USAID and as a contractor/grantee). She has considerable programmatic expertise ranging from CSO development, technical assistance design, and grant management to developing awareness raising campaigns. Prior to joining ISC, Sandra held the position of Senior Grants Officer for the Freedom House Democracy and Transition Reform Program in Serbia, designed to support civil society organizations to develop their capacities in becoming strong advocates to drive Serbia’s reform agenda, political transformation, and regional integration.

Between 1997 and 2002, Sandra worked as a Senior Program Development Officer for USAID’s Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI) which provided support to independent media and non-profit organizations in developing democratic practices and rule of law. She managed civil society grants ranging from civil society institutional development, human rights reporting, refugee return and reintegration, legal aid, networking, community improvement projects to public information and GOTV campaigns. As part of OTI’s Pace of Reform 2002 program aimed at increasing the pace of reforms and citizens’ participation in political processes, Sandra managed a large coalition of community based CSOs, reform and marketing experts and media outlets working together on a public education campaign targeting five key reform areas: anti-corruption, economic reform, judicial reform, local self-government reform, and minority rights protection.