Principal

Natalija Stamenkovic is a seasoned development professional who has also had a significant legal career in the US.  As an attorney in the US, Ms. Stamenkovic worked for the US State Department Office of Counsel to the Inspector General.  In 1996, she joined the Office of the Public Defender for the State of Maryland and later started her own private practice. She entered the development field in 2000 with UNHCR, where she served as a Senior Legal Advisor to the UNHCR mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  She assisted in the return and reintegration of over 15,000 refugees during the three years of her service. In 2004, Ms. Stamenkovic served as the Senior Prosecutorial Reform Advisor for the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Later in 2005-2007, Ms. Stamenkovic  was asked to join the U.S. Agency for International Development as a Senior Rule of Law Advisor to the Europe and Eurasia Bureau. In that role, she provided extensive guidance to the USAID missions in Kosovo, Serbia, Georgia and Azerbaijan to design new rule of law strategies, monitor and evaluate existing projects and develop and draft solicitations for new programs. From 2008-2010,   Ms. Stamenkovic is the original founder and CEO of Development Professionals Inc.  She runs the day to day operations of DPI and is responsible for providing guidance and backstopping to projects in Serbia, Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast,  and South Africa.  Her technical expertise specialized in criminal institutional reform and legal aid for vulnerable populations.  She has also been a team leader in over 40 evaluations of large donor funded rule of law programs in Bangladesh, Lebanon, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Laos and many other countries.    She is fluent in Serbo-Croatian and Russian.