Kateryna Chystoforova

Kateryna is a Regional Programme and Grants Associate for Eastern Europe, based in Ukraine. She guides partners through the full journey of regional support, from shaping calls for proposals to onboarding and compliance, and sees each grant as a contribution to a stronger information ecosystem — one capable of supporting independent, public-interest journalism even under pressure. She stays close to the field, gathering insights from reporters, editors, and civic actors that feed into IFPIM’s learning and Eastern Europe strategy, ensuring the Fund’s support responds to real needs on the ground.

Before joining the International Fund, Kateryna spent six years working across Eastern Europe and the EU on media development and the broader challenges of information integrity and epistemic security. She collaborated with local and international NGOs, newsrooms, and public institutions to strengthen democratic resilience amid hybrid and conventional warfare, rapid digital transformation, and democratic backsliding. Her background spans program design, partnership building, and research on disinformation ecosystems — experience that now shapes her approach to supporting sustainable, impactful journalism in one of the world’s most contested information environments.