J. Walter Veirs

About

Walter Veirs is a senior program officer responsible for grantmaking in the Strengthening Civic Space program area. Based in Mott’s London office, he previously served as regional director for Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, and as program officer responsible for grantmaking in the Western Balkans. He is a board member of Global Dialogue and the Romanian American Foundation. He also serves on advisory groups for the Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme and the Ariadne Network, as well as on the steering committees of the Civitates Fund and the European AI Fund.

Prior to joining Mott in 1998, Veirs worked as a lawyer in private practice in Washington, D.C., and Prague, and as a legal services attorney in Memphis, Tennessee. His interest in civil society development grew from observing the sweeping changes taking place in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s and the important role the civil society sector played in transforming the region.

Before entering college, Veirs spent a year studying abroad as an American Field Service student in Turkey. He is a graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and the University of Virginia School of Law.