Dr. Elez Biberaj is the Eurasia Division Director, responsible for VOA’s multimedia programming targeting Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and the Balkans. Under his direction, the Eurasia Division achieved steady audience growth across broadcast and digital properties and expanded a network of top-rated national affiliates and media partners in the target area. From June 2020 to December 2020, Dr. Biberaj served as Acting VOA Director.
In response to audience consumption habits and content distribution challenges posed by Russian authorities, Dr. Biberaj accelerated the Eurasia Division’s shift toward engaging digital audiences, harnessing the power of mobile and social platforms. He also worked closely with his counterparts at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to create the Current Time network, the first joint VOA/RFE/RL programming brand in the history of U.S. international broadcasting, launched to provide fact-based alternatives to Russian-language disinformation.
Dr. Biberaj began his career in VOA in December 1980 as an international radio broadcaster in the Albanian Service and later worked in the Press Division of the former U.S. Information Agency as a senior writer/editor specializing in Soviet and East European affairs. Dr. Biberaj returned to VOA as Albanian Service chief in 1986, and for the next 18 years, helped the service develop into one of VOA’s most successful broadcasting units. For more than a decade, he served in dual capacity as chief of the Albanian Service and director of VOA’s European Division writers and researchers. Dr. Biberaj was named the Eurasia Division’s managing editor in 2004, served as acting division director the following year, and was appointed division director in 2006.
He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University and is the author of four books, including Albania in Transition: The Rocky Road to Democracy.
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