Management Board

Gulsana Kozhabay – Chair of the Board of the International Center for Interfaith and Interreligious Dialogue

Born in Almaty, Gulsana Kozhabay has more than 20 years of professional experience in analytical work, diplomacy, and international and interreligious cooperation.

Gulsana Kozhabay has held a number of senior positions in Kazakhstan’s public service, including Adviser to the Chairperson of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Deputy Head of the Department of International Cooperation and Protocol at the Senate Office. She has worked in the central office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including as an editor of The Diplomatic Herald of Kazakhstan. She has subsequently served in Kazakhstan’s diplomatic missions in Egypt and Switzerland.

She began her career at Kazakhstan’s leading analytical institutions, including the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Institute of World Economics and Politics. She also served as an election observer in Armenia as part of the OSCE observation mission during the country’s parliamentary elections.

Gulsana Kozhabay graduated from the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University with a PhD in International Relations and Affairs in 2008. She holds a Master’s degree in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, which she completed under the Chevening Programme. Her professional training includes internships with United Nations offices in Geneva, Vienna, and New York, as well as at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in Moscow.

She is a recipient of the state medal “Yeren Enbegi Ushin” and holds the diplomatic rank of Counsellor, Second Class.

Languages: Kazakh, Russian, and English.