Marsha McGraw Olive

Marsha McGraw Olive, PhD, is a development practitioner and scholar of Eurasian affairs. A retired World Bank manager, she has served as adjunct faculty at SAIS in European and Eurasian Studies since 2018 and received an Outstanding Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020. In March 2024 she moderated the B5+1 (Business) Forum in Almaty, the first public-private dialogue ever held between the United States and Central Asian states. In 2022, she was awarded a George F. Kennan Fellowship at the Wilson Center to prepare a White Paper for the US Government on US strategy in Central Asia. She is a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center, Trustee of the Eurasia Foundation, and Advisory Board member of the Caspian Policy Center.

Dr. Olive joined the staff of the World Bank’s Board of Directors in 1988 and was selected for the newly-established Soviet team in 1991. After the fall of the Soviet Union, she participated in the Bank’s inaugural mission to Central Asia and joined the first Russia country unit (1992 - 1997). During a nearly thirty-year career, including external service as Senior Vice President of the Eurasia Foundation (1998-2002), she led strategic planning, multi-million-dollar investment portfolios, and small grant programs in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Her Bank service included Acting Country Director in Moscow (2010) and Country Manager in Tajikistan, with the rank of ambassador. During her tenure in Dushanbe (2011 – 2014), she conducted regional consultations on the Rogun Hydropower Project, coordinated the work of over twenty-five development agencies, and received a team award for participation in the CASA-1000 project. Following retirement in 2015, she was the lead consultant for the Bank’s regional strategy in Central Asia (2018-2022).

In her early career, she served as the Soviet non-proliferation officer in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, as Associate Director of the Arms Control Association, and Legislative Assistant in the House of Representatives. She served under Madeleine Albright on the Mondale for President foreign policy team in 1984.

Her publications span a broad career focus on political economy and security studies. She is the author most recently of Owning the City: Property Rights in Authoritarian Regimes (2022, Agenda Publishing) as well as works on Central Asia and nuclear arms control in Europe. 

Dr. Olive earned her Ph.D. (2015) and M.A. (1983) from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and B.A. (1975) at Duke University, where she delivered the Commencement Address. A mezzosoprano, she has performed in philharmonic choruses in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and National Cathedral under leading conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich and Robert Shaw.