Yana Zhambekova is the Ukraine Country Director at Veterinarians Without Borders North America/Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Amérique du Nord.
Yana Zhambekova has joined VWB/VSF in July 2025 as Ukraine Country Director. Yana brings more than twenty years of professional experience in strategic leadership and program oversight of international technical assistance and humanitarian programs funded by donors/agencies and finance institutions. Yana is a certified Project Manager, and her areas of expertise encompasses the design, project implementation, monitoring and evaluation and assessment of needs and opportunities. During this time, she has worked with leading donor and humanitarian organizations, USG, GOU and civil society developing sustainable community-led interventions and initiatives and responding to emergencies.
Yana holds MBA degree from Kyiv National Economic University and a MA degree in Humanities and International Relations from Kyiv National Linguistics University.
In this edition of Ask an Expert, we spoke with Yana Zhambekova, Ukraine Country Director at Veterinarians Without Borders North America (VWB), about the realities facing rural communities, livestock keepers, and veterinarians across Ukraine today.
#VETSVolunteerVoices brings you stories of our passionate VETS program volunteers from the field. Meet Donald Hilborn, an Agricultural Advisor from Ontario who recently completed his third VETS placement in Kenya (March–April 2026) with our local partner, Meru Dairy, supporting small-scale dairy farmers in building more sustainable and resilient feeding systems.
In recognition of International Day for Biological Diversity 2026, VWB reflects on how healthy rangelands, community-led animal health systems, and pastoralist knowledge help sustain resilience across working landscapes worldwide.
