Gretchen Mikeska

Ms. Mikeska is a licensed Civil and Environmental Engineer with over 17 years’ experience managing and delivering technical assistance for large-scale, international development projects in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the former Soviet Union, Asia, Latin America, the Near East, and North America. Since joining the Urban Institute in 1999, Ms. Mikeska has served as a Resident Advisor in Montenegro and has provided technical assistance and training related to building the capacity of municipalities to deliver communal services and assisting them to define and prioritize their investment needs and financing options throughout CEE and the former Soviet Union (Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Ukraine, and Tajikistan) as well as in Indonesia. She has also worked extensively with local NGOs, local citizens, and industrial enterprises to establish Pollution Prevention Centers using focus groups to identify facilities and processes that are good candidates for introducing waste minimization practices. Earlier, she designed water/wastewater treatment facilities for a number of small communities and supervised their construction. Ms. Mikeska holds an MS in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA in International Finance from Northeastern University. She is a registered professional engineer.

Areas of Expertise: Utility performance improvement and benchmarking; strategic and business planning; budgeting and capital planning; local government capacity building; and infrastructure issues.

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