A speaker for Thursday's Skype Discussion (February 23) on a topic "Ukrainian Americans"

A Short Bio

Ihor Gawdiak, serves as President of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (UACC). He lives in southern Maryland and is very active for many years on the Washington, D.C. scene on behalf of Ukrainian-Americans and issues related to building a strong, democratic, independent, prosperous Ukraine under the rule of law, with a private market driven economy and a vigorous civil society. 

Ihor Gawdiak was born in Drohobych, Ukraine, in 1935 and came to the United States with his parents in 1949. He completed his secondary education in an American high school and went on to study International Relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. He subsequently pursued a doctorate in Russian and Soviet history at the University of Maryland, where he completed all the requirements, except for the dissertation. 

He was for several years a lecturer at the University of Maryland and then an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, teaching Soviet, Russian and Modern European History. In 1974, he joined the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress and was promoted to a senior research analyst position supervising a group of Soviet and East European analysts, who were responsible for producing analytical studies for the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. He retired from the government in 2003. 

From the time of his arrival in the United States, Gawdiak has been actively involved in the Ukrainian American community. As a boy he was a member of the Ukrainian scouting organization Plast, and in his adult life he has held a number of positions in Ukrainian social and cultural organizations. He was one of the founders of a U.S. organization of Ukrainian professionals, the Washington Group, was elected the first vice president of the Ukrainian Fraternal Association, and was also elected to several leadership positions in the Ukrainian American Association of Metropolitan Washington. 

Presently, Ihor Gawdiak, serves as president of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (UACC), as one of the vice presidents of the Ukrainian World Congress, and as a member of the Advisory Council of the US-Ukraine Foundation. He has been very active for many years in Washington, D.C., working toward supporting better relations between the governments of the U.S. and Ukraine and in assisting various Ukrainan-American organizations dedicated to building a democratic, independent, and prosperous Ukraine, emphasizing the importance of the rule of law, with a private market- driven economy and a vigorous civil society. 

Ihor Gawdiak lives in Maryland with his wife, Natalie Mason Gawdiak, an American of Irish descent. Their family consists of two sons, Yuri and Adrian, and two daughters, Leda and Raissa, as well as six grandchildren.