Terra Cognita International is led by a senior governance and democracy-support professional with more than two decades of experience working with international organizations, election bodies, legislatures, and civil society organizations.
Professional experience includes senior advisory and management roles supporting governance reform, political analysis and reporting, public-sector communication, and stakeholder engagement. This work has been carried out across a wide range of political environments, including including transitional and conflict-affected settings.
The firm’s leadership brings a practitioner’s perspective informed by long-term field experience, institutional engagement, and close collaboration with national and international partners.
James W. De Witt, Managing Director
James W. De Witt has more than 25 years of professional experience in democratic governance and political development. In his early career, he served as a member of staff in both chambers of the United States Congress and the Texas Legislature, gaining firsthand experience with legislative processes and public institutions.
Most recently, he served as Director for the non-partisan, non-profit International Republican Institute (IRI) in Armenia, where he oversaw programs focused on strengthening strategic communications within the legislative and executive branches of government and on institutionalizing parliamentary oversight, accountability, and constituent engagement mechanisms. Prior to leading IRI’s work in Armenia, he managed IRI programs in Mongolia and Indonesia.
James has also held senior roles in transitional and conflict-affected environments. He served as Chief of the Political and Reporting Unit for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Skopje (North Macedonia) and later as a political analyst and ceasefire monitor with the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in eastern Ukraine. In addition, he has worked in key roles on several successful political campaigns in the United States.
He holds a Master of Arts in Central and Eastern European Studies from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. James also studied European integration at the University of Osnabrück in Germany and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in Political Science for research conducted while working in the German Bundestag.