Fletcher Eurasia Club

The Eurasia Club at The Fletcher School seeks to promote a cultural, historical, political, and economic understanding of Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. By bringing together students from diverse backgrounds and meeting with experts and practitioners from Russia and Eurasia, the club aims to create lasting connections among individuals, communities, and the region as a whole.

For more information about the club, please contact Ryland Pitts, current President of the Eurasia Club. You can also see the list of former club leaders here, join the club WhatsApp group here, and check out upcoming club events here.

Ryland Pitts is President of the Fletcher School's Eurasia Club in the 2025-26 academic year. Ryland was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, but he spent the next 17 years in Eastern Europe (Belarus and Hungary). He earned a BA from Davidson College in political Science and Russian studies. His honors thesis examined Russian state-controlled media influence in Belarus. Since graduating, Ryland has taught English in Central Asia, most recently as a Fulbright ETA in Qarshi, Uzbekistan. Additional experiences include a State Department internship working on the Magnitsky sanctions, a research assistantship surveying corruption across the regions of Russia with Transparency International Russia, and a role in leading an NSA-funded Russian language program at UGA. Ryland also occasionally volunteers with a global parachurch organization to mentor kids from all over the world through difficult transitions. Past locations include Costa Rica, Spain, Hungary, Ukraine, and Turkey. Ryland is a MALD candidate at Fletcher studying international security and Russia and Eurasian regional studies. As a Pickering Fellow, he hopes to work as a political officer in the Foreign Service. In his free time, Ryland enjoys hiking, playing jazz piano and banjo, and whitewater kayaking.