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J.C. Lintzenich is a Washington, DC-based visiting senior fellow. He has worked for three decades at the intersection of intelligence, defense, foreign policy, and the legislative process, with a focus on transatlantic security and strategic competition.

Before joining GMF, Lintzenich was principal adviser for national security affairs to US Senator Thom Tillis. In that role he supported the senator’s leadership of the Senate NATO Observer Group and advised on a broad portfolio of issues including national security, foreign policy, international affairs, veterans’ issues, geopolitical dynamics, and the intersection of policy with industry, emerging technologies, and transatlantic economic relations.

Lintzenich also served as a senior adviser to the Director of National Intelligence, where he enabled the integration of defense and intelligence strategies at the highest levels of the US government. He was defense policy director for the Western Balkans in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he advised on critical regional issues and promoted initiatives that had a lasting impact on US foreign policy and security cooperation, and NATO integration.

A retired senior military intelligence officer, Lintzenich served in several elite units, supporting critical intelligence and special operations initiatives. He held key intelligence assignments in conventional and special operations forces, including at the theater level while based in Germany, where he oversaw intelligence support for a major US Army organization operating in Europe and Africa. Throughout his career, he contributed to intelligence capabilities and operational readiness in multiple organizations, including providing executive intelligence support to senior Army leadership. He is the founder of Lintzenich Advisory, a consultancy, and serves on the board of directors of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, the board of trustees of the Valley Forge Military College & Foundation, and the Volunteer Advisory Committee of the International Spy Museum.

Lintzenich holds a master’s degree with distinction in national security and strategic studies from the US Naval War College and a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University.

Polina Panainte is a governance and democracy expert with over 17 years of experience advancing electoral integrity, civil society engagement, and public-sector transparency in Moldova and the broader Eastern European region. She serves as deputy director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, one of Moldova's leading civil society organizations, and as head of the Secretariat of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections. During Moldova's 2025 parliamentary elections, she led the coalition's efforts tosafeguard the integrity of the elections. A recognized voice in Moldova's civil society, she has provided substantive input into international electoral observation missions and contributed actively to the reform and modernization of the country's electoral legislation.

Prior to her current roles, Panainte held positions at UN Women, the Institute for Public Policy, and the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Moldova, leading substantive programs across governance, gender equality, and civic development. She also served as a consultant to organizations including GMF, the UN Development Programme, and Internews.

Panainte holds a master’s in public policy from University College London and a master’s in political science from Moldova State University.

Stephanie A. Miley is a nonresident senior fellow in Global Power Shifts at GMF. Over the course of more than 35 years as a foreign service officer, she worked on economic growth and development, political-military operations, and post-conflict stabilization, among other issues.

Miley served as deputy chief of mission and for six months as chargé d’affaires (acting ambassador) at US Embassy Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 2022 to 2024, and as chargé d’affaires (acting ambassador) at US Embassy Rabat, Morocco, from 2017 to 2019. Washington assignments have included senior advisor to the under secretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment affairs; director for Iraq at the National Security Council; and special assistant on the staff of the secretary of state. Other overseas assignments have included serving as minister counselor for economic affairs at the US Mission in Mexico, three years at NATO as the political advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), and two tours in Iraq.

Miley is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and holds a master’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree from the National War College, where she was a distinguished graduate. She is a member of the Leadership Council of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group.

Loren Voss is a legal fellow with GMF’s Democracy and Security Network. She works on the relationships among democratic governance, the military, and foreign policy and strategy, and is an expert on domestic deployment of the military and the law of armed conflict.

Voss has more than 18 years’ experience in government, non-profits, and academia. She previously served as director of defense policy and strategy on the US National Security Council staff and as a senior advisor for the US Department of Defense. She also taught at George Washington University Law School and was a Harvard Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellow. Voss started her career as an Air Force officer with US and NATO deployments.

Voss holds a JD from Harvard Law School, a master’s degree in Global Affairs from Yale University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She clerked for the Israeli Supreme Court after law school.

Voss is also chair of the Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict at the American Society for International Law, a Public Service Fellow at Lawfare, and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Rachel Small is GMF’s Washington, DC-based chief operating and financial officer. She was previously senior vice president at United Way Worldwide, where she led community impact teams, launched a government partnerships portfolio, and supported disaster response efforts in multiple states. She was deployed to Maui for three months following the 2023 wildfires there.

Small also served as the New York state governor’s deputy secretary for public safety. In that role, she oversaw operations, policies, and budgets for nine executive branch agencies, including the state police, the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and the Office of Victim Services. Earlier in her career, she was a unit chief at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where she led its business intelligence and advanced data analytics programs.

Small holds two master’s degrees, in business administration and public policy, from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University.

Dr. Fernanda Magnotta, based in São Paolo, is a senior fellow at the Brazil Institute in Washington, DC, and a senior fellow at CEBRI, Brazil’s leading think tank. An expert on US foreign policy and US–China–Latin America relations, she is the head of the International Relations Program at FAAP and serves on the editorial board of FUNAG, the academic branch of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations. She is also an international affairs analyst for CNN. In 2025, Dr. Magnotta was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of Rio Branco, Brazil’s highest honor in the field of international relations.

Dr. Grace Wermenbol is a senior fellow for International Security and Geopolitics at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. Dr. Wermenbol is a former Middle East specialist at the US Department of State. Prior to that, Dr. Wermenbol was a Middle East director at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where she served both on the National Intelligence Management Council and the National Intelligence Council. She joined ODNI from the US intelligence community, where she worked on counterterrorism issues in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Dr. Wermenbol is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the author of A Tale of Two Narratives (Cambridge University Press, 2021), a study of Israeli and Palestinian societies in the post-Oslo era. She is the founder and executive director of Boussole Mondiale, a global advisory firm based in Paris that works with select private companies and public sector entities at the intersection of geopolitics, business, and global strategy. She holds a master's and DPhil from St. Antony’s College, the University of Oxford.

Chris Ogunmodede, based in Lagos, is an independent analyst of African politics, security, and international affairs with a focus on West Africa, pan-African affairs, multipolarity, global governance, and multilateralism. Ogunmodede is the author of Penkelemesi, a newsletter about African political economy, international affairs, and culture. He is a member of the African Research Network on Regional and Global Governance Innovation, a pan-African community of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.

Katie Crisalli is senior development manager for foundations at GMF. Based in Washington, DC, she leads engagement with North American foundations to mobilize resources to support the organization’s mission.

Prior to joining GMF, Crisalli was associate director for foundation relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she managed foundation and NGO donor portfolios for 43 policy programs including international security, development, technology, and geopolitics. Her responsibilities included coordinating fundraising strategies and donor engagement, supporting prospect research, and managing grant compliance and reporting.

Crisalli has also held multiple roles at CARE, where she led resource development, grant management, and stewardship for a global food and nutrition program operating in 33 countries. She secured funding to support program expansion and contributed to donor reporting, proposal development, and strategic planning for institutional and foundation funders.

She holds a master’s degree emergency and disaster management from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in media production from Pepperdine University.

Beniamino Irdi is a nonresident senior fellow with GMF’s Global Power Shifts team. His areas of expertise include the geopolitics of the Mediterranean, great-power competition, democratic resilience, and hybrid threats. He is the founder and chief executive officer of HighGround, a political-risk consulting firm based in Milan and Rome.

Irdi spent 17 years in the Italian government focused on foreign policy, national security, and strategic affairs. While in government, he worked in the prime minister’s office, where he advised senior government officials on great-power competition, foreign malign influence, and Russia's war in Ukraine. He also served as special adviser to Italy’s foreign minister and was posted to Italian embassies in Tokyo and Washington, DC.

Irdi began his career as Middle East analyst, and is the author of a book that examines the use of military force against terrorist organizations.

Irdi holds a master’s degree in international policy and practice from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and strategic studies from Rome’s LUISS University. His analyses have appeared in outlets including Bloomberg, the Financial Times, The New York Times, and POLITICO.