Program Page
Innovation and Competitiveness
Nedim Useinow is a program manager with the GMF Ukraine Cities Partnership initiative. He focuses on supporting the rebuilding and sustainable, innovative development of Ukraine’s cities.
Before joining GMF, Useinow served as a program officer at ARTICLE 19, where he managed projects on digital security and human rights. He also worked with the Jerzy Regulski Foundation in Support of Local Democracy, a Polish organization promoting self-governance, as an expert helping to share Poland’s experience in democratic transformation with Ukrainian cities. At TechSoup, he led projects focused on digitizing public services at the municipal level in Ukraine. Earlier, at Solidarity Fund PL, he was part of the team coordinating a grant program supporting Ukraine’s decentralization reforms.
Useinow studied political science and cultural studies at the University of Gdańsk and the University of Warsaw. He has been a guest lecturer and the author of several academic publications. He regularly appears in the media, providing commentary on political affairs, regional security, and local development.
Katarina Moyon is a visiting fellow with GMF Cities focused on the ways in which citizen engagement strengthens local democracy. She is a long-term higher education professional who taught courses at Winthrop University for 20 years on American government, international politics, presidential nominating systems, and diversity and community. She also led students and faculty at the university’s award-winning civic and voter engagement arm.
Moyon has served as a consultant on election-related issues in the United States and other countries to clients including Ballotpedia, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, and Street Law. She also has experience with nonpartisan civic education and youth engagement, facilitation and training related to civic life, and other social science research.
Moyon spent a year in Croatia on a Fulbright scholarship conducting election law research. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs from the George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and German from Northern Arizona University.
Penelope (Penny) Naas is a global public policy leader who designs strategies on international economic issues that sit at the nexus of geopolitics, trade, and climate. She is an adviser for TradeExperettes, a global organization of women trade experts.
Naas has created innovative strategies and solutions for Citigroup and, more recently, for UPS as its president for international public affairs and global sustainability. She opened and was managing director of Citigroup’s first government affairs office in Brussels between 2007 and 2012 before leading UPS’s international team from 2012 to 2019. She started her career at the US Department of Commerce, where she worked for 13 years on international economic issues and advancing the commercial interests of US companies in Europe.
Naas holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is on several boards and has co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.