Transatlantic Relations

Marta Prochwicz-Jazowska is a program manager in the Warsaw office. She is responsible for coordinating and managing various German Marshall Fund activities in Warsaw. She closely monitors and writes on issues related to Polish foreign policy with an emphasis on Poland’s role in Europe, in the war in Ukraine and Polish-American relations. Before joining GMF, on behalf of the Polish government, Prochwicz-Jazowska worked with American universities (such as Yale, Harvard, UCLA) on cultural exchange programs. Previously, she worked for the Polish Permanent Representation to the EU. She also gained experience at the EU Commission, the EU Delegation to Peru, and NATO. Prochwicz-Jazowska holds a master’s degree in international studies and diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a B.A. from University College London. She grew up in Canada, Poland, and Austria and has a French education.

As senior vice president of democracy at GMF, Laura Thornton leads teams whose programs defend and promote democracy. She oversees the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), through which GMF tracks and analyzes malign internal and external influence operations that target democracies worldwide and builds strategies to thwart them. Thornton also oversees GMF’s transatlantic trusts, which support civil society organizations and actors in Central and Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, the Black Sea and Eurasia regions, Belarus, and Ukraine. The trusts bolster democratic resilience through civic education, media literacy, election monitoring, public awareness campaigns, and media and watchdog activities.

Thornton guides GMF’s global democracy initiatives to build communities of practices, share lessons, and forge transnational alliances on democratic innovation. Her research and analysis focus on authoritarianism, far-right illiberal movements, and democratic decline. She participates in numerous democracy networks and working groups as a leader and expert.

 

Kristina Kausch is deputy managing director and senior fellow, GMF South. She is also the German Marshall Fund’s resident representative in Madrid, Spain. Her research focuses on Europe’s relations with its neighborhood and broader geopolitical trends in the Middle East.