Civil Society

Iryna Khomiak is a program officer with GMF’s Ukraine: Relief, Resilience, Recovery initiative, based in Berlin. She works within the emergency response programming for support of Ukrainian civil society and independent media, especially in terms of the full-scale Russian war. Prior to this, she worked as a coordinator of the Master in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Program at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and on judicial, police, and juvenile probation reforms in Ukraine. She has worked within international projects funded by USAID and Global Affairs Canada as well as on numerous projects of the British Council in Ukraine.

Inspired by the spirit of the Revolution of Dignity and her experience, Iryna decided to pursue her Master’s degree in human rights at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. There, she focused mainly on peace and conflict resolution policies, women’s rights within this, and the right to education for national minorities. She also holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in the theory and history of literature and comparative studies from the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla academy” in Kyiv, Ukraine. In addition to her native Ukrainian, she speaks English and German, and she has basic knowledge of Polish. 
 

Sarah Jones is the Washington, DC-based managing director of GMF’s Leadership Programs. In that role, she leads five flagship leadership initiatives, manages a $2.4 million annual budget, supervises international teams across four countries, and oversees an alumni network encompassing 4,000 people in Europe and North America. Her work focuses on leadership development, organizational effectiveness, and democratic resilience, with an emphasis on aligning institutional values with strategy, talent systems, and measurable impact. She works closely with senior leadership and board committees on strategic planning and long-term organizational sustainability.

Jones is a global leadership development and organizational strategy executive with over 12 years of experience building and leading leadership initiatives across nonprofit, public, academic, and private-sector institutions. She previously served as GMF’s inaugural senior leader responsible for organizational inclusion and culture, and established the organization’s first institution-wide strategy focused on inclusive leadership capability and workforce sustainability. In addition to her executive leadership, she is an adjunct professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs, where she teaches leadership development in public and international affairs.

Jones holds a master’s degree in international education, is professionally proficient in Spanish, and brings extensive global experience from working in more than 30 countries.