Civil Society

Brock D. Bierman is president and CEO of Ukraine Focus, a Washington, DC-based humanitarian organization committed to working directly with communities across Ukraine to meet urgent assistance needs through direct cooperation with Ukrainian local, state, and federal authorities.

Prior to helping found Ukraine Focus, Bierman established the Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Light Up Ukraine, and Playgrounds 4 Peace. These programs have helped delivered millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since February 2022. Along with Ukraine Focus’ Rebuild project, they help thousands of Ukrainians defend their freedoms, rebuild their communities, and become more hopeful and resilient.

For his humanitarian contributions, Ukraine's Territorial Defense Force (TDF) awarded Bierman the Shield of the TDF of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and made him an honorary member.

Bierman has organized and led 13 missions to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, raised $2.5 million in cash and in-kind contributions to support Ukraine Focus programs in 2023 alone, and established key relationships and partnerships with international organizations such as Rotary International and the City of Albany, New York.

Bierman has served two presidents, most recently as the assistant administrator of the United States Agency for International Development's Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, and was confirmed by the US Senate by unanimous consent. Bierman also served three terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. A native of Rhode Island, Bierman received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Stella Uțica is a program manager at the Black Sea Trust. She administers grantmaking operations that support civil society actors from the Black Sea region in their efforts to promote citizen participation and democratic accountability. 

Before joining GMF, Uțica worked as a project coordinator at the Institute for Public Policy in Moldova, where she oversaw projects promoting gender equality, European integration, and good governance and accountability. She also worked with the European Institute for Political Studies of Moldova, organizing a training program for young leaders under the auspices of the Council of Europe.

Uțica holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in security and diplomacy from the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest. She speaks Romanian, English, and Russian.

Joerg Forbrig is the managing director of the European Resilience program, GMF’s long-term effort to empower democratic societies amid rising authoritarianism, increasing hybrid threats, and growing geopolitical tension. Based in GMF’s Berlin office, he oversees several targeted initiatives and specialized teams, including Engaging Central Europe; the Fund for Belarus Democracy; Ukraine: Relief, Resilience, Recovery; the ReThink.CEE Fellowship; and the Bulwark project on societal and democratic resilience across Europe’s East. He also works closely with GMF’s Balkan Trust for Democracy and Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.

Forbrig’s analytical and policy work focuses on the easternmost members of the EU and NATO, the EU’s eastern and southeastern neighborhoods, and Russia. He has published widely on democratic processes, reform and resilience, civil society and citizen participation, and Central and Eastern European affairs. Forbrig studied political science, sociology, and Eastern European affairs at universities in Germany, Poland, and Hungary. He holds a PhD in social and political sciences from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and a Master’s degree in political science from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

Alina Inayeh is currently a non-resident fellow. She joined GMF in 2007 as the director of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project dedicated to strengthening cooperation and fostering development in the Black Sea region. She is an active practitioner in the field of international development and democratization, having run the Freedom House office in Ukraine in 2004 and the NDI office in Russia in 2000-2003, with a focus on civic education and political processes. She has trained NGOs throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union on issues related to NGO development and democratization. She was a leading civic activist in the 1990s in Romania and an active promoter of the NGO sector in the country.

Gordana Delić is the regional director of the GMF Balkans program, the Balkan Trust for Democracy and deputy managing director of the Transatlantic Trusts. She has 25 years of experience in the nonprofit sector in the area of civil society development, with extensive experience in program management and development, grant solicitation, corporate philanthropy, research and planning, election processes, get-out-to vote campaigns, human rights, and reconciliation. Delić has knowledge of both the nongovernmental and governmental sectors in the Balkans, as well as of international donor strategies, programs, procedures, and operations in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe. Prior to joining the Balkan Trust for Democracy, Delić worked at Freedom House Serbia. Her international experience includes five years of work on different democracy development programs in Slovakia. Delić is fluent in Serbian, English, and Slovak. She also communicates in Czech, German, and Spanish.