Civil Society

Dimitar Keranov is a program coordinator with GMF’s Engaging Central Europe program in Berlin. His areas of expertise are democratization and Bulgarian politics. Prior to joining GMF, Keranov worked at the Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin and in the private sector.

Keranov holds a master’s degree in governance from the University of Hagen and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Free University of Berlin. In addition to his native Bulgarian, he speaks English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian, Serbian, Russian, Czech, and Afrikaans. 

Clara Volintiru is the director of GMF’s Bucharest office and of the organization’s Black Sea Trust.

Prior to joining GMF, she was the director of the New Economy and Society Program at the Aspen Institute of Romania, and a consultant for international organizations such as the World Bank, the European Commission, Eurofound and the Committee of the Regions. Her work covered the EU, the transatlantic community, the Western Balkans, and the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries and Southern neighborhood.

In addition to her international policy work, Volintiru is an associate professor of international political economy at Bucharest University of Economic Studies. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Volintiru is a contributor to publications including Forbes, Emerging Europe, and Huffington Post.

Erica Folkestad is a Washington, DC-based Senior Program Coordinator at GMF. She supports the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, GMF's flagship leadership program, and assists with implementing other leadership program initiatives.