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Agatha Gorski is GMF’s digital communications specialist. 

She co-founded and led The Shadows Project, a youth-focused cultural NGO where she launched high-impact digital campaigns and collaborated with brands, NGOs, and governmental institutions. She previously worked on media analysis at NewsGuard Technologies, co-led the Did the War End? podcast at the Kyiv Independent, and developed social impact initiatives at the UN Global Compact.

Gorski holds a joint master's degree in international development and journalism from Sciences Po Paris. She is fluent in Russian and Ukrainian, with intermediate French.

Kristina Pitalskaya is a development manager for multilateral funding at GMF, and is based in Brussels. She brings more than nine years of experience and a background that includes work with the EU, the US Agency for International Development, the UN Development Program, and UN Women as well as with private foundations across Europe.

Pitalskaya has worked in the EU (Belgium and Czechia) and in Georgia on the technical implementation of EU and US democracy support programs. Her work has focused on strengthening civil society, media, and election sectors across Europe, the Eastern Partnership region, and Central Asia. She has led fundraising strategies and managed complex EU-funded proposals and multi-year projects, including under Global Europe, Horizon Europe, and Erasmus+.

Before joining GMF, Pitalskaya held grant and fundraising management roles with the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, the Prague Civil Society Centre, the World Organization of the Scout Movement, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, and the European Endowment for Democracy.

Pitalskaya holds a master’s degree in European studies from the College of Europe, a master’s degree in international relations from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tbilisi State University in Georgia. She is fluent in English, Georgian, Polish, and Russian, with working proficiency in French.

Sylvia Scheurer is a visiting fellow in GMF’s Ukraine Cities Partnership, where she focuses on financing solutions for Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction. She is an independent consultant and adviser, and the founder of a Barcelona-based advisory practice specializing in innovative and sustainable finance for development. With more than 15 years of experience across the UN system, governments, and the private sector, she has advised partners such as UNICEF, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the UN Foundation, and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). She focuses on innovative financing instruments, blended finance, and public-private collaboration to support the transition from funding to financing. Scheurer co-authored UNICEF’s Global Innovative Finance for Children Strategy, contributed to the Fourth UN Financing for Development Conference (FfD4), and has led feasibility studies and advisory work on health financing across several African countries. She holds master’s degrees in international relations and in art history and philosophy and has given guest lectures and talks on development finance and innovation.

Yukimasa Matsuzawa, MD, PhD, is a GMF Indo-Pacific resident fellow focused on the intersection of health security and foreign policy. He also serves as a 2025–2026 Sasakawa Peace Foundation Fellow under the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship Program.

Matsuzawa previously served in key roles in Japan and international health security infrastructure. He was deputy director of the Global Outbreak Intelligence, Capacity Building, and Deployment Coordination Center at the Japan Institute for Health Security, where he led collaborations with partners across the United States, Europe, and Indo-Pacific. He also worked as a medical officer in the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, when he had a one-year secondment to the US Department of Health and Human Services as a medical liaison.

Matsuzawa holds a PhD from the University of Tokyo and has expertise in pandemic influenza and biosecurity. He conducts research at Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies on strategies against AI-driven biological threats. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on virology and health security.

Dr. Daniel Kliman is GMF’s senior vice president for global power shifts. He oversees a new GMF pillar on adapting the transatlantic partnership to a shifting global landscape and serves as a member of the GMF executive team.

Dr. Kliman’s prior experience spans the US government, US military, think tanks, and the private sector. In his civilian career, he led teams at the US Department of State and the Center for a New American Security. He also worked for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and at a venture-backed, defense and aerospace startup. Early in his career, he spent three years at GMF, where he spearheaded Asia-related programming and conducted pioneering research on global swing states.

Since 2015, Dr. Kliman has served as an officer in the US Navy Reserve, deploying to US Navy Central Command in 2020, and activating in 2025 to advance the Defense Innovation Unit’s global partnerships.

Through publications, US congressional testimony, and civilian government service under the current and previous three US presidential administrations, Dr. Kliman has helped to sharpen Washington’s focus on strategic competition with China. His work has shaped how the United States has adapted its alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and beyond, and informed American efforts to develop new policy tools to compete with China across all domains.

Dr. Kliman is the author of numerous think tank reports and op-eds and has published two books, “Fateful Transitions: How Democracies Manage Rising Powers, From the Eve of World War I to China’s Ascendance” and “Japan’s Security Strategy in the Post-9/11 World: Embracing a New Realpolitik”. He holds a PhD in politics from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University. 

Melissa Hooper is a senior fellow with GMF's Strategic Democracy Initiatives. She leads the team’s Rule of Law Action Network, which works to devise policy responses and solutions to issues affecting justice-sector institutions and actors. She is an attorney and policy expert with over 20 years’ experience in accountability law, high-impact litigation, and human rights advocacy. She was previously a senior adviser at USAID, led policy advocacy at Human Rights First, and served as the director for Russia at the American Bar Association's Rule of Law Initiative office in Moscow. She also was a founding member of GMF's Transatlantic Democracy Working Group, which focuses on responses to democratic backsliding in Europe and the United States.

Hooper has successfully litigated complex domestic and international cases, worked with Congress and the California state legislature to author and pass legislation, and managed coalitions and initiatives across government, academia, and civil society. She has testified repeatedly before Congress on issues of accountability for rights violations and corruption, democratic resilience, and national security. She has led international teams to secure justice in human rights cases and has contributed to policy development at the highest levels, including co-chairing the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Human Rights Working Group. She has worked alongside lawyers and watchdogs in numerous countries to develop legal and policy responses to anti-democratic government action, and she initiated the first USAID program on democratic backsliding.

Justyna Kozak is GMF's Brussels-based business partner, people strategy. She assists with implementing human resources strategies, organizational design, and talent acquisition and development.

Kozak previously held senior human resources positions with multinational organizations in Europe, the United Kingdom, and Asia, including the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan, Allianz Trade, and BGC Partners. 

Valerii Kravets is a Bucharest-based program coordinator for GMF Black Sea Trust. He focuses on Ukraine-related programming and supports initiatives aimed at strengthening electoral integrity across the Eastern Partnership countries. He also works to strengthen local governance, advance European integration processes, and foster international cooperation. He has contributed to projects funded by USAID, the EU (ProElect, Enhancing the Resilience of Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership - ERICS), and the Porticus Foundation.

Prior to joining GMF, Kravets gained over a decade of senior-level experience in the private sector, most recently as deputy director for development at ATB Corporation, one of Ukraine’s largest companies. In this role, he was responsible for national development strategy; public-private partnership projects; cooperation with ministries, state-owned enterprises, and local governments; supporting M&A transactions; and driving digital transformation initiatives.

Kravets holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and enterprise management from Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, a bachelor’s degree in law from Dnipro Humanitarian University, and a master’s degree in administrative management from Dnipro Polytechnic. He also studied at the University of Economics and Management in Prague.

He is a native speaker of Ukrainian and Russian and is fluent in English and Romanian.

Miruna Gheorghe is a Bucharest-based program coordinator for GMF’s Black Sea Trust (BST). She supports EU-funded initiatives, including the Enhancing the Resilience of Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership- ERICS project, which strengthens the resilience of civil society in the Eastern Partnership countries. She oversees EU visibility and communications for the BST office and coordinates convenings.

Gheorghe previously worked with NaTakallam (which hires refugees and conflict-affected people as online tutors, teachers, and translators), the UN Youth Delegation of Romania, and other international organizations, focusing on human rights, youth engagement, and cross-cultural cooperation. She holds a master’s degree in security and defense, with a focus on human rights. She speaks English, French, and German, in addition to her native Romanian.