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Sam Wilson is a senior fellow with GMF and a systems director for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, where he leads the center’s publications on national security space issues. His research has appeared or been covered in the Journal of Strategic Studies, Asia Policy, The Washington Post, the Financial Times, Politico, SpaceNews, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, MilsatMagazine, and SatMagazine, among other outlets.

Prior to joining Aerospace, Wilson served as a senior defense analyst for the US Government Accountability Office, overseeing analysis on strategic force structure; arms control; nuclear command, control, and communications; and US nuclear forces in Europe. 

Wilson has completed fellowships with the National Defense University’s Program for Emerging Leaders, the Center for Strategic and International Studies Project on Nuclear Issues, GMF, and the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. He is a term member with the Council of Foreign Relations and a security fellow with the Truman National Security Project. He holds a master’s degree in public policy and a bachelor’s degree in political theory from the University of Virginia, from which he graduated with distinction.

David Voegtle is GMF’s development coordinator for government funding. Before joining GMF, he served as the external affairs officer for Charities Aid Foundation America (CAF America), a nonprofit specializing in the facilitation of donor-advised grants to charities worldwide. He managed the organization’s international grantmaking partnership and disaster response programs. Voegtle’s efforts raised $33 million for charities responding to the 2021 floods in Germany’s Rhineland, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the 2023 earthquake in Turkey.

Prior to entering the nonprofit sector, Voegtle served as a staffer for a major US gubernatorial campaign and for a congressional fundraising firm. He is a 2017 graduate of Rhodes College, where he studied political science with a concentration in political philosophy. He speaks Spanish and German.

Gillian Ziegler is GMF's alumni relations coordinator and helps to engage the more than 4,000 alumni of GMF's leadership programs. He manages the alumni database and coordinates the alumni relations office's outreach and engagement activities with GMF’s development team.

Prior to joining GMF, Ziegler worked at the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a nonprofit, bipartisan policy organization dedicated to solving geopolitical challenges in trade and industrial security, economic and ecological security, and cybersecurity. He was also a researcher at the University of Notre Dame, focusing on religion and right-wing political parties in Central Europe. From 2015 to 2017 he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania.

Ziegler holds a master's degree in international relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor's degree in history from Goucher College. 

Alyse LaVoie is GMF’s digital communications manager. She leads the organization’s digital media messaging, strategy, and social media.

LaVoie’s professional experience includes stints in international public affairs and government relations, when she contributed to public diplomacy campaigns. She has also worked with the United Nations Development Programme, Eurasia Group, and the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Public Affairs.

LaVoie is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and of American University.

Ievgeniia Bodnya is a Berlin-based nonresident fellow researching the roles of local communities, government, the international community, and civil society in Ukraine’s reconstruction process. She coordinates international aid for de-mining with the mine action support team in Ukraine’s economy ministry. She also works on sectoral reforms, EU integration, international cooperation, and public policy development. 

Bodnya previously worked at the Reform Delivery Office in Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers. While there, she focused on the country’s recovery plan, supported the government’s participation in the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform for Ukraine, and coordinated the Ukraine recovery conferences in Lugano, London, and Berlin. She is a Manfred Wörner Seminar alumna and a member of the Global Shapers Community. 

Bodnya holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Cambridge, and degrees from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and the Stern Leadership Academy, which operates in collaboration with the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Education.

Austin Slater is the Press Officer for the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States where he leads communication efforts that bring attention to autocratic efforts attempting to undermine democratic institutions.