Maryna Rakhlei analyzes regional developments in Eastern Europe and is part of the team assisting civil society in Belarus. She studied in Minsk and in Berlin. Before joining GMF, Rakhlei covered foreign relations for the Belarusian newswire Belapan in Minsk, wrote for the German newswire DPA and blogged for EuObserver.
Veronika Zimova is a Program Coordinator at GMF's Engaging Central Europe program in Berlin. She is responsible for the program's grantmaking activities and for fostering relationships with grantees.
Zimova is a highly experienced project manager. At the Adventist Development and Relief Association in Slovakia, she coordinated EU-funded projects that collaborated with grassroots organizations worldwide. She began her career as a volunteer Project Assistant at ADRA Albania, during which she was named SlovakAid Volunteer of the Year (2018–2019) for her field work with vulnerable groups.
Zimova holds a master's degree in international relations from Matej Bel University in Slovakia. She wrote her bachelor's thesis on the transition to democracy in the early 1990s in central Europe.
Irina Neagu is a senior program coordinator for the Black Sea Trust (BST), administering its Empowering Youth through Capacity Building, Collaboration, and Peace Initiatives project. She also plays a key role in BST’s Enhancing the Resilience of Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership project.
Neagu has expertise in youth engagement and cross-border issues in the Black Sea region, with a focus on the South Caucasus. She heads a Romanian NGO that supports civic activities and youth education.
Neagu holds a master’s degree in comparative politics and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and European studies from the University of Bucharest.
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.
Zsuzsanna Végh is a program officer at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Her analytical focus is on Central and Eastern Europe, especially the foreign and EU policies of the Visegrád countries, the state of democracy, and the role and impact of the populist radical right in the region.
Végh has extensive experience working at the intersection of policy analysis and academic research. She has been an associate researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations and authored reports for Freedom House’s flagship project, Nations in Transit, on her native Hungary. She worked at the European University Viadrina as a researcher and lecturer in 2017–2024, and at the Center for European Neighborhood Studies of Central European University in 2012–2017.
Végh holds Master’s degrees in international relations and European studies from Central European University and in international studies from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
Iryna Khomiak is a program officer with GMF’s Ukraine: Relief, Resilience, Recovery program, 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.