Aviv Ovadya was formerly Non-Resident Fellow at GMF.
Alliance for Securing Democracy
Katherine Mansted was formerly Visiting Fellow at GMF.
Joshua Kirschenbaum is a visiting senior fellow at GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, focusing on illicit finance. Josh joined GMF from the Treasury Department, where he worked from 2011 to 2018. He served as acting director of the Office of Special Measures at Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, overseeing international money laundering investigations under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Previously, Josh worked on Iran sanctions at Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. He received a master’s degree in international security from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Northwestern University.
Nathan Kohlenberg is a research analyst with GMF’s Transatlantic Democracy Working Group (TDWG). He manages the American Autocracy Working Group, which aims to apply lessons from authoritarian political movements worldwide to organized efforts to undermine democracy in the United States.
Kohlenberg previously served as a policy associate at the Truman National Security Project, where he remains a fellow. He has written about disinformation, election interference, and democratic decline in Defense One, Salon, Just Security, and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree from Carleton College and a master’s degree in strategic studies and international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Rachael Dean Wilson is managing director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) at GMF, where she leads work on US elections and political analysis. Driven by her belief that safeguarding democracy must involve all Americans, Wilson has spoken in cities across the country about the importance of building democratic resilience to autocratic efforts to undermine democracy. She has commented on election security issues for print and broadcast news outlets ranging from The Washington Post and C-SPAN to WVTM-TV Birmingham and The Arizona Republic.
Wilson served in senior roles on Capitol Hill and political campaigns, and has experience in corporate communications and PR consulting. She worked for the late Senator John McCain for six years, most recently as his Senate communications director and advisor to his 2016 reelection campaign. Wilson received a bachelor’s degree in communication in public service from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in global policy from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University.
Joseph Bodnar is a research analyst with the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) at GMF. He is part of ASD’s information manipulation team and focuses on Russian propaganda and disinformation.
Prior to joining ASD, Bodnar worked with the Atlantic Council’s Global Strategy Initiative. He holds a master's degree in international affairs from American University and a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in political science from Kennesaw State University. His capstone project at American involved working with the State Department’s Global Engagement Center to identify trends in foreign disinformation targeting the 2020 US presidential election. Bodnar’s writings have been published in the National Interest, Inkstick, and the Dallas Morning News, among other media outlets, and his research has been cited in The Economist, Foreign Policy, and Bloomberg.
Etienne Soula is a Brussels-based research analyst with the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) at GMF. His research focuses on Chinese information manipulation, economic coercion, and use of technology exports to weaken democracies and to disseminate globally its model of techno-authoritarianism. He maintains ASD’s authoritarian interference tracker that covers more than 600 incidents of Russian and Chinese political and economic interference in Europe and North America. He also monitors and reports on Chinese diplomatic and state-media messaging.
Soula previously worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Hudson Institute, and NATO. He holds a dual master’s degree in international affairs from American University and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and a law degree from the University of Nottingham.
Bryce Barros was formerly China Affairs Analyst, Alliance for Securing Democracy at GMF.
Heidi Tworek was formerly Visiting Fellow at GMF.