Sasha Lezhnev – Executive Director and Co-founder

Sasha Lezhnev is Executive Director of GRG and consultant to the nongovernmental campaign, led by the Enough Project, to help stop the trade in conflict minerals originating from eastern Congo. He was previously Policy Adviser at Global Witness, where he led the organization’s U.S. advocacy on conflict resources and energy policy issues. Sasha worked for 2 1/2 years in Uganda as Senior Program Officer with the Northern Uganda Peace Initiative and peace process advisor to the northern Uganda mediator. He is author of the book Crafting Peace: Strategies to Deal with Warlords in Collapsing States and previously worked with the International Crisis Group’s Africa Program and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He holds a Master’s in International Relations from Cambridge University and a B.S. in Foreign Service magna cum laude from Georgetown University. You can reach Sasha at sasha@grassrootsgroup.org.

Kasper Agger – Co-founder and Fundraising Officer

Kasper worked in Northern Uganda from 2005 to 2007 with the Northern Uganda Peace Initiative. He now lives in Denmark and works for the United Nations Environmental Program, where he focuses on facilitating the Clean Development Mechanism in developing countries. Kasper holds a Master’s degree in Geography and International Development Studies from Roskilde University, Denmark, with a specialization in conflict mitigation, organizational capacity building, and field research. You can reach him at kasper@grassrootsgroup.org.

Marisa R. Bassett – Secretary

Marisa is a recent J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law, where she served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the school’s Human Rights Brief. She has held positions with Human Rights Watch, the Public International Law & Policy Group, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the United Nations Development Programme. Marisa holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. She will soon enter private practice in Washington, DC. You can reach her at marisa@grassrootsgroup.org.

Brionne Dawson – Chief Outreach Officer

Brionne is an international development practitioner with eight years of experience supporting programs to empower women and improve governance with respect to HIV/AIDS, extractive industries and poverty reduction. She has worked in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Uganda. She resides in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she supports regional initiatives on behalf of the National Democratic Institute. Brionne has worked with the Center for International Policy and the United Nations Development Program. Brionne is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Institut de Touraine in Tours, France. You can reach her at brionne@grassrootsgroup.org.

Anna-Maria Kaneff – Chief Financial Officer

Anna-Maria Kaneff is the Vice-President, Commercial Group, for the Kaneff Group of Companies. Ms. Kaneff is responsible for managing the portfolio of existing commercial properties as well as overseeing the development and construction of new office and retail projects. Prior to joining the Kaneff Group, Ms. Kaneff was an Associate with a Toronto based-hedge fund and an Investment Analyst with the World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation, in their Oil, Gas, Mining & Petrochemicals Group. Ms. Kaneff also worked as an Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley in New York and San Francisco. Ms. Kaneff graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Foreign Service degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and received her Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School. The Kaneff Group of Companies is a private Peel-based real estate development and building company that develops and manages commercial and residential real estate properties and golf properties in Southern Ontario.
You can reach her at anna@grassrootsgroup.org.

Michael Poffenberger – Fundraising Officer

Michael is Executive Director of Resolve Uganda, a campaign to create political change in America to achieve lasting peace in Uganda. Prior to co-founding Resolve Uganda in 2007, Michael served as the Washington-based Associate Director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, where he focused on peace and security in Africa. Michael’s expertise on northern Uganda has been cited in such publications as the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, and the National Journal. Michael graduated from the University of Notre Dame with degrees in Anthropology and Peace Studies. He spent one semester in Uganda conducting research on economic development in the country’s refugee camps. You can reach him at michael@grassrootsgroup.org

Bryan Waldron – Chief Legal Officer

Bryan J. Waldron is an attorney. He attended the University of Virginia, where he majored in Political Theory and was a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society. He is a graduate of the George Mason School of Law. He also studied at the University of Hamburg School of Law, where he attended the Erasmus Program in Law and Economics. In October of 2005, he was admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
You can reach him at bryan@grassrootsgroup.org.