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.

Katherine Southwick - Vice Chairperson

Katherine is an international lawyer in Washington DC. She was previously the Robert L. Bernstein Fellow at Refugees International, where she focused on statelessness and nationality rights. She lived in Uganda in the mid-1990s and has consulted on the northern Ugandan conflict for over a decade. Her commentary on Uganda has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, the Washington PostGlobal, the Yale Journal of International Affairs and on NPR. A Yale graduate, she has worked for the U.S. State Department, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and a human rights organization in New Delhi, India. She has also worked in private practice and clerked for a federal judge. You can reach her at katherine@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 has over five years of investing and corporate finance experience. Prior to joining West Face Capital, a Toronto-based hedge fund, Anna-Maria was an Investment Analyst in the Oil, Gas, Mining & Petrochemicals Group at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank. She was also an Investment Banking Analyst in Morgan Stanley's Latin America and Financial Sponsors groups. Anna-Maria holds a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. 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

Annalise Romoser - Fundraising Officer

Annalise is the Associate Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for Lutheran World Relief, where she coordinates advocacy and grassroots efforts related to Uganda and Colombia. Annalise has also served as Senior Associate at the U.S. Office on Colombia in Washington, DC. Her professional life began at Americans for Indian Opportunity located in New Mexico, where she worked to strengthen tribal sovereignty and leadership through the Ambassadors Program. Annalise has spent extensive time living and working in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, documenting the impact of U.S. policy on human rights. She has a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish Literature from the University of Oregon, and a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies with a concentration in Migration Studies from the University of California, San Diego. You can reach her at annalise@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.