Kristof Gyorgy Veres enrolled at the Auxiliary Sciences of History Ph.D. program in 2016 at the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest) as a Hungarian state scholarship holder. His research was supported by various grants, most notably the Scholarship of the Republic, and the New Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities. He defended his Ph.D. dissertation summa cum laude in February 2021.

Kristof joined the Budapest-based Migration Research Institute as a researcher in March 2021, to research the interactions between migration, integration, and state power in the US and Europe.

Kristof arrived in the U.S. in September 2021 as an Andrássy National Security Fellow to conduct research at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies for 14 months. The aim of his research was to provide a complex, interdisciplinary analysis of the current Central American migration crisis utilizing the ongoing European migration crisis as a comparative framework. However, after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he shifted his focus to Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

After returning to Hungary, Kristof transferred to the Budapest-based Danube Institute as a senior researcher in July 2023, he also started working for the Warsaw-Institute (Warsaw) as a non-resident expert. At the Danube Institute he is tasked with conducting research on various issues stemming from the war in Ukraine, including Russian disinformation, Ukrainian refugees and questions of religious freedom. In February 2024, he was put in charge of International Relations at the Danube Institute.

Kristof has visited Ukraine (Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Mykolaiv etc.) eight times since the start of the full-scale invasion. In the U.S. Kristof has presented at panel discussions and has given lectures in Washington D.C., Manhattan, Grand Rapids (MI), San Francisco and Hamden (CT). He has also published a number of op-eds in the National Interest, Newsweek, the Washington Examiner and The Jewish News Syndicate.

Brigham McCown’s career spans over thirty-five years of academic, corporate, federal government, military, and non-profit service. Known for developing top talent and organizational strategies and achieving operational excellence, he is an internationally recognized expert in domestic and foreign policy.

Brigham is a Professor of Practice at Miami University and a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute, leading the Initiative on American Energy Security. He is also a thought leader and trusted advisor as a Principal of Nouveau, Inc.

He is the former President and chief executive of an Arctic energy company and founded the country’s infrastructure think tank, the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure. Brigham previously held senior executive posts during three presidential administrations advised multiple presidential campaigns and served on two presidential transition teams.

Brigham has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court and has been named a Lifetime Fellow of the American Bar Association Foundation, limited to one percent of all attorneys. He currently serves on numerous boards, and Brigham formerly served as a member of the federal government’s Commercial Space Advisory Committee (COMSTAC).

He holds a Juris Doctor of Law (Chase-NKU), a Master of Business Administration (Mason-William and Mary), a Graduate Certificate in Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies (Stanford), and a Bachelor of Arts in Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs (Miami).

Mónika Palotai is a senior research fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, DC. She is also a non-resident expert at the Warsaw Institute in Poland. Previously, Palotai served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. She holds a Juris Doctor degree, an LL.M. in Sharia Law, and a Master's in International Public Service. Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate at the Doctoral School of Public Administration Sciences, focusing on International Criminal law. She has contributed to numerous publications, including Newsweek, The National Interest, The Washington Examiner, Providence Magazine, The Epoch Times, The American Conservative, and the Jewish News Syndicate, on various issues of Russian disinformation, international legal issues, and energy security.

Alexey Gorbachev is a journalist and anchor for the TV show "Why It Matters?", produced by Voice of America, the United States' largest international broadcaster. He specializes in analyzing Russian propaganda, bringing to light the atrocities committed during the invasion of Ukraine, revealing the Kremlin's disinformation campaigns, and uncovering violations of human rights and press freedom.

Currently based in Washington, D.C., he relocated there in 2019 following the completion of his graduate studies and a professional development program at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, which was part of his participation in the prestigious Humphrey Fellowship.

Gorbachev's career in journalism began in 2009 when he observed the disturbing reality of electoral fraud in the Moscow City Parliament elections firsthand. From 2011 to 2018, he served as a political correspondent in Moscow, reporting on critical issues such as election fraud, the rallies of the Russian opposition movement, human rights abuses, the suppression of free speech, and the persecution of political activists.

Before joining Voice of America, Gorbachev actively contributed to the EU-Russia Civil Forum and to programs at the European Solidarity Center in Gdansk, Poland, as well as at the Moscow School of Civic Education, an institution renowned for its commitment to promoting democratic values in Russia.