Team

Jonathan Lowy
President & Founder

Jonathan Lowy has been bringing, litigating, and winning trailblazing, impactful lawsuits,  and advocating for gun violence prevention for 25 years. He has litigated in trial and appellate courts in over 40 states, helped win over $100 million in verdicts and settlements for victims of gun violence, created groundbreaking precedent that holds gun companies accountable for their contribution to gun violence, reformed dangerous gun industry practices, and shut down reckless gun dealers. He won the first appellate decision holding that the U.S. gun industry protection law is unconstitutional, and the first settlement in which a gun manufacturer paid for a criminal shooting. He has published numerous articles on gun issues, including “The Right Not To Be Shot,” and appears frequently on television and other media. He has been named one of the 500 leading lawyers in America for over 10 years by Lawdragon magazine.  He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law.
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Elizabeth Burke
Chief Operating Officer

Elizabeth Burke has decades of experience as a human rights attorney, advocating and litigating on behalf of Iraqi civilians harmed and tortured in war, U.S service women seeking to hold the U.S. military accountable for military sexual assault, those seeking asylum from persecution in the U.S, and disability advocates seeking to enforce provisions of the A.D.A.  She has worked as a gun violence prevention advocate and built a nationwide network of pro bono legal assistance designed to support innovative gun violence prevention litigation nationwide. She began her career at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.
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Jake Steisel
Senior Staff Attorney

Jake Steisel (formerly Jake Meiseles) is an attorney based in Brooklyn, New York, who litigates impactful cases on behalf of international and domestic victims of gun violence. Prior to joining GAGV, Jake litigated a wide range of litigation matters in federal and state courts across the United States, including capital defense, civil rights, securities, trade secret, contract, tort, and bankruptcy cases. Jake began his legal career clerking for the Honorable Cynthia M. Rufe of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Honorable Eric L. Clay of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Jake also has experience as a complex litigation associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Jake is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Cornell University, and Rockland Community College.

Ivan Thirion
Associate Director of Development & Strategic Partnerships

Ivan Thirion is the Associate Director of Development & Strategic Partnerships. He leads GAGV’s fundraising, development, public relations and partnership-building efforts, working closely with funders, community organizations, and key stakeholders to advance the organization’s mission and sustainable growth.

He is a foreign policy professional with thematic expertise in global security, conflict resolution, accountable democratic governance, human rights, international development, and multilateral institutions, and regional expertise in Latin American, Transatlantic, and Middle Eastern affairs. Previously, he held previous roles in foreign policy advocacy and government relations, business and NGO consulting, philanthropy, fundraising, paralegal support, international development and higher education administration. He was featured on New America’s Plenary Politics 2023 Leaders List in Foreign Policy & National Security and was selected as a two-term Bryce Harlow Fellow & Awardee from 2022 – 2024. 

He holds a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and a bachelors in Political Science from Radford University, where he currently serves as a Board Member and is part of Foreign Policy For America’s NextGen Initiative. He is fluent in Spanish and has working proficiency in Portuguese and German.

Mary Ester
Senior Advisor, Development

Mary Ester has over 25 years experience as a development professional with a demonstrated history of major gift, foundation, planned giving, and direct marketing fundraising, in nonprofit organizations, including at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, where she led development for over a decade, as well as Consumer Reports, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Global Rights. She is a graduate of Grinnell College.

Arturo Carrillo
Project Lead, Human Rights

Arturo J. Carrillo is a human rights lawyer and law professor who has litigated, advocated and successfully managed human rights projects in and outside the United States for thirty years. As the founding Director of GW Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, and co-Director of its Global Internet Freedom Project, he has taught law students the art of human rights advocacy in practice for nearly two decades while working with dozens of partners and clients worldwide. Professor Carrillo has also worked internationally as an expert on a wide range of human rights legal and policy issues, including on projects in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. As an engaged academic, he has a proven track record of directing and supervising teams of researchers, litigators and advocates in the human rights field, and is the author of several practitioners’ and academic publications in this area. A dual citizen of Colombia and the U.S., Professor Carrillo possesses deep regional expertise in Latin America where he has long been engaged with social justice, accountability and rule-of-law issues.  He is a graduate of Princeton University (B.A.), the George Washington School of Law (J.D), and Columbia Law School (LLM).

Lisa Proctor
Chief Financial Officer

Lisa M. Proctor is an experienced financial officer with more than 20 years in accounting and human resources, and almost 30 years in nonprofits. Lisa brings a deep commitment to nonprofit financial management and has worked with Defenders of Wildlife, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. She is a dedicated advocate in the fight for gun violence prevention.

Stephanie Lowet
Marketing & Communications Strategist

Stephanie Lowet is a seasoned marketing and communications strategist who has collaborated with Fortune 500 companies as well as nonprofits including a public health foundation and a top university.  She has experience on both the client and agency sides of the marketing and communications fields.  After more than a decade promoting cable programs at Discovery Networks, she worked for The McGinn Group, a boutique reputation management firm.  Here, she particularly enjoyed nationally showcasing several General Motors car designers and introducing the Chevy Volt to the DC market as well as connecting a university’s first woman president to influencers across the U.S. Stephanie is a graduate of Yale College and Yale School of Management.

Esteban Serrano Montufar
Communications Associate

Esteban Serrano Montufar is GAGV’s Communications Associate. He brings varied experience in digital and global communications. He has previously worked in communications capacities in the consulting, nonprofit, philanthropy, public health, and international finance fields. He has also worked and studied in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and French. He is a graduate of the George Washington University and Emory University.

Manuel Oliver
Global Outreach & Artistic Adviser

Manuel Oliver is the father of Joaquin (“Guac”) Oliver, who was killed with an assault weapon in the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018. Manny immigrated to Parkland from Venezuela, and has dedicated himself to giving voice to his son with bold activism, creative campaigns, art, and global outreach. He and his wife Patricia Oliver founded a non-profit advocacy group, “Change the Ref,” that empowers young people to speak out against gun violence, spark change in their communities, and support change in how the NRA interacts with lawmakers. Manuel uses his artist training and guerilla advertising instincts to keep focus on his son, Guac, the sixteen other lives lost during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the more than forty-thousand victims of gun violence in the US each year, and the tens of thousands harmed by US guns in Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, and other countries around the world.

Doug Barry
Senior Strategy Adviser

Doug Barry is an educator, communications professional, and social change advocate with decades of experience in government and the private sector. At GAGV his focus is developing international support and partnerships, as well as increasing public awareness about problems caused by gun violence and about common-sense solutions.
Previously with the US Department of Commerce, the US-China Business Council, the Justice Center at the University of Alaska, and ABC News, Doug’s accomplishments include facilitating trade with Asia, establishing neighborhood citizen alternative dispute resolution centers, generating conversations about police use of deadly force, finding jobs for ex-offenders, and helping small businesses learn how to sell their products in other countries for which he won International Educator of the Year Award from NASBITE in 2015. As an elected public official in Maryland, he created programs to protect migrant workers, reduce violent crime, and extend the right to vote in municipal elections to non-citizens.
He has taught at the University of Alaska, Georgetown University, and the American University of Nigeria. He is currently an adjunct professor at the American International University of Africa in Nairobi and the George Washington University. Doug has degrees from San Francisco State University, New York University, and received a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University.