Board Member
Jeff Berman is a founding partner of Magnet Companies. He previously served as President of Whalerock Industries, a media and technology company based in West Hollywood, and General Manager of Digital Media at the NFL after holding a series of positions at MySpace. Jeff was the independent director on the board of Buddy Media (acquired by Salesforce) and has advised companies across a broad range of industries. From 2001-2005, he was Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. Jeff has also served as a public defender in the District of Columbia and as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Connecticut College.
Board Member
Jerry is the founding Chief Executive Officer of The Management Action Center. He was previously at McKinsey & Company, and has played leadership roles in a number of nonprofits. At Teach For America, he served as the second-in-command for seven years. He also served as the CEO of the Advocacy Institute. Before graduating from Yale Law School, where he was active in legal clinics and a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal, Jerry worked as a high school math and history teacher in Compton, California. He is the coauthor of the book Managing to Change the World.
Board Member
Cecilia is currently Vice President for Policy and Technology at New America, a Washington-based think tank. She served as Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council under President Obama, and earlier as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs where she oversaw the Obama Administration’s relationships with state and local governments. Before joining the Obama Administration, Cecilia spent 20 years at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization. In June 2000, she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in recognition of her work on immigration and civil rights. She also serves on the Board of the Kresge Foundation and the US Programs Board of the Open Society Foundations.
Board Member
Ricki is senior principal at TSD Communications, counseling corporate and non-profit clients on a wide range of communications and general strategy matters. A veteran of public service, she held several senior White House positions during the Clinton Administration, also serving as Deputy Associate Attorney General in the Department of Justice. In 2009, she assisted the White House in the confirmation of President Obama’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. Over the course of her career, Ricki also worked for the late Senator Edward Kennedy and was Executive Director of Rock the Vote.
The work of protecting our democracy is one that transcends party and ideology. We are proud to have a diverse array of experts who share our commitment to this mission and have offered their advice on this work. Some engage in specific projects, others at a more general level, and none bear responsibility for — nor even endorse — everything we do, but they believe, as we do, that all Americans must stand together in defense of our democratic institutions.
Author and Professor of Practice at the London School of Economics
Professor of Italian and History, New York University
Professor of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University
Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Columnist, and Former Speechwriter to First Lady Nancy Reagan
Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity, Columnist, and Former White House Director of Public Liaison to President Ronald Reagan
Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Former U.S. Representative (R-MO)
Former White House Counsel
Author, Political Analyst, and Former Chief Strategist, Bush-Cheney 2004
Former U.S. Representative (R-OK)
Co-CEO and Founder, Stand Up Republic
Former Assistant United States Attorney and Associate White House Counsel
Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School
Former United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
Lawyer, Constitutional Rights Advocate and Author
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Professor of Government, Harvard University
Former United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington
Co-CEO and Founder, Stand Up Republic
Associate Professor of Political Science, The George Washington University
Professor of Government, Dartmouth College
Professor of Law, The George Washington University School of Law
Former Associate Attorney General of the United States
Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Former Assistant Attorney General
Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
Richard C. Levin Professor of History, Yale University
President, Niskanen Center
Former Solicitor General of the United States
Professor of Law, University of Baltimore and Former Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation
Founder, Freedom to Marry
Professor of Government, Harvard University
History has shown that the best way to protect democracy is by standing united in its defense. Donate to help us to scale up our efforts to educate, advocate, organize, and litigate on behalf of the values we all hold dear.