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Our Staff

Ian Bassin
Ian Bassin

Co-Founder and Executive Director

Justin Florence
Justin Florence

Co-Founder and Legal Director

Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos
Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos

Communications

Jonathan Arone
Jonathan Arone

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Aaron Baird
Aaron Baird

Communications

Ben Berwick
Ben Berwick

Counsel

Victoria Canavor
Victoria Canavor

Director of Org Management

Alexandra Chandler
Alexandra Chandler

Policy Advocate

Sara Chimene-Weiss
Sara Chimene-Weiss

Counsel

Courtenay Cotton
Courtenay Cotton

Senior Engineer

Dagny Crepeau
Dagny Crepeau

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Emerald Cronin
Emerald Cronin

Talent Associate

Sydney Daniels
Sydney Daniels

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Jared Davidson
Jared Davidson

Counsel

Soren Dayton
Soren Dayton

Policy Advocate

Chris Deaton
Chris Deaton

Communications

Sohini Desai
Sohini Desai

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Corey Dukes
Corey Dukes

Policy Advocate

Deana El-Mallawany
Deana El-Mallawany

Counsel

Farbod Faraji
Farbod Faraji

Counsel

Aurora Fonseca
Aurora Fonseca

Partnerships

Isaac Gilles
Isaac Gilles

Partnerships

Emerson Goldstein
Emerson Goldstein

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Delaney Gomen
Delaney Gomen

Data Analyst

Rachel Goodman
Rachel Goodman

Counsel

Ben Greenberg
Ben Greenberg

Software Engineer

Rachel Homer
Rachel Homer

Counsel

Brad Jacobson
Brad Jacobson

Director of Product

Blake Jelley
Blake Jelley

Communications & Advocacy Strategist

Aditi Juneja
Aditi Juneja

Communications

Selma Khalil
Selma Khalil

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Cameron Kistler
Cameron Kistler

Counsel

Christine Kwon
Christine Kwon

Counsel

Becca Leviss
Becca Leviss

Partnerships

Cerin Lindgrensavage
Cerin Lindgrensavage

Counsel

Stephanie Llanes
Stephanie Llanes

Counsel

Jillian Lynch
Jillian Lynch

Talent Associate

Jessica Marsden
Jessica Marsden

Counsel

Sean McCully
Sean McCully

VoteShield Security/DevOps

Paulina Montañez-Montes
Paulina Montañez-Montes

Communications

Yascha Mounk
Yascha Mounk

Senior Adviser

Genevieve Nadeau
Genevieve Nadeau

Counsel

Erica Newland
Erica Newland

Counsel

Ngozi Nezianya
Ngozi Nezianya

Counsel

Jessica Nicholson
Jessica Nicholson

Operations Associate

Alan Palazzolo
Alan Palazzolo

Frontend Developer

John Paredes
John Paredes

Counsel

Kristy Parker
Kristy Parker

Counsel

Sonya Petri
Sonya Petri

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Angelo Pis-Dudot
Angelo Pis-Dudot

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Jeri Powell
Jeri Powell

State Liason

Ben Raderstorf
Ben Raderstorf

Policy Advocate

Quinn Raymond
Quinn Raymond

Project Manager

Emily Rodriguez
Emily Rodriguez

Communications

Ariela Rosenberg
Ariela Rosenberg

Policy Advocate

Sam Royston
Sam Royston

Director of Engineering

Ahmed Shaaban
Ahmed Shaaban

Director of Partnerships

Erika Smithson
Erika Smithson

Data Analyst

Nanya Springer
Nanya Springer

Communications

Jon Steinman
Jon Steinman

Communications

Clint Swift
Clint Swift

Data Analyst

Omeed Tavasoli
Omeed Tavasoli

Data Analyst

Anne Tindall
Anne Tindall

Counsel

Tommi-Ann Tsuruga
Tommi-Ann Tsuruga

Software Engineer

Grant Tudor
Grant Tudor

Policy Advocate

Nicholas Tulach
Nicholas Tulach

Software Engineer

Chris Vaeth
Chris Vaeth

Policy Advocate

Rolando Velasquez
Rolando Velasquez

Operations Associate

Scott Welder
Scott Welder

Impact Associate/Paralegal

Brittany Williams
Brittany Williams

Counsel

Sam Wohns
Sam Wohns

Policy Advocate

Beau Wright
Beau Wright

Director of Operations

Board Members

Jeff Berman

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.

Jerry Hauser

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.

Cecilia Muñoz

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.

Ricki Seidman

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.

Advisors

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.

Anne Applebaum

Author and Professor of Practice at the London School of Economics

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Professor of Italian and History, New York University

Sheri Berman

Professor of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University

Mona Charen

Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Columnist, and Former Speechwriter to First Lady Nancy Reagan

Linda Chavez

Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity, Columnist, and Former White House Director of Public Liaison to President Ronald Reagan

Erica Chenoweth

Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Tom Coleman

Former U.S. Representative (R-MO)

John Dean

Former White House Counsel

Matthew Dowd

Author, Political Analyst, and Former Chief Strategist, Bush-Cheney 2004

Mickey Edwards

Former U.S. Representative (R-OK)

Mindy Finn

Co-CEO and Founder, Stand Up Republic

Michael Gottlieb

Former Assistant United States Attorney and Associate White House Counsel

Aziz Huq

Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School

Marcos Daniel Jiménez

Former United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida

Khizr Khan

Lawyer, Constitutional Rights Advocate and Author

Rachel Kleinfeld

Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Steven Levitsky

Professor of Government, Harvard University

John McKay

Former United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington

Evan McMullin

Co-CEO and Founder, Stand Up Republic

Michael Miller

Associate Professor of Political Science, The George Washington University

Brendan Nyhan

Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

Spencer Overton

Professor of Law, The George Washington University School of Law

Thomas Perrelli

Former Associate Attorney General of the United States

Richard Primus

Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Robert Raben

Former Assistant Attorney General

Jennifer Richeson

Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology, Yale University

Kim Lane Scheppele

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

Timothy Snyder

Richard C. Levin Professor of History, Yale University

Jerry Taylor

President, Niskanen Center

Donald Verrilli

Former Solicitor General of the United States

Kimberly Wehle

Professor of Law, University of Baltimore and Former Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation

Evan Wolfson

Founder, Freedom to Marry

Daniel Ziblatt

Professor of Government, Harvard University

The Protect Democracy Project* is a 501(c)(3), United to Protect Democracy^ is a 501(c)(4). Learn more about the difference.

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