About Us
National Staff
At Kenyon, I am the president of the Planned Parenthood Generation Action Club, and have worked to provide abortion access to low-income communities across Ohio, as well as to make menstrual products free on our college campus. Outside of political activism I love cooking and baking, spending time with my dog, and working as a senior admissions fellow at my school interviewing students for future Kenyon classes!
Outside of the classroom, he is a member of the Independent Party of the Yale Political Union, the legislative advocacy team for Every Vote Counts (a nonpartisan voting rights activist group), and the Yale Daily News photography staff. He also enjoys running, taking long walks, and exploring new places.
Nathan was elected to the Town of Lunenburg, Massachusetts Planning Board and served from 2009 through 2015. His career in the software industry spanned 25 years and included engineering, design, and management roles. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Yale University.
Prior to her political organizing work, she had a career in project management and technical communications for IT and Operations Departments at companies such as Iron Mountain, EMMT (NRG) and Northwest Airlines. Celia holds a degree in Linguistics and Russian from Macalester College and studied Piano Pedagogy at the New England Conservatory of Music. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching classical piano, and fiber arts.
In the future, I hope to write and bring attention to untold stories. I enjoy reading political articles because I have a strong desire to learn about various viewpoints. I enjoy spending time with my sister (on occasion), and I also find comfort in being in nature. My interests are promoting human rights and assisting disadvantaged countries in their development.
My familiarity with Rank Choice Voting was rather minimal before I began my internship. However, the novel ideas it presents to democracy have me becoming more and more enthralled as I learn more about the topic. I am thrilled to be a part of an initiative that seeks to make voting inclusive and equitable. The concept of offering equal opportunity to all people, especially those from minority groups, to have a chance at winning strikes a chord with me particularly strongly.
Eileen has been actively engaged with Ranked Choice Voting advocacy since 2019 and currently sits on the board of directors of Oregon Ranked Choice Voting Advocates. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Science & Public Policy from York College of Pennsylvania and an M.S.L. in Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Law from Lewis & Clark Law School. In the last decade she has lived in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Oregon and currently calls California home.
After parting ways with the Forward Party in the spring of 2022, Spencer founded his own reform-oriented political consulting firm, Torchlight Strategies. Through Torchlight, he's had the ability to help reform causes bring a communications and data expertise to their movements, and is most recently excited to be working with Rank The Vote as their Interim Digital Director. In his free time, he enjoys rugby, Lord of the Rings, and spending time outdoors and on the water as much as possible in his home state of Maine.
Sean holds a BA in Political Science from Kenyon College. He's a fan of reading, games of all kinds, and Arsenal FC.
Board of Directors
As DoSomething’s resident Job Czar and one of their beloved old people, she has brought her affinity for business books, baking, and inclusive workplace practices to the largest tech company exclusively for young people and social change.
Jocelyn also has extensive experience in government and politics, having served as an aide in the White House and U.S. Senate and on various presidential, statewide and congressional campaigns.
Over the years, Brian has earned a reputation as a strategic organizer and strong advocate for improving voting systems, with a knack for boiling down complex public policy initiatives to voters across the political spectrum. As the head of OneVirginia2021, Brian grew the organization’s supporter list from a few thousand to over 100,000, with local action groups of dedicated volunteers in every corner of the Commonwealth. This growth fueled the legislative strategy that passed significant and complex reform through the Virginia legislature under Republican and then Democratic control.
Brian is a double William & Mary graduate - earning a degree in government and focusing his law school work in election law. In a bit of foreshadowing for his current role, as an undergraduate, he implemented ranked choice voting for student government elections. He and his wife Kelly live in Richmond with their two children, Bennett and Kathryn.
Responding to extreme divisiveness in politics following the 2016 election, Katie posted on Facebook asking if anyone would like to take on gerrymandering in Michigan, and almost by accident, sparked a political movement that mobilized over 10,000 volunteers to collect more than 425,000 petition signatures from every county in the state without spending a dime for them, a feat unheard of in Michigan.
Now Katie is Executive Director of The People, a nonprofit organization committed to sharing the lessons learned in Michigan with voters across the ideological spectrum in all 50 states, bridging political divides and supporting nonpartisan good governance reforms nationwide.
Katie was the main subject for the critically acclaimed 2019 documentary, Slay the Dragon. She has been featured in articles by the New York Times, Salon, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, among others. Katie has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC and NPR, and has presented at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Having started her career with the Boston Consulting Group and then launching a spinoff of that firm, she later stepped away from formal consulting organizations, allowing her to partner closely with her clients in more creative and flexible ways. In addition, she has helped many non-profits pro bono with their strategic and operational challenges.
Susie was a community organizer before Barack Obama, and worked on several campaigns back in the day. A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School, she believes her clients have been the most valuable source of her education.
Bruce was a strategy consultant at McKinsey and Company and a Medical Officer with the US Navy and the State of California Department of Health Services.
Bruce received a BS in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MD from NYU School of Medicine and an MPH from UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Bruce became active in electoral politics following the 2016 election - developing financial and network support for several US House candidates in 2018. Following the 2018 election, Bruce has been actively involved with electoral reform and democracy promotion.
She began her career at Amnesty International USA in its Boston and New York offices, and went on to work at the U.N. Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and later for the Vice President of the U.N. Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as an Associate Legal Officer. She successfully oversaw the implementation of democracy and governance programs, including elections-related missions, as the Deputy Director for Southern and East Africa at the National Democratic Institute.
Mercedeh has been a litigator for more than 20 years. As a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General, an Assistant United States Attorney and Senior Litigation Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, she litigated approximately two hundred cases on wide-range of issues, including the enforcement of the False Claims Act. More recently, as a managing attorney at other government agencies, she has focused on combating fraud, waste and abuse.
Mercedeh’s pro bono work includes leading advocacy and rule of law workshops for women lawyers and activists in East and West Africa as well as the Near East, and advising various women’s rights groups at home and abroad, as a board member. She has investigated allegations of atrocities committed in Darfur, Sudan, and represented the U.S. Department of State at the International Criminal Court Review conference in 2010. Mercedeh is the author of several rights-related articles and a book chapter. Mercedeh is a graduate of Howard University School of Law and lives with her husband and daughter in Vienna, VA, USA.
Lan began her career in commercial banking followed by private education at Sidwell Friends School. She held administrative positions at The Health Management Academy, a content-based organization for healthcare executives. She is co-founder of Think Medium, a multi-media think tank focused on healthcare leadership.
Lan holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management from the University of Maryland. Her Bachelor’s degree is from the University of Maryland in Business Law and Public Policy.
Professionally, John is co-founder and Principal of Hanover Partners, a San Francisco private equity firm that has been active investing in small middle-market manufacturing companies in the U.S. since 1994. John serves or has served as a director on the board of twelve of Hanover’s portfolio companies, including serving as Chairman for five companies.
John is a long-time electoral reform advocate supportive of a more level playing field for electing independent and third-party candidates. John and his wife Mary were significant financial supporters of The Committee for Ranked Choice Voting, the Maine-based organization that led the passage of the first statewide use of this instant-runoff system. They live in San Francisco with three children, and they spend significant time in Maine during the summer. John actively volunteers locally including periodically serving on nonprofit boards.
Active on social media with a significant following (for the democracy reform universe), John’s Twitter effort can be found at @ElectBetterUSA. John has written several articles on the topic of electoral reform for the Independent Voter Network.
As a composer, Scotty has scored films and commercials, including dozens of 48 Hour Films, winning Best Music and a premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. He studied jazz composition at Oberlin Conservatory, and received a Master’s degree from the MIT Media Lab, where he pioneered software that arranges film music based on emotion. Scotty worked as a music knowledge engineer at The Echo Nest, acquired by Spotify.
Digital Strategy Council
Mark's primary interests involve using content and storytelling to help different groups of people better understand one another.
Dan spent 8 years pursuing a career in stand-up comedy, appearing on Comedy Central and as a finalist in the Boston Comedy Festival.
Advisory Board
Danielle’s work to make the world better for young people has taken her from teaching college and leading a $60 million university division to driving change at the helm of a $6 billion foundation, writing for the Washington Post, advocating for cannabis legalization, democracy reform, and civic education, and most recently, to running for governor of Massachusetts.
During the height of COVID in 2020, Danielle’s leadership in rallying coalitions and building solutions resulted in the country’s first-ever Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience; her policies were adopted in federal legislation and a Biden executive order. Danielle made history as the first Black woman ever to run for statewide office in Massachusetts.
She continues to advocate for democracy reform to create greater voice and access in our democracy, and drive progress towards a new social contract that serves and includes us all. Her many books include the widely acclaimed Our Declaration: a reading of the Declaration of Independence in defense of equality and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.
Elaine has spent nearly two decades on the ground in campaigns and organizations, leading communities to flex their political muscle for progressive victories.
Always a believer in a well-balanced life, Elaine enjoys roller-skating, craft beer, playing with her energetic cat, Peanut Butter, and world travel. She has lived in Germany, Colombia, and Greater Boston. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
Tonina has been organizing for over ten years on both electoral and issue-based campaigns. She has organized around local economic and environmental justice issues, directed canvass offices and managed teams of organizers advocating for progressive policy all over the country. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, (Go Slugs!) with a degree in Biology.
Tonina is a dedicated aunt, cat parent, birth doula, and breakfast sandwich connoisseur.
Prior to founding Vertex in 1989, Dr. Boger was Senior Director of Basic Chemistry at Merck, Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J., where he headed both the Departments of Biophysical Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry of Immunology & Inflammation. During his ten years at Merck, Dr. Boger developed an international reputation in the application of computer modeling to the chemistry of drug design and was a pioneer in the use of structure-based rational drug design as the basis for drug discovery programs.
Dr. Boger was named in 2009 to the Biotech Hall of Fame, received in 2012 the Chemical Heritage Foundation & BIO 13th Annual Biotechnology Heritage Award, in 2018 received the Othmer Gold medal from the Science History Institute and a Doctor of Science honorary degree from Wesleyan University, in addition to numerous other professional awards.
Dr. Boger is Chair of the Board of the Celebrity Series (Boston’s premier performing arts presenter), co-founder and Vice-Chair of the Alliance for Business leadership (a Boston-based, non-partisan coalition of progressive business leaders) and Vice-Chair of the Museum of Science (Boston). He serves on several additional non-profit Boards, including the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School (where he is Chair Emeritus), the Science Advisory Council of WGBH (public broadcasting’s leading station, Boston), and the MIT Corporation Visiting Committees to the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (IMES). He is a former member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, served on the boards of the Hastings Center for Bioethics and the Whitehead Institute (Cambridge, MA), was a founding Director of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, was a Trustee and Chair of the Board of Wesleyan University, was founding Chair of the Board of MassChallenge, and, while a member of the Board of the ACLU of Massachusetts Foundation, co-founded their ongoing Technology for Liberty and Justice for All Projects.
Dr. Boger holds a B.A. in Chemistry and Philosophy from Wesleyan University and an A.M. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University.
She was previously the Director of Research at the Albert Einstein Institution, a visiting researcher at the MIT Media Lab Human Dynamics Group, and a consultant at the World Bank Development Data Group. She has also served as a research assistant at the UC Berkeley Violence and Intervention Lab and the United States Institute of Peace Nonviolent Action Program.
She holds a Masters in Divinity from Harvard University, where her research focused on religion, politics, and conflict. She presented the findings of her thesis on civil resistance strategies against ISIS at TEDx Salem.
He serves on the Boards of Directors for the California Ranked Choice Voting Coalition (Cal RCV) and the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center. Additionally, he serves on the Advisory Board of Rank the Vote.
Professionally, Guy is Chairman of World Gym International, a global fitness center franchise with over 220 gyms across 15 countries and six continents. Prior to that, he was CEO and Managing Director of World Gym & Affiliates.
RESULTS began lobbying for microfinance for the poor in 1986. In 2007, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus said: “….no other organization has been as critical a partner in seeing to it that microcredit is used as a tool to eradicate poverty and empower women than RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund’s Microcredit Summit Campaign.”
Sam Daley-Harris co-founded the Microcredit Summit Campaign with Muhammad Yunus and FINCA founder John Hatch. Daley-Harris organized the February 1997 Microcredit Summit held in Washington, DC. The Summit was attended by more than 2,900 delegates from 137 countries and launched a campaign to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit for self-employment and other financial and business services by 2005. At that first Summit then-U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton said, "I am thrilled to see such a turnout for this Summit which is one of the most important gatherings we could have anywhere in our world." The goal of reaching 100 million of the world’s poorest families was surpassed in 2007.
The completely revised and updated 2024 edition of Daley-Harris’ book, Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy was released in January 2024. Speaking about the first edition, President Jimmy Carter said, "[Daley-Harris] provides a road map for global involvement in planning a better future."
Not content with focusing his grassroots empowerment work on global poverty, Daley-Harris began coaching Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) in July 2007, three months before it was launched. In 2020 CCL volunteers in the U.S. and Canada had more than 3,000 letters to the editor, op-eds and editorials published (up from 65 in 2010), and had 1,700 meetings with members of Congress, Parliament or their staff (up from 106 in 2010). Leading climate scientist Jim Hansen wrote: “If you want to join the fight to save the planet, to save creation for your grandchildren, there is no more effective step you could take than becoming an active member of Citizens Climate Lobby.”
At the beginning of 2012 Daley-Harris left his position at the Microcredit Summit Campaign to launch Civic Courage which helps organizations train their members to create champions in Congress and the media for their cause. The NY Times article “Lobbying for the Greater Good” discusses Daley-Harris’ work with RESULTS, Citizens Climate Lobby and Civic Courage.
Daley-Harris received The Temple Award for Creative Altruism from the Institute of Noetic Sciences (1995), the Caring Award from the Caring Institute (1997), the Innovator Award from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University (2003), the Elliott Black Award from the American Ethical Union (2003), and the Susan M. Davis Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grameen Foundation (2007). He delivered the Distinguished Alumni Lecture at the University of Miami in 2015. In 2010, Ashoka founder Bill Drayton wrote, “Sam Daley-Harris is one of the certified great social entrepreneurs of the last decades.”
Daley-Harris has degrees in music from the University of Miami, played percussion instruments in the Miami Philharmonic for 12 years, taught high school music, and is a songwriter. He is married and lives in Princeton, NJ, with his wife Shannon, who is an ordained Presbyterian minister. Their son Micah does analytics and player development for the Arizona Diamondbacks and their daughter Sophie is completing a master’s in social work at Bryn Mawr College.
Tara has worked with Ivy League educational institutions as well as a number of public and private universities in the New England area and has experience in fundraising and staffing operations for local, federal, candidate and issue-based campaigns. Tara has consulted with small businesses in the start-up tech and construction sectors assisting in developing and executing business strategies and navigating regulatory practices.
Tara holds a BA in Political Science – from the University of Massachusetts, Boston where she served as a University Trustee 2009-2010. She also received a certificate from Washington International Studies Program at Oxford University and has a Professional Grant Writing Certificate from the University of Massachusetts.
Johannes has a J.D. and Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resource Law from Lewis & Clark Law School, and a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a Minor in Legal Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz. She previously practiced environmental law in California.
John’s interest in business began as a child when he sold souvenirs at the Saratoga Springs horse racetrack. His entrepreneurial spirit continued into adulthood when he founded and served as the CEO of Esler Companies. Esler Companies is the largest affiliate of Renewal by Andersen, the nation’s premier replacement window and door brand. Esler Companies employs over 2,500 teammates across 12 states.
While leading Esler Companies, John structured the organization around its core value of love. John modeled the business culture in service first to teammates, second to customers, and third to the community. He is especially proud of establishing the organization’s philanthropic arm, Window of Giving, which enables team members to give back to those in need within the communities where they live and do business.
John enjoys mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs, notably through EforAll in Worcester, MA, and with business students at Babson College, where he earned his MBA.
Since retiring from Esler Companies, John and his wife Jeanne established the Esler Family Foundation. Its mission is to reduce wealth inequality, advance leadership development, and increase access to mental health services.
EveristHealth’s portfolio includes cardiovascular health products that inform people of their heart age and current state of their overall heart health. Most recently, EveristHealth developed the COVIDAge Risk Calculator™️ to bring awareness to individuals of their risks for COVID-19 complications should they become infected and to empower them to lower those risks through specific diet and lifestyle changes.
In addition to risk stratification, EveristHealth’s pandemic management tools are designed to assist public officials by providing geographically accurate outbreak and contact tracing data to manage response. The tools also optimize the vaccine distribution “last mile scheduling” problem to get the highest risk individuals vaccinated without lines or empty chairs.
Steve is a Stanford graduate with degrees in Product Design in 1997 and Bioinformatics in 1998. He has strong connections to the Silicon Valley intellectual and tech innovation scene, with roots going back to college and his early involvement in a Palo Alto startup that sold for $65 million to Microsoft. Steve’s interests include behavioral economics, machine intelligence, and the psychology and politics of empowering individuals. He is an avid proponent of transforming politics through invention, with a long running project under design and development to improve political culture by incentivizing integrity in political debate and discourse. His enthusiasm for ranked choice voting goes back many years and he is excited to be involved in the growing movement.
Steve and his family have been growing successful family businesses in South Dakota for generations and have been deeply engaged in public service through civic and political life. He currently resides in Colorado.
In his career as a software engineer and entrepreneur, under the brand Civera, Adam created the first searchable public database of official election statistics on behalf of the Secretary of Massachusetts and four other US states. Adam lives in Somerville, MA and holds a BA in History from Boston University.
Prior to business school Lennie played football at Duke University followed by a 10 year career in the National Football League. Lennie was drafted in the 2nd Round to the Denver Broncos and played for the now Washington Commanders, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns.
Lennie advocates for RCV because it is a NON-PARTISAN voting infrastructure that incentivizes politicians to achieve a greater than 50% majority of the electorate to support them. Thereby reducing polarization, encouraging collaboration and working towards solutions that are supported by a majority of voters.
Recently, Malea led fundraising efforts for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Presidential Bid. As the Development Director, she brought traditional fundraising practices to compliment online giving. The fundraising program generated a record-breaking $200M for the 14-month presidential primary campaign.
Over the past 20+ years Malea has worked on numerous start-up teams and with established organizations. She has worked with state, congressional and presidential candidates developing strategies, finance operations and coalition building.
Malea served as Senior Director of Governance to the Board of Directors of the National Wildlife Federation for over 10 years. Organizing the 501(c)3, 501(c)4 and Endowment Boards- in policy and campaign engagement, funding and connecting to the organization’s 6 million members and 51 state and territorial affiliates. Malea also led NWFs Political Action Committee (PAC) and Super-PAC providing pivotal support on conservation issues.
Understanding the power of elections, Malea is passionate about youth engagement in the political process, supporting small business and communities and ending gun violence. She serves on the Minnesota YMCA Youth in Government Board of Directors and enjoys mentoring the next class of our future leaders.
Dr. Glickman is known for having invented the Glicko and Glicko-2 rating systems for head-to-head competition, both of which have been adopted by many gaming organizations internationally. Dr. Glickman has served as a member of the US Chess Ratings Committee since 1985, and has been the Chair of the Committee over most of that period. He co-founded and co-organizes the New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports, a bi-annual conference on the research and practice of applying statistical methods in sports. He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports and was Editor-in-Chief 2015-2017. At Harvard, he is the founding head of the Lab for Sports Analytics.
Appointed by Governor Deval Patrick, Avi has also served on the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission and the Local Election District Review Commission.
Jason was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska and he and his wife Jana have been married 19 years and are raising three small children.
Previously, Ben served as Co-founder and National Political Director for American Promise, a national cross-partisan organization working to overturn Citizens United vs. FEC. Ben is a native of Colorado where he also graduated from Fort Lewis College.
Her widely acclaimed novel, Disturbance of the Inner Ear, won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction by an American Woman, and she’s been awarded fellowships at the American Academy Berlin, the Netherlands Institute for the Arts and Sciences, the MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Schloss Wiepersdorf. She has taught creative writing in Germany, the UK, and at multiple universities in the U.S., including George Washington University, where she was the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Residence. Her novel-in-progress, Reconstruction, explores the ways that the suffrage and abolition movements collaborated and competed, supporting and undermining each other.
Hackett is the creator of several large public education projects, including Washington Write-a-Story Day. She's also the founder of Lift+Every+Vote, which offers average activists concrete opportunities to help protect our democracy's critical infrastructure. It's focused on the basics of voting: registration, and now has close to 1100 members in 21 states. Her mission is to leave behind universal suffrage.
He spent the first part of his career with large firms including Covington & Burling in D.C. and Wyche Burgess and then Nelson Mullins in South Carolina. Since 2004 when he started his own practice, he has achieved approximately $100 million in verdicts and settlements and has won the coveted Litigator Award given to the top 1% of lawyers, lawyers known for “bet the company” cases.
William is also deeply committed to public education and from 1998-2006 served on the Greenville County (SC) School Board. The district even then had over 70,000 students, 5,000 teachers, and budgets approaching half a billion dollars a year. During William’s tenure and substantially as a result of his leadership, the District entered into a unique public-private partnership that enabled the construction of over 70 schools in four years at a savings of over $1 billion, all without increasing taxes, giving the district facilities among the best in the nation. William has also served on the South Carolina Educational Television Commission [PBS] and the board of the South Carolina Children’s Theater.
William’s mantra is: “Decency matters. Treat people with respect and dignity, because integrity counts. Be a living example. Work like hell. Never give up. But don’t be afraid to have fun along the way.” In 2018, William was a candidate for the Republican nomination for South Carolina Attorney General on an anti-corruption platform.
Mr. Hill has over two decades of experience in politics and policy, both in the US and Europe. Most recently he was policy director for the Center for Humane Technology, and before that journalist-in-residence at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), and Holtzbrinck fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is the author of seven books, including 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy; Fixing Elections: The Failure of America’s Winner Take All Politics; Reflecting All of Us/Whose Vote Counts (co-authored with FairVote co-founder Rob Richie); Raw Deal: How the “Uber Economy” and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers; Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age, and more.
His articles, op-eds and media interviews have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Politico, Financial Times, CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, BBC, Bloomberg, Democracy Now, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, Project Syndicate and other publications.
Mr. Hill has lectured widely in the United States and Europe, including to business, government, policy institutes, labor unions, universities and NGOs, on a range of topics related to politics, political reform, the digital economy, future of work, artificial intelligence, startup platforms, transatlantic relations, global complexity and future trends.
At the NAACP, Segun managed the research and production of the Equity, Access, and Opportunity Report Card, a comprehensive, 175-page assessment of the city’s efforts and results in addressing systemic racial disparities.
In August 2014, Segun organized the Boston Police Camera Action Team (BPCAT) with his colleague, Shekia Scott. BPACT’s mission was to further accountability and safety in Boston through the mandatory use of police body-worn cameras. As a result of their efforts, Boston began a body-worn camera pilot program and policy in September 2016. In 2018, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced a $2 million investment in a permanent citywide body-worn camera program.
Following his graduation from Boston Latin Academy, Segun earned his Bachelor of Arts in History at Morehouse College.
At VCMA, Billy organized the “200 Coffees” legislator education campaign, which resulted in 89/200 Massachusetts legislators sponsoring or co-sponsoring RCV legislation. He also gave talks to small audiences which signed up hundreds of supporters and raised thousands of dollars in small donations. Billy holds a BA from Westfield State University and an MAT from Salem State University.
He has written five books on energy industry economics and global trade. In addition, he has contributed 250 speeches, articles and webcasts to publications such as Oil and Gas Journal, Supply Chain Management Review, Energy Tribune, and Supply Chain Quarterly.
Formerly, he taught Operations Management at Boston University's graduate school of business, served as a contributing editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, and consulted to the World Bank. While based in Brazil, Hong Kong and France, he consulted on strategic sourcing, purchasing and outsourcing, shipping, and capital investments.
He holds an MBA from the Wharton School, a Masters in International Business from The Lauder Institute, a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and several industry certifications. At the International Supply Chain Education Alliance (ISCEA), he is a member of its Ptak Prize Selection Committee. Mr. Jacoby is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Since launching in 2017, Election Reformers Network has provided financial and strategic support to initiatives such as ranked choice voting in Maine and Massachusetts, redistricting reform in Missouri and Utah, and secretary of state reform in New Mexico. Mr. Johnson co-authored Guardrails for the Guardians, focused on secretary of state partisanship, along with more than 20 opinion pieces on a wide range of reform topics.
He served on the Board of Common Cause Massachusetts from 2008 to 2018, where he was active in campaigns to improve redistricting, reduce money in elections, and support a national popular vote for president. Mr. Johnson’s interest in elections stems initially from several years spent directing democratization programs overseas for the National Democratic Institute. Mr. Johnson has an MBA from Wharton and a BA in English from Yale University.
Scott is a Bioinformatics Scientist at Moderna Therapeutics where he analyzes next generation sequencing data. Scott holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from Columbia University and M.M.Sc. from Harvard Medical School. He enjoys running and cycling and is an accomplished triathlete.
Prior to joining Pickwick, Ms. Kemp was the CEO at Arcova Technologies, Inc., a consumer focused predictive analytics company. She is a recognized economic development expert and co-developer of a Gross State Product (GSP) analytics tool for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, Ms. Kemp served as the Assistant Secretary of Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
She was a long-time member and vice-chair of the board of Common Cause Massachusetts, focusing her efforts on open and accountable government, redistricting reform, and election modernization. She currently serves on the leadership team of Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, focusing on endorsements of candidates to state legislative offices and on criminal justice reform. She is a member of the new Berkshire (MA) chapter of the League of Women Voters.
Ketcham holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.S. from Fordham University. While in law school, he served as Treasurer of the Harvard Federalist Society and Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
An immigrant from Morocco and a survivor, Ihssane devoted her life to public service. She worked to eliminate food deserts, save states and municipalities from bankruptcy, and battled the biggest, most corrupt wall street players as Wall Street regulator at the Federal Reserve, where she led federal inter-agency task forces to protect working families from national and global threats to our economy.
Ihssane is currently organizing to elect working class women of color into public office, and serving as Honorary Co-Chair of the Massachusetts’ Yes-on-2 campaign for Ranked Choice Voting.
In 2020, and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Natalia ran for Congress to represent Massachusetts fourth Congressional district. She is currently a Town Meeting Member in Brookline and serves on the Board of the Environmental League of Massachusetts.
Prior to her role at Harvard, Natalia worked at the United Nations for a decade leading UNDP’s work at the nexus of health and environment, and served as a speechwriter and policy specialist at the United Nations in New York and in Beirut, Lebanon. She also worked at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as science advisor to the Commissioner.
Natalia is a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she earned her Doctor of Science in social epidemiology, and of Harvard College, where she earned her Bachelors in Anthropology. She is married and has three young children.
He is senior partner at the Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) where he is responsible for community-driven economic development through breakthrough partnerships in the Homegrown Talent Initiative, working in sixty rural districts across eight regions of the state. In his previous role at CEI he helped assemble the Sin Fronteras Education Partnership, a coalition of local, regional, and national organizations co-creating family partnership strategies for New Mexico communities, and he supported the launch of Colorado’s Statewide Family Engagement Center.
During the first six months of the COVID crisis, Landon worked with community organizations to deploy the Denver Metro Emergency Food Network, which delivered over 320 thousand free meals to families and elderly people in need. At the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he worked with friends and partners to help launch Palaces for People to house refugees.
He has previously led partnerships at A+ Colorado, served as a leader in the family engagement department in Denver Public Schools, co-designed the launch of the NACA Inspired Schools Network (a network of indigenous serving schools), led Teach For America–New Mexico, and taught first grade on the Navajo Nation. In 2015 he completed his doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with a focus on boundary-spanning leadership.
Landon was born in California, raised in Colorado, attended college in Oregon, and began his professional career in New Mexico—leading him to consider the western United States his home. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and enjoys traveling, learning about ancient history, and developing his meditation practice.
Maskin has worked in diverse areas of economic theory, such as game theory, the economics of incentives, and contract theory. His current research projects include comparing different electoral rules, examining the causes of inequality, and studying coalition formation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Econometric Society, and the European Economic Association, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He was president of the Econometric Society in 2003.
Nadeem has been fortunate to educate and train students, leaders, and entrepreneurs from every background over the past 15 years. Nadeem has served as faculty and Director of Innovation at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, an instructor at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan, a Varsity Head Coach at MIT, and a full time elected City Councillor in Cambridge, the home of Harvard and MIT. Nadeem is an Andover native, and went on to graduate from Phillips Academy and MIT. Nadeem is a serial entrepreneur, having founded successful businesses in education, high-tech job training, software, and media.
Previously, Tad was the Co-Founder and CEO of Payable (acquired by Stripe) and also held various innovation leadership roles at Intuit (makers of QuickBooks and TurboTax). His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, SXSW, and TechCrunch.
Prior to The Factual, Arjun was VP of Business Development at HubSpot. Arjun holds a B.Sc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from Stanford University.
Born and raised in a factory town in the Midwest, Lorelei is especially concerned with government capacity to meet the needs of its least powerful citizens when they conflict with the desires of powerful interest groups who have privileged access to policymakers and policymaking forums.
Professor Moosbrugger’s research on how electoral institutions shape interest group influence on agricultural and environmental policies was conducted as a Fulbright Scholar to the European Union with funding from the Institute for the Study of World Politics and MacArthur Foundation.
In “The Vulnerability Thesis: Interest Group Influence and Institution Design” (Yale University Press 2012), she ranks democracies on a continuum of political vulnerability and develops a theory to explain why politicians in two-party systems are more vulnerable to interest group demands than their counterparts in multiparty systems.
Dr. Moosbrugger’s current research investigates the relationship between electoral institutions, variance in the political sophistication of voters and consistent patterns of cross-national difference in vote choice.
It led the Washington Post to dub him an “intellectual guru of tort reform.” His books since then have stirred discussion on topics ranging from workplace law to mass litigation to the state of the law schools. He is known as founder and principal writer of the longest‐ running blog on law, Overlawyered, which ran from 1999 to 2020.
He has advised many public officials from town councils to the White House and is active in civic affairs in his home state of Maryland, having been named by Gov. Larry Hogan as co‐ chair of commissions aimed at ending the practice of gerrymandering. He is often interviewed for his expertise on elections and redistricting law.
Mike is a Founder of The Green Chimneys Institute for Nature Based Special Education in Brewster, NY, an adjunct professor of international business management at a French ‘grande école’ and Social Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD, “Business School for the World,” in France and Singapore.
He was President of the Boards of Scarsdale Schools and Green Chimneys School and Children’s Services. His 30+ years with IBM included managing technology development and business planning for Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. As CIO, IBM Latin America, he led a $38 million international systems development initiative.
Mike co-authored and guest taught a Technology of Management class, based on a European case study, at Harvard Business School in 2005. He was on the Harvard NY Community Partners Board and served on a Distinguished Alumni International Economics Panel at Princeton. He has judged entrepreneurship competitions for ASHOKA/NYU and INSEAD. His 1969 article on “The Telephone as a Computer Terminal” was prophetic.
He has technical degrees from Princeton (BSEE), Columbia (MS) and American Universities (PhD), and a Harvard MBA.
Deborah has reviewed books for Kirkus Reviews, WBUR online, Ruminator Review, Harvard Review, and Horn Book. Previously, she founded and managed a non-profit organization called Career Paths, a summer internship program for Boston public school students. She is an avid amateur potter.
A native of Cleveland, Deborah holds a BA from Brandeis University, an MA from the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons University, and an honorary doctorate, also from Simmons.
With almost 20 years of experience in strategic planning, change management, capacity building and collaborations for nonprofit organizations and Fortune 500 businesses alike, Lauren brings a wealth of knowledge, a dynamic skill set and a passion to her work with mission-driven organizations. Her previous involvement in fundraising with leaders in the oil & gas industry and background as a social worker has lent itself to both a “grass-roots” and “big picture” approach helping entrepreneurs build their brands and raise capital to fuel their cause.
Lauren has been honored with numerous awards for her professional acumen, most recently as one of the "Top 50 Women Leaders of Houston for 2022" and as a Veteran Leadership Scholar with the George W. Bush Presidential Center. She recently moved from Houston to Austin, Texas, to return to her alma mater as the first Director of Strategic Growth overseeing entrepreneurial programs through the Texas LaunchPad Network serving all 10 academic institutions in the University of Texas system across the state.
An active servant in the philanthropic community, she is also devoted to commitments as a board member and volunteer for area nonprofits. This currently includes consulting for Texas Gun Sense, a nonprofit advocating for common sense solutions to prevent gun violence. She is also grateful to serve Veteran & military-connected entrepreneurs as an Ambassador for Bunker Labs, in honor of her family's long-standing history of service to our country.
John’s accomplishments over three decades as a campaign manager include leading the Republican primary campaign that unseated the U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in one of the most unprecedented upsets in political history. His now-famous strategy of outsmarting instead of outspending the opposition was born out of a hobby of extrapolating statistical data on sports teams.
With an affinity for numbers and grassroots initiatives, John became known as the go-to-guy to help upstart candidates that didn’t have the financial backing needed to play in the political sandbox. During his career, he won 3 out of every 4 races and ran an effort to reach 14 million Catholic and Socially Conservative Christians in 16 states for Bush 2000, winning 16 of 21 state Republican nomination conventions in Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Iowa.
Through all his successes, John Pudner saw firsthand the influence of money on politics—the manipulation of the system and the loopholes that didn’t favor a transparent election -- one in which only narrow, special interests were the true winners. John’s work against the influence of money in politics included testimony that was a major factor in the unheard of unanimous Federal Elections Commission (FEC) decision establishing the right of voters to know who is paying for Facebook political ads. John channels his desire to now reform the system instead of circumventing it in his current role at TBOR, where he leads a team of ex-political wonks working to change the very industry in which they once thrived.
Until 2018, He served as the CEO of The Proactiv Company, the leading skincare brand for acne. Prior, he served as President & Chief Revenue Officer of Guthy-Renker, the worldwide leading direct-to-consumer beauty company. In this role, Mr. Radwell led the growth of such leading brands as Proactiv Acne Solutions, Cindy Crawford’s Meaningful Beauty, IT Cosmetics, Wen Hair Care by Chaz Dean and Crèpe Erase.
Mr. Radwell previously served as President of e-Scholastic, the digital arm of the global children’s publishing and education company. In prior roles, Mr. Radwell was President, Bookspan/Bertelsmann, the premier direct marketer of general interest and specialty book clubs, such as Book of the Month Club, Doubleday Book Club, and Literary Guild, and Senior Vice President, Content for Prodigy Services Company, where he pioneered new ecommerce revenue streams for the online service business. Prior to his days in ecommerce and the Internet, Mr. Radwell spent six years with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
Mr. Radwell received a Master’s degree in Public Policy, from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Columbia College, Columbia University.
Mr. Radwell believes our democracy is in crisis today and will remain so as long as we allow the extreme ends of the partisan spectrum to dominate our political debate. Instead, Radwell proposes a new dialogue between those Americans who make up the exhausted majority, dedicated to a new threefold mission: to educate the public about our country’s political history in the hopes of recommitting to our shared democratic values; to re-establish a civil and rational discussion to replace our divisive contemporary political discourse; and, to commence the long process of healing our nation for future generations.
While on Active Duty, Bobbie served principally as a Cavalry Officer and Paratrooper, but transitioned to the Army Reserve as a Civil Affairs officer in 2018. Since leaving Active Duty, Bobbie has devoted his full efforts to development and consulting on a wide variety of operations, including security, negotiations, real estate, public policy, and political campaigns. In 2009, he founded Ragsdale Holdings, LCC, through which he acquired over twelve years of real estate development and investment experience.
Bobbie graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2007 with a BS in American Politics w/ Thesis, and a Systems Engineering Track. He was later selected by the Army to pursue a postgraduate degree, graduating from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a Master in Public Administration in 2016. He has additionally studied System Dynamics at MIT and Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. He serves on the boards of the Fisher House of Louisiana, The NOLA Gold Rugby Foundation, Global Leadership University, The Harvard Club of Louisiana, and the Isidore Newman Alumni Board, and is the President of the West Point Class of 2007. He resides in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans with his wife, Meghan, and four children.
Currently a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center, he has previously been Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia, Dean of the Sir Walter Murdoch School, and Director of the Centre for Democratic Institutions at the Australian National University (ANU). He has also worked with the Australian government, the United Nations and other international organizations, and held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Johns Hopkins universities.
Benjamin has authored or edited seven books and over 100 scholarly papers, and received financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the United States Institute of Peace, the East-West Centre, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Australian Research Council. He regularly contributes to and is quoted in national and international media including the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Time Magazine. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the ANU.
When her efforts to reform the election system and end cannabis prohibition failed in the Legislature, Diane led a bipartisan coalition of advocates and leaders to take both Ranked Choice Voting and marijuana legalization to ballot in 2016 - and win.
During the last presidential cycle, Diane led the national fight to reform the Superdelegate system within the Democratic Party, succeeding in reducing the number by ⅔ and binding remaining superdelegates to the popular vote of their state. Her speech at the DNC — hailed as a “coming out speech” — earned her 4th place in Politico’s 11 top quotes of the day.
Diane has been published in the New York Times, Roll Call, The Boston Globe, The Hill blog, and she is a blogger in the Huffington Post. Additionally, she has been widely quoted in High Times, The Hill, The Huffington Post, The Intercept, The Nation, Politico, and the Washington Post, even making the cover of Reddit and doing two wildly successful AMA’s.
Voatz has also conducted elections with state/county governments, towns, cities, universities, professional organizations including the country’s first mobile voting project with the State of West Virginia in 2018.
Nimit is a winner of multiple coding/security hackathon competitions including the SXSW ‘Hack to the Future’ Hackathon in 2014 and the Vantiv Challenge at the Money2020 Hackathon in 2016. Nimit’s background is in mobile security and software development, previously serving as Director of R&D at Oberthur Technologies (now IDEMIA), and prior to that, as Director of R&D at MoreMagic Solutions.
Nimit holds a graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Business Management and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School’s YALP (Young American Leaders Program) Class of 2019. In his spare time, Nimit actively participates in the development of security tools to help detect and prevent human trafficking.
Professor Shiller is a New York Times bestselling author who has written on financial markets, financial innovation, behavioral economics, macroeconomics, real estate, statistical methods, and on public attitudes, opinions, and moral judgments regarding markets. His many books include Irrational Exuberance, an analysis and explication of speculative bubbles, with special reference to the stock market and real estate, and most recently in 2019, Narrative Economics, “an account of how stories help drive economic events—and why financial panics can spread like epidemic viruses”.
He was co-founder of Case Shiller Weiss, Inc. in 1991, whose repeat-sales home price indices, developed originally with Karl E. Case, are now produced by CoreLogic and published as the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange now maintains futures markets based on the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices. He was cofounder of MacroMarkets, LLC in 1999, which launched Macroshares based on oil at the American Stock Exchange 2006-9, and on the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices at the New York Stock Exchange 2009-2010.
Professor Shiller has been research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research since 1980, and has been co-organizer of NBER workshops: on behavioral finance with Richard Thaler 1991-2015, and on macroeconomics and individual decision making (behavioral macroeconomics) with George Akerlof 1994-2007.
He writes a regular column "Finance in the 21st Century" for Project Syndicate, which publishes around the world, and "Economic View for The New York Times.
Sam’s distinct model of serving and informing Fitchburg and surrounding areas, incorporating front-line volunteering and advocacy, rich multi-channel media, and continuous constituent service and accessibility, has achieved remarkable results fostering civic engagement and pride, and produced tangible improvements to the city that residents now enjoy.
Sam has been on the ground leading local initiatives such as the creation of the new Fitchburg dog park, keeping Fitchburg’s roads and parks clean with weekly organized cleanups, city wide yard sales, and initiatives with the Fitchburg Greenway Committee. Sam was appointed by Governor Baker to the Massachusetts Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, is President of the 501c3 Fitchburg Friends of DOGS, Inc., a board member of the Longsjo Classic / Art Longsjo Foundation, Fitchburg Pride, and the newly formed Friends of Fitchburg Abolitionist Park.
Professionally, Sam is an Architectural Building Engineer & Project Manager with a LEED AP in Building Design and Construction who for over 20 years has worked on large Commercial & Industrial building design & construction projects to local commercial renovations.
He has also served in leadership roles on voter protection teams for campaigns and nonpartisan organizations. Nick holds a J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review, and a B.A. from Emory University. He is admitted to practice law in New York.
He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute.
In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001 and received that university's highest academic rank (university professor) in 2003. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz's work focuses on income distribution, risk, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization. He is the author of numerous books, and several bestsellers. His most recent titles are People, Power, and Profits, Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy, Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited, The Euro and Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy.
Before joining New America, Maresa cut her teeth in the US politics space as a long-time staff writer on the State Desk at Ballotpedia. She's lived in Italy and the UK, where she completed her graduate studies and, most recently, worked as an editor for a London media company. Maresa has written for outlets such as Vox, Washington Monthly, Democracy Journal, and Inside Philanthropy. She holds an MS in international relations from the University of Surrey and a BS in economics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Summers’ tenure at the U.S. Treasury coincided with the longest period of sustained economic growth in U.S. history. Currently, Dr. Summers is the President Emeritus and the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University, where he became a full professor at age 28. He directs the University’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Summers was the first social scientist to receive the National Science Foundation’s Alan Waterman Award for scientific achievement and, in 1993, he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given to the most outstanding economist under 40 in the United States. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. He has published more than 150 papers in scholarly journals.
Summers is an advisor to businesses and investors. He is a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and co-chaired the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity. He recently launched a Task Force on Fiscal Policy with Mayor Bloomberg and chaired the Commission on Global Health, lauded by the UN Secretary General who noted that it “will bring more than health – it will bring equity, and contribute to a life of dignity for all.” Summers has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential thinkers by publications such as Time, Foreign Policy, Prospect and The Economist.
Betsy has more than 37 years of experience in Maine politics with numerous milestone achievements. She wrote and helped pass the first Family Medical Leave Act in the country. She also created the nation’s first Clean Elections system. Betsy worked on every Maine State Budget for 37 years. She served as executive director of the Maine Women's Lobby, was program coordinator for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and under Governors Brennan and McKernan, was Commissioner for Women.
Betsy is a Co-founder of the Maine Center for Economic Policy and the Dirigo Alliance. Betsy founded and runs her own advocacy consultancy, Moose Ridge Associates. She also co-founded the Civil Rights Team Project, an anti-bullying program currently taught in 400 schools in Maine.
In 2017, she was appointed by the Massachusetts governor, attorney general, and treasurer to serve as one of five inaugural commissioners of the Cannabis Control Commission, the agency tasked with regulating legal and medical marijuana in the commonwealth. Described as “the people’s weed watchdog” in Boston Magazine’s 2019 Power List, she was widely recognized during her term for her focus on racial justice and her efforts to make the cannabis industry more fair and inclusive. Her three-year term was extended to December 31, 2020.
Previously, in her role as a founding board member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, she led the creation of the MCBA Model Bill, the first state-level model legislation created to guide states in the process of reinvestment and reconciliation. She was a co-founder of THC Staffing, the first recruiting firm focused on inclusion in the cannabis industry, and was part of the multistate tax group at Deloitte Tax. She served as a trustee for Students for Sensible Drug Policy and a board member of the National Lawyers Guild, and is currently an advisor to Supernova Women, a nonprofit organization providing a space for women of color in cannabis.
Shaleen’s interviews have been featured in outlets including PBS NewsHour, Politico, NPR, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Guardian, and VICE News. Her op-eds and other written work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Commonwealth Magazine, Marijuana Moment, and the Boston Business Journal. She is an alumna of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a public magnet school with an emphasis on developing problem-solvers, and holds a business degree, law degree, and graduate degree in accounting from the University of Illinois.
Prior to EVERFI, Claire founded and lead growth and strategy for a range of social platforms in Silicon Valley product studios. Claire serves as an advisor for multiple organizations in the technology, film & arts space, as well as the Vinetta Project where she advises, evaluates, and invests in female-founded companies.
Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ismar came to the U.S. in 1991 to attend his senior year of high school. Soon after he arrived, a war broke out in his country and he has lived in the U.S. ever since. He now travels to Bosnia-Herzegovina frequently through his involvement in various education and research activities, including advising Ph.D. students and working with various agencies to bring quality STEM education to the country.
Ismar has recently started a number of initiatives aimed at implementing research projects and improving education on the role of mathematics in democracy. He teaches classes in math and politics and has co-founded the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy.
Reverend Walker was born and raised on the west side of Philadelphia. Rev. Walker attended Penn State University for college where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree with a major in Organizational Leadership and a minor in Psychology in 2012.
During his time in college, Rev. Walker was also elected to become the President of the Abington Christian Fellowship at Penn State Abington’s campus, which is the campus Christian Organization.
After graduating from Penn State University, Rev. Walker attended Boston University's School of Theology and earned a Master's Degree in Theological Studies (M.T.S.) in 2016. During this time, Rev. Walker also crossed-registered to take courses at Harvard University' Divinity School on non-profit leadership. Rev. Walker also took classes at the School of Social Work at Boston University that focused on social justice and macro social work practices.
During his graduate studies at Boston University, Rev. Walker had the opportunity intern at Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, where he helped the organization preserve and improve at-risk HUD buildings as permanently affordable housing with a maximum of resident participation, ownership and control.
Rev. Walker also interned at the Massachusetts Communities Action Network, where he had an opportunity to engage more deeply in racial and economic justice work. For the last several years, Rev. Walker has been affiliated with the Berachah Church located in Dorchester where he helped to develop the social action and outreach department.
Rev. Walker supports Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and believes that this reform is needed to empower voters and increase voter participation in local, state, and federal elections.
He ranks in the top 5% of published economists by citations, and his co-authored paper “Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information” with Joseph Stiglitz was prominently featured in the Nobel Prize committee statement for Stiglitz’s 2001 Nobel Prize Award.
After receiving his PhD from Stanford, Weiss began his career at Columbia University and as a Research Economist in the Mathematics Center at Bell Laboratories, concurrently. He was elected a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1989.
Weiss is the founder and CEO of Weiss Asset Management (“WAM”). He and WAM’s strategies have been featured in articles in Forbes, Time, and Outstanding Investor Digest, as well as newspaper articles in the U.S. and Europe.
Weiss serves on the Advisory Boards of the University of California Center for Effective Global Action, Last Mile Health, the University for Global Health Equity (Rwanda). He is a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Weiss co-founded Child Relief International, a foundation dedicated to fighting poverty in less developed countries. The Weiss Family Fund supports research in development economics at ten leading universities.
A graduate of Harvard Law School (where he served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology) and of the University of Chicago (where he worked with Freakonomics author Steve Levitt), Mike previously served as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He also worked as a management consultant for Fortune 500 firms across a wide variety of industries, and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of The Waring School.
Jen has served both major parties at the highest levels around policy research, development, communication, and oversight. Working as a nonpartisan career civil servant for the Trump White House in the Office of Management and Budget, her work included making annual apportionments of over a billion dollars and managing budget accounts of several agencies. In Congress as Professional Staff for the Democratic controlled U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means Majority, Jen wrote legislation, advised the Chairman and Congresspeople, and provided messaging research and support. As a policy lead at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation she designed and tested major healthcare reforms.
Outside of the federal government, Jen founded and spearheaded policy and advocacy efforts for BMoreLoved, a global anti-violence and social justice nonprofit. She also served the United Nations in East Africa, where she worked to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals and address gender-based violence for the UN Refugee Agency.
Jen’s convictions about the benefits of ranked choice voting come from close personal experience -- she ran for office and won in RCV elections at her alma mater, Harvard University, where she was elected Class President and part of only the third all-female student body presidential team in the school’s history. In her free time, Jen organizes hundreds of young changemakers in anti-violence and pro-democratic efforts at the local, state, national, and global level.
2023 Summer College Interns
After growing up in such politically divisive times, Auston found a passion for political organizing in 2020 as an Ambassador for Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote. He continued those civic efforts when he along with 90 like-minded students co-founded a nationwide nonpartisan 501(c)(3), Rhizome, designed to activate students’ identities into action.
Last year, Auston completed a four-month fellowship with the Arizona Democratic Party in order to help build and sustain a voter outreach program that mobilized hundreds of volunteers, reached thousands of voters in the Tucson-area, and proved crucial to statewide wins in the midterm elections. This past semester, Auston has been grateful to be a Legislative Fellow with the Yale Democrats where he has been able to testify in front of the Connecticut General Assembly in support of H.B. 5087, a bill which would enact RCV in Connecticut. This role has led him to the Rank the Vote organizer position he holds today.
When not immersed in problem sets or essays to finish, you can catch Auston dancing Ballet Folklórico, competing with Yale Club Swim, and connecting with other queer Latine students in De Colores de Yale.
Raised in a conservative family, Eric grew up with liberal friends, and learned to cultivate a love for his peers regardless of their ideologies. Eric believes the solution to all of our country's problems is supporting working class people in our communities and working hard to help people find purpose in these exceedingly divisive times. In his free time, Eric enjoys woodworking, hiking, and gaming.
I was first exposed to Ranked Choice Voting last semester when I took a class on electoral systems and in the class, did a deep dive in the different types of electoral systems and how they affect who is being elected. I support Ranked Choice Voting because I want to be able to vote for my true preference and not have to worry about voting strategically. I also desire a world with less polarization and less negative campaigning.
I have previously organized political events in my high school surrounding LGBTQIA+ rights and efforts to advance racial equality, as well as Get Out the Vote efforts. In university, I continue to advocate for political reform in my cultural organization–Vietnamese Student’s Association–as well as heading workers’ rights efforts. I am currently a political researcher with a nonpartisan organization called Branch Politics, which looks to educate the public about the candidates in their district in order to increase voting and better inform voters. I look forward to taking advantage of going to college in the nation’s capital by attending more political events and protests.
I was exposed to ranked choice voting when doing research on Rank My Vote Florida, the affiliate that I’m currently an intern for. It seemed like a much more efficient way to vote, as well as one that would actually represent what American citizens want. Once I looked further into how the system worked, I was 100% on-board and knew that working to advance this in Florida–a state which desperately needs election reform–was something I’d be extremely passionate about. Although I know it will be a long journey, I’m hoping to at least educate as many Floridians as possible about what RCV is, how simple it is, and how it can benefit so many people regardless of their background or political orientation.
I first heard of RCV a few years ago before it exploded in popularity. Now I believe there is a good chance that we can incorporate Ranked Choice voting statewide in Georgia. I am responsible for opening up a chapter of Better Ballot Georgia in my current home, Athens, GA.
Personally, I like video games, reading history and news, and my favorite color is green. Academically I've been studying sociology and public policy and am looking to go for a masters in some sort of public policy program in the near future.
Outside of work and school, I enjoy music, sports, movies, and TV shows. I look forward to continuing to help FairVote Illinois, Rank the Vote, and the ranked choice voting movement in general.
Outside of her organizer role, Breanna enjoys reading fantasy books, listening to Taylor Swift, and swimming. Breanna is excited to join the fight to implement Ranked Choice Voting in Maryland!
After completing my undergraduate studies, I hope to pursue a career in law and truly make a difference for underrepresented communities. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to be an intern for Rank the Vote and will take away valuable skills and knowledge from this experience.
In addition to live outreach, Julia has carefully developed a strategy in Maryland to implement Ranked Choice Voting. She has created and given several presentations on Ranked Choice Voting to educate voters, particularly those in Rockville and Baltimore. Through those presentations to various stakeholders, she has collaborated with local organizations to gain endorsements and establish a strong coalition of Ranked Choice Voting supporters in Maryland.
In her free time, you can find her spending time with her dogs, going on a run, exploring different trails, and cooking.
During my internship, I’ve canvassed across locations in Rockville while co-hosting chapter meetings in the aforementioned cities. Additionally, I’ve researched potential partner organizations for RCV Maryland and will be reaching out to them in the coming weeks.
At Duke, I’m the co-president of Round Table, a selective living group, and the co-leader of the Model UN Away Team. My hobbies including cooking, playing video games, and hanging out with friends!
In addition to advocating for electoral reform, Devyn enjoys spending her time exploring art galleries and museums, listening to Drake, and figure skating. Devyn is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn how to build a grassroots movement and become a leader in her home state.
Throughout the past two years, I have had the pleasure of working with the Yale Democrats as a Senior Legislative Fellow and Speakers Director. As a fellow, I worked with StopSolitaryCT to advocate for a bill limiting the use of solitary confinement in CT (Public Act 22-18). As Speakers Director, I organize and moderate speaking engagements with noted politicians and journalists. Outside of classes, I enjoy volunteering with the Red Cross, participating in debates with the Yale Political Union, failing to go to the gym, and reading biographies.
I’ve joined Ranked Choice Boston as a Grassroots Organizer Summer Intern in hopes of implementing ranked-choice voting! Before working here, I volunteered in local campaigns, was a founding member of the Dear Asian Youth club at my high school, and participated in various other activist events to push for more representation. Ranked-choice voting really caught my attention when I took a college course in the mathematics of voting and social choice.
When not studying or engaging in activism, I like to overanalyze shows and movies, picnic, and dance (hip-hop, K-pop, ballet, and everything in between). Yet, as a student in psychology, the intricacies of human interactions and relationship-building fascinate me most often, in the political world as well. Our current voting system incentivizes and amplifies polarization, bias, and aggression towards one another, and I view ranked choice voting as a way to not only challenge that but to also bring people together. Excited to see how ranked-choice voting can change the way people interact with each other!
At Kenyon, I am the president of the Planned Parenthood Generation Action Club, and have worked to provide abortion access to low-income communities across Ohio, as well as to make menstrual products free on our college campus. Outside of political activism I love cooking and baking, spending time with my dog, and working as a senior admissions fellow at my school interviewing students for future Kenyon classes!
I’ve helped with Get Out the Vote efforts through MASSPirg and the Berry Institute of Politics to drive political engagement in the Salem community and continued this work as a as a Student Field Director for Dominick Pangallo’s Mayoral campaign and as a current Field Director for Kyle Davis City Councilor at Large Campaign in Salem. I have also volunteered with the Essex Commision on the Status of Women under the Ginsburg Initiative to help create a voice in the North Shore community on issues impacting young women across the Commonwealth. My work has largely been rooted in sustainability and solving inequalities in the Commonwealth.
Rank Choice Voting means the world to me as a member of the LGBTQ+ family because it helps remove the partisan dialect and actions we’ve all grown a strong detest to. Rank Choice Voting is one of the most effective ways to create a platform for both third party candidates, exercise a strong democracy and ensure the voters stay happier. I am so excited to get involved with Voters Choice MA and can’t wait to make an impact!
Once in college, I learned more about alternative forms of voting during elections, including rank choice voting. My interest in voting reform stemmed from there, so of course I jumped at the opportunity to intern for Rank The Vote in my home state of Massachusetts. I hope to gain valuable campaign experience and to promote the benefits of rank choice voting. Apart from school, I am now the secretary of my college’s Mock Trial club as well as the women’s captain of our club Ultimate Frisbee team!
In the future, I hope to write and bring attention to untold stories. I enjoy reading political articles because I have a strong desire to learn about various viewpoints. I enjoy spending time with my sister (on occasion), and I also find comfort in being in nature. My interests are promoting human rights and assisting disadvantaged countries in their development.
My familiarity with Rank Choice Voting was rather minimal before I began my internship. However, the novel ideas it presents to democracy have me becoming more and more enthralled as I learn more about the topic. I am thrilled to be a part of an initiative that seeks to make voting inclusive and equitable. The concept of offering equal opportunity to all people, especially those from minority groups, to have a chance at winning strikes a chord with me particularly strongly.
Aside from being an intern with the Ranked Choice Boston campaign, she also works for The Conversationalist, a bipartisan media platform empowering Gen Z to have meaningful conversations, especially among those that they disagree with. In her free time, Bella enjoys exploring art museums, helping out on the editorial board for the Simmons literary and art magazine, reading, and spending time with her community in Boston.
During my time with Rank The Vote, I helped collect signatures in Royal Oak to get our initiatives on the ballot in November. In addition to being a signature gatherer, I also helped with the mobilization of volunteers for canvassing events, as well as team bonding events. I also hosted pitch training to help volunteers better understand RCV as a whole and collect more signatures.
Furthermore, I was in charge of validating these signatures and submitting them to the city clerk. Thanks to the combined efforts of my work, the state lead's work, and the volunteers' work, we recently turned in the remaining 2,888 signatures to the clerk's office on July 24th.
Ranked Choice Voting means a lot to me because of my experience in activism. It is clear to me that the large majority of people across Montana are not satisfied with the system or candidates that dominate politics in America. Yet, they still do their best to make it to the polls and get their vote out there. I believe that every person deserves the opportunity to vote for who they truly want to be elected, without losing the value of their ballot.
While working with Rank the Vote this summer, it is my mission to teach as many people as possible about this system, demonstrating its ability to benefit the people and their voice.
I canvas, make phone calls, and create graphics for Rank the Vote Ohio. I enjoy puzzles, documentaries, and lots of pasta in my free time.
I joined Rank the Vote Ohio as a summer intern in order to learn more about the intricacies of grassroots political organizations. Additionally, I want to help my home state implement something that I stand for through working hard within my internship. I've been interested in politics and have been an activist for a decently long time now. Seeing how polarized our political sphere has become through para-social relationships with politicians alongside identity politics from all sides of the coin isn't something I necessarily stand for.
With RCV, I see us bringing back policy based discussions about politicians back to the "kitchen table" of the normal American. Personally, in my free-time I've been involved with a whole bunch of things lately. I'm the leader of one of the cultural organizations at my school, Flawless Brown, along with joining Emerson's forensics team, and more! But, when getting down to the crux of it, I really just enjoy spending time with my two dogs, friends/family at home and at school, and whatever else I can dedicate my time to that I enjoy!
Julian organized a Holocaust education program at his high school and during college he became a docent for the Anne Frank Center exhibit at his school. He will continue his work with the Anne Frank Center by bringing the exhibit to Columbus, Ohio. He is excited to make Democracy in Ohio better for all parties with Ranked Choice Voting.
When Julian is not studying or working, he loves touring the sites of Washington, DC, acting, writing, traveling, and learning about policy issues.
Outside of RCV work, Josie is a junior at Brown University, where she is a Civic Engagement Fellow with the Swearer Center. As a CEF, Josie co-leads Brown Votes, a nonpartisan student-led campus initiative dedicated to increasing civic engagement and democratic participation. Josie has really enjoyed her internship experience as it’s given her an excuse to venture out and explore Rhode Island, meet new people, and learn more about the RCV movement.
As someone with a genuine passion for the law, I'm actually planning to attend law school after I graduate. It's something I've always wanted to pursue. When I'm not buried in textbooks or busy with university life, I love to make time for myself. Exercising, planning (I'm very organizationally savvy!), and surrounding myself with my amazing friends and family are some of my favorite things to do. Oh, and I'm also a big advocate for volunteering and giving back to the community. It's important to me to make a positive impact wherever I can.
Coming in to college, I got involved in research surrounding Asian American voting mobilization and behavior with Professor Sara Sadhwani at Pomona. I decided to apply my political interests combined with my tech experience by pursuing the internship at Rank the Vote this past summer, in order to help the organization ensure that all voters’ voices are heard through ranked choice voting on their ballots.
Currently, she is a digital and grassroots intern at Rank the Vote and worked last summer with the International Rescue Committee as a case management intern. At Yale, she is the Editor in Chief of Yale Human Rights Journal, President of Yale Votes, President and Founder of the Nepali Students Society, and the Vice President of Saybrook College. Outside of school and work, you can find Nikita traveling, dancing, hanging out with friends, and napping!
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