Rachel Laser

President & CEO, Americans United

Laser is a lawyer, advocate, and strategist who has dedicated her career to making our country more inclusive. She is focused on shielding our laws from any religion’s influence so we can come together as equals and build a stronger democracy. Rachel has extensive experience uniting both faith and secular leaders and advocacy organizations to make real progress on some of the most important issues of our time. She has been featured in MSNBC, New York Times, and The Hill.

Church-State Separation. K-12 Education. Reproductive Rights. LGBTQ Rights. Christian Nationalism. 

Andrew Seidel

VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, Americans United

Andrew L. Seidel is Vice President of Strategic Communications for AU, an author, and an attorney who’s defended the First Amendment for more than a decade. Andrew is the author of two books: The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American (2019) and American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom (2022). Andrew is a lawyer, who worked with the Freedom From Religion Foundation as a constitutional attorney and later Director of Strategic Response, running a nimble unit known as the Strategic Response Team and helping elevate that organization’s profile. He’s been featured in The Dallas Morning News,  The New York Times, and The Washington Post.   

Christian Nationalism. Extremism. Church-State Separation. Religion. SCOTUS.

Ben Berwick

Counsel, Protect Democracy

A lecturer at Harvard Law School, Ben Berwick co-leads the elections and voting rights team, overseeing Protect Democracy’s work on ensuring American elections are free and fair. He has led several of Protect Democracy’s most significant litigation projects, in addition to spearheading major efforts to ensure that the president is not above accountability and that the Department of Justice is not politicized. Before joining Protect Democracy, he worked for 6.5 years in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Ben has been featured in the Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and PolitiFact.

Election & Voting Laws. Protection of Election Officials. Defamation. Free & Fair Elections. 

Jess Marsden

Counsel, Protect Democracy

Marsden oversees Protect Democracy’s work to ensure free and fair elections, which includes litigation and advocacy around voting rights, disinformation, and Voteshield. Her experience includes combatting partisan interference in election administration and working to end the use of insecure voting technologies. Before joining Protect Democracy, she launched the Veteran’s Legal Assistance Project at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she was an Equal Justice Works Fellow. She has also spent time serving as a clerk to the Honorable Susan L. Carney of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Keith P. Ellison of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Jessica has been featured in the Washington Post, CNN, and the Boston Globe.

Voting Rights. Election Subversion. Disinformation. Voting Technologies. Election Interference. 

Alexandra Chandler

Policy Advocate, Protect Democracy

Chandler is a graduate of Brown University and Brooklyn Law School who in 2018 was the first openly transgender candidate to run for Congress from Massachusetts. She leads Protect Democracy’s national-level elections and voting rights advocacy. This work includes lobbying Congress and the executive branch, convening cross-ideological civil society coalitions, and directing scenario planning to protect free and fair elections in addition to a peaceful transfers of power. Her work with protect Democracy also includes providing support to the Committee on Safe and Secure Elections, Count Every Hero, and the National Task Force on Election Crises. Before Protect Democracy, Chandler spent 13 years as a career intelligence commmunity professional serving the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Chandler has been featured in The Washington Post, NPR, and Newsweek. 

Free & Fair Elections. Civil Society. Election Crises & Preparation. Transfer of Power. Election Worker Safety. 

Corey Dukes

Policy Advocate, Protect Democracy

Dukes works with Protect Democracy by leading the team responsible for executing advocacy efforts on both the federal and state levels. He also directed Protect Democracy’s work in engaging with 2020 presidential candidates, and led work anticipating and responding to efforts to overturn the election in several states. Before joining Protect Democracy, Dukes served as a senior policy advisor to United States Senator Claire McCaskill, state director for Hillary for America, and as a senior advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren. He also has extensive experience serving as a battleground state campaign manager and as a campaign and media consultant focused on engaging communities of color.

State & Federal Advocacy. 

Sara Chimene Weiss

Counsel, Protect Democracy

Chimene-Weiss is a lawyer focused on strengthening our democracy through partnerships, advocacy, and litigation at the local, state, and federal levels. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Law School, she primarily litigates on behalf of people targeted by anti-democratic disinformation. Before joining Protect Democracy, Sara was an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the District of Arizona’s Capital Habeas Unit, where she represented people sentenced to death, and served as a law clerk to a federal district court judge. She has been previously featured in The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and NPR.

Arizona Litigation & Elections. Victims of Disinformation.

Meeta Anand

Senior Director for Census & Data Equity, THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE EDUCATION FUND

Meeta Anand leads the Census & Data Equity team at the Leadership Conference, where she works to ensure our data about all our communities are accurate and up-to-date, through the U.S. Census and other government programs. She is an expert on the role of data and how it can be used effectively in making equitable policies at the national level. She is also responsible for the recent progress on this issue under the current administration and understands how the outcome of the 2024 election could affect efforts to collect more equitable race and ethnicity data – with implications for voting rights, education, health care, and more. Meeta has previously been featured in NPR.

Equitable Data. U.S. Census. Role of Data in Policy. 2024 Impacts on Data Equity. Racial Justice. 

Dave Palmer

Director, CENTER FOR BALLOT FREEDOM

As the director of the Center for Ballot Freedom, Palmer serves as a public interest attorney and organizational leader committed to working with those across the political spectrum to preserve the rule of law and expand democracy. He is a legal expert on fusion voting and is focused on relegalizing it to fix the flaws in the two-party system.

Two-Party System. Fusion Voting. Structural Reform. Overcoming Political Polarization. Free & Fair Elections. 

Dan Cantor

Board Member, CENTER FOR BALLOT FREEDOM

Cantor is a Board member and Co-Founder of the New York Working Families Party and served as the party’s National Director from 1998-2018. Prior to the formation of the WFP, he spent two decades as a community organizer (ACORN), labor organizer (ULU), and political organizer (Jackson for President ‘84 & ‘88 campaigns; New Party). He now consults on structural reform efforts that unite the left, center, and pro-democracy right against the authoritarian strain in American politics. To that end he focuses on the revival and re-legalization of fusion voting in America. 

Fusion Voting. Multi-Party System. Alternative Parties. Structural Reform. Bipartisan Solutions. 

Jeff Clements

CEO & Board Member, AMERICAN PROMISE

Jeff serves as CEO of American Promise. He has practiced law for three decades in public service and private practice, and is the author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money & Global Corporations. He is also the founder of Whaleback Partners LLC, which provides sustainable financing to businesses in the local agriculture economy. Previously, Jeff served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the public law enforcement bureau in the Attorney General’s Office in Massachusetts. Jeff has helped to start and been a board member of many non-profit organizations and businesses. Clements has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, and US News.

Money in Politics. PACs & Dark Money. Citizens United. Constitutional Reform. Business & Elections. 

Brian Boyle

Executive Director, AMERICAN PROMISE

Boyle, the Executive Director of American Promise, lives in central Massachusetts where he oversees his family-owned insurance brokerage and serves on his town’s finance committee. Before becoming a small business owner, Brian was a litigator in a national law firm and clerked on the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He earned his BA from Harvard College and his JD from Cornell Law School. Brian is passionate about cross-partisan efforts to improve our constitutional democracy, and has been featured on ABC27.

Constitutional Law. Bipartisan Reforms. Campaign Finance. PACs & Dark Money. For Our Freedom Amendment. 

Tina Barton

Senior Elections Expert, COMMITTEE FOR SAFE AND SECURE ELECTIONS; Frmr. Michigan Election Official

Barton, a Senior Election Expert with The Elections Group, has over 32 years of government experience, serving at the federal, county, and local levels. The last 17 years of her career have been focused on election administration. Barton was the Senior Program Advisor to the Executive Director at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the City Clerk of Rochester Hills, Michigan. The United States Conference of Mayors appointed her to the EAC Board of Advisors. 

Election Official & Worker Safety. Election Worker Training. Safe & Secure Elections. Crisis Scenario Planning. 

Paul Penzone

Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff; committee for safe and secure elections

Sheriff Paul Penzone has a combined 30 years of public safety and law enforcement experience. Penzone has worked in the Phoenix Police Department for 21 years, with seven years being dedicated to the department’s nationally recognized Silent Witness program. In early 2020, the United States Attorney General appointed Sheriff Penzone to the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. Sheriff Penzone is a member of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association, the Major Counties Sheriffs’ Association, IACP, and the Department of Homeland Security Regional Advisory Council. He has previously been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, and NPR.

Law Enforcement & Elections. Election Infrastructure Safety. Election Preparation. Election Worker Safety.  

Justin Smith

Larimer County, CO Sheriff (ret.); committee for safe and secure elections

Justin Smith is the former three-term Sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado and served over 35 years in law enforcement experience. Smith is a member of the executive board of the National Sheriffs Association, and he currently serves as the co-chair of the Homeland Security Committee. Smith also serves as part president of the County Sheriffs of Colorado, and he has been a member of countless local, state and national professional boards and associations as well as a variety of boards for local non-profits.

Homeland Security. Election Official & Worker Safety. Election Preparation. Law Enforcement & Elections. 

Shamil Idriss

CEO of the Search for Common Ground

Idriss is the Chief Executive Officer of Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest dedicated peacebuilding organization. He has led efforts to end violent conflict in more than 35 countries globally, including some of the most devastating conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa. He has served with the United Nations, where he worked closely with policymakers from around the world in implementing conflict prevention projects. He established the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders, conceiving and leading the Council’s “Action Track” that was created to identify and attract support for innovative high-impact programs. His pioneering use of interactive media led to the establishment of the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative announced by President Barack Obama in February 2015.

Shamil has previously been featured on CNN, The Washington Post, and hosted his own TedTalk.

Peacebuilding. Cross-Cultural Relations. Conflict Transform. Middle East Politics. 

Nealin Parker

Executive Director, Common Ground USA

Parker leads Common Ground USA as its inaugural Executive Director. Parker brings to the role decades of experience in senior domestic and international positions dealing with conflict, poverty, and healthcare. Before joining CG USA, Parker served in a number of senior leadership positions. These include: Founder and Director of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University, Chief of Staff for the federal US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Deputy/Acting Director of the Office of Transitional Initiatives at USAID, and Chief of Staff for the Center on International Cooperation at New York University. Parker also held policy, program, and research roles with Interpeace, The European Commission Elections Programs in Liberia, the Carter Center, IFES, and the Peace and Integration Boards of Aceh. She holds a Master’s degree in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia.

Political Polarization. Conflict Transformation. Trust in Government.