Contributors

Lise Clavel is the executive director of The States Forum. She previously served in the Biden and Obama administrations and held positions as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and as a fellow at the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia.

Andrew Doty is a Washington, D.C.–based consultant focused on civic reform and democratic governance. He advises the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute’s Center on Civility and Democracy and has worked with numerous democracy-focused nonprofits, including Democracy Notes and Protect Democracy.

Arkadi Gerney is a strategist who advises state leaders on democracy resilience. He founded and led The Hub Project, managed the advocacy arm of the Center for American Progress, and served under New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg managing the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition.

David Greenberg is distinguished professor of history at Rutgers University. He is the author or editor of several books on American history and politics. His latest book, John Lewis: A Life, was a 2025 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Sarah Knight helps state leaders and organizations develop strategies for democratic resilience. She previously directed the U.S. Democracy Program at Open Society Foundations and led the field program at the American Constitution Society.

Marshall Kosloff is the Niskanen Center’s director of special projects. He hosts The Realignment, a podcast covering post-2016 America. He executive-produces Endless Frontiers and Abundance conferences. Based in Austin, he is a senior fellow at the UT Austin Strauss Center and sits on the Recoding America Fund’s advisory council.

Matt Lackey is the founder of Tavern Research, a technology company focused on democracy. For decades, he has been a leader and practitioner at the intersection of politics and technology.

Michael Laskawy is the editor in chief of the The States Forum. He has served as a senior policy advisor at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as serving as the executive director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee during the 110th Congress.

Tom Moore is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Previously, he served as chief of staff to former FEC Chair Ellen L. Weintraub, was elected to the Rockville, Md., city council, and wrote and edited for Congressional Quarterly and CNN.

Suzanne Nossel is the author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All (2020) and co-author of Is Free Speech Under Threat? (2024). For nearly 12 years until the end of 2024 she served as CEO of PEN America, building the organization into a national and global force for free speech and open discourse.

Blas Nuñez-Neto has been working on border and immigration issues for more than 20 years and has served in senior roles at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Senate.

Ryan O’Toole is co–executive director of Freedom Virginia, an affordability-focused advocacy organization. He got his start in Virginia politics, and he also served in the administration of Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Adam Pritzker is an investor and entrepreneur interested in business, civics, and politics who co-founded General Assembly, Khaite, The States Project, and The States Forum. He serves on the board of directors for the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and as lead director at Artium AI. Adam is a trustee of Columbia University and a board member of the Columbia University Investment Management Company.

Ambassador Susan Rice is the only person ever to have served in the White House as both U.S. national security advisor and U.S. domestic policy advisor. She served as President Biden’s domestic policy advisor from 2021–2023, as President Obama’s national security advisor from 2013–2017, as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and a member of President Obama’s cabinet from 2009–2013, and as assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President Clinton from 1997–2001.

Eric Scorsone is an expert in public finance who has worked in government in Colorado and Michigan, including serving as Michigan deputy state treasurer and in academic outreach roles working with state and local government to build financial capacity and analysis. He has published widely on state and local government finance, and is the co-editor of the Handbook of Local Government Fiscal Health.

Daniel Squadron was elected the youngest member of the New York State Senate in 2008, where he served for nearly a decade. He co-founded The States Project and The States Forum, initiatives of Future Now, where he is president. A graduate of Yale College, Daniel co-wrote Chuck Schumer’s book Positively American. His book, The Fourth Branch: How State Government Can Save Our Union, is being released in June.

Harrison Stark is senior counsel, director of special projects at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he focuses on civil rights and remedies, state and federal relations, and democratic rights.

Contributors

Cisco Aguilar is Nevada’s secretary of state and chair for the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State. Previously, he was general counsel for the management company for Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf. Aguilar is the founding chairman of Cristo Rey St. Viator High School, which provides an innovative work-study program in Las Vegas.

Danielle Allen is a professor of political philosophy, public policy, and ethics at Harvard University and founder and chair of Partners In Democracy. She is the author of numerous widely acclaimed books, including Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality.

Congressman Jake Auchincloss, representing Massachusetts’s Fourth District, serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He is a Harvard and MIT Sloan alum, Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan, and former city councilor. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his family.

Rachael Bedard, M.D., is a geriatrician, palliative care doctor, and internist whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, New York Magazine, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. From 2016 to 2022, she was a physician in the New York City jail system on Rikers Island. She now sees patients at a homeless clinic in Brooklyn.

Vicki Been is the Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, an affiliated professor of public policy of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and a faculty director at the NYU Furman Center.

Pamela K. Bookman is an associate dean and professor of law at Fordham Law School. She teaches and writes in several fields, including civil procedure and state courts. Her article, “Default Procedures,” is forthcoming in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

Rohit Chopra served as the third director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2021–2025), as a member of the FDIC board of directors (2021–2025), and as a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission (2018–2021).

Patrick Cooney is a vice president at Michigan Future, a think tank focused on advancing broadly shared prosperity in Michigan. Cooney’s research has been featured in the New York Times, Vox, and the Huffington Post, and by the Biden administration.

Robert A. F. Currie has worked extensively with utilities across Europe and North America on renewable energy integration, distributed energy resource technologies, and grid modernization. He was a cofounder and the chief technology officer of Smarter Grid Solutions from 2008 to 2021.

Marc J. Dunkelman is a fellow at Brown’s Watson Institute. A longtime Democratic aide, he is the author of Why Nothing Works and The Vanishing Neighbor, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Atlantic.

Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics and the chairman of the economics department at MIT. He is the co-author of Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream.

Saha Guerrero is a proud New Yorker and Bloomberg Public Service Fellow at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He served as president of the NYU College Democrats and national political affairs director for the College Democrats of America.

Lauren Harper Pope, a Welcome cofounder, is working to depolarize American politics and grow a strong, vibrant, and coherent centrist faction of the Democratic Party through her work with WelcomePAC, the Welcome Party, and the Welcome Democracy Institute. Lauren hosts The Depolarizers podcast and writes at WelcomeStack.org.

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is the Herbert H. Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. He studies the politics of policy design, labor policy, and American political economy. He previously served in the Biden-Harris Department of Labor and Office of Management and Budget.

Ilyse Hogue is a cofounder of Catalyst for American Futures and a fellow of political reform at New America. She spent nearly a decade as the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America (now Reproductive Freedom for All), where she tripled the membership and authored the bestselling book The Lie that Binds.

Adam Jentleson, a political strategist and author, served as deputy chief of staff for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and chief of staff for Senator John Fetterman. His book, Kill Switch, examines the modern Senate. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Washington Post.

Claire Kelloway is the food program manager at the Open Markets Institute and primary reporter for the Food & Power newsletter. Her writing has appeared in Vox, Time, Mother Jones, the Intercept, and ProPublica. She lives in Minneapolis.

Helen Ketema is the State Housing Policy Fellow at NYU’s Furman Center. She has a background in urban policy research and program management. Helen holds a master’s from the faculty of geography and planning at the University of Toronto.

Michael Laskawy is the editor in chief of The States Forum. He teaches public policy at NYU. He has served as a senior policy advisor at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as serving as the executive director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee during the 110th Congress.

Delegate Michelle Lopes Maldonado, representing Virginia’s 20th District, is a former tech lawyer and a champion of AI, emerging technology, and data privacy. As the founding chair of the Technology & Innovation Caucus, she has been named a 2024 “Impact Maker” and “Legislative Champion.”

Matt Morrison is the executive director of Working America, an organization for working people without a union on the job. He is a nationally recognized political practitioner, with experience working in more than 700 elections over his career.

Jennifer Pahlka is a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center and the Federation of American Scientists, and a senior advisor to the Abundance Network. The author of Recoding America, she served as deputy chief technology officer of the United States and as a member of the Defense Innovation Board.

Adam Pritzker is an entrepreneur and investor focused on business, politics, and civics. He cofounded General Assembly, Khaite, Wholestack, The States Project, and The States Forum. A Columbia graduate, Adam serves as a trustee and board member of the Columbia University Investment Management Company.

Joel Rogers is the Noam Chomsky Professor of Law, Public Policy and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the director of the High Road Strategy Center, and chair and CEO of the Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities–Network (EPIC-N).

Tim Ryan is a former U.S. Congressman from Ohio known for his pragmatic, bipartisan approach to economic policy, innovation, and workforce development. He champions working-class issues, emerging technologies, and common-sense reforms to strengthen America’s middle class and future economy.

Daniel Squadron is a cofounder and president of The States Project and The States Forum. In 2008, he was elected the youngest member of the New York State Senate, serving until 2017. He cowrote Chuck Schumer’s Positively American, worked in politics, and owned a bar.

Howard Watts was elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 2018, following a decade of community organizing and advocacy in Las Vegas. He currently serves as assembly majority whip and chair of the Committee on Growth and Infrastructure.

Matthew Yglesias writes the Slow Boring newsletter, hosts the Politix podcast, and is a columnist for Bloomberg.

Contributors

Contributors

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