mobilizing youth for social change
Podcast
Below are a series of podcasts with leaders across the law, politics, academia, and activism. Enjoy!
Dr. Lindsay Chervinksy
Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Chervinsky is the author of the award-winning book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, and the forthcoming book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic. She regularly writes for public audiences in the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Bulwark, Time Magazine, USA Today, CNN, and the Washington Post, and regularly offers insight on tv, radio, and podcasts.
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Effective July 22, 2024, Dr. Chervinsky will be the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She will join the Washington Library after serving as a senior non-residential Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and a historian at the White House Historical Association.
Professor Asha Rangappa
Asha Rangappa is an Assistant Dean and Senior Lecturer at the Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School. Prior to her current position, Asha served as a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. At Yale, she teaches courses on national security law, Russian information warfare, and leadership and ethics. She the author of The Freedom Academy, an online Substack publication about disinformation and its impact on democracy. Asha graduated cum laude from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study constitutional reform and U.S. drug policy in Bogotá, Colombia. She received her law degree from Yale Law School where she was a Coker Fellow in constitutional law, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Juan R. Torruella on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is legal contributor for ABC News, an editor for Just Security, a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project.
Fred Guttenberg
Fred Guttenberg began his public life after the murder of his beautiful 14year old daughter Jaime. The day after the murder, Fred attended a public vigil in Parkland. While there, the Mayor asked him to speak. His words shook a nation. Only four months prior to this, Fred’s brother Michael passed away in October 2017 from cancer related to his service in 9/11. He was one of the original first responders and was trapped in the WTC as it collapsed. Amazingly, the room that they hid out in did not collapse and Michael and his team of physicians spent 16 days at ground zero taking care of others.Following his involvement in these two distinctly American Tragedies, Fred has traveled the country talking about both events but also talking about perspective, perseverance, and resilience. He discusses pivotal moments in our life and how we respond to those moments. Fred’s mission ultimately led him to write his first book Find The Helpers and his follow up book American Carnage with Tom Gabor. Fred Guttenberg’s professional life previously included over a decade of experience management with Johnson and Johnson, followed by almost 15 years as an entrepreneur, with 19 Dunkin Donuts, which he sold in November 2016.
Tanesha Williams
Counsel and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Democratic National Committee. Former racial justice and voting rights attorney and digital campaign manager for the Prepared to Voting and Voting Rights Defender projects at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Former Public Interest Fellow at Georgetown Law, Director of Organizing and Community Building for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Clerk for the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Student Attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, Holley Law Fellow with the National LGBTQ Task Force, and Manager for Teach For America as a Corps.
Kaya Jones
Kaya is currently the National Deputy Director of Youth Engagement for the Harris-Walz Campaign. She is passionate about empowering youth and driving positive change. She is a dedicated professional with over 5 years of experience in strategic communications, project management, and youth engagement. Her journey has been marked by a commitment to fostering leadership among young women and promoting civic engagement on college campuses. As the East Coast Program Manager at IGNITE National, Kaya led a team in empowering young women to become civically engaged and run for elected office, resulting in the registration of over 20,000 young voters. She spearheaded initiatives to establish and nurture chapters, organize boot camps, and facilitate workshops, while securing over $100k in grant funding to sustain programming across multiple states...
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Mary McCord
Mary McCord is Executive Director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. At ICAP, McCord leads a team that brings constitutional impact litigation at all levels of the federal and state courts across a wide variety of areas including First Amendment rights, immigration, criminal justice reform, and combating the rise of private paramilitaries.
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McCord was the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017 and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security from 2014 to 2016.
Previously, McCord was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for nearly 20 years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia...
Caroline Fredrickson
Caroline Fredrickson served as Distinguished Visiting Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law and is Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. She served as the President of the American Constitution Society from 2009-2019 and has published works on many legal and constitutional issues and is a frequent guest on television and radio, including serving as a regular on-air commentator on impeachment. Before joining ACS, Fredrickson served as the Director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office and as General Counsel and Legal Director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. In addition, she served as the Chief of Staff to Senator Maria Cantwell, of Washington, and Deputy Chief of Staff to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, of South Dakota. During the Clinton Administration, she served as Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs.
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In 2021, President Biden asked Professor Fredrickson to serve on his Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States...
Chintan Patel
Chintan joined Indian American Impact as its Executive Director with more than 15 years of experience in political campaigns, grassroots organizing, and policy advocacy.
Most recently, Chintan served as Vice President of Political Affairs at End Citizens United/Let America Vote. There he directed ECU’s political strategy and programs to help win over 350 races up and down the ballot. Prior to that, he worked as a political consultant, creating winning direct mail programs for campaigns, unions, and progressive organizations across the country.
Chintan received his undergraduate degree from George Washington University and his master’s from the London School of Economics and Political Science. When he’s not working to flip everything blue, he enjoys screaming ¡vamos! while watching Rafa Nadal. Chintan lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife, two children, and a dog.
Julie Zebrak
Julie spent 18 years at the Department of Justice, including as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General, before joining the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In 2016, Julie left the federal government to focus on political consulting and organizing. She was the founder of Moms4HRC and co-founder of Mamas4Kamala and JoeMamas, where she leverages her expertise in the federal government, policy-making and politics to organize moms around the country in support of Democrats.
Kathy Spillar
Kathy Spillar is the Executive Director of Feminist Majority Foundation and Feminist Majority, national organizations working for women’s equality, empowerment, and non-violence. One of the founders, Spillar has been a driving force in executing the organizations’ diverse programs securing women’s rights both domestically and globally since its inception in 1987. An expert on anti-abortion terrorism, Spillar has overseen the organization’s research and public education activities, law enforcement relations, litigation, as well as grassroots organizing to keep clinics open in the face of extremist violence. She has played a vital role in the organization’s work to mobilize young feminists on college and high school campuses.
Spillar is Executive Editor of Ms. magazine which the Feminist Majority Foundation acquired in 2001. Under her oversight, Ms. has increased its investigative reporting and today is one of the largest print and online feminist news sites reaching nearly 5 million readers from across the globe. Under her direction, Ms. launched Ms. Studios for audio and video programming – podcasts, virtual programs, and book talks, as well as live events with high-profile experts, including an annual Supreme Court round-up. Ms.’s popular Women & Democracy platform features a combination of video, audio, and written content to explore how feminist leadership and reforms ensure more democratic outcomes. Instructors for all levels of women’s and gender studies courses in hundreds of college and university programs across the country use the innovative digital textbook resource, Ms. Classroom, covering current feminist topics and activism.
Spillar is a magna cum laude graduate of Texas Christian University (TCU), and holds a Master of Science interdisciplinary degree in Economics and Urban Studies from Trinity University. In 2018, Spillar was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by TCU.
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Ashley Steimer-King
Ashley Steimer-King is the Senior Program Director of Girls Learn International, a project of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Ashley graduated with an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Roehampton University in London, completing her thesis on gender-based violence and grassroots feminist protest. She previously worked with several NGOs in their United Nations offices, training middle and high school students on international human rights learning and advocacy. She proudly leads the GLI team, delivering year-round programming for thousands of middle and high school student activists. ​
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Jeffrey Rosen
Jeffrey Rosen is the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center,
where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He
is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School
and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs
editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker. Rosen’s new book is the New York Times bestselling The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. His other books include the New York Times bestseller Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft. Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. In 2024, the French government recognized him as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Zia M. Faruqui
Judge Faruqui has been serving as a federal magistrate judge for the District of Columbia since September 2020. During that time, he has presided over hundreds of cases related to the January 6th Capitol Breach. He has also issued several opinions of note about a range of toping including: applying U.S. sanctions law to cryptocurrency; authorizing the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht; and compelling Facebook to produce de-platformed records relating to the genocide of the Rohingya. He also supervises the Reentry Court, which seeks to bring support services and resources to high-risk persons who have completed their terms of incarceration, and supports numerous prison education programs including a coding class taught by MIT.
Prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Faruqui was a federal prosecutor, first in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri and then in the District of Columbia. Over the span of over twelve years, he prosecuted numerous centered on the nexus between financial crime, cybercrime, and national security. His case work included counter terror-finance actions, including by implementing denial of service attacks against, and site takeovers of, websites used by ISIS and Al Qaeda to collect cryptocurrency. Additionally, he lead the takedown of the largest ever darknet site dedicated to child exploitation which was funded by cryptocurrency. Prior to serving as a federal prosecutor, Judge Faruqui worked at a corporate law firm where he focused on government investigations and general commercial litigation. Judge Faruqui has been an adjunct professor at Harris-Stowe State University where he taught classes on criminal rehabilitation and Georgetown University where he teaches Constitutional Law. He received his J.D. and undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.
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Fatema Sumar
Fatema Z. Sumar is the Executive Director of the Harvard Center for International Development (CID) and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School where she teaches policy design and development diplomacy. She has a distinguished career as a practitioner in the US government and civil society.
In government, Fatema served across four Democratic and Republican administrations. Most recently, Fatema was Vice President of Compact Operations at the US Millennium Challenge Corporation with the rank of Assistant Secretary. She oversaw MCC’s regional and technical divisions on infrastructure, environment, private sector, gender and social inclusion, human and community development, agriculture, procurement, financial management, strategic partnerships, and contracts and grant management in Africa, Asia, and globally to reduce poverty through economic growth. She was previously MCC’s Deputy Vice President for Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America.
Fatema also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia at the US Department of State leading efforts on regional economic and energy connectivity and as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF). In Congress, she was a Senior Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and the broader region.
In civil society, Fatema was the Vice President of Global Programs at Oxfam America overseeing development and humanitarian programs to fight the injustice of poverty. She founded the award-winning Translator Interpreter Program at Cornell University. She is on the Board of Directors of Blumont; on Advisory Boards at Princeton SPIA, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development (W3D), and Muslim Americans in Public Service (MAPS); and on Harvard Kennedy School’s Sustainability Leadership Council.
Fatema is author of the book, The Development Diplomat: Working Across Borders, Boardrooms, and Bureaucracies to End Poverty. She has written for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The New Republic, The Hill, Devex, and others. She is a guest speaker, testified before the US House and Senate, and visited approximately 70 countries.
Fatema graduated with a MPA from Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs, where she received the prestigious Stokes Award, and a BA in Government from Cornell. She has an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. She studied at the American University in Cairo.
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is the President/CEO of the ONE Campaign. She has over 25 years of international development experience and has been deeply involved in fostering impactful solutions in the global social innovation landscape, with a focus on Africa. Ndidi started her career at McKinsey & Company’s Chicago office and returned to Nigeria in 2000 to serve as the pioneer Executive Director of the FATE Foundation. She is the founder of LEAP Africa, a non-
profit committed to developing dynamic, innovative and principled African leaders and African Food Changemakers, which provides support for African entrepreneurs to start and scale resilient and sustainable agribusinesses. She is also the co-founder of Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Ltd. and AACE Foods Processing & Distribution Ltd.
Ndidi serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, Chanel Foundation, Stanbic IBTC Group, the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, and the Bridgespan Group. Ndidi holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a
visiting Scholar at Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, and an Eisenhower Fellow.
Ndidi is a TED speaker, and has been recognized internationally for her contributions, including as a Schwab Fellow and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and receiving a National Honor by the Nigerian Government and the Harvard Business School Distinguished
Alumni Award. She is also a published author on topics related to entrepreneurship, social innovation, and resilient agriculture businesses in Africa, including “Social Innovation in Africa: A Practical Guide for Scaling Impact,” and “Food Entrepreneurs in Africa: Scaling Resilient Agriculture Businesses,” and “Walking for God in the Marketplace.”
Rory Truex
Rory Truex is Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, where his research and teaching focuses on Chinese politics and authoritarian systems. In 2021 he received the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, the highest teaching honor at Princeton. His commentary on China and U.S.-China relations has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and South China Morning Post, among other outlets. He is the founder and host of The Civic Forum, a weekly webinar on democracy featuring leading scholars and practitioners. He writes the Living In Truth Substack about democracy and authoritarianism.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi was elected to Congress in 2016 and represents Illinois’ 8th District, which includes Chicago’s west and northwest suburbs as well as the 41st ward of the city.
He serves as Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, making him the first South Asian American in history to lead a Congressional Committee. He also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services. The Congressman is a Vice-Chair of the Equality Caucus and Co-Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Immigration Task Force. In addition, he is the founder and Chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End Youth Vaping and the bipartisan Solar Caucus.
Representative Krishnamoorthi is the child of immigrants and was raised in Peoria, Illinois. He has described himself as a public servant who has spent his life standing up to bullies and a proud product of public housing, food stamps, and Illinois public schools. He was a valedictorian of his high school class. Scholarships and student loans allowed him to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in mechanical engineering and a certificate from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He then graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and clerked for a federal judge before practicing law in Chicago.
In May 2025, Representative Krishnamoorthi announced his bid for the United States Senate seat in Illinois upon the retirement of Senator Richard Durbin.
Alex Aronson
Alex Aronson is Court Accountability’s co-founder and executive director. Alex’s work on constitutional politics, dark money, and judicial accountability has helped elevate these issues to national prominence, informing headlines and driving congressional action. Alex has served as chief counsel and senior counsel to U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, managing director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center, an attorney in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP, and a law clerk to Judge Albert Diaz on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Alex’s commentary has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Courier, and he regularly appears on national television programs and high-profile podcasts, including hosting a regular webcast on Meidas Touch's LegalAF channel.
Dr. C. Nicole Mason
Recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, Dr. C. Nicole Mason is the President/CEO of Future Forward Women, a bold new initiative to build women’s power and influence in the U.S. We unite and support catalytic leaders, organizations, and changemakers committed to propelling lasting change in the lives of women, girls, and families.
Nicole was named one of Glamour Magazine’s 100 Influential Women Leaders and Washingtonian Magazine’s 500 Most Influential People in Washington, DC. She also won the highly competitive New Executive Award from the Open Society Foundations and was honored as a Thrive leader by the Kresge Foundation. Additionally, she is an inaugural Ascend Fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C.
Nicole delivered a dynamic and well-received TED Talk on The Gift of Being Difficult and the Power of Disruption.
Before Future Forward Women, she served as the President/CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the nation’s only research and policy center focused on women of color at a nationally ranked school of public administration. Dr. Mason was also the youngest person and woman of color to lead IWPR - one of the major inside-the-Beltway think tanks in Washington, D.C.
For the past two decades, Dr. Mason has spearheaded research on issues related to economic security, pay equity, poverty, women’s issues, entitlement reforms, policy formation and political participation among women and communities of color, and racial equity.
At the start of the pandemic, she coined the term she-cession to describe the disproportionate impact of employment and income losses on women. Dr. Mason is the author of Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America (St. Martin’s Press) and has written hundreds of articles on women, poverty, and economic security. Her writing and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, the Washington Post, Marie Claire, the Progressive, ESSENCE, Bustle, BIG THINK, Miami Herald, Democracy Now, and numerous NPR affiliates, among others.
Nicole serves on the boards of All Our Kin, the Jeremiah Program, and the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center.
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