About us

Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, is a leading scholar of constitutional and Internet law. After teaching at the University of Chicago and founding Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner and Justice Antonin Scalia. Lessig founded the reform group Equal Citizens, helped launch Creative Commons, sits on AXA Research Fund’s Scientific Board, and belongs to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Dr. Marjan H. Ehsassi is a leading democracy advocate and sought-after expert on citizens assemblies and their transformative impact on civic engagement. As the Executive Director of FIDE – North America, Ehsassi combines her extensive academic background with practical experience to advance institutional reform. Holding a Doctorate from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a law degree from McGill University, Marjan is the author of Activated Citizenship, The Transformative Power of Citizens Assemblies, which explores how CAs can promote democratic renewal, social cohesion and build mutual trust between elected officials and their constituents. Her book introduces the term “voice insecurity”; to spotlight one of the drivers of political grievance. Prior to leading FIDE – North America, she held positions at the World Bank and the National Democratic Institute, where she led governance programs in Asia and the Middle East. She is a frequent speaker at forums like the Athens Democracy Forum, the American Democracy Summit and has been featured in prestigious publications, including the New York Times, Toronto Star, the Boston Globe. Based in Washington, DC, Dr. Ehsassi is fluent in English, French and Farsi.

Dr. Griffin Thompson is a retired US State Department official and climate change negotiator, who spent his career developing the interconnections between renewable energy, climate change, and democratic institutions. In leadership positions at both USAID and the State Department, he managed programs designed to expand democratic practices and participatory structures through the provision of clean energy services and climate technology adoption. Currently he is an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago, where he teaches courses on climate change, technology, religion and politics, and energy diplomacy. His most recent focus is exploring how faith-based organizations can serve as catalysts for social change and political action, including in the expansion of citizen’s assemblies.

democracy reformer and retired politician. From 1981 to 1991, he served on the City Council of Burlington, Vermont (with mayor Bernie Sanders). He then served a decade as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives. After leaving elective office, he worked on ranked choice voting; since 2004, he has focused on sortition reform internationally. Some of his publications on sortition include “Democracy through Multi-Body Sortition: Athenian Lessons for the Modern Day” (Journal of Public Deliberation, 2013) and a chapter on sortition in Methods for Sustainability Research (2017).

Liz Barry is the Executive Director of Metagov.
Before joining Metagov, she served as Head of Partnerships at The Computational Democracy Project, the 501(c)3 organization she established with the creators of the Polis technology to steward its open source code and methods. Liz works with facilitators, social movements, civil society organizations, journalists, indigenous nations, democratic governments both young and old, and peacebuilders to implement "listening at scale." The collaboration began when her presence at Taiwan's 2014 Sunflower Revolution and subsequent relationship with g0v led to her writing up the first coverage of vTaiwan in the west, in the 2016 piece for Civicist titled "vTaiwan: Public Participation Methods on the Cyberpunk Frontier of Democracy," now republished by Taiwan's government.

Joe Mathews is a journalist, author, and democracy advocate specializing in California politics, civic engagement, and democratic innovation. He serves as Democracy Editor and California columnist at Zócalo Public Square, is Professor of Practice at Arizona State University's School of Politics and Global Studies, and co-president of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy. A former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Baltimore Sun, he is the author of The People's Machine and The California Recall, and co-author of California Crackup.

Leroy Allan Martin is a dual British-American legal writer and former practicing attorney whose interdisciplinary background spans theology, education, and law. Born on the tiny British Caribbean Island of Montserrat, Martin now focuses on legal scholarship and writing.

Avram Reisman (he/him) is a democracy expert with particular interest in how institutional innovations - from civic assemblies to participatory budgeting - can help create a more just, democratic society where human beings can coexist with dignity.

With a background in human rights and international democracy assistance, Avram has provided international expertise for a counter-disinformation project based in Italy, and supported anti-war campaigns while at Amnesty International USA and Just Foreign Policy.

He currently works as Research Analyst at FairVote, where he conducts data analysis and other research on elections and democratic reforms. Avram is a proud supporter of unions, helping organize graduate workers of Georgetown University, where he earned his master’s degree in Democracy & Governance. He also holds a BA in Philosophy & Government from Colby College. Avram resides in Washington, DC with his fiancée, Veronica.

Alexander Guerrero is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University - New Brunswick and is the author of Lottocracy: Democracy Without Elections (Oxford University Press, 2024).  He has a JD from NYU School of Law and a PhD in Philosophy from New York University.  He regularly teaches courses in democratic theory, ethics, political philosophy, and African, Chinese, Latin American, and Native American Philosophy, among other topics.  

Vinay Orekondy is an attorney, mediator, community organizer, and advocacy entrepreneur with more than 13 years of experience building grassroots movements and coalitions internationally. Originally from Australia, he co-founded the Australian Progressives and was a candidate for the Keep Sydney Open Party in the 2019 New South Wales election. Now based in the United States, he is admitted to the bar in both Vermont and New South Wales and is bilingual in French.

Caroline is an organizer, strategist, and advocate dedicated to building a nationwide movement for new civic power. With over a decade of experience in the field of US democracy reform, she supports projects that reimagine civic life and center the public in policy making. Her work has run the gamut across the field of democracy reform—from directing 1,000+ volunteer poll monitoring programs, to organizing civic comedy shows, to lobbying for citizen-led alternatives to policing. Along the way, she has participated in (and learned from) social movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. Caroline is based in Salem, Oregon, where she works to make local civic life fun, impactful, and irresistible. 

Executive Director

Leonora is a nonprofit leader with extensive experience in movement-building and organizing. She currently serves as Executive Director of Sortition USA, a sortition movement-building organization, and Director of Public Access Democracy, a democratic lottery advocacy organization based in Los Angeles. Previously, Leonora was the Executive Director of Abundant Housing LA, a pro-housing movement organization that grew from an all-volunteer group to a staffed organization of 10 under her leadership.