Speakers: Breakout Sessions #1

Breakout Session: Lessons from the Fight for an Expanded Child Tax Credit

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Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University

Curran is the Director of Policy at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. Her research explores policy strategies for child poverty reduction, with an emphasis on income supports, poverty targets, and cross-national learning.

Elaine Maag

U.S. Department of Treasury

Maag is the Tax Policy Advisor of the Equity Hub at the U.S. Treasury. She is on leave from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center where she is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Innovations in Cash Assistance for Children program. Her work focuses on income support programs for low- and middle-income families.

Adam Ruben

Economic Security Project

Ruben is the Vice President of Campaigns & Political Strategy at Economic Security Project, where he oversees all campaign work including the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and stimulus checks at the state and federal level.

Erica Williams

DC Fiscal Policy Institute

Williams is the Executive Director of DC Fiscal Policy Institute. Under Erica's leadership, DCFPI has been at the forefront of efforts to address income inequality, poverty, and racial disparities in the nation's capital.

Breakout Session: Concrete Strategies for Protecting and Advancing Academic Freedom

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Facilitator: Lizzy Ghedi-Ehrlich

Scholars Strategy Network

Lizzy is SSN's Director of Policy. She leads the policy team, whose work focuses on supporting researchers’ relationship-building efforts with policy actors. Lizzy specializes in purpose-driven research translation and framing.

Tia Brown McNair

American Association of Colleges and Universities

McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers at AAC&U. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, campus climate and student success.

Elizabeth Strom

University of South Florida, Florida SSN

Strom is an Associate Professor of Public Affairs at the University of South Florida whose research focuses on the intersection of policy, politics and planning in cities. She is also a co-leader of the Florida SSN chapter.

Jeremy Young

PEN America

Young is the Freedom to Learn program director at PEN America, where he leads efforts to fight government censorship in educational institutions with a particular focus on the higher education sector. He previously served as the communications and marketing manager at the American Historical Association.

Breakout Session: Research and Collaboration to Strengthen Voting and Elections in 2024

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Facilitator: Judd Choate

Colorado Department of State

Choate is Colorado’s State Election Director, a position he’s held since 2009. He is on the board of the University of Minnesota Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs Certificate in Election Administration Program and teaches courses on election law and election security.

Benjamin Hovland

U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Hovland was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019 to serve on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). In 2020, he helped lead the agency during an election with unprecedented challenges, administering nearly $825 million in federal funds to help election officials respond to the pandemic and enhance election security.

Thessalia (Lia) Merivaki

Center for News, Technology & Innovation and Georgetown University

Merivaki is a Senior Research Manager at the Center for News, Technology & Innovation and a Visiting Researcher at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Her research expertise is on election information ecosystems and trust-building communication campaigns from election officials and democracy stakeholders.

Ian Simmons

Democracy House

Simmons is a change-maker in education, democracy, and business. As Co-Founder of Democracy House, Ian develops scalable projects to improve education for democracy. Simmons conceived and initiated the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), which is used at over 1200 higher ed. institutions to measure voting and civic learning.