Speakers: Plenaries

Facilitator: Suzanne Mettler

Cornell University

Mettler is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and SSN's Academic Director. Her research and teaching focus on American political development, public policy, and political behavior. She is particularly interested in issues pertaining to democracy, inequality, and citizenship.

K. Sabeel Rahman

Cornell Law School

Rahman is Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. His work focuses on democracy, governance, economic power, political economy, racial equity, and inequality. He previously led OIRA in the Biden-Harris Administration, served as President of Demos, and co-founded the Law and Political Economy Project.

Philip Rocco

Marquette University

Rocco is Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science at Marquette University and co-editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism. His research examines federalism, policymaking, and policy expertise. He is the author of Counting Like a State and co-author of Obamacare Wars.

Mallory E. SoRelle

Duke University

SoRelle is Associate Professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Her research examines how public policy shapes socioeconomic and political inequality in the U.S., with a focus on consumer financial protection and access to civil justice. She is the author of Democracy Declined.

Facilitator: Suzanne Mettler

Cornell University

Mettler is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and SSN's Academic Director. Her research and teaching focus on American political development, public policy, and political behavior. She is particularly interested in issues pertaining to democracy, inequality, and citizenship.

Sarah Ghermay

Office of Representative Yassamin Ansari (AZ-3)

Ghermay is the Chief of Staff in the office of Representative Yassamin Ansari. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Educators of Excellence, a teacher-led organization that ensures teachers have a voice in the policies that impact their students and profession. Ghermay has degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Hunter College, and Cornell University.

Sarah Groh

Office of Representative Ayanna Pressley (MA-7)

Groh is Chief of Staff in the office of Representative Ayanna Pressley. She leads policy, strategy and day-to-day management for the office. Groh has held roles in politics, government, and the non-profit sector, including with America Forward, New Profit, and Horizons for Homeless Children. She has a Master’s in Education Policy & Management from Harvard University.

Beth Pearson

Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA)

Pearson is Chief of Staff in the office of Senator Elizabeth Warren. From 2015-2016, she served as an American Sociological Association/AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in Warren's office. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California-Berkeley, where her research focused on taxes, federalism, and social policy.

Facilitator: E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Brookings

Dionne is a senior fellow and the W. Averell Harriman Chair in American Governance in the Governance Studies program at Brookings. He is also a Distinguished University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown University, affiliated with the McCourt School of Public Policy, and a contributing columnist to The New York Times.

Carrie Baker

Smith College

Baker is Professor and Chair of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality; and holds the Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Chair in American Studies at Smith College. She is a regular writer and contributing editor for Ms. Magazine, has a monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and hosts a monthly radio program.

Lee Drutman

New America

Drutman is a senior fellow in the Political Reform program at New America. He writes the newsletter Undercurrent Events, co-hosts the podcast Politics in Question, and appears regularly on programs from NPR’s Morning Edition to The Ezra Klein Show. In 2026, he was named among The Washington Post’s Next 50, which recognizes 50 people reshaping our society.

Michael Jonas

CommonWealth Beacon

Jonas is the Executive Editor of CommonWealth Beacon. He has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. Prior to that, Jonas wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Globe for 15 years.

Michael Tomasky

The New Republic

Tomasky is the editor of The New Republic and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. He has written for publications such as The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many others. He's written five nonfiction books and has just published his first novel, Killing Baby Hitler, out this month from O/R Books.