Dr. Danielle Allen
Board Chair
Dr. Danielle Allen
Board Chair
Danielle Allen is a professor of political philosophy, public policy, and ethics at Harvard University as well as a distinguished author and mom. She is Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Director of the Democratic Knowledge Project, and James Bryant Conant University Professor, one of Harvard’s highest honors. She is also Founder and Chairperson of Partners In Democracy. She is a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, distinguished author, and mom. Danielle’s work to make the world better for young people has taken her from teaching college and leading a $60 million university division to driving change at the helm of a $6 billion foundation, writing for the Washington Post and The Atlantic, advocating for cannabis legalization, democracy reform, and civic education, and running for governor of Massachusetts. At Partners In Democracy, she advocates for democracy renovation to create greater voice and access in our democracy, and drive progress towards a new social contract that serves and includes us all. Her many books include the widely acclaimed Our Declaration: a reading of the Declaration of Independence in defense of equality; Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.; Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus; Justice by Means of Democracy; and her forthcoming book, The Radical Duke, a biography of an 18th century British political reformer, is due out with Liveright/Norton in 2026.
Chi Kim
Board Vice Chair
Chi Kim
Board Vice Chair
Chi Kim is the Chief Executive Officer of Pure Edge, Inc. a private operating foundation dedicated to the wellbeing of learners and educators across the US. Prior to joining the foundation, she served as a California school superintendent, school principal, leadership coach, classroom teacher, as well as, a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is also co-founder of the Teaching Garden program that was adopted by the American Heart Association to support heart health through school gardens.
Chi is a 2018 Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow, serves as the Board Chair & Trustee of the Ibis Group, Board Chair of YouthBuild Global Board of Directors, and FECOP Board of Directors in Costa Rica. She also serves on the advisory councils of the COVID Collaborative, More Perfect, ALLReady, and Wayfinder.
She earned a B.A. in Psychology and an M.Ed. from UCLA, a Tier I Administrative Services credential from California State University, Dominguez Hills, Tier II Administrative Services credential from Loyola Marymount University, XPT Performance Breathing Certification and Oxygen Advantage Functional Breathing Certification. She is mom to three wonderful girls and resides in the greater Boston area.
Rhett Dornbach-Bender
Board Secretary
Rhett Dornbach-Bender
Board Secretary
Rhett Dornbach-Bender is a director in the Gates Foundation’s Strategy Office, where he advises programmatic teams on the development and execution of their strategies. He works particularly closely with the foundation’s United States Program Division (US education and economic mobility) and Global Development Division (immunization, polio eradication, primary healthcare, and regional offices). Rhett also serves as chief of staff to the Chief Strategy Officer and works closely with the foundation’s leadership on a range of topics.
Rhett currently serves on the board of Illustrative Mathematics, a nonprofit dedicated to the belief that all students are capable of math, and Citizen Data, a company that provides data, insights, and tools to organizations that are working to solve America’s toughest problems.
Before joining the Gates Foundation in 2013, Rhett spent several years working with The Bridgespan Group, a strategy consulting firm that serves nonprofits and foundations. Based in Bridgespan’s Boston office, he worked primarily with nonprofits and foundations in the domestic education, human services, and youth development sectors.
Rhett earned his B.A. in Economics and Politics from Pomona College, grew up in California’s Mojave Desert as the son of two public educators, and is the proud father of two.
Benjamin Mahnke
Board Treasurer
Benjamin Mahnke
Board Treasurer
Ben has more than 25 years of experience working in roles that integrate nonprofit finance, strategy, and operations.
He has served as the senior Finance officer for several large/international nonprofits, including Facing History and Ourselves and Jumpstart for Young Children. Ben has also held the roles of Chief Operating Officer and Acting Executive Director at prior organizations. In addition to his senior management experience, Ben has provided strategic and management consulting services to dozens of for-profit, nonprofit, and foundation clients at Bridgespan Group, a consultancy associated with Bain and Company, and The Room40 Group, a professional services firm he founded and led.
Ben holds a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He and his family live in Massachusetts where he works on local efforts to improve our self-government, including serving as an elections officer for his hometown.
Donald Marron
Board Member
Donald Marron
Board Member
Donald Marron is an Institute fellow at the Urban Institute. He conducts research on tax and budget policy and identifies opportunities for Urban to develop policy-relevant research on economic and financial issues. From 2010 to 2013, he led the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He has testified frequently before Congress, and works to popularize economics through his blog and writings. He is a senior research fellow at the Climate Leadership Council and the editor of 30-Second Economics and 30-Second Money, two short books that introduce readers to the most important ideas in economics and finance.
Donald has served in senior government positions, including as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under George W. Bush and acting director of the Congressional Budget Office. He has also taught at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and the University of Maryland; consulted on major antitrust cases; and served as chief financial officer of a health care software start-up. He studied mathematics at Harvard College and received his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mark de la Iglesia
Board Member
Mark de la Iglesia
Board Member
Mark de la Iglesia is a strategist, catalyst, and advocate who is passionate about promoting accountable and effective governance. Through a two-decade career spanning government, civil society, and philanthropy, he has combined a strategic and critical eye with emotional intelligence and a collaborative leadership style to tackle complex governance and policy challenges. In the past several years he has advised philanthropic donors on protecting and strengthening American democracy, led Freedom House’s non-partisan analysis and communications about the state of US democracy, shaped an initiative to build public trust in American elections, and led multi-million-dollar grantmaking portfolios on anti-corruption and climate action.
Mark started his career on Capitol Hill, as a legislative director in the US House of Representatives and later as director of House Affairs at the US State Department. He has degrees from Northwestern and Princeton Universities, and lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two young kids.
Dr. Purnima Chawla
Board Member
Dr. Purnima Chawla
Board Member
Dr. Purnima Chawla is a faculty member and Director of Entrepreneurship Education at UT San Antonio’s Alvarez College of Business. Before joining UT San Antonio, Dr. Chawla led her own consulting firm, the Center for Nonprofit Strategies, which focused on helping organizations to scale up their impact. She also co-directed the Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively (TELE) program, a USDA-funded program to improve conservation of forest and agricultural land. Purnima has helped a broad range of nonprofits and social businesses to be more innovative and entrepreneurial so they can effectively address changing social needs. She has also designed and executed several ground-breaking campaigns to raise awareness of health and environmental issues. Her clients include nonprofits like the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the ONE campaign; government agencies like the CDC and NIH; and socially responsible corporations like Johnson and Johnson.
Jake Sandler
Board Member
Jake Sandler
Board Member
Jake is a partner at Found & Co, a venture studio that funds and builds early-stage impact startups. Jake is also a principal at Temerity Capital Partners where he advises their impact portfolio. Previously, Jake founded ChangeRoots, a political donation app designed to combat toxic partisanship. Before ChangeRoots, Jake helped launch Asurity Technologies, a fintech startup helping lenders make fair loans to borrowers. Jake started his career in politics as a campaign consultant and lobbying on behalf of county governments.
Stan Lockhart
Board Member
Stan Lockhart
Board Member
Stan Lockhart has spent his life in technology and public service with a strong desire to make the world a better place. He has been instrumental in bringing thousands of jobs to Utah. He is an expert at navigating the complexities of government. He is also a family man with seven children in a blended family and 13 grandchildren.
A graduate of Brigham Young University in Business Management, Stan worked for 10 years at small technology companies in sales and management and for 19 years at a large semiconductor company Micron Technology. Today Stan has his own lobbying, sales support and consulting practice helping clients and government solve problems.
Stan has served as Utah Republican Party Chair, Utah County Republican Party Chair and received the Ronald Reagan Award for his extensive service in the Republican Party. Today he still serves on his local Party Central Committee and their Constitution and Bylaws Committee. Stan has served on the Provo City Council and Utah State Board of Education. He was just appointed to ALEC’s Federalism Task Force. Stan’s late wife Becky Lockhart served 16 years as a Utah legislator and was the only woman to be Utah Speaker of the House.
Stan has extensive experience in Board service: Lone Peak Hospital, Utah Afterschool Network, Utah Ranked Choice Voting, Utah Manufacturers Association, Utah Taxpayer Association, Rocky Mountain Power, University of Utah College of Engineering Industry Board, Utah Technology Council, Utah Energy Users Association, Utah State Council on Workforce Services, Utah STEM Action Center, Leonardo Museum, Thanksgiving Point, Boy Scouts of America, Utah Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, Provo Planning Commission, Provo Library and Provo Rotary Club.
During the Covid pandemic in 2020, Stan was asked to revive the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce by serving as interim CEO. He and other volunteers stabilized finances, created a strong value proposition and hired its current CEO. Today the Chamber has record membership and revenues. Stan still serves on the Board of Directors.
Stan’s hobbies are time with family, running marathons (March 2025 will have run all six world majors and a marathon on all seven continents), mentoring and investing in startup companies, reading fantasy genre novels, officiating high school basketball, being a fan of the Cincinnati Reds, Utah Jazz, Utah Hockey Club, BYU football and basketball and traveling and hiking throughout the world. Stan is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.
Nick Grandy
Board Member
Nick Grandy
Board Member
Nick is an entrepreneur, educator, and technologist with a passion for building products that make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
He is the co-founder of Outschool, a marketplace of live online classes for K-12 learners that has helped over a million families access flexible, engaging education outside the traditional classroom. He was also part of the early team at Airbnb, where he helped to develop and scale the core product.
Nick grew up in London, studied Astronomy at Harvard, and went on to earn a master’s in Computer Science at Oxford. He gained first hand experience as an educator teaching high school Physics at a school in Brooklyn.
Nick serves on the board of iNaturalist, a community-powered platform that engages millions of people in monitoring biodiversity and life on Earth. Today, his focus is on applying technology for positive impact — whether that’s through education, conservation, or civic innovation.
Nick lives in San Francisco with his wife and young kids.
