Meredith Sumpter
President and CEO
Meredith Sumpter
President and CEO
Meredith Sumpter is an executive leader and builder of innovative organizations and movements that drive value for people. As President and CEO of FairVote, Meredith is working for a more functional and representative democracy that delivers for every American. FairVote is a nonpartisan organization that advances election reforms including ranked choice voting (RCV) and proportional representation. These reforms give voters more choice and more power. They can deliver better government because leaders need to earn majority support (RCV) and be broadly accountable to voters over narrow partisan interests to win elections.
Previously, Meredith was CEO & President of the Board of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, a global community of CEOs committing their organizations to deliver profit and create value through sustainable and inclusive business practices. The Council expanded from 25 to nearly 600 corporate and investor CEOs during her tenure, taking 780+ measurable actions tied to the UN SDGs. She was CEO of the separate Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism during the same tenure.
Meredith has a record of convening leaders across private, public and civic sectors to launch market reforms with systemic impact. This includes the Just Transition Framework for Company Action, the first private-sector guide for companies, investors and policymakers on advancing climate and social transition goals tied to market indicators, the Framework for Inclusive Capitalism, a compact among business, government and American workers to reduce inequality and deliver broad prosperity, and the Pension Fund Coalition with long-term value creation templates for use by asset owners and asset managers in public equity and private markets investment contracts.
Bringing people together to solve problems and expand opportunity is a central theme in Meredith’s work. She has held advisory positions at New America and Harvard University, where Meredith convened public sector leaders with national research experts to develop innovative reforms around democratic resilience, including with AI and governance, health equity, justice, and economic opportunity.
Formerly, Meredith was Head of Research & Strategy at Eurasia Group, a global geopolitical advisory firm. She oversaw the research platform and advised industry leaders and investors on global politics and 21st century drivers of trade, disruption, and growth. Her 20+ years of experience in business, strategy, policy, and analysis spans sectors and regions. Meredith has worked in the U.S. Senate and as a U.S. diplomat and government official in Beijing, where she advised two U.S. ambassadors and analyzed politics, economics, and security issues for policymakers.
Meredith has appeared on major networks including Bloomberg, CNBC, MSNBC, BBC, Fox, PBS, and CNN. An advisor to boards, she values engaging people and regularly speaks at industry and global conferences. Originally from Alaska and now residing in Virginia, Meredith enjoys a rich life parenting four children with her husband Ryan.
Lakeisha Steele
Vice President of Federal Affairs and Partnerships
Lakeisha Steele
Vice President of Federal Affairs and Partnerships
Lakeisha Steele brings extensive experience in federal policy and coalition building to her role as Vice President of Federal Affairs and Partnerships at FairVote. Previously, Lakeisha served as Vice President of Policy at CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), where she led efforts to advance federal and state policies that support the social and emotional development of students. Before that, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Department of Education in the Biden-Harris Administration, serving as the Administration’s liaison to Congress on higher education policy.
Lakeisha spent eight years on Capitol Hill, most recently as Senior Education Policy Advisor on the U.S. House Committee on Education & Labor under Chairman Bobby Scott, where she helped shape landmark legislation including the American Rescue Plan Act, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the CARES Act, and the SUPPORT Act. She also advanced K12 and higher education priorities for Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici and U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin. Before her career in public policy, Lakeisha spent eight years in the legal industry conducting risk management for national law firms. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University and a Master of Public Administration from American University. She is a proud native of Kankakee, Illinois and the beautiful South Side of Chicago. She is guided by an unwavering belief that better representation leads to better policies and a stronger democracy.
Lena Kukelhaus
Chief of Staff
Lena Kukelhaus
Chief of Staff
Lena is an operations and strategy leader with more than 15 years of experience strengthening mission-driven organizations by integrating strategy, governance, people, and execution. She joins FairVote from USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives, where she held a series of progressively senior roles managing complex global programs in support of democratic resilience and U.S. foreign policy interests. Her experience ranges from field-based leadership in the Middle East and Balkans to enterprise-wide operational teams spanning Finance, Budget, Procurement, IT, Training, Communications, and Knowledge Management for a 250-person global organization.
Lena is known for cultivating high-performing teams and serving as a connective force — aligning people, priorities, and processes so organizations can operate with clarity, effectiveness, and resilience. Throughout her career, her operational work has been animated by a consistent purpose: building the institutional foundations that enable people to participate fully in the decisions that shape their lives — work she now brings home through FairVote’s mission.
Lena holds an M.P.A. from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a B.A. from the College of William & Mary. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two children.
Ashley Houghton
Chief Program Officer
Ashley Houghton
Chief Program Officer
Ashley Houghton serves as FairVote’s Chief Program Officer. Alongside FairVote’s CEO, FairVote Action’s CPO, and the strategy and learning department, Ashley leads the organization in developing and executing its short and long-term programmatic goals. She also manages two departments that make up FairVote’s programs team: communications, and research and policy. Prior to this role, Ashley led the communications team as Communications Director.
As a strategist and campaigner for a decade and a half, Ashley’s background is in leading coalitions, driving crisis communications, and developing multifaceted messaging campaigns. She previously led Amnesty International USA’s domestic refugee and asylum campaign as Tactical Campaigns Manager. She also spent seven years at ReThink Media, a nonprofit media and messaging organization, where she held several positions, including the Managing Director of the Security and Rights Collaborative. In that role, she led in developing, implementing, and supporting effective media and communications outreach and capacity-building strategies across the Security and Rights sector. Altogether, Ashley had a hand in crisis response during every major national security crisis between 2011 and 2019.
Ashley’s time away from work is also focused on strategic planning and campaigning: scheduling joyful weekend adventures, finding misplaced backpacks, and normalizing the benefits of selecting back-up choices as she and her husband raise two small future voters in Maryland.
Virginia McMullan
Fractional Chief Operating Officer
Virginia McMullan
Fractional Chief Operating Officer
As Fractional Chief Operating Officer, Virginia provides strategic operational support as well as manage FairVote’s financial and operational resources. She has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 25 years in various roles, the last as Director of Operations for International Budget Partnership.
She has a BA from Colby College and an MBA from Georgetown University.
Brian Cannon
Chief Advocacy Officer
Brian Cannon
Chief Advocacy Officer
Brian Cannon is a longtime democracy reformer with over a decade of non-profit leadership, community building, and advocacy for state policy issues. In addition to his most recent work as Campaigns Director at the Institute for Political Innovation, he led Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting reform effort as Executive Director of OneVirginia2021 for six years – an effort that successfully amended the state constitution to end partisan gerrymandering.
Over the years, Brian has earned a reputation as a strategic organizer and strong advocate for improving voting systems, with a knack for boiling down complex public policy initiatives to voters across the political spectrum. As the head of OneVirginia2021, Brian grew the organization’s supporter list from a few thousand to over 100,000, with local action groups of dedicated volunteers in every corner of the Commonwealth. This growth fueled the legislative strategy that passed significant and complex reform through the Virginia legislature under Republican and then Democratic control.
Brian is a double William & Mary graduate – earning a degree in government and focusing his law school work in election law. In a bit of foreshadowing for his current role, as an undergraduate, he implemented ranked choice voting for student government elections. He and his wife Kelly live in Richmond with their two children, Bennett and Kathryn.
Shilanda Becnel
Senior Director of People and Culture
Shilanda Becnel
Senior Director of People and Culture
Shilanda Becnel is FairVote’s Senior Director of People and Culture, overseeing all aspects of people and culture strategy including performance, total compensation, employee/labor relations, supporting PMEL, and leading ongoing organizational strengthening initiatives, DEI, annual people and culture plans, policies, and practices.
Suvarna Hulawale
Senior Director of Strategy and Learning
Suvarna Hulawale
Senior Director of Strategy and Learning
Suvarna Hulawale is a Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (PMEL) professional with close to two decades of experience working for grassroots and international nonprofit organizations in the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) field in various continents of the world. Suvarna joined FairVote as a MEL manager from International Budget Partnership, an international organization working on fiscal governance and participatory democracy. There she led the organization’s M&E component for adaptive programming for more than seven years.
She is also a strong advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, including gender equity at the workplace and mainstreaming in the strategy. She has triggered these considerations in her previous jobs by creating spaces for conversations and supporting mainstreaming.
She lives in Washington, DC with her spouse Larkin.
Marissa Miller
Senior Director of Development
Marissa Miller
Senior Director of Development
As the Senior Director of Development, Marissa oversees FairVote’s fundraising team, and is responsible for the design and implementation of FairVote’s major gifts program. She helps our donors accomplish their philanthropic goals and ambitions by engaging them in our organization and building strong relationships together. She’s thrilled to join such an inspiring, driven and growing team.
Prior to joining FairVote, Marissa led development and communications efforts at various social justice and political organizations in New York City and California. She currently resides in the Hudson Valley with her husband and son.
Deb Otis
Senior Director of Research and Policy
Deb Otis
Senior Director of Research and Policy
Deb Otis is the Senior Director of Research and Policy at FairVote. With a decade of experience in research and analytics, Deb is passionate about sharing the data-driven case for why our country needs election reform. In addition to ranked choice voting and proportional representation, Deb’s areas of research include comparative electoral systems, political polarization, redistricting, representation for women and people of color, the electoral college, and election recounts. Deb is a graduate of Boston University with degrees in Economics and Physics. She lives in Washington, DC.
Deb has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, NPR’s On Point, The Downballot, The Preamble with Sharon McMahon, and The Politics Guys. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and more.
Deb’s publications include:
- A majority rule philosophy for instant runoff voting, Constitutional Political Economy
- Lessons from the Use of Ranked Choice Voting in American Presidential Primaries, Politics and Governance
- Optimizing Nonpartisan Primaries with Ranked Choice Voting and Proportional Representation – a chapter in Reforming Primary Elections
Will Mantell
Director of Communications
Will Mantell
Director of Communications
Will Mantell is FairVote’s Director of Communications, leading its communications strategy and projects. Will previously served as FairVote’s Press Secretary.
Prior to joining FairVote, Will served as Press Secretary for the New York City Department of Education, the nation’s largest school district; as a writer, spokesperson, and strategic advisor for New York City Borough President and City Council candidates during the 2021 election cycle; and as Press Secretary for Progressive Turnout Project, a national voter turnout organization.
Hayley Carter
Event and Operations Manager
Hayley Carter
Event and Operations Manager
Hayley supports FairVote’s organizational operations with a background in event management and administration. She focuses on coordinating logistics, streamlining processes, and ensuring day-to-day functions run smoothly.
Originally from England, Hayley now lives in the USA with her husband, two children and their cat, Tyrian.
Jeremy Rose
Senior Manager, Evidence and Learning
Jeremy Rose
Senior Manager, Evidence and Learning
Jeremy Rose is FairVote’s Senior Manager, Evidence and Learning. He conducts research to guide FairVote’s strategy, including by developing case studies on implementing ranked choice voting (RCV) in specific contexts, navigating political opposition, and developing infrastructure to sustain support for RCV over the long term. He also facilitates learning processes within FairVote and in collaboration with our partners, bringing together diverse perspectives and data to generate new approaches to advancing democracy reform.
Jeremy has co-authored papers on The Case for Instant Runoff Voting, RCV in Presidential Primaries, and RCV and the National Popular Vote Compact under his previous name, Jeremy Seitz-Brown. Before joining FairVote in 2019, he worked for a year on electoral races in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 2018 with a double major in Political Science and Spanish. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two pet rabbits.
Arielle Hollies
Director of Major Gifts
Arielle Hollies
Director of Major Gifts
As the Director of Major Gifts, Arielle Hollies serves as a frontline fundraiser focused on building relationships with individual donors who likewise view ranked choice voting as a key solution to the structural democratic challenges that the United States faces.
Prior to joining FairVote, Arielle served as Major Gifts Officer at the Center for American Progress, where she secured philanthropic investments in support of the organization’s mission to build a new policy future and path forward for America. She formerly led J Street’s outreach work in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, with a focus on fundraising, chapter building, and lay leadership engagement.
Outside of FairVote, Arielle sings in the Capitol Hill Chorale and also serves as Fundraising Chair. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Cornell University and currently lives in Washington, DC.
Brandon Lamberty
Senior Manager of Development Operations and Insights
Brandon Lamberty
Senior Manager of Development Operations and Insights
As the Senior Manager of Development Operations and Insights, Brandon supports the fundraising work at FairVote through targeted outreach, timely campaigns, and grassroots funder support. His Master’s of Public Policy from Temple University armed him with extensive research skills and a desire to support political reforms to better our democracy. Prior to FairVote, Brandon was engaged with education nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia, and he values those opportunities in preparing him for his current work.
Most of Brandon’s free time is devoted to playing Ultimate Frisbee with the local DC teams and getting to travel around the country and internationally. He lives in DC with his array of plants, and he enjoys spending time outdoors, biking, and hiking. He’s in pursuit of dialing in his at-home espresso, but it’s about the journey, not the destination.
AP Miller
Grant and Special Project Manager
AP Miller
Grant and Special Project Manager
AP’s introduction to the world of nonprofits came in the first two weeks of her life from her grandmother Deana, who fed her bottles while serving as Director of Operation Bootstrap Africa. OBA is a global nonprofit that works to fund primary and secondary education in Africa. As a child, she would visit grandma’s office to organize supplies, label envelopes, and fold letters. She accompanied her grandmother on a trip to Tanzania in high school to visit project sites with goals of meeting students, assessing current needs, and distributing supplies.
Growing up with such a powerful example of effecting change, AP’s heart was initially set on education as the means of change. She received her Bachelor’s of Arts from North Carolina State University. After nearly a decade of advocating for equitable education as a classroom teacher, AP joined FairVote in March 2023. She is passionate about advancing the mission of FairVote as Grant and Special Project Manager.
AP lives in Virginia and volunteers with animal rescues. She takes her auntie duties seriously as a proud aunt of nine.
Ryan J. Suto
Senior Government Affairs Manager
Ryan J. Suto
Senior Government Affairs Manager
Ryan J. Suto is the Senior Policy Advisor at FairVote, where he focuses on advancing electoral reform on Capitol Hill. Before joining FairVote, he previously worked as Policy Counsel for the Arab American Institute, and has worked with organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme in Bahrain and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
Ryan was a first-generation college student at Penn State University where he earned bachelor degrees in political science and philosophy. He then graduated from Syracuse University’s Law and Public Diplomacy program, where he received a J.D. and masters degrees in international relations and public relations. He has since taught as a Distinguished Lecturer in Voting Rights Law and Policy at Syracuse.
Ryan’s publications include:
- Public Health As Foreign Policy: Trauma In The Arab World, LobeLog
- A Social Networks Approach to Public Relations on Twitter: Social Mediators and Mediated Public Relations, Journal of Public Relations Research
- A Renewed Case for a Syria Tribunal, Atlantic Council
- Standards of Expression in Transitional Societies: Incitement in Kosovo, SSRN Electronic Journal
- Small Nation, Big Questions: Bahrain After the Arab Spring, SSRN Electronic Journal
Candice Nolde
Senior Director of Advocacy
Candice Nolde
Senior Director of Advocacy
Candice Nolde (née Kerestan) is FairVote’s Senior Director of Advocacy, focusing on outreach and partnerships.
Diane Silver
Advocacy Manager
Diane Silver
Advocacy Manager
Diane Silver is FairVote’s Advocacy Manager, working to expand support for national ranked choice voting legislation as well as capacity building for state and local RCV efforts.
Before joining FairVote in November, 2019, Diane worked as an environmental educator. For 10 years she coordinated a local watershed project, doing education and outreach to build partnerships with landowners to implement best management practices for water quality protection and stream restoration. She brings those education and outreach skills to the RCV effort. She has also served as a program director at several residential EE centers, supervising field instructors, writing curriculum, and managing program logistics. She did wildlife education at the Cincinnati Zoo, had a short stint as a classroom teacher in math and science, and in a previous life, worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide to her home-state Senator.
Diane holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Psychology from Claremont McKenna College and a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan. In her non-work life she plays the fiddle, leads contra dancing (a form of American folk dance), and enjoys hiking and kayaking.
Ben Williams
Senior Policy Counsel and Researcher
Ben Williams
Senior Policy Counsel and Researcher
Ben Williams is a nonpartisan election policy expert serving as FairVote’s Senior Policy Counsel and Researcher. He leads FairVote’s work on election administration and state legislative policy. Before joining FairVote, Williams was the associate director of the Elections & Redistricting program at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), where he led the organization’s work on ranked choice voting, primaries and other party nomination processes, redistricting, campaign finance, ethics, and the partisan composition of legislatures. He also played a key role supporting the program’s work on election administration and convening legislators and staff working on those topics.
Williams has published several academic articles and has written for Slate, The Virginian-Pilot, NCSL Magazine, and NCSL’s State Legislatures News. He has also appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. Williams earned a J.D. from William & Mary Law School, where he was a member of the election law program, and a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University where he double-majored in international relations and history and minored in Latin American studies.
Williams lives with his wife and dog and spends his free time hiking, skiing and kayaking in the Rocky Mountains.
Yates Wilburn
Senior Communications Associate
Yates Wilburn
Senior Communications Associate
Yates Wilburn is a Senior Communications Associate at FairVote, serving as the primary communications liaison to state and city-based groups advocating for ranked choice voting in their communities and helping them develop and execute communications strategy.
Prior to joining FairVote, Yates worked as a Digital Campaign Manager at Stand Together, deploying marketing campaigns across numerous channels for grassroots brands including Americans for Prosperity, LIBRE Initiative, and Concerned Veterans for America. Yates also served as the Press Secretary for Rep. Nancy Mace (SC-01) in 2021, and worked as the Digital Marketing Coordinator for FreedomWorks from 2017 to 2020.
Matthew Oberstaedt
Senior Communications Associate
Matthew Oberstaedt
Senior Communications Associate
Matthew Oberstaedt is a Senior Communications Associate at FairVote. He has a BA in political science from The George Washington University, where he enjoyed studying the different election systems used around the world. After moving to Washington, DC he became active in the DC Statehood movement to make sure every American has the ability to vote for Representatives in Congress. He is excited to help in FairVote’s mission to expand ranked choice voting throughout the United States and make our elections fairer for everyone.
Ciera Schibi
Graphic Designer
Ciera Schibi
Graphic Designer
Ciera is FairVote’s Graphic Designer. She is an experienced designer with over 12 years in the field, specializing in higher education, non-profit, and organizational branding. Known for her creative and impactful designs, Ciera has held key roles, including Assistant Director of Design at the University of North Texas and Graphic Designer at the American Psychological Association. A born and raised Oklahoman, she currently resides in Oklahoma City with her dog, Charlie.
David Daley
Senior Fellow
David Daley
Senior Fellow
David Daley is a Senior Fellow at FairVote. He is the author of the national best-seller “Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count,” which has been credited with sparking the modern drive to reform redistricting and end partisan gerrymandering, and the basis for the award-winning documentary “Slay The Dragon.” His second book, “Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy,” chronicles the victories and defeats in state efforts to reform elections and uphold voting rights. His third book, “Antidemocratic,” follows the weakening of the Voting Rights Act through Supreme Court decisions like Shelby County vs. Holder.
A frequent lecturer and media source about gerrymandering, he is the former editor-in-chief of Salon.com, and the former CEO and publisher of the Connecticut News Project. David’s journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, and many other publications, and he has been a guest on CNN, MSNBC, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and Comedy Central. He has taught political science and journalism as a visiting fellow at Wesleyan University, Boston College, and the University of Georgia.
Rachel Hutchinson
Deputy Director of Research and Policy
Rachel Hutchinson
Deputy Director of Research and Policy
Rachel conducts data and policy analysis in support of FairVote’s advocacy mission. She is an experienced researcher and writer in the electoral reform space. In addition to ranked choice voting and proportional representation, Rachel’s areas of research include primary elections, voter behavior, and political polarization. Her policy expertise has been leveraged to service state partners and draft legislation, as well as featured in outlets like Real Clear Politics and NPR.
Rachel is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy and Administration at Northwestern University. Prior to working at FairVote, Rachel was a Fellow at the Institute for Political Innovation.
Rachel’s publications include:
- Optimizing Nonpartisan Primaries with Ranked Choice Voting and Proportional Representation – a chapter in the book Reforming Primary Elections
- Reform for Realists: The False Promise of Condorcet Voting, Marquette Law Review
- Does Ranked Choice Voting Promote Legislative Bipartisanship? Using Maine as a Policy Laboratory, The Forum
- The Plurality Problem: Plurality Primary Victors Hurt Parties in General Elections, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University
Delaney Barker
Staff Attorney
Delaney Barker
Staff Attorney
Delaney Barker serves as the Staff Attorney at FairVote. She provides legal analysis, drafts and reviews legislation, analyzes state and local laws and regulations, and responds to requests from FairVote colleagues and from movement partners.
Before joining FairVote, Delaney was an Equal Justice Works fellow at the ACLU of Michigan, where her project focused on providing legal representation and advocacy for Michigan’s low-income and minority voters to access absentee or in-person ballots without intimidation and tactics intended to subvert election results.
Delaney holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was a student attorney at the Election Law Clinic and externed with Protect Democracy. She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Kenyon College.
Bryan Huang
Software Engineer and Research Analyst
Bryan Huang
Software Engineer and Research Analyst
Bryan is a Software Engineer and Research Analyst at FairVote, where he manages and develops software tools to analyze how ranked choice voting (RCV) and proportional RCV ensure elections have representative outcomes. Leveraging his expertise in data science and quantitative research, he is committed to using data-driven research to support voting rights and electoral reform. He holds a Bachelor’s in Government with a minor in Data Science from Cornell University. In 2020, he was selected as the Kohut Undergraduate Research Fellow at the Roper Center for Public Research. He was previously the Lani Guinier Voting Rights Fellow at FairVote. Bryan currently resides in the DC area.
Avram Reisman
Research Analyst
Avram Reisman
Research Analyst
Avram Reisman is a Research Analyst at FairVote, where he conducts political data analysis and writes reports and blog posts in support of its mission. He comes to FairVote after a career in global justice advocacy and international democracy assistance, as well as volunteering for DC’s Initiative 83 ranked choice voting campaign and Ranked Choice Voting Maryland.
He has been conducting research on democracy priorities since 2017 when he began the master’s program in Democracy & Governance at Georgetown University. Throughout his tenure as a researcher, advocate, and graduate student, he has been driven by a recognition of human interconnectedness and a fixation with finding out how human beings can coexist in dignity. He is thrilled to work to advance electoral reform and other institutional innovations which create a more democratic society.
Avram resides in Washington, DC with his partner and fiancée, Veronica. In addition to his Georgetown MA, he holds a BA in Philosophy & Government from Colby College.
Avram’s publications include:
- Book outlines how strong unions build strong democracies, National Catholic Reporter
- Democratize the Federal Bureaucracy, Current Affairs
Natalie Treacy
Legal Fellow
Natalie Treacy
Legal Fellow
Natalie Treacy serves as a Legal Fellow at FairVote. She holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she served as the research assistant for UMich Votes and Turn Up Turnout—two organizations finding innovative ways to make voting accessible to a new generation of young voters. During law school, she served as co-president of the law school’s voting rights and election law group. She also interned at the Department of Justice’s Voting Rights Section, where she worked on election monitoring, NVRA research, and VRA Section 2 investigations.
A D.C.-native, she was employed as a paralegal in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Department of Justice prior to law school and received her B.A. in Public Policy from the George Washington University.