Democracy Solutions Summit 2024
This event took place on March 5-7, 2024.
2024 Democracy Solutions Summit
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Agenda
Agenda
Expert Discussion 1: Deep Dive on Alaska
Time: 3:05-3:30pm ET
In 2022, Alaska used ranked choice voting statewide for the very first time. We will kick off Day One with a live fireside chat between US Senator Lisa Murkowski (AK), US Representative Mary Peltola (AK), and Alaska State Senator Cathy Giessel all about the impact ranked choice voting has had on democracy and representation in Alaska, and why the "Alaska model" is so important for voters during this presidential election year.
Expert Discussion 2: The Women Funding the Movement
Time: 3:30-4:10pm ET
The work to strengthen our democracy wouldn't be possible without the investment of generous donors. Historically, due to centuries of systemic barriers and cultural practices, philanthropy has been dominated by men. This has a significant impact on what is deemed a priority, and which solutions are considered worth investment. At RepresentWomen, we want to shift that narrative and highlight the women who are investing in bold and innovative solutions where our country needs them most. Our second session of Day One will be a fireside chat between Winny Chen, Associate Director for the Governance program at Democracy Fund, Kathryn Murdoch, co-founder and President of the Quadrivium Foundation, and Laura Arnold, co-founder of Arnold Ventures, who will share their funding philosophies and why investing in voting reform is so important.
Immediately following that conversation, Erika Wood, Senior Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, and Emily Lockwood of Pivotal Ventures will highlight some practical ways funders can get involved in this work.
Take Action Panel: 2024 Ranked Choice Voting Ballot Measures and How You Can Get Involved
Time: 4:10-4:55pm ET
We will wrap up the day by bringing it close to home with a panel conversation with the leaders of a few key RCV ballot measure campaigns that are happening as we speak. It just so happens that the leaders of these campaigns are all women! (Are we really that surprised?) Diane Silver, Advocacy Manager at FairVote, will sit down with Sol Mora of RCV Oregon and Lisa Rice of the Making All Voices Count effort in Washington, DC, to hear what we need to know about these campaigns, how things are going, and how we can get involved. We are also hoping to hear from the Colorado effort and the Alaska protect-the-win effort!
Speakers
Speakers
EXPERT DISCUSSION 1: DEEP DIVE ON ALASKA
Senator Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Murkowski, Alaska’s senior U.S. Senator, is a third generation Alaskan proudly serving as the first Alaskan born senator. Murkowski was born in Ketchikan and raised in towns across the state, including Wrangell, Juneau, Fairbanks, and Anchorage.
Representative Mary Peltola
Mary Sattler Peltola is a Yup’ik Eskimo, salmon advocate, and Democrat who represented the Bethel region in the Alaska House of Representatives for 10 years. As a lawmaker, Mary helped rebuild the Bush Caucus that improved lives in rural Alaska under her tenure as Chair.
State Senator Cathy Giessel
AK State Senator Cathy Giessel was born & raised in the community of Fairbanks, and in the Territory of Alaska. She has served in the State Senate from 2011 through 2020, and again from 2023 to present. She served as Senate president from 2019 through 2020, and her focus has been on state resource development, health topics, arctic issues, and budget.
Amy Walter
Amy Walter is the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. For more than 25 years, Amy Walter has built a reputation as an accurate, objective, and insightful political analyst with unparalleled access to campaign insiders and decision-makers.
EXPERT DISCUSSION 2: THE WOMEN FUNDING THE MOVEMENT
Winny Chen
Associate Director for the Governance program at Democracy Fund
Winny Chen is the Associate Director for the Governance program at Democracy Fund, an independent foundation working to ensure that our political system is able to withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people.
Laura Arnold
Philanthropist and co-founder of Arnold Ventures
Laura Arnold, born Laura Munoz, is an American philanthropist and activist. Together with her husband, the retired hedge fund manager John D. Arnold, she is the co-founder of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the grantmaking organization Arnold Ventures.
Kathryn Murdoch
Co-Founder and President of the Quadrivium Foundation
Kathryn Murdoch is co-founder and president of Quadrivium, which supports practical, evidence-based solutions for critical societal problems. Kathryn currently serves on the boards of Unite America, the Climate Leadership Council and Climate Central. She is a founding board member of SciLine and co-chairs the Oceans and Communications committees as a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund.
TAKE ACTION PANEL: 2024 RANKED CHOICE VOTING BALLOT MEASURES
Diane Silver
Advocacy Manager at FairVote
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.
Sol Mora
Political Director at Oregon Ranked Choice Voting Advocates
Sol Mora was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and grew up in Salem, Oregon. Sol is the Political Director at Oregon Ranked Choice Voting Advocates, working to pass RCV statewide this year.
Lisa Rice
Make All Votes Count (Washington, DC)
Lisa is a political strategist, passionate about reform and political innovation. She is active in bringing productive change to U.S. politics.
Alliana Salanguit
Deputy Director for Alaskans for Better Elections
Alliana Salanguit is the Deputy Director for Alaskans for Better Elections. Alaskans for Better Elections is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to providing public education and research about how Alaska-style elections work. The 501(c)(3) foundation and 501(c)(4) corporation are governed by directors that include Alaskans with diverse political views from every corner of the state.
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Agenda
Agenda
Opening Remarks
Secretary of State of New Mexico Maggie Toulouse Oliver will kick off Day Two with opening remarks on the importance of women's leadership at the state level.
Expert Discussion 1: Preserving Democracy: State Voting Rights Acts
Time: 3:10 - 3:35pm ET
For our first session of Day Two, we will be joined by Rebecca Mears, Director of Democracy, Center for American Progress, Candice Battiste, Campaign Strategist, Senior Community Organizer at Legal Defense Fund, and Erica Peresman, Senior Advisor at Promote the Vote for a fireside conversation on the need for State Voting Rights Acts as an effective solution to protect voters in every state.
Expert Discussion 2: Removing Barriers to State Legislative Office with Ranked Choice Voting
Time: 3:35 - 4:15pm ET
As momentum continues to build for ranked choice voting at the local level, state-wide campaigns are happening simultaneously. Our second expert discussion of Day Two will be a panel discussion moderated by Jeanne Massey, Executive Director of FairVote Minnesota, and will feature Michelle Sparck, Director of Get Out the Native Vote, Brianna McGowan, Make All Votes Count DC, Katie Fahey, Executive Director of The People, and Michelle Whittaker, President of the RepresentWomen Board. These experts will speak to the strategies and learnings from state=level efforts to advocate for ranked choice voting in their respective states.
Expert Discussion #3: Modernizing State Legislatures: Campaign Funds for Childcare, Security, and Legislative Pay
Time: 4:15-4:50pm ET
For the final session of the day, we will have a fireside discussion led by Celinda Lake, President of Lake Research Partners, with Sarah Hague, Chief Program Officer at Vote Mama, Layla Zaidane, President & CEO of Future Caucus and Marvelous Maeze, U.S. Research Manager at RepresentWomen. Our experts will discuss the transformative solutions to remove barriers women, women of color, mothers, and young people face when running and serving in state legislatures.
Closing Remarks
We will wrap up Day Two with closing remarks from Stacey Abrams, political leader, business owner and New York Times bestselling author, on the value of women in elected office at the state level and the need for policy solutions to increase women's representation.
Speakers
Speakers
Introduction
Michelle Milford Morse
VP of Girls & Women Strategy at UN Foundation
Michelle Milford Morse is Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy. Previously Michelle was a member of the global health policy and advocacy team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Expert Discussion 1: Running for President as a Woman in America
Judy Woodruff
Senior Correspondent and Former Anchor and Managing Editor of the PBS NewsHour
Judy Woodruff is a senior correspondent and the former anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour. She has covered politics and other news for five decades at NBC, CNN and PBS.
Kimberly Peeler-Allen
Political Strategist
Kimberly Peeler-Allen has been working at the intersection of race, gender and politics for over 20 years. Over the course of her career Kimberly has advised elected officials, candidates and organizations on fundraising, political strategy and coalition building to ensure that there are more diverse voices around decision making tables whether they are in elected bodies or civil society. Peeler-Allen is the Co-founder of Higher Heights, a national organization building the political power and leadership of Black women from the voting booth to elected office.
Expert Discussion 2: Ranked Choice Voting for Presidential Primaries
Amber McReynolds
National Elections Expert and USPS Board of Governors
Amber McReynolds is one of the country’s leading experts on election administration, policy, and innovation. In 2021, Amber was appointed by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as a Governor for the United States Postal Service.
Rina Shah
Political Consultant & CEO of Rilax Strategies
Rina Shah is a strategic consultant, media commentator, & millennial entrepreneur based in Washington, DC. Prior to launching Rilax Strategies – a government and public affairs firm - Rina served as a senior staffer to Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-5) and Rep. Jeff B. Miller (FL-1).
Candice Kerestan
Political Consultant
Candice Kerestan is a political consultant focused on making American elections work better for voters both at home and abroad.
Take Action Panel: Addressing the Ambition Myth, Violence Against Women in Politics, and Legislative Pay
Erin Loos Cutraro
Founder & CEO of She Should Run
Erin Loos Cutraro is the founder and CEO of She Should Run, the trailblazing nonpartisan nonprofit on a mission to revolutionize the landscape of women in American political leadership by shattering barriers and redefining possibilities for women in elected leadership.
Gowri Ramachandran
Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program
Gowri Ramachandran serves as deputy director in the Brennan Center’s Democracy program. Her work focuses on election security, election administration, and combatting election disinformation. She is the lead author of the Brennan Center's recent study entitled Intimidation of State and Local Officeholders.
Erin Vilardi
CEO & Founder of Vote Run Lead
Erin Vilardi is the Founder and CEO of Vote Run Lead, the nation’s largest and most diverse training program for women to run for office and win. She first launched the program as Vice President of Program and Communications at The White House Project.
Juliana Menasce Horowitz
Associate Director of Research at Pew Research Center
Juliana Horowitz is associate director of research at Pew Research Center, where she oversees research on social and demographic trends. She is the lead author of the 2023 Pew study entitled Women and Political Leadership Ahead of the 2024 Election.
Glynda Carr
CEO and Co-Founder of Higher Heights for America
As president, CEO and co-founder of Higher Heights for America, Glynda C. Carr is at the center of the national movement to grow Black women’s political power from the voting booth to elected office.
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Agenda
Agenda
Panel: Power Like You've Never Seen – Ways Women are Crafting a New and Improved Way of Governing
Time: 3:05 - 3:55pm ET
Now more than ever, people around the world are challenging the status quo and demanding a new way of governing that doesn't involve binary choices, zero-sum thinking, and aggressive competition. In this inspiring conversation, you will hear about several real-life initiatives that have shifted the paradigms of power by bringing inclusivity, compassion, and citizens back to the center to transform government engagement.
Expert Discussion 1: Non-Electoral Solutions to Building Women's Political Power
Time: 3:55 - 4:25pm ET
As the United States sees more and more diverse women serving in office, it's becoming apparent that the government workplace is not always a safe and productive place for women. Women electeds not only deal with issues like sexual harassment and racism, they sometimes don't even have access to a women's restroom. In our very own US Senate, women senators didn't have access to a private "senators only" restroom until the 1990s. The existing "senators only" restroom was for men only. In this conversation, we highlight a few exciting and impactful programs to reduce barriers so that women legislators can serve and lead effectively.
Expert Discussion 2: Electoral Solutions to Building Women's Political Power
Time: 4:25 - 4:55pm ET
We round out our third annual Democracy Solutions Summit with a fireside chat conversation about two very powerful policy solutions that have a proven track record of removing barriers for women to run and win: gender quotas and the single-transferable vote system. We will hear directly from women experts whose countries deploy these systems to learn how these policy solutions work, and the impact they've had on women in their countries.
Speakers
Speakers
Keynote Speech
Namatai Kwekweza
Executive Director of WELEAD Trust
Namatai Kwekweza serves as the Executive Director of WELEAD Trust, an organization that she founded at age 18 in 2017, which focuses on youth leadership development and advocacy. Through the work done at WELEAD Trust, youth have built strong alliances around human rights, feminist solidarity practices, constitutionalism, participation in governance and leader development.
Panel: Power Like You’ve Never Seen - Ways Women are Crafting a New & Improved Way of Governing
Victoria Pelletier
RepresentWomen's National Partnerships Manager
Victoria Pelletier is the National Partnerships Manager at RepresentWomen, and is based in Portland, Maine. She is currently serving her first term as a Portland City Councilor, and is the second Black woman in her city’s history that has been elected to this seat.
Yordanos Eyoel
Founder & CEO of Keseb
Yordanos Eyoel is an Ethiopian-American democracy entrepreneur who is the Founder and CEO of Keseb. Keseb is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building an ecosystem for cross-country learning, collaboration, and innovation to advance inclusive and resilient democracies.
Marjan H. Ehsassi
Executive Director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy (North America)
Marjan H. Ehsassi is the Executive Director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy North America. She is also a Future of Democracy Fellow (non-resident) at the Berggruen Institute and a Senior Innovations Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability (IDEA at OSU).
Jennifer Nadel
Co-founder and Director of Compassion in Politics
Jennifer Nadel is an author, activist and award-winning journalist with an unwavering commitment to both compassion and women’s rights. As the co-director of the UK-based think tank Compassion in Politics, Jennifer works to help foster more empathetic and compassionate politics across the political spectrum, working with over 100 MPs.
Expert Discussion: Non-electoral Solutions - Addressing Violence Against Women and Mental Well-Being in Politics
Sandra Pepera
Director For Gender, Women And Democracy, National Democratic Institute
Sandra Pepera is a career diplomat and international development professional. Before joining NDI as its Director for Gender, Women and Democracy in 2014, she spent thirteen years as a Senior Officer at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), including leading programs in the Caribbean, Rwanda-Burundi and Sudan. Prior to joining DFID, Sandra spent time in British domestic politics; lecturing in political science and international relations at the University of Ghana; and as a political analyst in the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Senator Cynthia López Castro
Mexican Senator and President of IPU's Women's Caucus
Bio coming soon!
Natalia Herbst
Director for Latin America Strategy and Development at the Apolitical Foundation
Natalia is an Obama Scholar '19 who has over 10 years of experience in government at the local and national levels. In 2023 she was a member of President Obama’s Inclusive Economies Working Group.
Expert Discussion: Electoral Solutions - Gender Quotas in Latin America & Australia’s Single Transferable Voting System
Vandinika Shukla
RepresentWomen Board Chair & Gender Policy Specialist
Vandinika Shukla is a gender policy specialist, technology policy expert, and educator. She has spent the last decade designing national gender policies and advocacy campaigns at UN Women, building public interest technology products and partnerships at MIT Media Lab, and founding organizations to amplify unheard stories for stronger democracies.
Jennifer Piscopo
Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London
Jennifer M. Piscopo is Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London. She is a leading expert on gender and politics, especially women’s political representation, in Latin America, the United States, and the globe.
Kate Chaney MP
Member of Parliament in Australia's House of Representatives
Kate Chaney is Western Australia’s first female Independent Federal Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives.
Bio coming soon!