Isaac Frumkin
As Chief Information Officer for the Maryland Department of Service and Civic Innovation, Isaac Frumkin is passionate about leveraging innovative technology to drive positive social impact. This agency, created in 2023, is administering a first-in-the nation service year program. In his capacity as CIO, Isaac is involved in strategic decision making, software procurement, project management, data privacy and governance policies, data management, and data analysis. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Isaac's experience with fast-paced and high-stakes work extends beyond his current role, having previously worked in the Governor's Office and gained valuable insights from statewide political campaigns. In his role as a CDCE fellow, Isaac leverages his experience from building an application system for key executive positions within the incoming administration as a Data Analyst for the Moore-Miller Transition. His career is dedicated to harnessing technology's power for the betterment of communities, ensuring that innovative solutions drive meaningful change.
Cleo Hirsch
Cleo Hirsch serves as a Senior Fellow for the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement’s Effective Government Transitions Project. In addition to this role, Cleo is the Deputy Director of Public Health AmeriCorps, a groundbreaking new partnership between the CDC and AmeriCorps to build the next generation of public health leaders through national service. Cleo joined AmeriCorps after serving as the Transition Director for Maryland’s Governor Wes Moore, where she led a historically inclusive transition process that engaged approximately 10,000 Marylanders in civic dialogue and public service.
Previously, Cleo served as the Executive Director of COVID Response for Baltimore City Schools. In this role she led the district’s pandemic response and pioneered strategies to reopen schools and keep schools operating safely as community conditions changed. Previous roles include serving as the Director of Priority Initiatives for Baltimore City Schools, an education policy consultant, a Mayoral Fellow for the City of Chicago, and a middle school teacher.
Cleo holds a Master's Degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education, and a BA in Political Science and American Studies from Tufts University.
David Levine
David Levine is a senior fellow at UMD’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, who works to ensure that eligible voters can vote, free and fair elections are perceived as legitimate, and election processes are properly administered and secured. He is also an election security adjunct professor at George Mason University, an advisory committee member for the Global Cyber Alliance's Cybersecurity Toolkit for Elections, an advisory council member for The Election Reformers Network, a member of the Election Verification Network, and a contributor to the Fulcrum. Previously, he worked as the senior elections integrity fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, where he assessed vulnerabilities in electoral infrastructure, administration, and policies. And before that he was the Ada County, Idaho Elections Director, managing the administration of all federal, state, county, and local district elections for 25% of the state’s population.
David’s engagements and publications focus on election access, trust and security, and the nexus between external threats from malign actors and the challenges democracies face in conducting free and fair elections. His work has been published and quoted in USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Bloomberg Technology, The Hill, Business Insider, MIT Technology Review, BBC, EU Observer, and elsewhere.
David received a BA from Haverford College and a JD from the Case Western Reserve School of Law, where he discovered his passion for elections. Since then, he has administered elections, worked with advocacy groups to improve the election process, and observed elections in the United States and many other countries.
Alysoun McLaughlin
Alysoun McLaughlin serves as a Senior Fellow for the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement’s Election Workforce Initiative. Alysoun brings to the Center more than two decades of experience in election administration and policy, from negotiating key provisions of the Help America Vote Act to leading one of the nation’s largest election jurisdictions.
Alysoun has served as Chair of the Board of Advisors to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Vice President of the Maryland Association of Election Officials, co-chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Election Officials Technical Committee, and as Vice Chair of both the Member Programs and Services Committee and the Election Subcommittee of the National Association of Counties. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Election Administration Research and Practice and an honorary lifetime member of the National Association of County Collectors, Treasurers and Finance Officers.
Alysoun holds a Master’s Degree in Political Management from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University.
Kassie Phebillo
Kassie Phebillo (she/her) is the Student Engagement Director at the Fair Elections Center's Campus Vote Project. In her role, she guides all student-related programs, including the 400+ student Democracy Fellowship, Student Advisory Board, and all additional fellowships. She also supervises the CVP Research Collective, which aims to provide students with an opportunity to learn how to conduct graduate-level research and diversify the higher ed & civic engagement research area. Prior to joining Campus Vote Project, Kassie served as the Graduate Program Coordinator for the University of Texas at Austin's TX Votes. Over five years with TX Votes, Kassie led the organization to register nearly 20,000 students and more than double student voter turnout. During that time, TX Votes and Kassie individually received multiple national awards and media recognition for these efforts. Kassie has a MA in Communication, Culture & Technology from Georgetown University, a BA in Communication from Indiana Tech, and studied the intersection of higher education and political engagement in UT Austin's Communication Studies PhD program before leaving the program at ABD to dedicate herself fully to civic engagement practitioner work.
Jahnavi Rao
Jahnavi Rao is the President and Founder of New Voters and a senior fellow at UMD's Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, where she studies high school political behavior as Director of the New Voters Research Network. In 2017, as a junior in high school, Jahnavi started New Voters as a school club at her PA high school to register her peers to vote. In the seven years since, Jahnavi has grown New Voters to a national 501(c)3 that has civically activated over 80,000 high school students in 39 states and 400+ high schools, and has mentored and managed over 300 high school and college students to participate in elections. Outside New Voters, Jahnavi has served as Deputy Campaign Manager on a PA State Legislative Race, the youth-head of Youth Engagement and Millennial Voter Participation at the DNC, and as an intern in the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Jahnavi leads New Voters full-time after graduating from Harvard College in 2023, majoring in Government with a minor in Music.
Emily White
Emily White is the Founder and CEO of #iVoted. #iVoted produces data-driven concerts on election nights and during early voting periods that the public enters with a selfie from outside their polling place or at home with a blank and unmarked ballot. Future voters are engaged by entering when sharing what election they will be 18 for. Non-citizens and those ineligible to vote enter by letting the non-partisan 501(c)3 know which artist they are most excited to check out to ensure inclusivity and electoral law compliance. #iVoted has also built tools for the wider civic community to show where artists can increase civic engagement the most by comparing their fan demographics with local voter files to determine the artists with the largest amount of fans from historically low turnout groups. Similarly #iVoted has developed a tool to show where any artist can increase civic impact the most.
White is a veteran of the music and entertainment industries. She’s an Amazon #1 best selling author of How to Build a Sustainable Music Career & Collect All Revenue Streams and hosts the #1 Music Business podcast globally of the same name. White is a Founding partner at Collective Entertainment in New York City and is also a Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins SNF Agora Institute. She has been on the cover of concert industry trade Pollstar Magazine with her name also gracing the cover of Billboard magazine. Her work has been additionally profiled in Variety, Fast Company, Forbes, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Alternative Press, Brooklyn Vegan, The Fader, Stereogum, Relix, CNN, Vox, The Huffington Post, ESPN, and more. White has proudly served on the boards of Well-Dunn, Future of Music, CASH Music,SXSW and The David Lynch Foundation Live while additionally serving on The Grammys’ Education Committee as well as Pandora’s Artist Advisory Council. She was named to Billboard’s 2020 Women in Music Executives of the Year list for her work on #iVoted.