WHO’S ATTENDING
Empower
Voters
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Janae Dasef is the Director of Donor Engagement for the Resilient Elections Network, an initiative led by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, the Institute for Responsive Government, and dozens of partner organizations. The network is dedicated to building a resilient democracy where every American thrives, and works every day to coordinate strategies, mobilize resources, and lead rapid-response efforts to ensure elections are free, fair, and trusted and that democracy is delivering for all Americans.
After earning her B.A. in Political Science and Human Rights from the University of Washington in Seattle, she helped connect Washington residents with critical legal and government services through roles at the King County Bar Association and in the state office of U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell. She later led development and operations at the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, a multi-state project that advises and funds state-led efforts to create more efficient and secure voting systems.
Janae lives in Denver, Colorado, and enjoys playing tennis, skiing, and traveling in her free time.
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Jessica Floyd serves as Executive Director of The Hub Project, a role she returned to having previously served as the organization's Managing Director of Campaigns. In that capacity, she oversaw economy and democracy-focused projects and campaigns, including multi-year accountability efforts targeting Republicans in the House and Senate. She rejoined The Hub Project following the 2022 cycle, during which she served as President of American Bridge. Floyd brings decades of experience designing and managing issue advocacy and electoral campaigns at the local, state, and national levels. She managed Congressman Ron Barber's winning congressional campaign and served as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' Political Director, following a series of successful campaigns in New York and New Jersey. During the 2014 and 2016 cycles, Floyd served on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Independent Expenditure operation, rising to Deputy Director in 2016, where she managed paid media programs across targeted congressional districts nationwide. Her government affairs background is equally deep. She managed government affairs in New York for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, served as District Director for Rep. Ron Barber, and worked in the executive office of the New York Governor. Floyd holds a Master's in Comparative Government from the London School of Economics and has been named one of the American Association of Political Consultants' 40 Under 40.
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Jill Habig is the Founder and CEO of Public Rights Project (PRP), a national legal nonprofit that helps local government officials fight for civil rights. PRP provides training, convenings, and legal representation to over 200 cities across the country. Jill began her legal career in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office working on the landmark trial challenging Proposition 8 to establish marriage equality in California. Before founding PRP, Jill served as Special Counsel to California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris, where she oversaw her healthcare, education, and civil rights portfolios, and she led the creation and launch of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Children’s Justice. She is an alum of Georgetown and Yale Law School, and teaches State and Local Impact Litigation at Berkeley Law School.
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Keara Mendez is the Chief of External Affairs at Responsive Gov, where she leads the organization’s communication and government relations efforts to advance pragmatic policies that strengthen democracy and improve government efficiency. She has more than 15 years of experience spanning policy development, federal affairs and state legislative advocacy. Her expertise in election administration and security, civic participation, and appropriations uniquely positions her to identify and pursue practical policy solutions to some of our democracy’s most urgent challenges. Prior to joining Responsive Gov, Keara launched several high-impact cross-partisan projects, including the Project for Election Infrastructure, Democracy is Good for Business, and Election Hero Day. These projects have successfully secured funds for election administration, built relationships between businesses and lawmakers, and generated awareness and appreciation for the critical work of election officials. Keara is a graduate of Hamilton College and has a certification in Strategic Corporate Research from Cornell University. She is a mountain enthusiast based in Denver, Colorado, but spends a large portion of her time in the country’s many regional airports.
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Kim Rogers is the Founder of State + Local Election Alliance, an organization dedicated to securing and advancing our democracy through state and local elections. A strategist with more than 25 years of experience, Rogers has worked on campaigns from the state house to the White House, built the nation’s largest voter registration organization, and managed multi-million dollar initiatives across dozens of states, including the 2022 rebuild of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS) and its affiliated c4, Every Eligible American defeating election deniers in every battleground race. Originally from Iowa, Kim started her career there and is a veteran of multiple caucuses. Never one to forget her farm roots, she’s a certified BBQ judge and while she currently lives in Washington, DC with her dog Ranger, they would both much rather be hiking in the mountains.
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Priya is a Program Director at U.S. Digital Response, a nonprofit building governments' digital capacity through trusted, unbiased expertise. USDR’s nonpartisan model enables governments nationwide to adopt proven technology solutions faster and more effectively.
Priya's team partners with election officials nationwide to strengthen the U.S. election administration. In 2024, their efforts led to more voter-centric, efficient, and resilient elections for 10% of America.
Priya has over a decade of experience building and scaling software products at startups and global companies, including Amazon—where she helped launch and scale Amazon Pharmacy—and as an early employee at startup Rover.com, where she led multiple initiatives contributing to its successful IPO. Before her career in software, she was a management consultant at BCG and received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.
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Sam Oliker-Friedland is the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Responsive Government, which is a nonpartisan nonprofit committed to helping policy makers find solutions that make government more efficient, accessible, and responsive to the needs of real human beings. Responsive Gov’s team is composed of industry-leading experts that work across disciplines to build a new approach to governance through simple innovation and effective implementation. Focus areas include making everyday practices, such as registering to vote, obtaining a permit, or signing up for state-based healthcare, more user-friendly through solutions that reduce unnecessary burdens and logistical headaches. In addition, the Responsive Gov team works to identify opportunities for government agencies to enhance their customer service capabilities by sharing data, automating enrollment, and reducing paperwork. Prior to joining the Institute for Responsive Government, Sam was a voting rights litigator at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under both the Obama and Trump administrations. Prior to that, he worked on election administration law and data in the nonprofit sector. Sam graduated from Brown University with a degree in Linguistics and has a J.D. from Yale Law School. He’s a Milwaukee native and lives in Chicago, IL.
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Sean is the Executive Director at the Center for Civic Design. Sean works closely with the CCD team at large and the Board to lead the Center for Civic Design’s day-to-day operations, with a particular focus on external affairs and organizational management. Prior to the Center for Civic Design, Sean worked at the intersection of technology, research and nonprofit management across 4 continents. Most recently, Sean was the Director of Development at the Integrity Institute, a think tank focused on building a social internet that helps individuals, societies, and democracies thrive. He also had held team leadership positions at Arabella Advisors and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Sean holds an MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology; MA/ABD in Geography and CAS in Women’s and Gender Studies from Syracuse University; and a BA in Geography from the University of Washington. He is also a certified Project Management professional. Outside of work, Sean is an avid swimmer and a doting cat parent.
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Spencer Overton is the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law and the founder and faculty director of the Multiracial Democracy Project at GW Law School. The Project is currently working on: 1) proportional representation and other alternatives to our current electoral system as a strategy to preserve representation for communities of color in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act; 2) curtailing the harms and harnessing the benefits of AI for multiracial democracy; and 3) the implications of various court reforms for multiracial democracy. Spencer is the author of the book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression and numerous law review articles on democracy, race, and technology. He served in senior policy roles on the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, transition team, and in the Obama Administration. For nine years, he was president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies—America’s Black think tank—where he restored its fiscal health and established programs on political appointee diversity, technology, economics, and workforce development. Earlier in his career, Spencer practiced law at Debevoise & Plimpton, clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Damon J. Keith, and graduated with honors from both Hampton University and Harvard Law School.
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Tiana Epps-Johnson is Founder and CEO at the Center for Tech and Civic Life. She is leading a team that is doing groundbreaking work to make US elections more inclusive and secure. In 2020 when the COVID pandemic collided with the US Presidential Election, Tiana led a $350 million nonpartisan effort to prevent Election Day from becoming a superspreader event, and to ensure a smooth and secure process for voters nationwide. Today, some analysts and officials say this effort “helped save the [2020] election.” Tiana is a 2026 Keseb Democracy Fellow, and is honored to have been a 2022 University of Chicago Center for Effective Government Senior Practitioner Fellow, a 2021 Emerson Collective Dial Fellow, a recipient of the 2020 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and a member of the inaugural cohorts of Obama Foundation Fellows (2018) and Harvard Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellows (2015). Tiana earned a MSc in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics and a BA in Political Science from Stanford University.
Tiana is a 2022 University of Chicago Center for Effective Government Senior Practitioner Fellow, a 2021 Emerson Collective Dial Fellow, a recipient of the 2020 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and was selected to join the inaugural cohorts of Obama Foundation Fellows (2018) and Harvard Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellows (2015). Tiana earned a MSc in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics and a BA in Political Science from Stanford University.
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