Prior to founding the Global Partnership for Civic Engagement, Clark was best known as the founder of the World Technology Network & Awards, a global association of the world’s top sci-tech innovators, in collaboration with TIME, Fortune, CNN, Science and Nature, among others. Clark’s earliest social venture (1986) - ACCESS, was the first national, nonprofit jobs clearinghouse. Clark worked as Director for the Non-Profit Sector & National Service for the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign, and co-convener of the Presidential Transition Roundtable Series. In 1993, he created groundbreaking social impact services for America Online (AOL). In 1995 New York magazine named Clark one of the “New Media Elite.” Furthur Clark set up the Democratic Party’s National Task Force for America’s Future during the 2016 presidential campaign. Since then he’s been involved in various pro-democracy efforts, including founding the New Voter Army in 2018, and, now, Democracy Dinners in 2022.

Joan Blades is the co-founder of MoveOn.org and MomsRising.org. More recently, she co-founded LivingRoomConversations.org, an open-source effort to rebuild respectful discourse across ideological, cultural, and party lines while embracing our core-shared values. She is a co-author of The Custom-Fit Workplace, winner of a Nautilus book award in 2011, and The Motherhood Manifesto, which won the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize in 2007. A mediator (attorney) by training and inclination, she is a true believer in the power of citizens and our need to rebuild respectful civil discourse while embracing our core shared values.

Karen Finney has over 25 years of experience in politics, media, and cultural change. Finney is a commentator for CNN, formerly a political analyst at MSNBC, and host of “Represent Our Voice” on TV One, examining issues impacting Black and Brown communities something she also did during the 2020 election and when she teamed with Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies. Additionally, she is on the boards of Let America Vote/End Citizens United, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Ultraviolet, Power Rising, and Win With Black Women Network. In 1992 she served in the Clinton White House, as Deputy Press Secretary to Hillary Clinton and as Deputy Director of Scheduling for President Clinton. In 2016, Karen served as Senior Advisor and Spokesperson for Hillary’s presidential bid. She also served as Communications Director to the then-Vice-Presidential nominee, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine. Finney was the first African American spokeswoman and Communications Director for the Democratic Party and rebranded the party which resulted in the successful 2006 midterm election. Karen later became Chief Spokesperson and Communications Director for the New York City Board of Education.

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and serves as a senior consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. His research focuses on democratic trends conditions, policies, and reforms worldwide to advance democracy. Diamond’s book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the U.S and around the world. His other books include: In Search of Democracy (2016), The Spirit of Democracy (2008), and Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999). With Juan J. Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset, he edited the series, Democracy in Developing Countries, which helped to shape a new generation of comparative studies of democratic development.

Celinda Lake was one of two leading pollsters for the Biden campaign and is the only Democratic pollster to play a critical role in defeating two incumbent presidents. Celinda currently serves as President of Lake Research Partners. Lake’s strategic advice helped candidates such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and former Governor Bob Wise to groundbreaking wins. She also guided former Senator Mark Begich to victory, making him the first Senate candidate in Alaska to oust an incumbent in 50 years. Celinda focuses on women's concerns and candidates, including Speaker Pelosi, former Governor Janet Napolitano, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and Mayor Carolyn Goodman, among others. Celinda worked on the largest independent expenditure to take back the House in 2006 and works with progressive groups such as ecoAmerica, Planned Parenthood, and Vote Vets. Lake co-authored the book What Women Really Want with Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway. Celinda’s extends to projects related to the economy, inequality, big money in politics, climate change, education, and criminal justice reform.

Sterling is a Senior Fellow and former CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship (chartered by the U.S. Congress). He is also the former President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Sterling served as former President of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (formerly known as the Peninsula Community Foundation). Additionally, he served as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship. He is currently the sixth president of the Maine Community Foundation

Martin Wallace started his career working on early technology and data efforts for Republican organizations, including as a staffer on both of George W. Bush's presidential campaigns. He later shifted to working in digital politics for progressive efforts at local and national levels. Alarmed by increasingly bitter partisanship, Martin has more recently been dedicated to advising transpartisan efforts that fight polarization through relationship building. He has served as CTO for Living Room Conversations and The Listen First Project for such purposes. He is currently a doctoral student researching moral psychology, philosophy, and AI issues.

Jorge Neri is a senior political strategist experienced in working with diverse stakeholders in high-profile electoral, immigration, and labor campaigns. Currently, Neri works as the Principal at Neri Group, LLC. During the 2012 election cycle, Neri worked in Nevada to organize for President Barack Obama's re-election. Obama won the state, receiving 70% support from Latino voters in the state. After working briefly at the Alliance for Citizenship, a nonprofit focused on immigration policy, Neri joined the Obama administration as the associate director of public engagement. He worked as the White House’s primary liaison to the Latino community and immigration-related issues. In 2016 before Bernie Sanders had a staffer in Nevada the state, Neri headed on a summer bus listening tour that crisscrossed the state to visit with Native Americans, Asian-American and Pacific Islander and LGBT groups, and rural Nevadans. Neri was named the general election state director for Nevada in May 2016.

Blair Fitzgibbon is the Founder of Slipstream PR. He began his career in media marketing 25 years ago and managed global PR campaigns with the United Nations, the Vatican, Presidential candidates, European Parliament, Nobel Prize winners, Fortune 500 companies, foundations, and governments by providing strategy, crisis communications, and news coverage.