Team

Carlos, the co-founder of ASP, is a globally-renowned strategic communications professional who oversaw Protect Democracy’s organization-wide communications, media relations, and strategic communications campaign to protect the 2020 election. In that role, he led initiatives to protect the 2020 election from manipulation, secure the presidential transition, support impeachment efforts, establish a national accountability framework, reform the filibuster, and form a January 6th commission.

Prior to joining Protect Democracy, Carlos provided strategic communications counsel to the U.S. Department of Defense, and consulted for many prominent organizations, including the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, HSBC, the Yacht Club de Monaco, and the California Federal Public Defender’s Office.

Tracy Chou is the founder and CEO of Block Party, a tech startup building tools for online safety and privacy.

Tracy is also a co-founder of Project Include, a non-profit working to create a tech ecosystem where everyone has a fair chance to succeed. In 2013, her Medium article “Where are the numbers?” helped jumpstart the practice of tech companies disclosing their diversity data.

Tracy was previously an early engineer at Pinterest, Quora, and the U.S. Digital Service.

She has been recognized as TIME Woman of the Year, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 and Forbes Tech 30 under 30, and as a Terman Fellow and Mayfield Fellow at Stanford University.

Reed Galen is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project, President of JoinTheUnion.us, and a pro-democracy activist, having spent 25 years at the highest levels of national politics, business, and media.

Prior to The Lincoln Project, Galen was deeply involved in the independent and political reform space, helping pass anti-gerrymandering and open primary ballot measures in multiple states.

He is a regular commentator on American politics, appearing on television, radio, podcasts, and streaming services.

His writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. He writes regularly on Substack at The Home Front.

Katie Harbath is the Chief Global Affairs Officer at Duco.

A global leader at the intersection of policy, democracy, and technology, Katie’s career spans political campaigns, civil society, and technology.

Prior to Duco, Katie spent ten years at Facebook, where she built and led global teams that managed elections and helped government and political figures use the social network to connect with their constituents.

She has extensive experience in elections and government engagement around the globe as well as developing product policy on a wide range of issues.

Emily Horne is the Founder and CEO of Allegro Public Affairs and a Senior Advisor with WestExec Advisors. She was the first Spokesperson and Senior Director for Press at the National Security Council (NSC) in the Biden Administration, and led communications for the confirmations of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Emily was previously Vice President of Communications at the Brookings Institution and led global policy communications for Twitter. She spent nearly a decade at the State Department, including as communications director for counter-ISIS efforts and spokesperson for South and Central Asian Affairs. Emily was a Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service and has taught media and foreign policy at American University and Boston University. Emily is a proud Michigander and holds a BA and MA from The George Washington University.

Ineke Mushovic is the executive director of Wide Angle Research, a 501(c)4 nonprofit research team focused on reaching and moving conflicted audiences through deep listening and innovative policy and persuasion research. Ineke has almost two decades of experience doing understanding audiences and developing messaging, communications and ads to move people on battleground issues like LGBTQ equality, abortion, guns, immigration, jobs and the economy, partisanship in America, and more. In February 2024, Ineke stepped down as the executive director of the Movement Advancement Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit she founded which focused on protecting our democracy and advancing equality. Prior to her nonprofit career, Ineke was the lead strategist at an advertising agency, a business strategist at an Internet startup, and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Benjamin Wittes is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He co-founded and is the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, which is devoted to sober and serious discussion of “Hard National Security Choices.” He is also a contributing writer at the Atlantic. His books include “The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones-Confronting A New Age of Threat” (2015), coauthored with Gabriella Blum; “Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor After Guantanamo” (2011); “Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror“ (2008); “Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times“ (2006); and “Starr: A Reassessment“ (2002). His writing has appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines including Slate, The New Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, and First Things.