Amanda Frost is the Bronfman Distinguished Professor Law and Government at American University, where she writes and teaches in the fields of constitutional, immigration, and citizenship law. Her recently-published book You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers was listed by the New York Times book review as a “New & Noteworthy” book. In addition to her academic writing, she frequently publishes in mainstream publications such as The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, and The American Prospect. She is also a regular columnist for SCOTUSblog, the leading blog covering the U.S. Supreme Court.
Secretary of the District of Columbia
Kimberly A. Bassett was appointed to serve as the Secretary of the District of Columbia by Mayor Muriel Bowser on December 11, 2018. In her role as the Secretary, she is the custodian of the Seal of the District of Columbia and manages the City’s ceremonial services; government document publishing and issuances; notary commissions and authentications; international and diplomatic activities; and public records and archive maintenance.
Ms. Bassett was the former Director of the Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives (MOWPI) during Mayor Muriel Bowser’s first term. In this role, she served as the Bowser Administration’s chief advocate representing the needs and interests of women in Washington, DC. As Director, Ms. Bassett collaborated with local and national nonprofit organizations and public agencies to engage and increase District residents’ program participation. Ms. Bassett also advised Mayor Bowser on political positions and initiatives while also serving as her traveling Chief of Staff. Under Ms. Bassett’s leadership, MOWPI coordinated workshops programs and large-scale events to address issues including equal pay, healthcare access, public safety, and domestic violence. She oversaw the launch of the Work Smart Salary Negotiation Program in partnership with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) which was created to combat the gender pay gap by offering free salary negotiation classes to DC women. The program was featured in the Washington Post for successfully training thousands of DC women in all eight wards of the city since Spring 2016. She also launched Mayor Bowser’s first women’s leadership conference on civic engagement.
Prior to joining the District Government, Ms. Bassett was the former Executive Director of The Wireless Foundation, the philanthropic affiliate of CTIA-The Wireless Association. In this role, she was responsible for the Foundation’s charitable programs that enhance America’s communities through wireless technology. In this position, she helped to launch an unprecedented public-private partnership, text4baby, a free mobile award-winning health service for expectant mothers. In addition, she launched the first wireless safety cellphone game, BeSeen. She also worked with two of the nation’s most underachieving school districts (New Orleans and Washington, DC) to launch an app empowering parents to research their children’s schooling options
Ms. Bassett joined The Wireless Foundation after having served as Director of External Affairs for Verizon Washington, DC, where she was responsible for community engagement, government relations, employee advocacy and management of the Verizon Foundation. Prior to Verizon, she was the Director of Programs for DC Vote, an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to securing full voting representation in Congress for the residents of the District of Columbia. She worked as the Director of Programs and Partnerships for The Stephen Case Foundation (AOL), an initiative to bridge the digital divide in underserved communities. She also served as a presidential appointee in the Clinton Administration under U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.
In her spare time, Kimberly serves on the boards of the Step Afrika! Dance Company, the North Carolina Central University College of Arts and Sciences and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Corporate Advisory Council. She is also an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and The Links Inc. Ms. Bassett holds a Bachelor of Arts from North Carolina Central University and a Master of Arts from North Carolina A&T State University.
Philippe Etienne is the Ambassador of France to the United States.
He previously held numerous posts within the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, notably including Ambassador of France to Romania (2002-2005), Director of the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs (2007-2009), Permanent Representative of France to the European Union (2009-2014), Ambassador of France to Germany (2014-2017) and most recently, Diplomatic Adviser to the President (2017-2019).
Philippe Etienne is an expert on the European Union and continental Europe. He has held posts in Moscow, Belgrade, Bucharest, Bonn, Berlin and Brussels. He has also served as an adviser in the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on several occasions. A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (“Voltaire” Class, 1980), Philippe Etienne also holds the Agrégation (teaching diploma) in Mathematics, has a degree in Economics, and is a graduate of the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Serbo-Croatian).
Fredrickson is a professor at Georgetown Law and a Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. She served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. Fredrickson is currently an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Fredrickson was President of the American Constitution Society, Chief of Staff to Senators Cantwell, and Deputy Chief of Staff to Democratic Leader Daschle, and Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs in the Clinton White House.
Fredrickson’s books include “Under The Bus: How Working Women Are Being Run Over”, “The Democracy Fix”, and “The AOC Way”.
Dr. Giraud is an alumnus from the Ecole Normale Supérieur (Ulm) and ENSAE. He got his PhD in applied mathematics at the Ecole Polytechnique (Paris). He served 2 years in Chad as a teacher in mathematics and physics in a Jesuit high school. There, he founded a center for street children (still running today). He is a senior researcher at the CNRS in economics, has published about 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 4 books, and supervised around 20 PhD students. In 1999-2004, he worked as a quantitative engineer and scientific advisor for investment banks . In 2004 he entered the Society of Jesus. In 2009, he was nominated best young French economist (by Le Monde). In 2013 he was ordained as a priest. In 2015, he founded and directed the Energy and Prosperity Chair (ENS, X, ENSAE). From 2015 to 2019, he served as Chief economist and executive director of the French Development Agency (AFD). Since 2017, he has been a permanent fellow at the Nantes Institute for Advanced Studies and, since 2018, an invited professor at Stellenbosch university in South Africa. Since 2020, he also holds a PhD in theology and has been appointed as research professor at Georgetown University, founding director of the Georgetown Environmental Justice Program.
Jeffrey Rosen is the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit whose mission is to increase awareness and understanding of the U.S. Constitution. Located steps from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Center engages millions of citizens as an interactive museum, national town hall, and provider of nonpartisan resources for civic education. Rosen hosts the Center’s weekly We the People podcast, which brings together liberal and conservative voices for constitutional debate and teaches Constitution 101 classes for learners of all ages. These educational resources are hosted on the Center’s acclaimed Interactive Constitution, which has received more than 55 million hits since launching in 2015.
Rosen is also professor at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for The New Yorker
A specialist on the history and culture of the Atlantic world who studies the Caribbean (particularly Haiti), North America, and France, Dubois joined the University of Virginia in January 2021, and will also serve as the Democracy Initiative’s new co-director for academic affairs. In this role, Dubois will spearhead the Democracy Initiative’s research and pedagogical missions and will serve as the director and lead research convener of the John L. Nau III History and Principles of Democracy Lab—the permanent core lab of the Initiative which will operate as the connecting hub for the entire project.
Dubois holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and history from the University of Michigan (1998) and completed his B.A. in anthropology and English at Princeton University.
Ambassador Rama Yade is director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and senior fellow for the Europe Center. She is also a teacher of African affairs at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco and at Sciences Po Paris. She is a Senegalese and French citizen.
Prior to joining the Council, she was a consultant for the World Bank, advising the institution on education, youth, sports, human capital, and disability issues in Africa. She also has strong experience in the private sector as an editor in London, where she overviewed a collection of books about African millennials, and as director for development at a French consulting firm in corporate and social responsibility.
Ambassador Yade has over a decade of experience working in French, European, and international politics. At the age of thirty, she was appointed as the deputy minister for foreign affairs and human rights of the Republic of France: the first ever French minister for human rights and the first woman of African descent to become a member of the French cabinet.
Executive Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Stavros Lambrinidis is the Ambassador of the European Union to the United States, as of March 1, 2019. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the European Union Special Representative for Human Rights.
In 2011, he was Foreign Affairs Minister of Greece. Between 2004 and 2011, he was twice elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP) with the Greek Social Democratic Party (PASOK). He served as Vice-President of the European Parliament (2009-11), Vice-President of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (2004-09), and Head of the PASOK Delegation (2005-11).
Between 2000 and 2004, he was Director-General of the International Olympic Truce Centre, an International Olympic Committee organization. He served as Ambassador ad personam of the Hellenic Republic (1999-2004) and as Secretary-General of the Greek Foreign Ministry responsible for Diaspora Greeks (1996-99).
Between 1988 and 1993, he was an Attorney at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., specializing in international trade, transactions, and arbitration. He has received numerous recognitions for his work on human rights and privacy, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s “Champion of Freedom Award” in 2020 and the Boston Global Forum’s “World Leader in Artificial Intelligence Award” in 2021.
He is a member of the President’s Council on International Activities at Yale University and a former president of the DC Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee. Mr. Lambrinidis was born in Athens, Greece in 1962. He received his B.A. degree in Economics and Political Science from Amherst College (1984) and his J.D. degree from Yale Law School (1988), where he was also Managing Editor of The Yale Journal ofInternational Law.
Ambassador Stuart Holliday is CEO of Meridian International Center, a leading non-partisan institution that seeks to advance global security and prosperity through effective leadership and diplomacy.
Meridian works closely with the U.S. Department of State and other U.S. government agencies, NGOs, international governments, and the private sector. It creates global leadership exchange and education programs, partnerships, and initiatives that strengthen international cooperation on key issues such as security, energy and the environment, economic development, entrepreneurship, global health and culture. Meridian, founded in 1960, has a $35 million budget, 110 employees, and is located on a three-acre historic campus in the heart of Washington, DC.
Ambassador Stuart Holliday served as United States Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations (2003-2005), after his nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate. Holliday’s primary duties involved representing the United States on issues in the U.N. Security Council. This included responsibility for U.S. policy on U.N. Peacekeeping, Sanctions, and Counterterrorism programs.