Defending Democracy

Shanthi Kalathil is an advisor, consultant and speaker on national security, democratic resilience, and strategic competition in the information age. Under President Biden, Kalathil served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights at the National Security Council, where she oversaw the organization of the inaugural Summit for Democracy and the development of the first U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption, among other initiatives. Before joining the Biden Administration, Kalathil was the senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. Previously, she held positions at the US Agency for International Development and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and consulted for the World Bank and other international affairs organizations. Kalathil has authored and edited numerous policy and scholarly publications, including Diplomacy, Development and Security in the Information Age (Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, 2013) and (with Taylor C. Boas) Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003). She was formerly a Hong Kong-based reporter for the Asian Wall Street Journal.

Hanna Khomechko, development director of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” (EPL) based in Ukraine who has been managing organization development processes and project activities. The organization works to promote the rule of law for environmental protection, strengthen Ukrainian civil society and environmental democracy principles for environmental protection, protect environmental rights of citizens and develop environmental awareness raising and culture. Right now EPL focuses on documenting environmental crimes of the war, piloting legal avenues of bringing the aggressor to response for environmental damage and promoting integration of environmental aspects into post-war recovery plans. 

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi was elected to Congress in 2016 and is now in his fourth term representing Illinois’ 8th District, which includes Chicago’s west and northwest suburbs as well as the 41st ward of the city. He serves as Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, making him the first South Asian American in history to lead a Congressional Committee. He also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability as a member of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs. The Congressman is a Vice-Chair of the Equality Caucus and Co-Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Immigration Task Force. In addition, he is the founder and Chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End the Youth Vaping Epidemic and the bipartisan Solar Caucus. Representative Krishnamoorthi is the child of immigrants and was raised in Peoria, Illinois. He attended public schools in Peoria and was a valedictorian of his high school class. Scholarships and student loans allowed him to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in mechanical engineering and a certificate from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He then graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and clerked for a federal judge before practicing law in Chicago. Representative Krishnamoorthi pursued public service while practicing law and was appointed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan as a Special Assistant Attorney General to help start the state’s Public Integrity Unit created to root out corruption in Illinois. As a member of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Congressman chaired the Audit Committee, helping to provide thousands of low and moderate-income families across the state with affordable housing. Congressman Krishnamoorthi also served as Illinois Deputy Treasurer, where he oversaw the state's technology venture capital fund and helped make programs such as the state's unclaimed property program leaner and more efficient. After his time in the Illinois Treasurer’s Office, Representative Krishnamoorthi returned to the private sector, serving as president of research-oriented small businesses developing technology in the national security and renewable energy industries. Representative Krishnamoorthi also served as the Vice-Chair of the Illinois Innovation Council and co-founded InSPIRE, a non-profit that provides inner-city students and veterans with training in solar technology. The Congressman resides with his wife Priya, a physician, and 3 children in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Maggie Lake is a veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering business, technology, politics, and international affairs. She started her career at Reuters, where she worked in both the New York and London bureaus covering economics and global finance. In 2001, she joined CNN International, where she served as a correspondent and anchor for the network’s flagship business shows. Over the course of her career, she has interviewed the world’s top CEOs, celebrities, and politicians and has been a consistent champion of economic inclusion and sustainable development. She has served as a weekly contributor for NPR and moderated events for the United Nations, World Bank, Council on Foreign Relations, and Global Citizen. She now runs the communications consultancy Maggie Lake Media and is a founding board member of the newly created Rutgers University Center for Women in Business.

Ms. Dolma Tsering Teykhang was born on 1st July 1956 at Dagne, Tibet. She completed her school education, followed by her bachelor’s degree and teacher training course with the kind help and blessing of His Holiness the great 14th Dalai Lama, and the Central Tibetan Administration. For 26 years, she has worked as a teacher in various Tibetan schools for which she was facilitated by the Department of Education of the Central Tibetan Administration. She has served as the President of the 9th and 10th Utsang Central Executive Committee and is currently an advisor to the committee. She is also a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, the USA of 2001, where she studied Special Education and seized the opportunity of spreading awareness on Tibet’s issue to the American and international students studying there. Ms. Teykhang was previously elected to the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile from Utsang province and has been a member of the Standing Committee and many other parliamentary committees numerous times. As a Parliament Member, she has always been very vocal in apprising the general public’s aspiration in the house and has taken active participation in the official visitation, and Tibet outreach programs in India and abroad. Ms. Teykhang is the Deputy Speaker of the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile.

Emmanuel Umpula Nkumba is the Executive Director of the African Natural Resources Watch (AFREWATCH). He is an expert on business and human rights and on the governance of the extractive sector in the DRC and in Africa. ​Mr. Umpula is a board member of Rights and Accountability In Development (RAID), Resource Matters, and African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA). He was previously Executive Director of Action Against Impunity for Human Rights, Coordinator of the Platform of Civil Society Organizations working in the mining sector of Katanga (POM), and Advocacy Coordinator of the Jimmy Carter Foundation (The Carter Center). He is one of the civil society experts of the DRC who participated and contributed effectively to the revision of the Congolese mining code and regulations. He has supported several local communities in filing complaints against multinational companies using the OECD Guidelines and against the Congolese state before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Examples of cases of complaints in which he participated include the massacres of Kilwe against the Australian-Canadian company Anvil Mining, the demolition of the village Kawama aganst the mining company Malta Forrest International, and Heineken vs. its former workers, etc. He also participated in the 2011 revision of the OECD Guidelines. Currently, he is interested in the energy sector and the energy transition. As such, he coordinates a project that aims not only to create a south-south synergy on the issue of energy transition and climate change, but also the creation of a new narrative on the subject. Mr. Umpula also works on the formalisation of the artisanal mining sector in the DRC, particularly in the copper and cobalt sector. In this regard, he has published or co-published several reports, notably on child labor in cobalt mines in the DRC in 2016 and the supply of artisanal cobalt in the DRC in 2021. In the area of human rights and the environment, he is the author or co-author of several reports and articles available on the internet.