Defending Democracy

Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (she/her) proudly represents California’s 51st Congressional District. A third-generation San Diegan, Congresswoman Jacobs attended local public schools before graduating from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Master of International Affairs degree in International Security Policy and Conflict Resolution. Congresswoman Jacobs serves as the Founding Chair of San Diego for Every Child, a coalition dedicated to ending the experience of child poverty in San Diego County, which she founded in 2018. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the coalition adapted their mission to serve San Diegans in crisis — mobilizing funding to support child care for essential workers and co-chairing the Equitable Distance Learning Task Force to support students throughout San Diego County. Prior to her work with San Diego for Every Child, Congresswoman Jacobs served as a Scholar in Residence at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, and as the Founding CEO of Project Connect, an international education non-profit dedicated to connecting students around the world to the internet. Project Connect was so successful that it has since become a flagship part of UNICEF’s work. Congresswoman Jacobs has also served in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the U.S. Department of State, where she focused on conflict prevention and response, countering and preventing violent extremism, and U.S. foreign policy in sub-Saharan Africa; as a foreign policy advisor to Secretary Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign; as the Big Data Lead in UNICEF’s Innovation Unit; and as an Electoral Specialist for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Congresswoman Jacobs serves as the Caucus Leadership Representative, representing the Democratic Members who have served five terms or less at the Democratic House leadership table. At 34 years old, she is the youngest member of Democratic House leadership. Congresswoman Jacobs sits on the House Foreign Affairs and House Armed Services Committees.

For over a decade, Lu has distinguished herself in humanitarian work and in the strengthening of democracy in the Latin America and Caribbean region, and as a specialist in international development projects pertaining to social, educational, and political impact. She is currently the Secretary General of the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy (JuventudLAC), leading the advocacy and defense of democracy and human rights in 20 countries in the region. In 2019, she founded a political party in El Salvador and was later elected for a 4-year term as its first Director of Transparency, through which she created a working model for institutional transparency for political parties. She also taught history and politics at university level for 7 years. Lu started out as a pro-democracy activist and has since worked with various international initiatives and organizations, such as the World Economic Forum and Community of Democracies, to advance equality, secure peace, defend human rights and push for humanitarian aid. She was elected into the Advisory Board for the International Republican Institute's (IRI) Generation Democracy program, for the 2022 term. Lu holds a degree in International Relations from Syracuse University and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in government and public administration at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile.

Marina Csikós is a Roma feminist and dedicated advocate for gender equality and racial justice. She has a strong commitment to promoting the inclusion and empowerment of marginalized communities, particularly women of color. Born and raised in Hungary as a Roma woman, she embodies a passion for social justice that has led her to impactful professional roles. Marina gained her master’s education at the Central European University in Critical Gender Studies, where she focused her research on intersectional justice and feminist knowledge production. Throughout her career, she has engaged with various types of stakeholders, from European Union bodies and civil society organizations to art institutions, which enabled her to build bridges between communities and ideas. Some of the policy stakeholders she has engaged with included the European Commission, Council of Europe and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Currently based in Brussels, Belgium Marina is a Project Officer at the Phiren Amenca International Network, a Roma youth organization that creates opportunities for non-formal education, dialogue, and engagement in order to challenge stereotypes and racism. She is also the co-founder of Feminist Collective of Romani Gender Experts, an initiative aiming to promote Roma gender equality professionals.

U.S. Special Envoy Abby Finkenauer grew up in a working class family in rural Iowa and was a first generation college graduate. At the age of 24 she successfully ran for the Iowa House of Representatives and served her community and her state in the Iowa House from 2015-2019. She was the Ranking Member of Government Oversight while also serving on Economic Development, Ways & Means, Transportation, and Labor. She led the fight against attacks on collective bargaining and workers rights and was an advocate for legislation addressing equal pay, public education, infrastructure funding, voting rights and women’s reproductive health access.At the age of 28, Abby successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2018 she became the youngest woman in history to flip a Congressional seat as well as one of the first of two congresswomen from the state of Iowa. In 2019, within her first two weeks as a Congresswoman she became the youngest woman in history to pass a bill through the U.S. House of Representatives. She served as Democratic Caucus Assistant Whip, Vice Chair of Highways and Transit on the Transportation Committee, and was the youngest woman to chair a subcommittee with her role as Chairwoman of Rural Development, Agriculture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship Subcommittee as part of the Small Business Committee. Abby also founded the Endometriosis Congressional Caucus, and doubled the NIH research funding for the disease, which affects 1 in 9 women worldwide.In November 2022, Abby was appointed as the U.S. Special Envoy for Global Youth Issues and is focusing her energy on lifting up the voices and stories of young people across the globe and fostering relationship for the United States that will span generations advancing and protecting democracy.

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.

Eliud Luutsa is a social innovator who is passionate about youth advocacy and upskilling of young Africans in entrepreneurship and leadership. With over 6 years of experience working at the nexus between technology and social impact - leveraging technology to tackle youth unemployment, educational divide, and corruption - Eliud is a firm believer in technology and innovation as a way to improve all our lives. He has a background in Financial Engineering and has co-founded Innobid Ltd - a tech startup that seeks to automate the public procurement process to reduce risk and cost of bids screening, leverages emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Block chain to detect and flag anomalies in the bids submitted in order to predict and combat corruption before it happens, incorporates citizens in monitoring the procurement process to foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and trust and promotes a competitive bidding process that levels the playing field for businesses of all sizes. He is currently focused on leveraging Human-Centred Design to co-design interventions that address youth unemployment and corruption among other social and health issues in Africa.