Our Team

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    Shira Hoffer, Founder and Executive Director

    Shira is the founding Executive Director of The Viewpoints Project. A 2025 graduate in Social Studies and Religion, she served on Harvard’s Intellectual Vitality Committee for two years, advising and presenting on new strategies for promoting constructive disagreement on campus. She is also former fellow and research assistant at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics’ Intercollegiate Civil Disagreement Program, and a practicing mediator in Massachusetts courts. Her senior thesis explored differing campus speech behaviors between religious and secular college students.

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    Jeremy Cronig, Director of Programming

    Jeremy is a pro-democracy advocate with a background in policy and organizing. He recently graduated from UC San Diego's Global Policy School with a master's in international affairs. Previously, Jeremy worked in multiple roles in the American voting/civics space, building and launching multiple national programs on college campuses to enable students to more effectively create change in their community.

    He has spent the past few years deeply immersed in literature, academic studies, and news about the global recession of democracy. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Jeremy loves passionately discussing the challenges and opportunities for democracy with friends and strangers alike.

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    Sarahann Yeh, Director of Operations and Finance

    Sarahann is a social impact professional with nearly a decade of experience in diplomacy, philanthropy, and non-profit management. She previously served as a U.S. diplomat and corporate philanthropy strategist, working in over 10 countries to facilitate dialogue, deliver educational programs, and advance positive social change. While working in Guatemala, Sarahann founded a diplomatic diversity council and led a five-year strategy development process. She is a strong believer in global citizenship and actively sponsors a scholarship for U.S. community college students to study abroad. She holds a M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Maryland. 

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    Jason Vadnos, Director of Campus Partnerships

    Jason is a junior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Human & Organizational Development and Culture, Advocacy, & Leadership. He serves as a Dialogue Vanderbilt Student Ambassador, helping shape campus policies and programs that promote respectful, evidence-based, and open-minded cross-partisan conversation. As a Research Assistant at Vanderbilt’s Civil Discourse Education Lab, he teaches students to communicate across divides and advocate effectively at personal, community, and policy levels. Beyond campus, Jason partners with nonprofits to build a national network of educators and administrators advancing civic engagement and civil discourse in higher education.

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    Dane Mauer-Vakil, Director of Research and Evaluation

    Dane is a PhD Candidate in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. His research, primarily focused on mental health services and policy, also spans areas such as tobacco control and smoking cessation program evaluation. His methodological expertise lies in comparative health systems and mixed methods, with a focus on implementation science and program evaluation. Currently, he leads a research team evaluating the Constructive Dialogue Institute’s ‘Perspectives’ module, studying its role in fostering intellectual humility, navigating diverse worldviews, and managing emotions in classroom dialogue. Dane holds a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology and an MSc in Health Policy from the University of Toronto.

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    Anna Nelson, Program Associate

    Anna is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. There she studied political philosophy, philosophy of education and gender studies. Her undergraduate thesis focuses on pedagogical methods of improving disagreement in the gender studies classroom. Her interest in pedagogy stemmed from her experience as an intern at the Center for Ethics and Education where she created curriculum and audio content. At Wisconsin, she also restarted an abolitionist collective and publication, The Madison Journal of Literary Criticism where she facilitated discussion on the carceral state and oversaw the magazine’s production as Co Editor in Chief. She is now living Des Moines, Iowa building her writing portfolio, catching up on her backlog of reading lists and enjoying a rest from school.

Board of Directors

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    David Seibel

    David Seibel is Co-Founder and President of Insight Partners and Insight Collaborative. A Harvard-trained lawyer and faculty at the Program on Negotiation, he specializes in negotiation, conflict resolution, and strategic relationship management. He has taught and consulted globally, advising clients from corporate leaders to international prosecutors, with a focus on creating value and strengthening relationships.

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    Mónica Guzmán

    Mónica Guzmán is the author of I Never Thought of It That Way, founder of Reclaim Curiosity, and Senior Fellow at Braver Angels. She also hosts A Braver Way podcast. A past fellow at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, she is a Mexican immigrant and proud liberal daughter of conservative parents. Mónica lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids. Learn more at moniguzman.com.

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    Ned Hall

    Edward J. Hall is an American philosopher and Norman E. Vuilleumier Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. He is known for his expertise on philosophy of science and epistemology. Hall graduated from Reed College in 1987, and earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton University in 1996. He taught at MIT until 2005, when he moved to Harvard.

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    David Hamburger

    David Hamburger is executive director of Persuasion, a nonprofit publication and community dedicated to defending the principles of liberal democracy at home and abroad. In addition to IME, he serves on the national board of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations. David is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Leiden universities and lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

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    Angela Orlando

    Angela Orlando is a Managing Director at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. Her work in Advancement specializes in strategic fundraising, major gift work and volunteer management. Angela has served as a Board member and Chair of Development at both Crossroads Academy in Lyme, NH and The Family Place in Norwich, VT.

Advisors

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    Nadine Strossen

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    Dr. Avé Luke-Simpson

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    Sam Pratt

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    Osamagbe Osagie

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    Christian Carmody

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    Dr. Tatiana Geron

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    Dr. Annie Rappeport

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    Daniel Hart