CHP invests in research and practical interventions that promote healthier discourse, collaboration, and problem-solving across partisan divides.
Our team is continuously researching and vetting the most promising work by practitioners and academics in the depolarization field, and our grantmaking is informed by experts from the fields of psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, behavioral science, and economics.
Civic Health Project is a fiscal project of Mediators Foundation, a 501c3 charitable organization. All contributions to Civic Health Project and our grantees are fully tax-deductible and DAF-eligible.
Civic Health Project invests in initiatives focused on four pillars of activity:
Approach
We support transformative, cross-disciplinary academic research into the causes and consequences of eroding civil discourse, especially human behaviour patterns that hinder healthy political decision-making.
We also support the efforts of leading practitioners in disseminating training, tools, and methodologies that are shown to be effective in reducing polarization, increasing empathy and rationality, and improving overall civic health.
We seek to foster collaborative interaction between leading academics and practitioners, ensuring that hands-on approaches to reducing polarization and improving civil discourse are informed by the latest, most compelling academic research.
We use targeting, incentives, and measurement to ensure in a hands-on way that the research and tools we promote are reaching intended audiences and delivering measurable improvements in civic health.

Team
Civic Health Project’s team members bring diverse leadership expertise from academia, finance, technology, and the non-profit sector. Collectively, we are dedicated to supporting and showcasing the most promising efforts to reduce partisan animosity and enable constructive, collaborative problem-solving.
Rob Romero
Founding Partner

Rob Romero, Founding Partner
Rob Romero co-founded the Civic Health Project following the 2016 presidential election, acknowledging the dangerous reality that increasing animosity and disdain between political factions not only undermines the capacity of our democratic process to yield cooperative and constructive leaders but also, in a more severe scenario, could threaten the very existence of a united nation. Rob is a passionate advocate for research, insights, and tools that help human behavior & biases, social media, and democracy to “play better” together, reducing the corrosive forces of polarization.
Rob is currently the CEO of Connective Capital, an investor in emerging growth companies. Prior to launching Connective, Rob held leadership roles in marketing and engineering at Cisco Systems and various tech startups. Rob earned his BA in Economics, BS in Electrical Engineering, and MS in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University.
Kristin Hansen
Executive Director

Kristin Hansen, Executive Director
As the Executive Director of Civic Health Project, Kristin is dedicated to accelerating the efforts of academics and practitioners who seek to reduce polarization and improve civil discourse in our citizenry, politics, and media.
In addition to her role at Civic Health Project, Kristin serves on the advisory boards of AllSides, Business for America, and Listen First Project. She also serves as a year-round lecturer in Strategic Communications at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Prior to her current work in civil discourse, Kristin held senior executive roles at Intel, IBM, and multiple start-up software companies. She holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in International Policy Studies from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Ann Reidy
Director of Strategic Initiatives

Ann Reidy, Director of Strategic Initiatives
Bob Quinn
Partner

Bob Quinn, Partner
For more than 25 years Bob has held leadership positions in internet and mobile software development at companies ranging from IBM and Apple to a number of Silicon Valley startups, where his focus has been on AI and health technology.
Prior to his commercial work, Bob carried out research in the application of cognitive social psychology and decision analysis to public health policy at Harvard University. He holds a PhD in cognitive science from the University of Colorado and a BA from Dartmouth College.
Bob joined Civic Health Project with the goal of using his background in technology, social science and healthcare to help diagnose and treat our civic health challenges.
Sofía Politi
Research & Operations Assistant

Sofía Politi, Research & Operations Assistant
As Civic Health Project’s Research & Operations Assistant, Sofia supports several operational activities and helps develop new strategic projects. At the present moment, she primarily works on improving our fundraising and communication efforts and promoting the adoption of SCIM (previously called PQ/BQ), an impact measurement tool for bridging interventions.
Sofía holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Government from Torcuato di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Prior to Civic Health Project, she was a research assistant on legislative behavior at her Alma Mater and worked at CIPPEC, a prestigious public policy think tank.
Cambria Findley-Grubb
Social Media & Web Marketing Manager

Cambria Findley-Grubb, Social Media & Web Marketing Manager
As the Social Media and Web Marketing Manager, Cambria amplifies the message of decreasing affective polarization through the organization’s social media and web presence.
Prior to Civic Health Project, Cambria worked to leverage community members in volunteerism and civic engagement through the American Red Cross and UNICEF USA. In addition, Cambria completed a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in Nova Scotia, Canada, studying the impact of education policy on indigenous populations and examining issues of educational justice. Cambria holds a Triple BA in Political Science, Peace Studies, and Religious Studies from Chapman University, and a MA in Political Communication from the University of Florida.
Julia Kamin
Director of Research and Evaluation

Julia Kamin, Director of Research and Evaluation
As Civic Health Project’s Researcher, Julia primarily works on developing “PQ”, a measurement tool designed to measure the impact of media and interventions on reducing or increasing toxic polarization
Based in New York City, Julia works with organizations that leverage social science to improve civic discourse and mitigate toxic political polarization both on and off line. In her dissertation work, Julia used agent based models and experimental designs to examine the dynamics of information polarization in social media. Previously she was research manager at Citizens and Technology Lab, Cornell University, where she conducted field experiments in collaboration with online communities to test the effectiveness of prosocial interventions.
Julia received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Scholar Advisory Council
Adam Enders
Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science
University of Louisville

Adam Enders, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science
University of Louisville
Adam Enders is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Louisville, and instructor in the ICPSR program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research and the Global School for Empirical Research Methods. His research is focused on deciphering how people think about politics, including the nature of conspiratorial thought, racial prejudice in political behavior and political polarization.
Chris Bail
Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Public Policy
Duke University

Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Public Policy
Duke University
Chris Bail is Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and tools from the emerging field of computational social science.
David Broockman
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of California, Berkeley

David Broockman, Associate Professor of Political Science
University of California, Berkeley
David Broockman is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He studies public opinion and political representation in the United States. His over thirty peer-reviewed articles and essays focus on political persuasion, political polarization, campaigns and elections, political ideology, and the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in government. He is the recipient of several scholarly awards, including the Emerging Scholar Award, which is awarded to the top scholar in his subfield within a decade of their PhD.
Kurt Gray
Full Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Kurt Gray, Full Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Kurt Gray is Full Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directs the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. He uses interdisciplinary methods to study our deepest held beliefs and how to bridge moral divides.
Lisa Schirch
Senior Professor of the Practice of Peace Studies
University of Notre Dame

Lisa Schirch, Senior Professor of the Practice of Peace Studies
University of Notre Dame
Lisa Schirch is a Political Scientist and Senior Professor of the Practice of Peace Studies at The University of Notre Dame. Her research focuses on the positive roles of technology in “peacetech” and “digital peacebuilding.” She is a senior research fellow with the Toda Peace Institute, where she coordinates with civil society and technology companies to experiment and innovate new technologies that can scale social cohesion.
Mark Brandt
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology
Michigan State University

Mark Brandt, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology
Michigan State University
Mark Brandt is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University and Principal Investigator of The Belief Systems Lab. The overarching goal of his research program is to understand how ideological and moral beliefs – such as political ideology, religious fundamentalism, and moral conviction – structure attitudes and behaviors and provide people with meaning.
Robb Willer
Professor of Sociology Director
Polarization and Social Change Lab Stanford University

Robb Willer, Professor of Sociology Director
Polarization and Social Change Lab Stanford University
Robb Willer is a Professor in the Departments of Sociology, Psychology (by courtesy), and the Graduate School of Business (by courtesy) at Stanford University. He is the Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab and the Co-Director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. His research focus is on social forces that bring people together (e.g., morality, altruism), forces that divide them (e.g., fear, prejudice), and domains of social life that feature the complex interplay of the two (e.g., hierarchies, politics).
Samara Klar
Associate Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy
University of Arizona

Samara Klar, Associate Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy
University of Arizona
Samara Klar is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona School of Government and Public Policy, co-Coordinator of the Arizona Policy Lab and cofounder of WomenAlsoKnowStuff.com. She studies how individuals’ personal identities and social surroundings influence their political attitudes and behavior.
Talia Stroud
Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the School of Journalism and Media
University of Texas at Austin

Talia Stroud, Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the School of Journalism and Media
University of Texas at Austin
Natalie (Talia) Jomini Stroud is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the School of Journalism and Media, as well as the founding and current Director of the Center for Media Engagement in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. The Center for Media Engagement examines commercially viable and democratically beneficial ways of improving media.
Tim Ryan
Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tim Ryan, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Timothy Ryan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at UNC, Chapel Hill. He has a number of research interests related to political communication, political behavior, media effects, and political psychology, and is the proud father of a beagle named Juniper!. (The exclamation point is part of her name.)
Founding Scholar Advisors
Katherine Cramer
Professor of Political Science
Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science University of Wisconsin, Madison

Katherine Cramer, Professor of Political Science
Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science University of Wisconsin, Madison
Katherine Cramer is a Professor of Political Science and Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science at UW Madison. During the 2018-2019 academic year she is a Visiting Professor with the Laboratory for Social Machines at the MIT Media Lab. She is known for her innovative approach to the study of public opinion, in which she uses methods like inviting herself into the conversations of groups of people to listen to the way they understand public affairs. Her award-winning book, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker, brought to light rural resentment toward cities and its implications for contemporary politics. She is also the author (as Katherine Cramer Walsh) of Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference and Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life.
Jonathan Haidt
Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership Business and Society Program
New York University Stern School of Business

Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership Business and Society Program
New York University Stern School of Business
Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist, Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and author. His main areas of study are the psychology of morality and the moral emotions. Haidt is the author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, which examines how morality is shaped by emotion and intuition more than by reasoning, and why differing political groups have different notions of right and wrong. He also co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, which explores the rising political polarization and changing culture on college campuses, and its effects on mental health.
Shanto Iyengar
Professor of Political Science Senior Fellow
Hoover Institution Stanford University

Shanto Iyengar, Professor of Political Science Senior Fellow
Hoover Institution Stanford University
Shanto Iyengar is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and is also a senior fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution. Iyengar’s teaching and research addresses the role of the news media and mass communication in contemporary politics. He is the author of several books including Media Politics: A Citizen’s Guide, Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate, Explorations in Political Psychology, and News That Matters: Television and American Opinion.
Leadership Advisory Council
Laura Maristany
Director of External Affairs
Bitwise Industries

Laura Maristany, Director of External Affairs
Bitwise Industries
Laura Maristany is the Director of External Affairs at Bitwise Industries, an organization which leverages private/public partnerships to develop a skilled and representative workforce through tech apprenticeships. Laura has extensive Capitol Hill and policy making experience having served as chief federal advocate and Director of the Washington, D.C. office for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) and as Executive Director of Legislative Affairs for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). In addition, Laura previously served as the Associate Director for Constructive Politics at Democracy Fund, an independent foundation working to ensure that the U.S. political system is able to withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people.
Parisa Parsa
Chief Executive Officer
Cortico.ai

Parisa Parsa, Chief Executive Officer
Cortico.ai
Parisa Parsa serves as CEO of Cortico.ai, which builds systems that bring underheard community voices and perspectives back to the center of a healthier public dialogue, in partnership with the Laboratory for Social Machines at the MIT Media Lab. Parisa previously served in religious and secular nonprofit leadership roles, most recently as Executive Director of Essential Partners, devoted to creating constructive dialogue across deep divides. She holds an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School.
Duf Sundheim
Leadership Council, California Forward
Former Chairman, California Republican Party

Duf Sundheim, Leadership Council, California Forward
Former Chairman, California Republican Party
Duf Sundheim has played a key role in historic bipartisan reforms, served as advisor to governors and other senior officials, chairman of the California Republican Party from 2003-2007, and has received national and state awards for his efforts. Duf currently serves as a member of the Federal Court’s Advanced Mediation Practice Group, a member of the Leadership Council of California Forward, a non-partisan non-profit that works for shared prosperity, and Director of Strategic Planning and Legal Counsel for Technifex.