Civic Health Project invests in game-changing initiatives that reduce America’s partisan divisions and strengthen social cohesion at massive scale.

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:

Expose

individuals to broader, more balanced, and more diverse sources of information thereby reducing the “selective exposure” that tends to harden bias.

Engage

individuals in “intergroup contact” to dispel negative stereotypes, reduce partisan animus, and foster tolerance for opposing viewpoints.

Educate

individuals directly regarding affective polarization’s causes and consequences, to encourage adoption of de-biasing / depolarizing attitudes and behaviours.

Elevate

and strengthen “cross-cutting identities” that mitigate against partisan affiliation as a primary (and divisive) social identity.

Approach

Imagine a future in which all Americans feel empowered to reject toxic division, embrace genuine connection, and build a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic future together. That is the future Civic Health Project is working towards, and it’s within our reach.

For the past five years, we’ve invested in rigorous social science to identify the most effective interventions to reduce toxic polarization, reduce support for political violence, and increase support for democratic norms.  Today, we know that we most effectively move the needle on these outcomes when we:

  • Correct the extreme misperceptions Americans hold of one another, across partisan divides.
  • Enlist political and cultural elites to model constructive engagement across differences.
  • Bring partisan opponents together to achieve shared goals and solve shared problems.
  • Illuminate the unacceptable risks of societal breakdown and democratic collapse.

Equipped with these insights, we’re poised to unlock effective interventions at massive scale, empowering millions of Americans to overcome toxic division, embrace genuine connection, and build a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic future together.

How will we know if we are succeeding? We will measure success not only by the millions of Americans reached, but by how we’ve shifted hearts and minds in the process. As these interventions scale and gain traction, we will overcome “peak division” in America and usher in an era characterized by healthier political and social norms.

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

As Civic Health Project’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Ann works to identify and amplify promising, scalable efforts to transform partisan conflict and dismantle the destructive “us versus them” dynamics that are fueling our current political crisis and tearing the social fabric of our country.
In addition to her work with the Civic Health Project, Ann has led the incubation of Bridge Entertainment Labs (formerly known as the Center for Entertainment & Civic Health), an initiative focused on inspiring storytelling that popularizes the practice of courageous and empathetic engagement across political and social divides. Ann is also the Founder and Director of American Pals, a national schools-based bridging initiative.
Ann brings leadership experience in academia, non-profit management, and secondary education to her work at Civic Health Project. She holds a BA in Literature from UC Santa Cruz and a PhD from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

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

Scholar Advisor Adam Enders

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

Scholar Advisor Chris Bail

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

Scholar Advisor David Broockman

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

Scholar Advisor Kurt Gray

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

Scholar Advisor Lisa Schirch

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

Scholar Advisor Mark Brandt

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

Scholar Advisor Samantha Klar

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

Scholar Advisor Talia Stroud

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

Scholar Advisor Tim Ryan

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.

Memberships and Affiliations

Civic Health Project is proud to partner with fellow organizations committed to improving America’s civic health.