Advisors

Ambassador Armitage is the founder and President of Armitage International, L.C., an international business consultancy that provides critical support in the areas of international business development, strategic planning and problem solving. He is a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and has served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and Pacific Affairs. In addition, Ambassador Armitage has held a wide variety of high-ranking U.S. diplomatic positions; including, Presidential Special Negotiator for the Philippines Military Bases Agreement, Special Mediator for Water in the Middle East, Special Emissary to Jordan’s King Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War, and Ambassador directing U.S. assistance to the new independent states of the former Soviet Union. Ambassador Armitage graduated in 1967 from the U.S. Naval Academy and served three combat tours in Vietnam. He is the recipient of numerous U.S. and foreign military decorations, as well as awards for distinguished public service. Most recently, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan. Ambassador Armitage currently serves on the board of directors of ManTech International. He also is a member of The American Academy of Diplomacy.

Steve Bartlett represented the 3rd Congressional District of Texas from 1983 to 1991. He was elected Mayor of Dallas in 1991, serving until 1995 and then as the CEO of Financial Services Roundtable from 1999-2012. In Congress, he was an active legislator. As a Republican in a Democratic majority House, he was a principal author of 18 major pieces of legislation passed into law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

Rod Chandler served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington’s 8th District and was a member of the Ways and Means Committee. Prior to Congress Chandler served four terms in the Washington state House of Representatives. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Oregon State University and earned a Masters Degree from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Chandler is married with two children (one deceased) and four grandchildren.

Charlie Dent is a CNN Contributor and a former Republican Member of Congress. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Dent served as a member of the State Legislature for 14 years, and in 2004 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. During his tenure in the House, he served as Chairman of the Ethics Committee and as a Subcommittee Chairman on the Appropriations Committee, among other assignments.

Murray Dickman served in the Ronald Reagan and George Bush Administrations from 1988-1991 as the primary Assistant to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and later as acting Chief of Staff. He had a portfolio of major responsibilities including heading the Administration’s efforts in Federal Judicial Selection, the successful emigration of Soviet citizens to the US in 1989-1991, and serving as Department of Justice White House Liaison. He served on Mr Thornburgh’s senior management team along with then Deputy Attorney General Bill Barr and Assistant Attorney General Robert Mueller. Prior to his Justice Department experience, he had served as Secretary of Administration for Governor Thornburgh in Pennsylvania from 1979-1987 and had a broad role in the daily management of the Pennsylvania government. Later he served on the staff of the UN World Food Program in Rome Italy (1993-1996) after having served in the UN Secretariat in NYC in 1991-1992 and worked closely with Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton.

Charles K. Djou served in the U.S. House of Representatives where he sat on the Armed Services and Budget committees. He previously served on the Honolulu City Council and the Hawaii State House where he was the Minority (Republican) Floor Leader. Djou is an Afghanistan war veteran and continues to serve in the Army Reserve. Djou practices law in Honolulu and teaches as an adjunct professor of political science at Hawaii Pacific University.

Dave was elected in 1978 to replace Hubert and his widow Muriel Humphrey. He was re-elected in 1982 and in 1988 before retiring in 1995. He served a six-year term and two years as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. As a 16-year member of the Senate Finance Committee, he was best known for his role in health policy reform. He also authored half a dozen environmental laws as a member of Enviro-Public works and on the Health Education Labor for Americans With Disabilities Act. He retired to head the National Institute of Health Policy at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

Mickey Edwards was an eight-term Republican Congressman and chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. He was a founding trustee of the Heritage Foundation and national chairman of the American Conservative Union. He has been a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, had his own weekly political commentary on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He teaches at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Emil H. Frankel, a lifelong Republican, raised in Connecticut and now resident of Washington, DC, served as Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at U.S. Department of Transportation from 2002 to 2005 under President George W. Bush. Prior to his service in the Bush Administration, Frankel was Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation from 1991 to 1995. A Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom and educated at Wesleyan University and Harvard Law School, Frankel was a co-founder of the Ripon Society. He practiced law and was an management executive, engaged in business and real estate reorganizations, and served as Legislative Assistant to Republican Senator Jacob Javits of New York and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Nixon Administration. He has been involved for the past several years in teaching, writing, and consulting on issues of transportation policy and public management.

Stuart Gerson is a lifelong Republican and a traditional conservative, who believes in American values and the integrity of our Constitution and laws. He is currently a private lawyer specializing in litigation and cyber security, and believes that public service is a high calling. He’s proud to have been a counterintelligence officer in the United States Air Force, an Assistant United States Attorney, an Assistant Attorney General, and the acting Attorney General of the United States. Intent upon restoring integrity to our legal system, Stuart is a founding member of Checks & Balances and a lead counsel, supporting the separation of powers in the successful border wall lawsuit, El Paso County v. Trump.

Jim Glassman served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the George W. Bush Administration and is the founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute. Ambassador Glassman has worked as a journalist, magazine publisher, and writer. He is co-author of the book Dow 36,000 and is presently the chairman of Glassman Enterprises, LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs consulting firm whose clients include Fortune 100 companies in multiple sectors.

Congressman Jim Greenwood (R-PA) is a lifelong Republican who served for 12 years in the Pennsylvania State House and Senate and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1993-2005). From 2005-2020 he served as the President and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. He is currently a Senior Policy Advisor at the DLA Piper law firm. He chairs the firm’s Life Sciences Health Policy and Regulatory Group

Rachel Hoff is a member of the DC Republican Committee and has twice represented the nation’s capital as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. In 2016, she was the first openly gay member of the GOP Platform Committee. Rachel has worked for 15 years for conservative think tanks, GOP organizations, and Republican Members of Congress. She has volunteered for Republican congressional and gubernatorial candidates on the ground in nearly 20 states.

Gordon Humphrey represented New Hampshire in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1991, serving on the Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees. Upon completing two terms, he returned to New Hampshire, keeping a term-limit pledge. In the 2016 presidential race, Humphrey campaigned for Ohio Governor John Kasich. He left the Republican Party and registered as an independent the morning following Donald Trump’s election.

William Inboden previously served as Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the National Security Council staff in the George W. Bush White House. He also served during the Bush Administration as a Member of the Policy Planning Staff and as a Special Advisor in the Officer of International Religious Freedom in the Department of State. Other previous roles include work as a staff member in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and with the American Enterprise Institute and the London-based Legatum Institute. He is currently a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, and is writing a book on President Ronald Reagan’s national security policy.

Jim Kolbe grew up on a ranch in southern Arizona and began his political career while in high school when he served as a U.S.Senate Page for Barry Goldwater. He subsequently served three terms in the Arizona State Senate before being elected to the United States Congress in 1984 where he served for 22 years, including two chairmanships of major Appropriations subcommittees. Since leaving Congress he has served as a Senior Advisor to the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and on numerous boards, including the International Republican Institute, Freedom House and the Project on Middle East Democracy. He is a graduate of Northwestern University (BA) and Stanford University (MBA) and served for several years in the U.S. Navy, including a year in Vietnam on patrol craft.

One of the nation’s leading experts on America’s international humanitarian relief operations and their connection to U.S. national security, Jim Kunder served as Director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and in senior positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Serving in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and the George W. Bush Administrations, he directed U.S. government crisis response operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia and more that two dozen other disaster sites across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. A former infantry platoon commander in the U.S. Marine Corps, Kunder has devoted his career to enhancing synergy between U.S. military and humanitarian programs in support of American foreign policy. Jim Kunder currently heads Kunder-Reali Associates, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting firm, while teaching at the Foreign Service Institute and USAID’s Washington Learning Center.

R.J. Lyman is a Senior Fellow of the Niskanen Center (Washington, D.C.), a Director of the Woodwell Climate Research Center (Woods Hole, MA), and a Boston-based private investor and advisor. He served as the founding chair of the Weld 2020 Presidential Campaign, and director of environmental policy under Massachusetts Governors Weld and Cellucci. Mr. Lyman received his J.D. magna cum laude from Vermont Law School and his B.A. cum laude in history from Harvard College.

Evan McMullin is an executive director of Stand Up Republic, a national cross-partisan organization working to defend and strengthen American democracy. Evan started his career at the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service as an operations officer, managing traditional and counterterrorism operations in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. In 2016, Evan was a conservative independent candidate for president during which he campaigned for a recommitment to foundational American values and a new generation of leadership. Prior to his campaign, Evan served as chief policy director for the House Republican Conference where he led a team of advisors covering all matters of domestic and foreign policy.

John Mitnick is an attorney and business leader who has served at the highest levels of government and the private sector for over three decades. Presently he serves on corporate boards and as an advisor to early-stage technology companies. In September 2019, he completed his tenure as the Senate-confirmed General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. Previously he served as Associate Counsel to the President (Bush 43), as the General Counsel of a $3 billion Raytheon business unit, as the first General Counsel of The Heritage Foundation, and as a partner at the law firm now known as Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. He holds law degrees from the University of Virginia School of Law and the University of Oxford, as well as a B.A. degree in history and political science from Emory University (summa cum laude).

For nearly 20 years, Elizabeth Neumann has created and implemented government-wide counterterrorism policies and reforms. She served on the inaugural Homeland Security Council staff in the Bush (43) White House under General John Gordon and Fran Townsend. Most recently, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Kelly and Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention at the Department of Homeland Security, where she was a passionate advocate for growing the Department’s ability to respond to emerging threats like violent white supremacist extremism and malign foreign influence. She has extensive experience working across homeland security and national security disciplines including: intelligence, law enforcement, emergency management, preparedness, critical infrastructure security and resilience, and cybersecurity.

Mary E. Peters served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation from 2006 – 2009. In that role she led efforts to substantially improve transportation safety, to improve the performance of the nation’s transportation system, and develop new policy and funding sources to support America’s transportation system into the 21st Century.

Prior to serving as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ms. Peters was a Sr. Vice President and National Director for Transportation Policy and Consulting for HDR, Inc. From 2001 – 2005 Ms. Peters served as the Federal Highway Administrator for the US Department of Transportation. Ms. Peters served as the Arizona Department of Transportation Director prior to becoming Federal Highway Administrator.

She is currently the Principal of Mary Peters Consulting Group, LLC, an organization dedicated to finding new and better ways to address America’s infrastructure requirements. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Rand Corporation, is a Member of the Board of Directors for HDR, Inc., and on the Advisory Board for Cintra US/Ferrovial. Ms. Peters also serves as an advisor to Zachry American Infrastructure and Kapsch TrafficCom.

Paul Rosenzweig works on legal and policy issues related to cybersecurity, national security and tech policy, including the intersection of privacy and security. In addition to his work at a Washington think tank, Paul manages a small cybersecurity consulting company called Red Branch Consulting and teaches at the George Washington University School of Law. Previously, he was deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He received his bachelor’s in chemistry from Haverford College, his master’s in chemical oceanography from the University of California at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and his juris doctor from the University of Chicago.

Anthony Scaramucci is the Founder and Co-Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital and author of four books. Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman, LLC in 2001; earlier, he was a vice president in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs & Co. In November 2016, he was named to President-Elect Trump’s 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee, in June 2017 he was named the Chief Strategy Officer of the EXIM Bank, and he served as the White House Communications Director for a period in July 2017. Scaramucci, a native of Long Island, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Tara Setmayer is a CNN Political Commentator, ABC News Contributor and former GOP communications director on Capitol Hill. Setmayer was selected as Spring 2020 Harvard Institute of Politics Resident Fellow, and is currently a Resident Scholar for the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Setmayer also serves as a Senior Advisor for The Lincoln Project and hosts the “Honestly Speaking with Tara” podcast.

U.S. Congresswoman Claudine Schneider represented Rhode Island from 1980-1990. She is a seasoned businesswoman, educator, lecturer, Emmy Award recipient (ABC) and citizen activist for climate solutions and the enhancement of our democracy. Claudine is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for her problem-solving skills, and thoughtful and fearless leadership.

Robert Shanks is an attorney specializing in international and constitutional matters. During his 45-year legal career, he has served in several government positions under Republican administrations, including

Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice (1981-84); Vice President & General Counsel, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (1985-87); and General Counsel, Peace Corps (2017-20).

Peter Smith served as a Republican Member of Congress from Vermont.  Since leaving Congress, he has had the honor of founding a new university, serving at UNESCO, and working in the online higher education space. He has joined REPAIR because President Trump’s actions – personal, professional, and political – require a response that transcends political party affiliation. They are, simply put, beyond the pale and a threat to democracy.

When elected Lt. Governor of Maryland in 2003, Michael Steele made history as the first African American elected to statewide office; and again with his subsequent chairmanship of the Republican National Committee in 2009. Steele is a political analyst for MSNBC and the host of the Michael Steele Podcast.

Alan Steelman is a best-selling author, a former member of the U.S. Congress, a former Member of the White House Staff, and former Vice-Chairman of Alexander Proudfoot Company. He has been a Chairman of the Dallas Council on World Affairs, a Board Member of Sterling Software (NYSE), Aristocrat Technologies (ASX), and the Texas Growth Fund. He is a graduate of Baylor University, holds a Master’s Degree from SMU and was a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. His career in politics was marked with distinction, with Time Magazine featuring him as one of the 200 Emerging Young Leaders in the United States. The Dallas Times Herald said, “he was one of the best ever sent to Congress from Texas.”

Miles Taylor is a CNN Contributor and the U.S. lead for advanced technology and security strategy at Google (on temporary leave). He is the former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where he oversaw day-to-day operations of the government’s third-largest department, and also served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Secretary John Kelly. Miles was previously a senior national security aide in the U.S. House of Representatives and worked in the George W. Bush administration in the White House and DHS. He is co-founder of the Washington Leadership Academy, a fellow at the McCrary Center for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Miles received his M.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, and his BA from Indiana University as a Harry S. Truman Scholar.

Olivia Troye is a risk management and national security executive with twenty years of government service and private sector experience, most recently serving as the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to Vice President Pence at the White House, where she focused on tracking imminent and evolving domestic and international security threats, natural disaster events, and managing complex policy decisions and responses to large scale crisis events facing the American people. Prior to this role, she served in the Office Of Intelligence & Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security as Chief of Strategy, Policy & Plans. Olivia has also served on the leadership staffs in the Department of Defense, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Energy, as well as in the private sector for organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and General Dynamics Information Technology. Fluent in Spanish and hailing from El Paso, Texas, she is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs, and the Naval Postgraduate School.

Chris Vance has been a Washington State leader in politics and public policy for over 30 years. Vance is a former State Representative, King County Councilmember, Chairman of the Washington state Republican Party, and US Senate nominee in 2016. Vance now serves as the Communications and External Affairs Manager in the King County Assessor’s office, teaches part time as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, and is a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center.

Josh served as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Education from 2017-2018 and previously served at the Department as a political appointee in the George W. Bush Administration. From 2011-2012, Josh served as deputy finance director for the Republican National Committee. He spent three election cycles at the Michigan Republican Party, serving as deputy political director, finance director, and chief of staff during the 2010 election cycle, the Republicans’ most successful in state history. Josh also has worked for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and for several non-profit organizations advocating school choice and comprehensive education reform, both in his home state of Michigan and nationally.

Jim Walsh is Government Affairs Counselor at K&L Gates and was previously elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1989 to 2009. During his tenure in Congress, Jim served as a deputy Republican whip from 1994 to 2006 was appointed as a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. During that time, he became Chairman of four House Appropriations Subcommittees. Earlier in his career in Congress, Jim served on the House Agriculture Committee, the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, and on the House Administration Committee.

Greg Wilson founded his own niche consulting firm in 2006, focusing on strategic policy and regulatory issues affecting financial services industry clients. He is a former partner at McKinsey & Company.

Previously, Greg served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy, U.S. Treasury Department (1986-1989), and Republican Staff Director, Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives (1983-1986).

Greg is the author of Managing to the New Regulatory Reality – Doing Business under the Dodd-Frank Act (John Wiley & Sons, 2002) and co-author of Dangerous Markets: Managing in Financial Crises (John Wiley & Sons, 2011); his latest book is The Adventures of Jonathan Roberts: The Civil War’s Quaker Scout in Northern Virginia (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2017).

Dick Zimmer graduated from Yale College, with high honors in political science, and Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.  He practiced with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, the law department of Johnson & Johnson, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Dick was elected to the New Jersey State Assembly and the New Jersey State Senate before becoming a Member of Congress.  He was twice the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate.