THE AMERICAN PUBLIC TRUST - Key Persons


David Schecter

Job Titles:
  • Democracy R & D

Dr. Rhianna Rogers

Job Titles:
  • Center to Advance Racial Equity Policy

Lauren Higgins - Founder

Job Titles:
  • Co - Founder
Lauren Higgins, Co-Founder, is an ecosystem builder that collaborates with communities to meet the complex challenges of our time in ways that deepen democracy, resilience, and rebuild our fraying social fabric. Her work regularly draws upon her formal education in Organizational Development & Learning, mediation and systems change, and her deep experience in network building and strategy, public imagination, participatory process design, collaborative governance, and peer learning. As senior staff at the Impact Hub Network, she developed democratic governance convenings to help 100 communities align their collective impact. Currently, at the New Pluralists, she focuses on field-building programs to advance the culture and institutions of a politically vibrant, multi-racial, multi-faith democracy.

Rahmin Sarabi - Founder

Job Titles:
  • Co - Founder
  • Director
Rahmin Sarabi, Co-Founder & Director, is a collaborative entrepreneur, leader, and organizer with a 15+ year background in startups and not-for-profit organizations that serve collective wellbeing. He is a practitioner of human-centered design, product management, creative facilitation, and systems thinking, with experience catalyzing collaborative efforts across teams, organizations, and ecosystems. His diverse experience includes work to grow and sustain local food systems, bring out people's fullest contributions through organizational development & strategy, and enable impact through transformative change networks. His work in democracy innovation includes the Michigan Citizens' Panel on COVID-19 and the first-of-its-kind Fairgrounds Advisory Panel in Petaluma, CA. In the startup ecosystem, he was a key part of the early team at Good Eggs and also helped scale Opendoor. He is an active consultant with a practice in strategic design and network innovation with client work that includes the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Novo Foundation, and Democracy R&D Network. He is a board member of the Co-Intelligence Institute.