Our Story
The American Economic Liberties Project launched in February 2020 to help translate the intellectual victories of the anti-monopoly movement into momentum towards concrete, wide-ranging policy changes that begin to address today’s crisis of concentrated economic power.
As concern over concentrated economic power has broadened beyond the community of antitrust reformers, Economic Liberties has quickly grown into a hub for organizing a diverse set of leading policy experts and advocates in areas impacted by concentrated power, ranging from community development to national security to entrepreneurship.
Working together with a growing network of allies, we call on the government to re-assert essential policy tools — like aggressive investigatory agendas, robust antitrust enforcement, anti-corruption measures, corporate accountability, and a reinvigorated administrative state — to challenge monopolies’ dominance over markets and society.
Our Team
Steering Committee & Board of Directors
Ross Baird*
Ross is the founder and CEO of Blueprint Local, a new venture that aims to become the premier platform for people to invest in their communities, and the founder of Village Capital, a venture capital firm and incubator that supports impact-driven entrepreneurs.
Laura Campos*
Laura is the Director of the Nathan Cummings Foundation’s Corporate and Political Accountability program. She has nearly two decades of experience engaging public corporations on topics with implications for climate change and inequality.
Brandi Collins-Dexter*
Brandi is a member of the American Economic Liberties Project’s Board. She is also a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and a senior fellow at Color Of Change. She is currently writing a book about Black participation in democracy and the U.S. economy, with particular focus on the role technology and information integrity play in improving or deteriorating community health.
Laleh Ispahani*
Laleh is Co-Director of Open Society-U.S., where she oversees grant making, advocacy, and administrative work. Previously, she directed OSF-U.S.’s Democracy team and served as senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Richard R. John
Richard is a Professor at the Columbia Journalism School, where he focuses on the history of business, technology, communications, and politics. He is a 2019 Guggenheim Foundation fellow, and has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D. C.
Ronald Newman*
Ronald was the National Political Director at the American Civil Liberties Union, where he oversaw policy, advocacy, organizing, and electoral programming. Previously, he served as the Director of Human Rights and Refugee Protection at the National Security Council.
* Denotes a member of Economic Liberties’ board.
Staff & Fellows
Matthew Jinoo Buck
Senior FellowMatthew Jinoo Buck is a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, where he researches and writes about policy with a focus on antitrust enforcement. He is currently a first-year student at Yale Law School.
Ben Elga
Senior FellowBen is an attorney and founding Executive Director of Justice Catalyst and Justice Catalyst Law, which pursues path-breaking approaches to social justice lawyering to improve the lives of those denied access to justice. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Pat Garofalo
Director of State and Local PolicyPat directs Economic Liberties’ policy advocacy and engagement with state and local stakeholders. An alum of the Center for American Progress, he is also the author of The Billionaire Boondoggle: How Our Politicians Let Corporations and Bigwigs Steal Our Money and Jobs.
Morgan Harper
Director of Policy and AdvocacyMorgan leads Economic Liberties and Fight Corporate Monopolies’ advocacy efforts. She is a lawyer and, most recently, was a progressive candidate to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate. Morgan holds an M.P.A. from Princeton and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Nidhi Hegde
Interim Executive DirectorNidhi develops Economic Liberties’ organizational strategy and programs and directs operations. She is a seasoned international development professional and an alum of the Open Markets Institute, the Monitor Group, FSG, and the Omidyar Network.
Lee Hepner
Senior CounselLee is an attorney with extensive experience in state and local policy. His work includes precedent-setting legislation to protect small businesses from anti-competitive behavior, in furtherance of equitable, self-sustaining communities. He is also an expert in privacy, land use, and government ethics law.
Katie Hettinga
Program AssociateKatie Hettinga is the Program Associate at the Rethink Trade initiative at the American Economic Liberties Project.
Benjamin Jolley
Senior Fellow for HealthcareBenjamin Jolley is a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. A third-generation independent pharmacy operator and pharmacist, Benjamin is dedicated to supporting pharmacists across the nation in unraveling the complexities of the financial systems that drive their businesses.
Kainoa Lowman
Communications AssociateKainoa is a Communications Associate at the American Economic Liberties Project.
Shahid Naeem
Senior Policy Analyst, FinanceShahid researches and writes about policy at Economic Liberties, with an interest in finance, defense, and technology.
Ashley Nowicki
Policy AnalystAshley is a policy analyst at Economic Liberties, where she stands up against consolidation and corruption in support of a better future across the economy.
Erik Peinert
Research Manager and EditorThe author of the upcoming “Monopoly Politics: Price Competition, Learning, and the Evolution of Policy Regimes,” Erik manages and coordinates Economic Liberties’ policy and research agenda. Erik is also an affiliated researcher at the Rhodes Center for International Finance at Brown University.
Bharat Ramamurti
Senior Adviser for Economic StrategyBharat served as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Advisor for Strategic Economic Communications in the Biden-Harris Administration from 2021 through 2023. In that role, he helped shape the Administration’s economic message, worked with Congress to secure the enactment of several landmark pieces of economic legislation, and helped lead the Administration’s efforts on student debt, competition policy, small business, broadband, housing, technology and social media platforms, financial regulation, and more.
Daniel Rangel
Rethink Trade Research DirectorDaniel specializes in international trade and investment law and policy and he is an expert in trade and labor matters. He was one of the lawyers that drafted the first stakeholder petition to activate the USMCA rapid response mechanism.
Hayden Rooke-Ley
Senior Fellow for HealthcareHayden Rooke-Ley is a federal judicial law clerk and a recent graduate of Stanford Law School. His academic and policy writing focuses on issues of health care law and policy, including corporate consolidation of medical providers, Medicare and Medicaid financing, and labor organizing in the health care sector.
Faiz Shakir
Senior AdvisorFaiz Shakir is the Founder and Executive Director of More Perfect Union. He also serves as chief political adviser to Senator Bernie Bernie Sanders, after running his 2020 presidential campaign. Previously, Shakir was ACLU’s National Political Director and served in congressional roles as senior advisors to Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Lilly Solomon
Policy and Advocacy AssociateLilly assists with Hill and partner events and briefings, crafts various communications materials, and partakes in project development and tracking.
Matt Stoller
Director of ResearchMatt is the author of the Simon and Schuster book Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, called “one of the year’s best books on how to rethink capitalism and improve the economy.” He is a former advisor to the Senate Budget Committee.
Maureen “Moe” Tkacik
Senior FellowA former Wall Street Journal reporter, Moe has written for The Nation, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Reuters. Her analysis of Boeing’s decline, “Crash Course: How Boeing’s Managerial Revolution Created the 737 Max Disaster,” was featured as The New Republic’s cover story.
Lori Wallach
Director of Rethink TradeLori is the director of the Rethink Trade program at AELP and a 30-year veteran of international and U.S. congressional trade battles. She was named to “Politico’s 50” list of thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics for her leadership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) debate. A lawyer, Lori is the author of The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority and Whose Trade Organization? A Comprehensive Guide to the WTO .
Elizabeth Wilkins
Senior FellowElizabeth Wilkins is a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. Previously, she was the Chief of Staff to the Chair and Director of the Office of Policy and Planning at the Federal Trade Commission.
Jimmy Wyderko
Communications ManagerJimmy drives Economic Liberties’ communications strategy, creating written materials, generating social media and digital content, and handling the organization’s press and media relations.