Washington, D.C. —  The American Economic Liberties Project today welcomed two new staff members and a new board member. Elle Ekman will join Economic Liberties as Senior National Security Fellow and Brandi Collins-Dexter will join Economic Liberties’ Board of Directors. J.D. Scholten will join Fight Corporate Monopolies, Economic Liberties’ 501(c)4 arm, as Senior Advisor.

“As the movement to redistribute economic power grows, so does our team — and we couldn’t be more excited,” said Economic Liberties’ Executive Director Sarah Miller. “Brandi, Elle, and J.D. each bring a unique and critical perspective to our work to promote economic liberty and dismantle concentrated corporate power. We’re so grateful for their expertise and partnership, particularly at a moment when transformational change is within reach.”

Elle Ekman joins Economic Liberties as Senior National Security Fellow. Ekman is a Marine Corps Officer. She spent several years working in the Indo-Pacific, to include a deployment in support of U.S. humanitarian relief efforts, and has held multiple positions in the D.C. area conducting analysis to identify future Marine Corps capabilities and working to leverage data to inform decision makers. Ekman has submitted comments to the FTC to highlight how right to repair restrictions affect the military and has been published in The New York Times, The Marine Corps Gazette, and Proceedings. Ekman is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and studied Operations Research at the Naval Postgraduate School.

J.D. Scholten joins Economic Liberties and Fight Corporate Monopolies as a Senior Advisor. Scholten is a two time congressional candidate in Iowa’s 4th district who ran a creative, grassroots campaign that drew national attention for how Democrats can compete in rural areas. Running on antitrust issues, Scholten was celebrated by Mother Jones, who  referred to him as “the only candidate in America talking about the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921.” The Sioux City native attended college and played baseball at Morningside College and the University of Nebraska. After college, he played baseball in 7 different countries. He then went on to work as a civil litigation paralegal before he launched his congressional campaigns.

Brandi Collins-Dexter joins Economic Liberties’ Board of Directors. Collins-Dexter is 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.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

Learn more about Fight Corporate Monopolies here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.