Morton H. Halperin  

Morton H. Halperin is President of the Democracy Coalition Project. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Dr. Halperin served in the Clinton, Nixon and Johnson administrations, most recently as Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State (1998-2001). From 1975-92, Dr. Halperin directed the Center for National Security Studies, a project of the American Civil Liberties Union which sought to reconcile requirements of national security with civil liberties. From 1984-92, he also directed the Washington Office of the ACLU where he was responsible for its national legislative program. Dr. Halperin has published a number of books -including Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy, The Democracy Advantage, and Protecting Democracy - and articles on subjects including civil liberties and American foreign policy. He has testified often before Congressional Committees. Dr. Halperin is Chairman of the Board, Democracy Coalition Project, a member of the board and Chair of the Executive Committee for ONE, and a member of the boards of The Constitution Project and the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Theodore Piccone  

Mr. Piccone is a Senior Fellow and Deputy Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. From 2001-2008, Mr. Piccone was the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Democracy Coalition Project. Mr. Piccone also served as the Washington Office Director of the Club of Madrid, an association of nearly 70 former heads of state and government engaged in efforts to strengthen democracy around the world, and continues to act as an Advisor. Previously, Mr. Piccone served as a senior foreign policy advisor in the Clinton Administration. He was the Associate Director of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (1998-2001), Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council (1996-98), and Policy Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1993-1996). Mr. Piccone also served as Counsel for the United Nations Truth Commission in El Salvador (1992-93) and as Press Secretary to U.S. Rep. Bob Edgar (1985-87). Mr. Piccone received a law degree from Columbia University, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review and The Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual. At Columbia, Mr. Piccone was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and received a Parker School Certificate in International and Comparative Law and an International Human Rights Fellowship. He received a B.A. in History magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania.

Robert Herman

Dr. Herman has more than twenty-five years of experience in democracy promotion and human rights. He is presently Director of Programs for Freedom House, where he oversees a range of programs in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Eurasia. Before joining Freedom House he was Senior Technical Director for Democracy and Governance at Management Systems International. He was the co-founder and co-director of the Democracy Coalition Project and previously served on the State Department's Policy Planning staff working on democracy and human rights and playing an instrumental role in launching the Community of Democracies, the first ever gathering of democratic states dedicated to strengthening democratic institutions, practices and values worldwide. As Senior Social Scientist with USAID's Bureau for Europe and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union, Dr. Herman helped to craft U.S. assistance strategies to countries making the transition from communist rule. He has held positions with the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels and served as a staff member in the U.S. Congress. He earned his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University having written his dissertation on the political and intellectual origins of the Gorbachev Revolution.  He received a Masters degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton University) and a Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College.

Dokhi Fassihian

Ms. Fassihian brings ten years of experience in research, non-profit management, and international development to the Democracy Coalition Project. Before joining DCP, she was the Executive Director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a civic education and advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., which serves to empower Iranian Americans through civic engagement. Ms. Fassihian has also worked as a research analyst of the Middle East and national security policies for the CNA Corporation. Her work in international development and advocacy has focused on governance, civic empowerment, and human rights. In the late 1990s, during the height of the reform movement in Iran, Ms. Fassihian worked for the Governance Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in Tehran. Before that, she worked for the Sisterhood Is Global Institute, an international women's rights NGO. Ms. Fassihian holds an M.A. in Advanced International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies with a focus on the Middle East and International Economics. She has lived and worked in the Middle East, and travels to the region regularly. Ms. Fassihian is fluent in Persian and has received advanced training in Arabic and French.

David Birenbaum

David E. Birenbaum is of counsel resident in Fried Frank’s Washington, DC office. He joined the firm in 1963, and became a corporate partner in 1971. Upon his retirement as a partner in 2000, he became of counsel. Mr. Birenbaum concentrates his practice in international matters. Among his many contributions to public service include serving as Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform (1994-1996), Chair of the Emergency Coalition for U. S. Financial Support of the United Nations, Public Member of the US Delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights, and Chair of the American Bar Association Task Force on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. In addition to serving as a member of the Democracy Coalition Project's Board of Directors, Mr. Birenbaum also serves on the boards of the International Senior Lawyers Project, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Americans for Peace Now. Mr. Birenbaum is also the author of numerous publications on international law, trade and issues concerning the accounting profession. Mr. Birenbaum also lectured at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on international trade law, from 1987 to 1989, and in 1991, at Georgetown University Law Center, as an adjunct professor, on the laws of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and has spoken widely on a range of topics. Mr. Birenbaum received his LLB, in 1962 from Harvard University Law School and his BA, cum laude, in 1959 from Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and Connecticut and to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.