The Team

Principals


Nina Jankowicz

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Nina Jankowicz is an internationally-recognized expert on disinformation and democratization, one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, and the author of two books: How to Lose the Information War (2020), which The New Yorker called “a persuasive new book on disinformation as a geopolitical strategy,” and How to Be A Woman Online (2022), an examination of online abuse and disinformation and tips for fighting back, which Publishers Weekly named “essential.” Jankowicz has advised governments, international organizations, and tech companies, and testified before the US Congress, the British Parliament, and the European Parliament. 

Jankowicz knows what it is like to be attacked for defending the truth. In 2022, Jankowicz was appointed to lead the Disinformation Governance Board, an intra-agency best practices and coordination entity at the Department of Homeland Security. She resigned the position after a sustained disinformation campaign caused the Biden Administration to abandon the project. 

From 2017-2022, Jankowicz held fellowships at the Wilson Center, where she led accessible, actionable research about the impacts of disinformation on women and freedom of expression around the world. She advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on strategic communications under the auspices of a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship in 2016-17. Early in her career, she managed democracy assistance programs to Russia and Belarus at the National Democratic Institute.

Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos

Co-Founder and Chief Communications Officer

Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos is a globally-renowned strategic communications professional who oversaw Protect Democracy’s organization-wide communications, media relations, and strategic communications campaign to protect the 2020 election.

In that role, he led initiatives to protect the 2020 election from manipulation, secure the presidential transition, support impeachment efforts, establish a national accountability framework, reform the filibuster, and form a January 6th commission.

He also directed strategic communications for multiple high-profile litigation efforts, including Wall of Moms/Don’t Shoot Portland v. Wolf, Denson v. Donald J. Trump for President, Community Success Initiative v. Moore, and Cervini v. Cisneros/Stapp.

Prior to joining Protect Democracy, Carlos provided strategic communications counsel to the U.S. Department of Defense, and consulted for many prominent organizations, including the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, HSBC, the Yacht Club de Monaco, and the California Federal Public Defender’s Office.

Beyond his work in communications, Carlos built Boulder Transport from a $7,000 investment into one of the most respected ground and air transportation providers in Colorado. He also published the Listín Diario — the largest newspaper in the Caribbean region — on the Internet at age 15.

He is an avid adventurer, motorcyclist, mandolinist, boxer, SCUBA diver, and cook.

Advisory Board

  • Katie Harbath

    Katie Harbath

    Katie Harbath is the Chief Global Affairs Officer at Duco. A global leader at the intersection of policy, democracy, and technology, Katie’s career spans political campaigns, civil society, and technology. Prior to Duco, Katie spent ten years at Facebook, where she built and led global teams that managed elections and helped government and political figures use the social network to connect with their constituents. She has extensive experience in elections and government engagement around the globe as well as developing product policy on a wide range of issues.

  • Emily Horne

    Emily Horne

    Emily Horne is the Founder and CEO of Allegro Public Affairs and a Senior Advisor with WestExec Advisors. She was the first Spokesperson and Senior Director for Press at the National Security Council (NSC) in the Biden Administration, and led communications for the confirmations of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Emily was previously Vice President of Communications at the Brookings Institution and led global policy communications for Twitter. She spent nearly a decade at the State Department, including as communications director for counter-ISIS efforts and spokesperson for South and Central Asian Affairs. Emily was a Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service and has taught media and foreign policy at American University and Boston University. Emily is a proud Michigander and holds a BA and MA from The George Washington University.

  • Ineke Mushovic

    Ineke Mushovic

    Ineke Mushovic is the executive director of Wide Angle Research, a 501(c)4 nonprofit research team focused on reaching and moving conflicted audiences through deep listening and innovative policy and persuasion research. Ineke has almost two decades of experience doing understanding audiences and developing messaging, communications and ads to move people on battleground issues like LGBTQ equality, abortion, guns, immigration, jobs and the economy, partisanship in America, and more. In February 2024, Ineke stepped down as the executive director of the Movement Advancement Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit she founded which focused on protecting our democracy and advancing equality. Prior to her nonprofit career, Ineke was the lead strategist at an advertising agency, a business strategist at an Internet startup, and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.

  • Benjamin Wittes

    Benjamin Wittes

    Benjamin Wittes is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He co-founded and is the editor-in-chief of Lawfare, which is devoted to sober and serious discussion of “Hard National Security Choices.” He is also a contributing writer at the Atlantic. His books include “The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones-Confronting A New Age of Threat” (2015), coauthored with Gabriella Blum; “Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor After Guantanamo” (2011); “Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror“ (2008); “Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times“ (2006); and “Starr: A Reassessment“ (2002). His writing has appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines including Slate, The New Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, and First Things.