Chief Legal Officer and Policy Director, Cicero Institute
Jonathan Wolfson is the Chief Legal Officer and Policy Director at the Cicero Institute. Before joining Cicero, he led the Policy Office at the U.S. Department of Labor where he managed DOL's deregulatory efforts and oversaw DOL's internal policy development think tank. He previously was a litigator and regulatory attorney at an international law firm representing clients before state and federal courts across the country. Following law school he served as a law clerk to The Honorable Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before law school, Jonathan was a policy analyst at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Jonathan received an A.B. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an Olin Law and Economic Fellow and won the John M. Olin Prize for best original law and economics research.
Policy Director, Fulcrum Foundation
Reeve T. Bull is the Policy Director of the Fulcrum Foundation. In this role, he promotes executive and legislative reforms designed to update and streamline the regulatory system. These reforms draw upon the work Mr. Bull undertook in his previous role as the Director of the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management (ORM). During his time at ORM, he led the Commonwealth's efforts related to regulatory streamlining and permitting transparency and the development and implementation of artificial intelligence policy.
Previously, Mr. Bull served as the Research Director of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). At ACUS, he worked on projects related to international regulatory cooperation, the use of science by administrative agencies, presidential review of agency rulemaking, cost-benefit analysis, government contractor ethics, and e-rulemaking, among other things. Mr. Bull has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School and the George Washington University, teaching courses on Administrative Law. Mr. Bull has published numerous articles in highly regarded law journals, including the Administrative Law Review, George Washington Law Review, and Law and Contemporary Problems. Mr. Bull is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Bull worked in the private sector as an associate with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and in government service as a law clerk to the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. During his time as an associate with Gibson Dunn, Mr. Bull worked on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters. He participated in cases appearing before the United States Supreme Court, several federal Courts of Appeals, and numerous federal district courts and state trial courts. His experience spanned a variety of practice areas, including administrative, constitutional, intellectual property, antitrust, environmental, securities, and white collar criminal law. During his clerkship for Judge Schall, Mr. Bull assisted with appeals in cases spanning a variety of areas, with particular emphasis on administrative and patent law.
Mr. Bull attended law school at Duke University, where he graduated with highest honors and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. He was one of two recipients of the Willis Smith Award for compiling the most outstanding academic record in the graduating class and the recipient of the James S. Bidlake Memorial Award for achieving the highest grade in his first year legal writing section. Mr. Bull also served as a Note Editor on the Duke Law Journal. Prior to law school, Mr. Bull attended the University of Oklahoma, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors in Chemistry and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
General Counsel, Office of Indiana Governor Mike Braun
Policy Director, Fulcrum Foundation
Reeve T. Bull is the Policy Director of the Fulcrum Foundation. In this role, he promotes executive and legislative reforms designed to update and streamline the regulatory system. These reforms draw upon the work Mr. Bull undertook in his previous role as the Director of the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management (ORM). During his time at ORM, he led the Commonwealth's efforts related to regulatory streamlining and permitting transparency and the development and implementation of artificial intelligence policy.
Previously, Mr. Bull served as the Research Director of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). At ACUS, he worked on projects related to international regulatory cooperation, the use of science by administrative agencies, presidential review of agency rulemaking, cost-benefit analysis, government contractor ethics, and e-rulemaking, among other things. Mr. Bull has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School and the George Washington University, teaching courses on Administrative Law. Mr. Bull has published numerous articles in highly regarded law journals, including the Administrative Law Review, George Washington Law Review, and Law and Contemporary Problems. Mr. Bull is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Bull worked in the private sector as an associate with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and in government service as a law clerk to the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. During his time as an associate with Gibson Dunn, Mr. Bull worked on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters. He participated in cases appearing before the United States Supreme Court, several federal Courts of Appeals, and numerous federal district courts and state trial courts. His experience spanned a variety of practice areas, including administrative, constitutional, intellectual property, antitrust, environmental, securities, and white collar criminal law. During his clerkship for Judge Schall, Mr. Bull assisted with appeals in cases spanning a variety of areas, with particular emphasis on administrative and patent law.
Mr. Bull attended law school at Duke University, where he graduated with highest honors and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. He was one of two recipients of the Willis Smith Award for compiling the most outstanding academic record in the graduating class and the recipient of the James S. Bidlake Memorial Award for achieving the highest grade in his first year legal writing section. Mr. Bull also served as a Note Editor on the Duke Law Journal. Prior to law school, Mr. Bull attended the University of Oklahoma, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors in Chemistry and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Alex J. Adams, PharmD, MPH, serves as director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. He was appointed to lead the department by Gov. Brad Little in May 2024.
Prior to leading the department, Dr. Adams spent more than five years as Governor Little’s budget and regulatory director. In this capacity, he oversaw the state’s first upgrade to a AAA credit rating with both Fitch Ratings and Moody’s. He helped lead development of major policy initiatives such as Idaho LAUNCH and the financing of $1.5 billion in school facility infrastructure improvements. He helped build the rainy-day funds to the largest fund balance in state history. He also led the Governor’s zero-based regulation initiative, which led to Idaho becoming the least regulated state in the nation, eliminating more than 2,700 pages of regulations.
He earned his bachelor’s degree and Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Toledo in Ohio, graduating as class valedictorian, and his Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Dr. Adams lives in Eagle with his wife, Jennifer, and daughter, Emerson.
Executive Director, Center for Election Confidence
Lisa L. Dixon serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Election Confidence (formerly known as Lawyers Democracy Fund). Lisa is also a consultant for the Republican National Lawyers Association, serving as their Legal Counsel. Previously, Lisa practiced at Holtzman Vogel, where she specialized in tax-exempt organizations, campaign finance and election law, and lobbying compliance.
During law school, she interned for the Office of Chief Counsel, Procedure and Administration, at the Internal Revenue Service and at the Center for Law and Religious Freedom. Before law school, she served as the Assistant Student Division Director at The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and interned at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
Lisa earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, an M.A. in History from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in History from Hillsdale College. After 18 years on the East Coast, mostly in northern Virginia, she recently returned to her native Michigan, where she lives with her husband and three sons.
Professor, Political Science and Public Administration, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Dr. Martha Kropf is Professor of Political Science & Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her Ph.D. is from American University in Washington, DC in Political Science (fields: American Politics, Public Policy and Public Economics). She worked two years at the University of Maryland Survey Research Center (Project Coordinator) and taught at the University of Missouri-Kansas City before coming to UNC Charlotte. Her areas of research include the study of elections and election reform, voting and political mobilization. She has published in the Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly and Public Opinion Quarterly. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Aspen Institute.
Attorney
Maya M. Noronha is a civil rights attorney.
As special counsel for external affairs at First Liberty Institute, Maya worked for the largest legal organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to defending religious liberty for all Americans.
Previously, Maya worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as acting chief of staff of the Administration for Children and Families; principal advisor to the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families; and senior advisor to the Director of the Office for Civil Rights and regulatory reform officer. She provided advice on federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of conscience, religion, race, color, national origin, limited English proficiency, sex, disability, age, and health information in both health care and human services.
In the area of election law, Maya has advised officials elected to or candidates for President, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Governor, state legislature, city council, and magisterial district judge. She practiced law at Baker Hostetler LLP, where she was on the Political Law and Federal Advocacy Teams, advising clients on voting rights, redistricting, election integrity, campaign finance, financial reporting, ethics compliance, as well as conducting trial and appellate litigation. She also has delivered legislative testimony, planned continuing legal education conferences on election law, and published about voting rights and election administration.
In addition to addressing the Federalist Society, she has delivered remarks to the White House Initiative on Asian American Pacific Islanders, United States Senate, Women in Government Relations, Georgetown University, George Mason University School of Law, the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, and Arizona State University Cronkite School of Journalism.
Maya is in Phi Beta Kappa, a member of the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society, and a John Carroll Scholar. Forbes Magazine recognized Maya as one of its 30 under 30 in Law and Public Policy.
She serves concurrently on the Federalist Society’s Free Speech & Election Law Executive Committee and the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Election Law.
Education
· J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2011
· A.B., Georgetown University, 2005
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and is known for his writing on the American legal system. His books include The Rule of Lawyers, on mass litigation, The Excuse Factory, on lawsuits in the workplace, and most recently Schools for Misrule, on the state of the law schools. His first book, The Litigation Explosion, was one of the most widely discussed general-audience books on law of its time. It led the Washington Post to dub him “intellectual guru of tort reform.” Active on social media, he is known as the founder and principal writer of what is generally considered the oldest blog on law as well as one of the most popular, Overlawyered.com. He has advised many public officials from the White House to town councils and in 2015 was named by Gov. Larry Hogan to be co-chair of the Maryland Redistricting Reform Commission, which issued its report recommendations later that year to acclaim across the state.
Before joining Cato, Olson was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an editor at the magazine Regulation, then edited by future Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Olson’s more than 400 broadcast appearances include all the major networks, NPR, the BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, and Oprah.
Constitutional Scholarship Director and Senior Legal Analyst, Pacific Legal Foundation
Anastasia Boden is Director of Constitutional Scholarship at Pacific Legal Foundation, where she leads the organization’s Supreme Court commentary and directs scholarly analysis in support of the firm’s litigation. She has represented entrepreneurs and small businesses nationwide in challenges to onerous licensing regimes, anti-competitive titling restrictions, Certificate of Need (“competitor’s veto”) laws, and other forms of unnecessary red tape that block economic opportunity.
Prior to this role, Anastasia developed nearly a dozen constitutional challenges to Certificate of Need laws across the country, helping spur legislative reform in Montana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Her victories include a ruling invalidating Houston’s busking restrictions, multiple appellate decisions expanding access to the courts for civil rights plaintiffs, and the legislative repeal of Virginia’s happy-hour advertising ban.
Her writings on law and liberty have been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and more, and she has appeared on Headline News, CBS News, Fox News, ReasonTV, Newsmax, and John Stossel. In 2020, she was featured on Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen’s Supreme Court shortlist.
Anastasia earned her BA with dean’s honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was research assistant to Professor Randy E. Barnett—the “intellectual godfather” of the constitutional challenge to Obamacare. She is the co-creator of the podcast Dissed, about infamous Supreme Court dissents. She authors the biweekly newsletter SCOTUS Scoop and the column, “In Dissent” for SCOTUSblog.
Policy Director, Fulcrum Foundation
Reeve T. Bull is the Policy Director of the Fulcrum Foundation. In this role, he promotes executive and legislative reforms designed to update and streamline the regulatory system. These reforms draw upon the work Mr. Bull undertook in his previous role as the Director of the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management (ORM). During his time at ORM, he led the Commonwealth's efforts related to regulatory streamlining and permitting transparency and the development and implementation of artificial intelligence policy.
Previously, Mr. Bull served as the Research Director of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). At ACUS, he worked on projects related to international regulatory cooperation, the use of science by administrative agencies, presidential review of agency rulemaking, cost-benefit analysis, government contractor ethics, and e-rulemaking, among other things. Mr. Bull has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School and the George Washington University, teaching courses on Administrative Law. Mr. Bull has published numerous articles in highly regarded law journals, including the Administrative Law Review, George Washington Law Review, and Law and Contemporary Problems. Mr. Bull is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Bull worked in the private sector as an associate with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and in government service as a law clerk to the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. During his time as an associate with Gibson Dunn, Mr. Bull worked on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters. He participated in cases appearing before the United States Supreme Court, several federal Courts of Appeals, and numerous federal district courts and state trial courts. His experience spanned a variety of practice areas, including administrative, constitutional, intellectual property, antitrust, environmental, securities, and white collar criminal law. During his clerkship for Judge Schall, Mr. Bull assisted with appeals in cases spanning a variety of areas, with particular emphasis on administrative and patent law.
Mr. Bull attended law school at Duke University, where he graduated with highest honors and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. He was one of two recipients of the Willis Smith Award for compiling the most outstanding academic record in the graduating class and the recipient of the James S. Bidlake Memorial Award for achieving the highest grade in his first year legal writing section. Mr. Bull also served as a Note Editor on the Duke Law Journal. Prior to law school, Mr. Bull attended the University of Oklahoma, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors in Chemistry and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
Caroline Cecot is an Assistant Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. She teaches environmental and administrative law and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and law reviews on cost-benefit analysis, regulatory reform, and environmental regulation.
Professor Cecot holds a JD from Vanderbilt Law School, where she received the Robert F. Jackson and Archie B. Martin Memorial Prizes for her grades; was elected to Order of the Coif; and served as Senior Articles Editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review and Articles Editor for the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review. Professor Cecot also holds a PhD in law and economics from Vanderbilt University. Following her graduate studies, Professor Cecot was the Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Law and Economics at Vanderbilt Law School and clerked for the Honorable Raymond J. Lohier, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She was also Legal Fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, where she authored amicus curiae briefs and submitted comments on environmental and regulatory issues. Professor Cecot graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude with an AB degree in economics.
Holland & Hart, Partner
On February 28, 2019, the U.S. Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as the fifteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. President Donald J. Trump had announced his appointment as the Acting EPA Administrator on July 5, 2018. Mr. Wheeler had previously been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the EPA Deputy Administrator on April 12, 2018.
Mr. Wheeler has dedicated his career to advancing sound environmental policies. He began his career during the George H. W. Bush Administration as a Special Assistant in EPA’s Pollution Prevention and Toxics office.
He was a Principal and the team leader of the Energy and Environment Practice Group at FaegreBD Consulting, as well as Counsel at Faegre Baker Daniels law firm, where he practiced since 2009. He also served as the Co-chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Industry team across the entire firm.
Prior to his work with the firm, Mr. Wheeler served for six years as the Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel, as well as the Minority Staff Director, of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Before his time at the full Senate EPW Committee, Mr. Wheeler served in a similar capacity for six years for the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands and Nuclear Safety.
Mr. Wheeler is the past Chairman of the National Energy Resource Organization (NERO) and a Stennis Fellow. Mr. Wheeler is also an Eagle Scout.
Mr. Wheeler is from Fairfield, Ohio. He completed his law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, his MBA at George Mason University, and his undergraduate work at Case Western Reserve University in English and Biology.
Vice President and Legal Director, National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation, Inc.
William Messenger is Foundation Vice President and Legal Director. He was a staff attorney for over twenty years and, during that time, represented individuals in numerous cases that sought to expand worker freedom of choice. This includes acting as lead counsel in three cases before the United States Supreme Court. In 2018, Messenger argued Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, where the Supreme Court held it violates the First Amendment for governments and unions to compel individuals to financially support unions and their speech. Originally from Youngstown Ohio, Messenger attended Ohio University as an undergraduate and then the George Washington University School of Law.
Inaugural Executive Branch Summit
Structural Constitution Initiative
Washington, DCExplainer Episode 89 - State Lessons for DOGE
Jonathan Wolfson, Reeve T. Bull, Patrick Price
In a little over 100 days, the Department of Government Efficiency, or "DOGE," has fundamentally...
Explainer Episode 71 - Regulatory Modernization in Idaho and Virginia: What lessons can be learned?
Reeve T. Bull, Alex J. Adams
Alex J. Adams, Director of Idaho's Department of Health and Welfare is joined by Reeve...
Does Ranked Choice Voting Help or Hurt?
Lisa L. Dixon, Martha Kropf, Maya Noronha, Walter K. Olson
Ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, is a voting method where voters...
Virginia’s New Approach to Regulatory Modernization
Anastasia P. Boden, Reeve T. Bull, Caroline Cecot, Andrew Wheeler
Regulatory modernization has been a topic of nationwide interest in recent months. With its recently...
Does the First Amendment Allow States to Compel Recipients of Government Monies to Support State-Designated Representatives?
William L. Messenger
A basic precept of democracy is that citizens choose their representatives in government. A growing...
Making Prisons Compete: Private Prisons and the Demands on the Public System
Geoffrey F. Segal, Alexander McCobin
The American public is growing increasingly frustrated with the escalating cost of managing our vast...