Our Team
Our team brings a together a diverse set of talents and business experience. We have developed one of the largest values and behavioral databases in America, shut down sex trafficking operations, gotten justice for victims of terrorist attacks, run national political campaigns, developed a top-rated iPad game, led successful international NGO coalition efforts for bilateral and UN treaties, and produced award-winning television programs.
We all come to Public Democracy from careers that align what is right with what works in politics, entertainment, and business — careers that have sought to balance that to which we aspire with the reality of what is in pursuit of real-world solutions that support the common good.
-
A Departing House Democrat Traces 30 Years of G.O.P. History A great man, mentor, and public servant. Words of wi… https://t.co/9PINoe8GE7
ERIC SAPP
President
As an entrepreneur, faith leader, and political advisor, Eric Sapp has spent his career supporting communities all over the world in their efforts to promote the common good.
Eric co-founded Common Good Strategies, later the Eleison Group, which led outreach to faith and rural communities for top Democratic candidates in 2006 and 2008. He has since pioneered the use of new technologies in successful campaigns on issues ranging from international peacekeeping and human rights to grassroots efforts supporting veterans and protecting victims of terrorism. Through these efforts, his team developed one of the largest voter response databases and most sophisticated digital advertising platforms in the country, which in 2018 became a Public Benefit Corporation called Public Democracy. By focusing on identifying where and why holes in behavioral data exist and how to fill them, Public Democracy is pioneering a new form of data insight and creation.
Eric currently serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council focused on Data For Good, Data Trusts, Inclusive Growth, and Computational Propaganda. He is on the Board of Directors of Public Democracy America (501c3). Eric graduated from Davidson College and earned a Master of Divinity and a Master of Public Policy from Duke University. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife and their son and daughter.
ROB LALKA
Chairman of the board
Rob Lalka serves on the board of Public Democracy, where he leads partnership development and advises on technology strategies to empower communities in pursuit of the common good.
Rob is Professor of the Practice at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and the Executive Director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Prior to Tulane, he served as Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Propeller, a New Orleans-based startup accelerator and community development fund. He served in that same role at Village Capital, a global startup accelerator and seed fund. He is the co-founder of Medora Ventures, a consulting firm that supports investments with returns for shareholders, the local community, society overall, and generations to come.
Rob moved to New Orleans from Washington, DC, where he was a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and a Presidential Management Fellow in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships. He also served on the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff, where he coauthored the president’s cross-sector partnerships strategy. Rob graduated from Yale University, cum laude, and earned a Master of Public Policy from Duke University. He, his wife, and their son reside in New Orleans' Broadmoor neighborhood, where he serves as a Commissioner for the Broadmoor Improvement Association.
ADAM ZUCKERMAN
ChIEF STRATEGIST
As an entrepreneur, attorney, and MBA, Adam has maintained a common goal of helping others via innovative collaborative approaches throughout his various endeavors.
Formerly, Adam was Director, Ventures & Innovation at the world's leader in real life entertainment, Discovery, Inc. His role was often described as the company’s global intrapreneur and futurist, responsible for identifying new technologies for implementation, investing in startups, and serving as the primary contact for startups. He is also a 2018 Eisenhower Fellow, an adviser to several startups, an adjunct professor teaching innovation strategy at the University of Maryland, and the founder of Fosterly, an organization that connects innovators and entrepreneurs as they start and scale their endeavors in the greater Washington, DC region.
Adam received his BA in Political Science, JD, and MBA from Washington, University in St. Louis and lives in Arlington, VA with his wife.
Emilee Lord
Director of Communications
Erica Savage Wilson
Director of Outreach