Home | Hollie Russon Gilman

Dr. Hollie Russon Gilman is a political scientist, lecturer, advisor, and civic strategist on topics at the intersection of civic engagement, digital technology, and governance. In particular, her research is focused on building a more participatory and inclusive democracy. This includes exploring participatory innovation, civic infrastructure, cities, and the opportunities and challenges of digital technologies to enhance governance, deepen belonging, and improve public policy. She is a frequent writer, speaker, and contributor on these topics. She led the working group on building national civic infrastructure as part of the American Academy of Art's and Science's Our Common Purpose Report and co-facilitated a high-level convenning at Sunnylands. She currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the Trust for Civic Life, a new philanthropic collaborative for supporting civic life across rural America.

Hollie Russon Gilman holds a Ph.D. and MA from Harvard's Department of Government as well as an A.B. from the University of Chicago with highest honors in political science. Her first book Democracy Reinvented: Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation in the United States

was noted by Inc.com as a critical book deciding the future of our cities.

She is currently a Senior Fellow at New America's Political Reform Program where she leads the Participatory Democracy Project and an Affiliate Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and a Senior Advisor to the Harvard-Bloomberg City Leadership Initiative where she teaches senior city leaders on designing public engagement to drive better community outcomes.

She previously served in the Obama Administration as the White House Open Government and Innovation Advisor working to enhance civic engagement across the United States Government.

She also served as an inaugural Columbia University World Projects Fellow.

Dr. Russon Gilman has advised numerous companies, startups, and foundations including the Case Foundation, Ford Foundation, Knight Foundation, Gates Foundation, Google.org, Open Society Foundation, the World Bank, and Harvard's Gettysburg Project on 21st Century Engagement.

She has published in numerous academic and popular audience publications including The International Studies Review; PS: Journal of Political Science and Politics, and the Journal of Public Deliberation. Her popular writings have appeared in several news outlets including Axios, The Boston Globe, Foreign Affairs, NextCity, Slate, Stanford Social Innovation Review, TechCrunch, Vox, and The Washington Post. Updated writings, speaking engagements, and publications are available here. Please see below for a selection of works.

She is a recipient of numerous awards, including AAAS Big Data and Analytics Fellowship, Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Fellowship, Harvard's Ash Center Democracy Fellowship, Georgetown's Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, Fulbright Scholarship, Center for the American Presidency, and Congress Presidential Fellowship.

She has served on the faculty of Georgetown University and Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) where she designed and taught new courses on digital technology and governance. At SIPA, she incubated a new initiative on Digital Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy; engaging scholars, entrepreneurs, and leaders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors, to advance the study of innovation, digital technology, and public policy.

Originally from New York City, she has spent time organizing in rural New Hampshire, studying in Beijing, and loves exploring new parts of America and the globe.

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My new book Civic Power: Rebuilding American Democracy in an Era of Democratic Crisis, with Sabeel Rahman, Former President of Demos, and published by Cambridge University Press, explores how can to enable people in their communities to have a greater voice and power in civic life and policymaking. We examine new organizing models in grassroots communities as well as new governance innovations which leverage civic tech, human-centered design, and participatory governance innovation.

My first book, Democracy Reinvented is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology and innovation. This global phenomenon, which has been called “revolutionary civics in action” by the New York Times, started in Brazil in 1989 but came to America only in 2009. Participatory budgeting empowers residents to identify community needs, work with elected officials to craft budget proposals, and vote on how to spend public funds. It is part of Harvard's series of Innovative Governance in the 21st Century with Brookings Institution Press.