Rebecca Mears is the director of Democracy in the Structural Reform and Governance department at American Progress.
Prior to joining American Progress, Mears was a political law attorney at Elias Law Group and Perkins Coie, where she specialized in campaign finance, voting rights, and election law at the federal, state, and local level. In this role, Mears provided counsel to members of Congress, multimillion-dollar political committees, and nonprofit organizations. Mears also co-authored an amicus brief that was submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 165 universities and colleges in support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Earlier in her career, Mears interned across a variety of nonprofit organizations and government agencies, including the White House Domestic Policy Council and the California Attorney General’s Office. During her time with the attorney general, she worked on the online portal OpenJustice, which makes criminal justice data accessible to the public, helping enhance government accountability and inform public policy.
Mears earned her law degree from Stanford Law School, her master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and her bachelor’s degree in political science and public policy from Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude.