Jo Ellen Chatham, Ph.D.
Jo Ellen Chatham is the Director of the Center for Public Policy, Citizenship and Ethics at Concordia University Irvine and the Executive Director of United We Stand: Civility, Citizenship, and the Constitution. For twenty years she was the Director of Public Affairs for Southern California. She has served on the boards of many non-profit organizations including the Orange County Business Council, the Orange County Red Cross, the Pacific Symphony, Orange County Music and Dance. Orange County Taxpayers Association and America’s Public Television Stations. She has been Chairman of PBS SoCal, the Orange County Forum and the World Affairs Council of Orange County and served Vice Chair of the California Bar Association’s Board of Governors.
Jo Ellen served on the Orange County Commission on the Status of Women and as a member of the Leadership Council of the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California Irvine and the Board of Visitors of Chapman University’s School of Law. She earned a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science from California State University Northridge and a M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Southern California. She taught Political Science at West Los Angeles College and has extensive media experience engaging in public policy discussions on television and radio and received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2015.
jc@unitedwestandccc.org
Russell Dawn, Ph.D.
Russell Dawn, Ph.D.Russell Dawn is Associate Professor of History and Political Thought and Director of the Pre-Law program at Concordia University Irvine. He also is the founding Director of the Vision-Mission-Vocation program, through which faculty and senior staff become acquainted with the university’s mission, its vision, and its Lutheran identity.
Russell teaches broadly in history and politics, including courses on the U.S. Constitution, religion and politics, and the history of political thought. He is a rostered church worker in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and is in his seventh year at Concordia. Prior to joining CUI, he was an Assistant Professor of Religion at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.
Academia is a second career for Russell, his first having been corporate law. Russell’s education includes a DPhil and two other degrees in History and Theology from Oxford University, a JD and an MBA from the University of Colorado, and a BS in Finance from Arizona State University. He has published numerous scholarly and popular works and is a regular guest of the Issues, Etc. radio program.
Rana Rafiekian
Rana Rafiekian is the Director of Communications for United We Stand: Civility, Citizenship, and the Constitution. Rana manages traditional/social media strategies and programs and the UWS:CCC website. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California Irvine and completed internships with unusually high levels of authority at the Middle East Policy Council and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She was commended by a Rear Admiral for her outstanding contributions as a strategic communications intern at the United States Naval Postgraduate School in the nation’s Capitol.