About us

About us

Our mission

We are dedicated to democratic innovation, experimentation, and capacity building.

Founded in 2013, we are a 501(c)3 non-profit focused on reinventing student government and we have worked primarily in Bolivia. We are part of a growing movement of democratic innovation that is challenging traditional approaches to governance all around the world.

Our people

Bolivia

Raúl Olivera Pereira
United States & Bolivia

Adam Cronkright
Canada

Simon Pek
United Kingdom

Jeff Kennedy
Bolivia

Camila Olivera Rodriguez
United States

Emily Hackerson
Bolivia & Ireland

Thomas Mc Donagh
Bolivia

Raydel Lopez Mier
Bolivia

Oscar Olivera
Australia

Lyn Carson
Australia

Iain Walker
Canada

Peter MacLeod
Bolivia

Raúl Olivera Pereira

Since co-founding Democracy In Practice in 2013, Raúl has been managed every school project to date. Prior, he worked with Maryknoll in capacity building for indigenous religious leaders in the Bolivian Amazon and in popular education with youth in marginalized neighborhoods of Cochabamba. He was also the co-Director of the Andean Information Network (RAI), focusing on issues such as coca farming, drug trafficking, and development, before serving as the Executive Secretary of Franciscans International Bolivia (2007-2009), with a focus on ecology and the environment.

Role:Cofounder, Director

Location:Location: Cochabamba, Bolivia

Hometown:Hometown: Cochabamba, Bolivia

United States & Bolivia

Adam Cronkright

Adam co-founded Democracy In Practice in 2013 while volunteering with the Foundation Abril in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and lived in Bolivia working on the ground there until 2018. Currently he is working in the US helping launch a Citizens’ Panel on Covid-19. He is also on the Coordinating Committee of Democracy R&D, a network of 30 organizations advancing democratic lotteries in 18 countries around the world. Back in the day, Adam was deeply involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests in Manhattan, where he co-facilitated two sessions of the occupation’s General Assembly.

Role:Cofounder, Director

Location:Hometown: Syracuse, NY, USA

Canada

Simon Pek

Simon is a co-founder and member of the board of directors of Democracy In Practice. He currently works as an Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Organization Theory at the University of Victoria, and has wide-ranging practical and research interests in democratic reform, organizational democracy, sustainability, and organizational culture.He is keen to collaborate with a variety of organizations including schools, labor unions, and cooperatives to help reinvigorate their internal democracy.

Role:Cofounder, Director

Location:Location: Victoria, BC, Canada

Hometown:Hometown: Ottawa, Canada

United Kingdom

Jeff Kennedy

Jeff is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at Queen Mary University of London’s School of Law, where he researches democracy in the contexts of criminal justice and higher education. Having earned his PhD at McGill, he has a love for scholarship, but also a drive to roll up his sleeves and get involved. He has been actively involved in community initiatives, with a particular focus on the impacts of incarceration, and has seen firsthand the potential of everyday people to tackle difficult social issues. This potential, and his passion for putting imagination to work led him to co-found Democracy In Practice in 2013.

Role:Cofounder, Director

Location:Location: London, UK

Hometown:Hometown: Prince Edward County, ON, Canada

Bolivia

Camila Olivera Rodriguez

Camila helps out with workshops and student lotteries in the schools. She has also captured some of the pictures and video found on our website and edits all of our Spanish materials – including our website. Camila is from Cochabamba and in the past worked on grassroots projects related to water for one of our partner organizations, the Foundation Abril.

United States

Emily Hackerson

Emily researched and authored our most extensive step-by-step guide, Student Government Facilitation, which you can access and download on our Resources page. She is originally from Vermont (USA) and currently lives and works as a workplace education consultant in Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA).

Bolivia & Ireland

Thomas Mc Donagh

Thomas helps out with interpreting for our team meetings and has given us feedback and advice at different stages of our work in Bolivia. Thomas is originally form Dublin, Ireland but has worked in Latin America with social justice and environmental organizations, such as the Democracy Center, at different levels since 2011.

Bolivia

Raydel Lopez Mier

Raydel has helped out with student lotteries and was particularly active in the introductory workshops that were given at each school. Raydel is originally from Havana, Cuba and is currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration.

Bolivia

Oscar Olivera

Oscar is best known for his important role as an organizer, activist, and spokesperson for “La Coordinadora del Agua” during the so-called ‘Water War’ protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia (2000). He has received numerous awards, including the Letelier-Moffit Human Rights Award (2000) and the Goldman Environmental Prize (2001). Currently, Oscar is an active member the Andean School of Water and the Director of La Foundation Abril, a non-profit organization that promotes alternative participatory and democratic processes in labor claims and in the management of water as a common good, through initiatives based on organization, management, education, research and grassroots mobilization. Oscar was also an industrial metal worker for 40 years, and served as a factory workers’ union leader from 1980 to 2010.

:Founder & Director

:Abril Foundation

:Cochabamba, Bolivia

Australia

Lyn Carson

Lyn Carson is the Research Director of the newDemocracy Foundation, an honorary professor with the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, adjunct professor with the University of Western Sydney, and associate of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She was formerly a professor in applied politics at the University of Sydney Business School. She has extensive experience with deliberative democratic processes at local, state, and national levels, having been involved in the design and facilitation of Deliberative Polls, Citizens’ Juries, Televotes, and Australia’s first Consensus Conference, Youth Jury, and Citizens’ Parliament. ‘Carson’ has also written a number of handbooks on community engagement, many articles and book chapters on public participation, co-wrote the book Random Selection in Politics (Praeger, 1999), and co-edited The Australian Citizens’ Parliament & The Future of Deliberative Democracy (2013). She has a long history of community engagement, dating back to her 1991 election to the Lismore City Council, NSW, much of which is documented on her personal website: http://www.activedemocracy.net/.

:Research Director

:newDemocracy Foundation

:Australia

Australia

Iain Walker

Iain is currently the Executive Director of the newDemocracy Foundation, an organization that has pioneered the use and study of citizens juries, random selection in participatory budgeting, and other democratic innovations. Iain holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from the University of Technology, Sydney. Before joining the newDemocracy Foundation, he held commercial roles in professional sport at the PGA Tour and Golf Australia, as well as in the technology industry at Microsoft Australia.

:Executive Director

:newDemocracy Foundation

:Australia

Canada

Peter MacLeod

Peter is one of Canada’s leading experts in public engagement and deliberative democracy. He is the Co-founder and Principal of MASS LBP, an innovative firm based in Toronto, Canada which works to deepen and improve public consultation and engagement. Since 2007, MASS LBP has led some of Canada’s most original and ambitious efforts to engage citizens in tackling tough policy options while pioneering the use of Civic Lotteries and Citizen Reference Panels. Over the past ten years Peter has worked with leading organizations in North America and Europe, including Vancouver’s Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Britain’s Demos think tank and the Kaospilots, a Danish school for business design and social innovation. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, he writes and speaks frequently about the citizen’s experience of the state, the importance of public imagination and the future of responsible government. He is an Action Canada fellow (2003), the 2008 recipient of the Public Policy Forum’s Emerging Leaders Award, and a Director of Toronto’s Wellesley Institute for Urban Health.

:Pincipal & Cofounder

:MASS LBP

:Toronto, Canada

Our partners

International

Democracy R&D
Bolivia

Foundation Abril
Australia

newDemocracy Foundation
International

Democracy R&D

We are a founding member of Democracy R&D, an international network of organizations and individuals that develop, implement, and promote ways to improve democracy, from the local to the global level. It is currently made up of 30 organizations in 18 countries, as well as renowned academics from around the world.

Location:International

Bolivia

Foundation Abril

The Foundation Abril is a Bolivian non-profit organization that promotes alternative participatory and democratic processes in labor claims and in the management of water as a common good, through initiatives based on organization, management, education, research and grassroots mobilization. The Foundation Abril provides hands-on logistical and advisory support as well as office space for Democracy In Practice.

Location:Cochabamba, Bolivia

Australia

newDemocracy Foundation

The newDemocracy Foundation is an independent, non-partisan research organization aiming to identify improvements to democratic process. It aims to replace the adversarial with the deliberative, and move out of the “continuous campaign” cycle. The nDF provides advisory support for Democracy In Practice, and has provided grant funding for us to conduct research regarding our work.

Location:New South Wales, Australia

Contact us






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    Democracy In Practice is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to democratic experimentation, innovation, and capacity building.

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