ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation

Melissa Stimell is a professor of the practice in the Legal Studies Program, chair of the program in Social Justice and Social Policy and director of ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation. Stimell currently teaches Advocacy for Policy Change, Conflict Analysis and Intervention, and Global Justice and Societies in Transition. She also has led Brandeis Summer in The Hague and the seminars accompanying the internship programs. Stimell received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and her law degree from Boston University School of Law. She has been a public interest attorney for over 30 years, focusing on the representation of vulnerable populations in such areas as criminal law, discrimination of individuals with disabilities, and child welfare.

Kaitie Chakoian is a PhD candidate at the Heller School for Social Policy & Management at Brandeis University. She has been involved with ENACT at Brandeis for the past six years as a Teaching Fellow and Evaluator. Her dissertation research surrounds the experience of college sexual assault survivors navigating the education, criminal-legal, and healthcare systems. She has 15 years of experience working in the non-profit, education, and policy spheres on issues related to gender-based violence. She most recently worked with the Massachusetts Coalition on the Status of Women to author a report on the status of LGBTQ+ women and families in the Commonwealth. She also recently held the role of National Campus Policy Manager with End Rape On Campus, a Washington D.C.-based organization working to end sexual violence at colleges and universities. Chakoian is passionate about the potential of undergraduate students, with the right mentorship and access to information, to change the legislative landscape of their communities, states, and country.

Robert W. Glover is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Honors, a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the Honors College at the University of Maine. Professor Glover is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching, including the UMaine College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching and Advising in 2018. Professor Glover holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Arts from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He is a winner of the Donald Harward Faculty Award for Service-Learning Excellence, an honor given by Maine Campus Compact to exceptional educators who make “public service an integral part of their teaching.” Professor Glover is a member of the first cohort of ENACT Faculty Fellows, and has served as ENACT’s Fellow for Course Resources and as an ENACT Labor Network Faculty Fellow.

Elaina Pevide is a 2020 graduate of Brandeis University, where she built her own major in public policy while pursuing a second major in psychology and a minor in economics. Upon graduation, she returned to her hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts, where she served as the special projects and media coordinator to the city's mayor.

Pevide began her work with ENACT as an ENACT Labor Network student fellow, where she got an immersive education in labor policy. She was able to interact with experts from around the country and with a small cohort of other ENACT students passionate about labor issues.

With the ENACT Labor Network, Pevide began her research and advocacy on the Fair Work Week bill well before enrolling in the Brandeis ENACT course Advocacy for Policy Change in the spring. This work inspired her to focus her senior capstone research project on the implications of labor policy on economic outcomes for low-income women and women of color.

Besides her work with ENACT, Pevide is involved with Brandeis' Women's Studies Research Center; volunteers with Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, which led the coalition for Fair Work Week legislation; and served as editorial assistant to ENACT Assistant Director David Weinstein in preparing Brandeis' 2020 ENACT Anthology.

Pevide is serving as ENACT Student Delegate Mentor in 2023-24, having previously served as an ENACT Student Delegate.

Christopher Plein, Ph.D. is a Professor of Public Administration and Eberly Professor of Outstanding Public Service at West Virginia University. He served as chair of the Department of Public Administration from 2004 until 2011 and also served as an Assistant and Associate Dean for West Virginia University’s Eberly College of Arts & Sciences from 2005 to 2013. He also holds an appointment as adjunct specialist in community and family development with the West Virginia University Extension Service. Professor Plein holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Missouri – Columbia, a Master of Arts in political science from East Tennessee State University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Emory & Henry College. He is a member of the first cohort of ENACT Faculty Fellows.

Powley teaches ENACT-related courses at Brandeis and supports ENACT research.

Powley completed her PhD in Social Policy in 2020 at the Heller School for Policy and Research, where her doctoral work focused on menstrual management and students’ experiences of menstruation in US public schools. Most recently Powley was an Assistant Teaching Professor at Simmons University in their public health department. Powley supported ENACT research initiatives during her graduate work, and served as a teaching assistant for the Brandeis ENACT course in 2020 and 2021.

She will be teaching the ENACT course "Gender, Justice, and Legislation" (LGLS 118B) in spring 2024.

Jennifer Seelig is Director of Community Partnership and Director of the Institute of Government and Politics at Utah State University. She was a policy and research analyst for the Salt Lake City Council between 1995 and 2000, served as a policy and research analyst for Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson between 2000 and 200, and served as the communication and legislative policy analyst for the Utah League of Cities and Towns. From 2003 to 2014, she worked for 1-800 CONTACTS as their Associate Director of Governmental Relations. Professor  was elected by District 23 residents in November of 2006 to serve in the Utah House of Representatives. She served on many committees including the Political Subdivisions and Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, as well as on the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee. She co-chaired Utah's Women in the Economy Commission. In 2012, her peers in the Utah House Democrat Caucus elected her into the leadership position of Democratic Leader, the first woman to serve in this role. Prior to holding this position, Jennifer served in the capacities of Utah House Democratic Caucus Manager and Caucus Whip. She concluded her service as a representative in 2014. Jennifer earned a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Utah, a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Utah and a B.A. in English from the University of Louisville. Professor Seelig is a member of the third cohort of ENACT Faculty Fellows.

In his role as assistant director of ENACT, David Weinstein coordinates the national expansion of the Educational Network for Active Civic Engagement program. He previously served as assistant director of ENACT and Communications for the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, where he managed communications, served as coordinator of the Ethics Center Leadership Council and was editor of the Ethics Central newsletter and the Ethical Inquiry series. He has also worked with the Office of Global Affairs to support international exchanges of students and faculty.

Weinstein is an educator with K-12 teaching experience in public and alternative school settings and has more than 20 years of communications and project-management experience in nonprofits and higher education. In 2020, he was elected to the Cambridge (Massachusetts) School Committee.

Weinstein is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where he earned a bachelor's in American studies, and holds a master's in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Since 1996, Norbert Weissberg has served as chairman and controlling shareholder of Package Research Laboratory, the nation's largest licensee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for inspection of wooden pallets and containers intended for export. During that time, he has also held the position of chairman and controlling shareholder at Stapling Machines Co., a manufacturer of machine tools. From 1998 to 2002, he was chairman of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Israel, and for 12 years prior was president of Ascom Holding Inc., a holding company for seven operating companies owned by Swiss investors.

Weissberg serves on the Ethics Center International Advisory Board as well as on the boards of Medical Development for Israel, the American Jewish Historical Society, the "New Group" Theater and the Brooklyn Historical Society. In 2013, he received the Virtuoso Award from Concert Artists Guild in recognition of his philanthropic work on its behalf, and has since become chairman of that organization. Since 2010, Weissberg and his wife, former board member Judith Schneider, have supported the Advocacy for Policy Change Initiative, a model program that has engaged Brandeis undergraduates with the legislative process on key, state-level social issues. A generous gift from Weissberg and Schneider enabled the center to launch a national expansion of that model in 2015, called ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation.