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About

Board of Advisors

American Moment’s Board of Advisors provide invaluable guidance to
our intellectual vision, policy programming, and organizational strategy.

Rachel Bovard

Rachel Bovard is the Executive Director of the Senate Steering Committee. She has served in both the House and Senate in various roles, including on the Senate Steering Committee under Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), advising Committee members on floor procedure and policy matters. Previously, she was the Policy Director at the Conservative Partnership Institute.

Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer is the senior editor-at-large of Newsweek, a research fellow at the Edmund Burke Foundation, a syndicated columnist, a contributing editor for Anchoring Truths, and counsel and policy advisor for the Internet Accountability Project. A graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School, Josh has worked at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Ryan Girdusky

Ryan Girdusky is a political consultant and writer. In 2021, he founded 1776 Project PAC, the first nationwide political action committee dedicated to school board elections.

He’s a native New Yorker and the co-author of the book “They’re Not Listening: How The Elites Created the National Populist Revolution.”

Terry Schilling

Terry Schilling is the Executive Director of the American Principles Project, responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing APP’s strategy, and messaging and grassroots activity at the state and federal level. As the son of a small business owner, Terry knows how to leverage limited resources to generate maximum results. 

Alexa Walker

Alexa Walker is the Director of Coalitions at The Heritage Foundation. She leads the Foundation’s coalition and engagement efforts to advance policy priorities, while growing and strengthening the conservative movement on both the federal and state level.

Previously, Walker was the Director of Coalitions and Member Services for the Republican Study Committee (RSC).

Theo Wold

Theodore Wold is the Solicitor General of Idaho. Previously, Wold served as the Acting- Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President Donald Trump.

Prior to his three-and-a-half years of service in the Trump White House, Wold previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel to United States Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Emeritus Board

American Moment Emeritus Board features previous members of
our rotating Board of Advisors who continue to inspire our work.

James Braid

James Braid serves as Legislative Director to Senator J.D. Vance. He previously served as the Chief of Staff to Representatives Ken Buck (R-CO) and Matt Rosendale (R-MT). In the Trump Administration, he was Deputy to the Associate Director for Legislative Affairs at OMB

J.D. Vance

J.D. Vance is a U.S. Senator from Ohio. An investor, commentator, and author of the #1 NYT Bestselling Hillbilly Elegy, he was raised by his working-class grandparents in Middletown, Ohio. J.D. graduated from Middletown High School in 2003 and then immediately enlisted

Saagar Enjeti

Saagar Enieti is the conservative host of Breaking Points, a chart-topping online news show. He is the former host of Rising at The Hill TV and cohost of the popular podcast The Realignment. Saagar formerly served as White House Correspondent for The Daily Caller

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Rachel Bovard

Rachel has over a decade of experience fighting for conservative policies in Washington. Beginning in 2006, she served in both the House and Senate in various roles including as legislative director for Senator Rand Paul.

Rachel went on to serve as policy director for the Senate Steering Committee under the successive chairmanships of Senator Pat Toomey and Senator Mike Lee, where she advised Committee members on strategy related to floor procedure and policy matters. In the House, she worked as senior legislative assistant to Congressman Donald Manzullo, and Congressman Ted Poe. She also served as director of policy services for The Heritage Foundation.

In 2013, she was named one of National Journal’s Most Influential Women in Washington under 35. Her policy analysis and punditry appear widely in print and on television. Rachel serves on USA Today’s Board of Contributors, and is also the senior tech columnist for The Federalist.

Along with CPI’s Chairman, Sen. Jim DeMint, Rachel is the co-author of Conservative: Knowing What To Keep. She also serves on the board of Council for National Policy Action, the Advisory Board of American Moment, and the Advisory Board of The American Conservative.

Born and raised in Dansville, NY, she received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude from Grove City College in 2006. She also holds a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. In addition to her public policy pursuits, Rachel is an accomplished sommelier, a wine educator, and a diploma candidate in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

Follow Rachel on Twitter at @RachelBovard. Sign up here to receive her weekly columns directly to your inbox.

Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer is the senior editor-at-large of Newsweek, a research fellow at the Edmund Burke Foundation, a syndicated columnist, a contributing editor for Anchoring Truths, and counsel and policy advisor for the Internet Accountability Project.

A graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School, Josh has worked at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and clerked for Judge James C. Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a former John Marshall Fellow with the Claremont Institute, a law school campus speaker through the Federalist Society, a college campus speaker through Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Young America’s Foundation, and an American Compass member.

In addition to Newsweek, he has been published by National Affairs, National Review, First Things, City Journal, Public Discourse, Tablet Magazine, Deseret Magazine, Fortune, Fox Business, the New York Post, the Los Angeles Times, The American Conservative, The American Mind, The National Interest, The Spectator, American Greatness, and other leading publications. Josh has also had formal constitutional scholarship published by the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy and the University of St. Thomas Law Journal.

Follow Josh on Twitter at @josh_hammer. 

Ryan Girdusky

Ryan Girdusky is a political consultant and writer. In 2021, he founded 1776 Project PAC, the first nationwide political action committee dedicated to school board elections. 

He’s a native New Yorker and the co-author of the book “They’re Not Listening: How The Elites Created the National Populist Revolution,” released in June 2020.

In addition, his National-Populist newsletter, started in 2019, has grown to amass thousands of readers, including many congressmen and influential leaders in Washington. 

From 2015-2017, he was the Senior Writer at Red Alert Politics.

Terry Schilling

Terry Schilling is the Executive Director of the American Principles Project, responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing APP’s strategy, and messaging and grassroots activity at the state and federal level.

As the son of a small business owner, Terry knows how to leverage limited resources to generate maximum results. He takes the same approach to politics—especially campaigns.

In the past, Terry has worked in communications, development, grassroots, and management positions with Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Sen. Sam Brownback, and various state and local candidates. Before joining APP, Terry managed his father’s race for Congress in Illinois. During college, he served as vice president of his student government association and as the director of grassroots operations for the College Republicans.

Terry is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville and a proud father of five. You can follow Terry on Twitter @Schilling1776.

Alexa Walker

Alexa Walker is the Director of Coalitions at The Heritage Foundation. She leads the Foundation’s coalition and engagement efforts to advance policy priorities, while growing and strengthening the conservative movement on both the federal and state level. 

Prior to joining Heritage, Walker was the Director of Coalitions and Member Services for the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the oldest caucus of conservatives in the U.S. Congress, where she served under three chairmen including Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN), Congressman Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Congressman Mark Walker (R-NC).  There, she led the caucus’ strategic outreach and managed communication to and coordination with coalition allies. Additionally, she worked closely with the professional policy staff on the introduction of legislative proposals and policy reports across a broad portfolio of domestic and foreign policy priorities. 

She also served as a senior advisor and internal liaison to RSC Members and their respective staff.  Prior to her role at RSC, Walker served on the staffs of and advised leading conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives including Congressman Mark Walker (R-NC), Congressman Dave Brat (R-VA), and Congressman Raul Labrador (R-ID).  

Walker was born and raised in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon.  She is an active member of her local community in Washington, DC, serving in children’s ministry at her church and as an officer in a local chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. She was a Hillsdale College James Madison Fellow and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. 

Theo Wold

Theodore Wold is the Solicitor General of Idaho. Previously, Wold served as the Acting-Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President Donald Trump. 

Prior to his three-and-a-half years of service in the Trump White House, Wold previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel to United States Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Wold holds a B.A. from Georgetown University, where he studied government and English; an M. Litt. from the University of St. Andrews, where he studied English literature; and a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame.  Wold clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for Judge Janice Rogers Brown and the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico for Judge José Antonio Fusté.

Wold is a Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. Wold and his wife have four children and live in Boise, Idaho.

James Braid

James Braid serves as Chief of Staff to the Hon. Ken Buck.  Previously, he served as Rep. Rosendale’s Chief of Staff.  In the Trump Administration, he was Deputy to the Associate Director for Legislative Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.  Prior to his service in the administration, he was Policy Director for the House Freedom Caucus, and served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Reps. Ted Budd and Mark Sanford.  His first employment in D.C. was with Heritage Action for America, where he served on both the Government Relations and grassroots teams.  

In 2019 he was a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, and in 2021 he was a James Madison Fellow at Hillsdale College’s D.C. campus.   In 2018, he was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Law and Policy.  He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and grew up in Raleigh.

J.D. Vance

J.D. Vance is a U.S. Senator from Ohio. An investor, commentator, and author of the #1 NYT Bestselling Hillbilly Elegy, he was raised by his working-class grandparents in Middletown, Ohio. J.D. graduated from Middletown High School in 2003 and then immediately enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

During his time in the Marines, he deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After graduating from Ohio State University, he studied at Yale Law School. J.D. earned his law degree in 2013. J.D. served as special advisor to the Narya, a seed-stage venture capital fund. He continues to lecture and write on topics of public interest, regularly discussing politics and public policy on national networks, and appearing on ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News.

Saagar Enjeti

Saagar Enieti is the conservative host of Breaking Points, a chart-topping online news show. He is the former host of Rising at The Hill TV and cohost of the popular podcast The Realignment.

Saagar formerly served as White House Correspondent for The Daily Caller and has interviewed President Trump in the Oval Office on four separate occasions. Sagar holds a Masters in National Security Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s in Economics from George Washington University.