Carah Ong Whaley
Executive Director, Better Choices for Democracy
Dr. Carah Ong Whaley is a nationally recognized expert on democracy, elections, and civic engagement. At Better Choices for Democracy, she leads research and public education on election systems designed to give voters more meaningful choices and to improve political representation and accountability. She is also a lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia, serves on the American Political Science Association’s Civic Education Committee, and previously co-chaired APSA’s Civic Engagement Section.
In 2024, as vice president at Issue One, Carah co-convened an Elections Communications Hub of more than 85 national, state, and local organizations and over 1,000 messengers—including election officials, veterans, faith leaders, and former members of Congress—to build public confidence in elections and the public servants who administer them. She also conducted public-opinion research, developed research-tested educational resources, supported election-worker protections, and helped lead the National Council on Election Integrity.
Carah’s research examines how political actors and institutions shape public access to and participation in policymaking and democratic decision-making. Her recent work explores election reform, public confidence in elections, civic learning, and the governance of artificial intelligence. She has designed and taught courses on making elections better, artificial intelligence, campaigns and elections, state and local politics, and political and civic engagement. Her teaching combines rigorous scholarship with experiential learning to foster the development of civic knowledge, skills and agency.
Previously, Carah served as academic program officer at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, where she developed democracy-focused courses and educational programming and was an executive producer of the PBS documentary Defenders of Democracy: The Thin Blue Line. From 2018 to 2022, she was associate director of the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement at James Madison University. Earlier in her career, she worked for nongovernmental organizations focused on nuclear weapons, international security, and peacebuilding. She was appointed by the governor of Virginia to the Commonwealth’s Complete Count Commission for the 2020 Census.
Carah holds a PhD in American Government and an MA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. Her recent publications include Civic Pedagogies: Teaching Civic Engagement in an Era of Divisive Politics; Leaning Into Politics: Higher Education and the Democracy We Need; “Educating for Democracy: The Case for a New Civics,” co-authored with Danielle Allen; and “Election Law, Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Facts,” co-authored with Kim Wyman. She has also contributed chapters on political parties, campaigns, elections, voting, and the media to American Government: Roots and Reform. Her work and commentary have been featured by the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Governing, The 19th, Forbes, Teen Vogue, NPR, and other national media outlets.
