Meet the Team

ADITI JUNEJA

  • Aditi Juneja is the granddaughter of refugees from Pakistan to India and the daughter of immigrants from India to the United States. Having been born in the world’s largest democracy and growing up in the world’s oldest democracy, she is passionate about this project to build a more inclusive, equitable, multiracial democracy over generations. She blends multi-disciplinary expertise as a senior executive, lawyer, organizer, and strategic communicator to spearhead innovative solutions and ensure impact.

    Most recently, she was Chief of Staff and Interim VP of Operations at Movement Voter Project leading strategic planning, building internal culture, and overseeing legal, finance and PeopleOps. Prior to that at Protect Democracy she was the inaugural director of the Political Culture team, co-director of the Elections team where she built and led the staffing for the National Taskforce on Election Crises ahead of the 2020 election and built Protect Democracy’s state presence, and the first communications professional and then communications director building Protect Democracy’s communications team. Aditi was also recognized as a Forbes “30 under 30” honoree in law and policy in 2018 for her work founding and leading Resistance Manual, a tool to provide comprehensible and actionable policy information to organizers.

CECILI WAKE

  • Cecili Wake is the Deputy Director of Democracy 2076. The daughter of a foreign service officer and an educator, Cecili grew up around the world living in conflict zones and gaining a first hand understanding of the role the United States plays in global security, democracy, and human rights. She has applied these lessons during her more than two decades of experience leading mission-driven projects on global and domestic issues including poverty, healthcare, and human rights, including with Amnesty International USA, RESULTS Educational Fund, and the National Partnership for Women & Families. In 2015, she founded and served as the Chief Strategist for We Divine Water, a consulting group helping changemakers build strategic and effective organizations and programs—a role through which she researched emerging organizational models, developed a bespoke campaign strategy framework, and built strategic plans for organizations working across issues. 

    Most recently she led the development of a narrative strategy on nuclear weapons at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, researching the public’s understanding of nuclear weapons and how they might be moved to engage with policymakers to ask for common sense reforms. Cecili previously led global and nuclear security work as Senior Partner for Strategy and Innovation at Global Zero and Executive Director at Beyond the Bomb.  She also serves as a faculty member at the Center for Social Design at the Maryland Institute College of Arts where she teaches a graduate seminar on campaign strategy.

STEVEN MONTOYA

  • Steven Montoya is a coalition-builder with 15+ years of experience helping organizations, campaigns, and national networks turn ambitious, values-driven ideas into executable strategy. As Democracy 2076’s incoming Program Director for A Constitution for 2076, he brings a track record of designing and leading complex, cross-sector initiatives across democracy, climate, civic engagement, and community power-building. Steven has directed national mobilization for When We All Vote, strengthened advocacy capacity across 200 food banks at Feeding America, coordinated the Methane Partners Campaign, supported state tables at State Voices, and advised candidates and movement organizations nationwide. He is known for making partnerships work that aren’t supposed to on paper—and doing it with humor, clarity, and a designer’s eye for durable systems.

    Most recently, Steven served as Executive Director of Transportation Energy Partners, representing a network of 75 Clean Cities and Communities coalitions and securing policy and funding wins to advance clean transportation. His earlier campaign and organizing work—which spans presidential battlegrounds, statewide coordinated campaigns, climate coalitions, and national civic engagement networks—shaped his belief that democracy is a long game requiring discipline, imagination, and coalition care. A Rockwood alum and McKinsey Hispanic & Latino Management Accelerator participant, he’s thrilled to join Democracy 2076, where drinking from the firehose is not only expected, but encouraged.

MELODY MOHEBI

  • Melody Mohebi, PhD is a strategy, evaluation, and learning expert with deep, applied experience in enhancing organizational capacity, leveraging media, and driving impact. She was formerly the Director of Measurement & Insights at Participant, the leading global media company dedicated to entertainment that stands at the intersection of art and activism. At Participant, she led the development of the company’s measurement approach, advising teams on campaign strategy design and overseeing evaluation and reporting. She supported campaigns for film and episodic titles including American Factory, America to Me, Dark Waters, Descendant, Radical, RBG and Roma. 

    Melody received her PhD in social policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she also taught sociology and social policy.  Her book, The Formation of Civil Society in Modern Iran, was published in 2014 and investigates the development of contemporary Iranian civil society and the role of public intellectuals.

ADE SALAMI

  • Ade brings experience in local and national policymaking, having served as a Senior Policy Aide for two Minneapolis City Council Members where she lead legislative research, policy development, and stakeholder engagement across a range of progressive priorities. Additionally, Ade worked as a Principal at Park Street Public, where she led bipartisan lobbying efforts to move policy and funding appropriations at the state, local, and federal levels. Her work has spanned humanities, housing justice, labor rights, criminal legal reform, climate action, music venue and small business support, water recreational activities, and public health—always with a focus on power-building and durable change.

    Ade’s approach to coalition-building is rooted in the belief that we don’t have to agree on every issue to win together on one. She thrives at the intersection of long-term strategy, relational power, and pragmatism, and is committed to building coalitions that last beyond the moment. A mantra Ade brings to her work that sustains her is a word of advice from her mentor as she started her career in lobbying—"Do you want to be right? Or do you want to win?" Guided by this ethos, Ade brings a strategic, values-driven approach to every table she sits at—focused not only on what is possible now, but on building the conditions to make more possible in the future.