The Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service (GU Politics) introduced its Fall 2026 class of fellows on Wednesday, Sept. 9, bringing former government officials, political strategists, technology-policy leaders, and communications professionals to Georgetown for a semester of interactive discussions.
The Hilltop fellows include former Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh, law firm Jenner & Block Congressional Investigations team co-chair Ashley Callen, and Anthropic Head of Safeguards Enforcement and Operations Colleen Reding Mearn. Over the semester, the fellows will lead weekly discussion groups, host office hours, and join campus panels on the Hilltop and Capitol Campuses.
Founded in 2015, GU Politics is a McCourt School of Public Policy initiative that connects Georgetown students with the political and public service professionals shaping Washington. Its fellows initiative aims to narrow the divide between campus and the city’s policymaking institutions. The program is designed to give students direct access to practitioners working across politics, public policy, law, media, and technology.
In the past, discussion sections took place only on the Hilltop campus. During this year’s GU Politics Fellows Open House, however, there was a greater emphasis from the institute’s Executive Director Mo Elleithee on expanding the fellows’ presence to the Capitol Campus. There, former Biden White House legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell and former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will host their sessions.
Here is what to expect from each fellow’s discussion group this fall:
The Politics and Law of Government Accountability
The discussion, led by Ashley Callen, is coming to Georgetown this fall. Before joining the firm, she served as chief counsel to House Speaker Mike Johnson and has worked for Republican Leader Steve Scalise along with several House of Representatives committees, bringing 25 years of experience in Republican official-side politics, congressional oversight, and government accountability. Callen’s career has included defending President Donald Trump during his first impeachment proceeding and serving as the lead Republican staffer on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis in 2020.
As a fellow, Callen plans to give students an inside look at Congress, the Republican Party, congressional investigations, and the legal work that shapes policymaking and oversight.
Her discussion group will meet Thursday afternoons at 4 p.m. on the Hilltop, in the GU Politics Living Room, and she will also make occasional appearances at the Capitol Campus.
Community Guidelines: Scaling and enforcing policies in AI environments
Led by alumnus Colleen Reding Mearn (CAS ’10), this course returns to campus with a fellow experienced in the intersection of technology, public policy, and enforcement. After graduating, Mearn worked in counterterrorism and counterintelligence at the FBI before moving into the technology sector. There, she helped Google and YouTube develop and scale policies to address harmful and dangerous content, including firearms-related content and dangerous online challenges. She later led trust and safety at the audio-based social-media company Clubhouse before joining Artificial Intelligence (AI) and safety company Anthropic, where she has spent the past two and a half years leading standards and enforcement. Mearn’s work includes grappling with the practical and policy challenges of scaling AI safeguards as the company grows, including translating broad questions about responsible technology into systems that can be implemented globally.
Mearn’s discussion will focus on how AI’s rapid growth intersects with today’s policy, politics, and technology, especially the practical challenge of creating, scaling, and enforcing safeguards against harmful and dangerous use.
Her discussion group will meet Wednesdays at 4 p.m. on the Hilltop.
Politics, Power and a Polarized World
After a career spanning Democratic political campaigns, White House communications, and Pentagon public affairs, Sabrina Singh joins GU Politics to lead this session. She has worked on House races and for Democratic organizations including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee. Singh has also served on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and during the 2020 presidential election cycle, she worked on the presidential campaigns of Cory Booker and Mike Bloomberg, ultimately joining then-Vice-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. After the 2020 election, Singh served as a White House spokeswoman for Harris before becoming deputy press secretary and a lead spokesperson at the Department of Defense, where she regularly briefed the public on military and national-security matters. Singh now works as a CNN national security analyst and communications consultant.
In her discussion group, she plans to examine the relationship between national security and domestic politics, including the impacts of the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine on political debates and how the military should approach the use of AI.
Her discussion group will meet Tuesdays at 4 p.m. on the Hilltop.
Policy and Politics: How Democrats Can Rebuild
Louisa Terrell, former assistant to President Joe Biden and director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, joins GU Politics with experience across Capitol Hill, two Democratic administrations, the private sector, and philanthropy. Terrell has worked in congressional offices and on committees, served as a Senate chief of staff, and held a legislative-affairs role during the Obama administration, focusing on how Congress functions and how legislation moves through the policymaking process. Beyond the government, she has worked at Meta, McKinsey, and a foundation, giving her experience with how private-sector and philanthropic institutions approach public problems.
In her discussion group, Terrell plans to examine the Democratic Party’s ongoing challenge of rebuilding as both an electoral force and a governing coalition, including the tensions among institutional trust, populism, ideological divisions, advocacy, and the practical demands of passing policy.
Her discussion group will meet Wednesday afternoons at 5 p.m. on the Capitol Campus.
How Can I Help? A Guide to Public Service Beyond D.C. and Navigating What’s Next
The course is led by Francis Suarez, the former mayor of Miami and former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He joins GU Politics with experience in local and national politics, urban leadership, and as a media contributor. As mayor, Suarez led one of the country’s largest cities, and his leadership of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Miami-Dade League of Cities has provided him a broader perspective on the challenges facing large, small, urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Now the President of Alpha Wave Global, he will use his discussion group to explore what it means to run for office and lead publicly, including the distinction between serving as a staff member and serving as an elected official. Suarez also plans to examine persistent policy challenges such as income inequality, housing shortages, and affordability, as well as questions about the appropriate role and capacity of government in solving them. He will also discuss how policymakers should respond to emerging technologies, particularly AI, using the government’s response to cryptocurrency as a point of comparison.
His sessions will be held on four Thursdays, Sep. 24, Oct. 8, Oct. 22, and Nov. 5, at 5 p.m. on the Capitol Campus.
