Marjan Horst Ehsassi

Policy Strategist, Advocate and Practitioner, 2022-2023 Berggruen Fellow

Marjan H. Ehsassi is a strategic policy advisor, practitioner, movement builder, and a fierce believer in citizen-centric, inclusive, responsive and impactful government-led engagements that provide citizens with consequential voice in policy reform.

She has traveled to and worked to enhance space for civil society in some of the most complex environments including Iran, Ukraine, and North Korea. A lawyer and international governance expert, she received her Doctorate in International Affairs from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, with a concentration on democratic innovations, deliberation and government-initiated citizens’ assemblies. She has studied the impact of citizens’ assemblies on participants in France, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.

Marjan is Strategic Director of the Democratic Action Fund and serves on several boards including Healthy Democracy, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Meridian Council. She was one of four guarantors selected to the Collège des Garants of the French Citizens’ Convention on the End of Life (Convention Citoyenne sur la Fin de Vie) (2022-2023) and is on the Oversight Committee of G1000’s We Need To Talk Citizens’ Panel (2022-2023).

As a Berggruen Future of Democracy Fellow, Marjan supports programs that raise knowledge, build capacity and test deliberative platforms in the United States, including the Global Innovations in Democracy Parliamentary Forum, the Summit of Democracy Working Group on Deliberative Democracy, the Future of Institutions on Deliberative Democracy, and the design and implementation of the Citizens’ Assemblies in the United States.

By Marjan Horst Ehsassi

Berggruen Fellow Featured on NPR's the Academic Minute

Exploring Opportunities to Launch the...

Berggruen Fellow on Kettering's Emerging Panel

Putting the Public Back in Public Policy

Berggruen Institute Report: Historic California Citizens’ Assembly Dramatically Increases Political Engagement, Builds Community and Social Cohesion Among Participants

“How Democracy Should Work” Lesson in Learning, Building Cohesion and Community

La Libre Belgique publishes interview with Berggruen Fellow in Brussels and serving on the Oversight Committee of G1000’s We Need to Talk Citizen Panel

France : Convention Citoyenne Sur La Fin De Vie

"It Is Time for a Paradigm Shift in Democracy" Marjan Ehsassi at the Legislators Forum on Democratic Innovations, November 15-16, 2022

“It Is Time for a Paradigm Shift in Democracy” Marjan Ehsassi at the Legislators Forum on Democratic Innovations, November 15-16, 2022

Berggruen Fellow Marjan Ehsassi One of Four Guarantors of the French Citizens’ Convention on the End of Life December 9, 2022

The U.S. is Lagging in Democratic Institutions

Case Study: The Gilets Jaunes Protests, Macron’s Democratic Experiment, and Deliberative Mini-publics

‘A Quiet Revolution Is Underway’: We Can Revitalize Our Democracy by Funding Citizen Engagement in Policy Reform