Russ Vought joined the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) when President Trump took office. Vought first served as Acting Director then as the 42nd Director of OMB for nearly two years. He was a member of the President’s Cabinet and was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the President’s policy, management, and deregulatory agendas across the Executive Branch.

During the Trump Administration, OMB was a key office in pushing for conservative victories and helping President Trump cut through bureaucracy. During his four years at OMB, Russ was one of Trump’s most trusted and competent managers called by The Economist, the President’s Toolkit.

Prior to serving in the Trump Administration, Russ spent nearly 20 years working in Congress and with grassroots and public policy organizations. He worked for seven years as Vice President of Heritage Action for America. Prior to this, he worked on Capitol Hill, serving as the Policy Director for the House Republican Conference, and as the Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), and as a legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Phil Gramm.

Russ graduated from Wheaton College in 1998, and from George Washington University Law School in 2004. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two daughters.

Ashlea recently served as Chief of Staff at the White House Office of Management and Budget under Director Russ Vought. In that role, she managed the largest agency in the Executive Office of the President while also overseeing agency staff transitions and implementing policy priorities of President Trump.

Prior to joining the Administration, Ashlea was the Director of Operations and Programs for Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C. where she oversaw operations, budget, and staff, with a focus on bolstering the scholastic mission of the college in Washington D.C. as well as building relationships with Capitol Hill. Ashlea also worked for The Heritage Foundation’s Center for American Studies as the Program Manager. In the 2012 and 2016 election cycles, Ashlea served with the Official Proceedings team at the Republican National Convention, where she was responsible for interfacing with VIP program participants, U.S. Secret Service, and RNC staff to ensure smooth transitions for the Convention.

Additionally, Ashlea advises students and young professionals on career development, speaking at events around the Washington, D.C. metro area.

Ashlea is a recipient of America’s Future Foundation’s William F. Buckley Award for her dedication to conservative values. She lives in Virginia with her husband Allen and goldendoodle Maple.

In 2005, Dan enlisted in the Marine Corps as an infantryman. Dan was selected for the Marine Corps’ Presidential Support Program, in which he served as a member of the Marine Security Force at the Presidential Retreat at Camp David. Upon completion of his tour at Camp David, Dan was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, with whom he deployed to Iraq as a team leader, squad leader, and vehicle commander.

Dan was a staffer for Congressman David Schweikert from 2011 to 2013, focused on issues involving the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense. Additionally, in 2012, Dan managed the successful re-election campaign of Congressman Schweikert. 

In 2013, Dan joined Concerned Veterans for America, where he eventually was promoted to the role of Executive Director. In this capacity, Dan played a key role in passing the VA Accountability Act, the VA MISSION Act, and other significant reforms to the Department of Veterans Affairs during the Trump administration. 

In 2019, Dan moved to the role of Senior Adviser to Concerned Veterans for America and joined Stand Together as a Director of Strategy for Foreign Policy. In this role, Dan helped develop and manage Stand Together’s campaign to end our endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. and elsewhere. In 2021, Dan was promoted to Vice President of Foreign Policy at Stand Together, where he led the organization’s overall foreign policy initiative  – including their efforts to prevent an escalation of the Russo-Ukraine War.  

Dan graduated cum laude in 2011 from Arizona State University with degrees in international studies and political science. He lives in Virginia with his two daughters.

Joe Wooddell is a US Army veteran, an ordained minister, an author, philosopher, and fundraiser. He created the Philosophy, Politics & Economics program and the Institute at Criswell College in Dallas where he served as Professor of Philosophy, as Vice President of Academic Affairs, and as Vice President of Advancement.

Joe has presented his research at the Midwest and Western Political Science Associations, the Acton Institute, the Evangelical Philosophical and Theological Societies, and the International Society for Christian Apologetics. His journal articles, book reviews, and presentations have treated a variety of topics such as political theory and praxis, aesthetics, cross-cultural missions and evangelism, Christian apologetics, philosophical theories of knowledge, and the objectivity of truth.

Joe has a PhD in Philosophy of Religion and Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, an MA in Political Science from University of Texas at Arlington, and a BS in Church Music from Liberty University. He and his wife live in north Texas and have a daughter and two sons.

Paige Agostin is Policy Director at the Center for Renewing America.  She most recently served as Legislative Director for Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and has spent more than a decade working on conservative policy development in Washington, and on Capitol Hill.

She previously served as Associate Director for Domestic Policy in the Trump Administration and a Special Assistant at the Department of Education, in the Office of Postsecondary Education.

Paige lives in Texas with her family. She is a graduate of the Southern Methodist University. Follow her on Twitter at @paigeagostin.

Ken Cuccinelli is a Senior Fellow for Homeland Security and Immigration for the Center for Renewing America. Cuccinelli most recently served as Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) and Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under President Trump. There, he was key to enforcing President Trump’s top border and immigration priorities.

From 2010-2014, Cuccinelli served as Attorney General of Virginia, where he was the first in the country to sue over Obamacare, and he made critical advances against human trafficking, health care fraud, gangs and child exploitation.

Cuccinelli also served as a member of the Virginia State Senate representing the 37th Senatorial district. He ran in Virginia’s gubernatorial race in 2013.

Cuccinelli is a former CNN contributor and regular guest on leading national TV and radio programs. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Virginia, a Juris Doctorate degree from George Mason University School of Law, and a Masters degree in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University. You can follow him on Twitter @KenCuccinelli.

Jeff Clark is the former President Trump-selected and Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General of the Environment & Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Justice Department. From 2020-2021, Jeff was also named and simultaneously served as the former Acting Assistant Attorney General of DOJ’s Civil Division. In this capacity, by the end of 2020, Jeff was responsible for supervising approximately 1,400 lawyers at DOJ.

Jeff carried out a deregulatory agenda by helping to restrict DOJ’s powers to seek civil penalty relief Congress did not adopt and by shepherding many of the Trump Administration’s most controversial regulations through the courts.

Jeff also argued many of his own cases, achieving about an 80% win rate in the Environment Division and about a 67% win rate in the Civil Division. Jeff has argued at least one appeal in all 13 federal circuit courts of appeal.

Jeff previously served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment Division during the Bush 43 Administration. Other than his stints at DOJ, Jeff spent most of his career as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he was an appellate litigator and administrative law expert, doing battle with many federal and state administrative agencies.  Jeff also served for nearly a decade as an adjunct law professor at the George Mason (now Scalia) Law School teaching two classes: law, science, and technology and environmental law.

Jeff was elected to the American Law Institute in 2020, was elected to and served as a Member of the American Bar Association’s Governing Council of the Administrative Law Section, and served for more than a decade as the Chair of the Federalist Society’s Environment & Property Rights Practice Group.

Jeff graduated from Harvard University in 1989 with an A.B. in economics and Russian history, from the University of Delaware in 1993 with an M.A. in urban affairs, and from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995 with a J.D. He clerked for Judge Danny J. Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Mark Paoletta served as General Counsel of the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for three years during the Trump Administration.  He worked with agencies across the administration to help implement President Trump’s agenda, including developing the legal pathway to build the wall along the southern border.  Mark also served as Counsel to Vice President Pence during the first year of the Trump Administration.  In both positions, Mark helped prepare nominees for confirmation hearings, including playing key roles in the confirmations of Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

Mark previously served in the Bush 41 White House Counsel Office, where he played a key role in the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas.  Mark has written extensively on Justice Thomas’ confirmation and jurisprudence, and he created two websites to honor and defend our nation’s greatest jurist.

Mark also served for a decade as Chief Counsel for Oversight & Investigations for the House Energy & Commerce Committee, managing nearly 200 investigative hearings.  He investigated waste, fraud, and abuse in the Clinton and Bush 43 Administrations, and he also conducted vigorous oversight of corporate America, investigating Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, HealthSouth, and many other big corporations.

In between his government service, Mr. Paoletta has served as a partner in several law firms.

Mark received his B.A. from Duquesne University (1984) and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center (1987).  He resides in Falls Church, Virginia with his wife, Tricia, and is the proud father of four grown children.

Kash Patel is a Senior Fellow for National Security and Intelligence at the Center for Renewing America. He most recently served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense in the Trump Administration. He also served as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence where he oversaw the entire intelligence community and was responsible for the presidential daily briefing.

Kash served in the Trump White House as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council (NSC). In this position, Kash oversaw the execution of several of President Trump’s top priorities, including eliminating Al-Qa’ida and ISIS senior leadership, and safely repatriating dozens of American hostages.

Before joining the Trump Administration, Kash served as the National Security Advisor and Senior Counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) where he worked under Chairman Nunes as the lead investigator on the Russia-gate Investigation. In this role, he uncovered attempts to spy on President Trump as well as the DOJ and FBI lies to federal courts to cover it up.

More recently, Kash has continued to fight back against fake news and is currently suing the New York Times, Politico, and CNN for defamation. He also stars in the popular film, The Plot Against the President. 

A native of New York, Kash graduated from the University of Richmond with a bachelor’s in criminal justice and history, received a juris doctor from law school in New York, and a Certificate in International Law from University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom. He now hosts Kash’s Corner, a weekly show on Epoch TV.

Michael Young is a leading writer and researcher focused on culture, political philosophy, and the rise of postmodernism. Previously, he spent a number of years working in government before turning his attention to writing. His essays, which have been key in shaping the debate on the pushback against cultural Marxism, as well as postmodernism, education, and Critical Social Justice, can be found at Counterweight where he currently writes.

He is currently working on his first book. You can follow him at @Wokal_Distance on Twitter.

Scott Glabe is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Renewing America.  He previously served as Acting Under Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the Trump Administration.  Before DHS, he represented the White House as an Associate Counsel to the President and worked for the U.S. House of Representatives in progressively senior legal and policy roles ranging from Counsel for the Committee on Armed Services to Staff Director of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  As an attorney in private practice, Scott specialized in national security matters and white-collar investigations.  Earlier in his career, he clerked for a federal appellate judge and deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.  Scott earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.S. in Defense and Strategic Studies from Missouri State University, and an A.B. in Government from Dartmouth College. 

Steve Friend is an opinion writer, author, and former state and federal law enforcement officer with more than a decade of experience. He worked as a patrolman and narcotics agent in Savannah, Georgia before joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2014. Steve investigated violent crimes and major offenses occurring on Indian Reservations in northeast Nebraska for seven years and was also a member of the FBI Omaha SWAT team. He transferred to Daytona Beach, Florida to investigate child exploitation and human trafficking before being reassigned to investigate domestic terrorism. Steve became an FBI whistleblower in 2022 after making protected disclosures to Congress about the FBI’s questionable and manipulative investigations of January 6th protestors.

Steve is the author of “True Blue: My Journey from Beat Cop to FBI Whistleblower.” He is a 2007 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and holds a bachelor of science in accounting. Steve is a married father of two sons.