Meet Cory

Cory Alpert

Cory is a leading expert on the impact of emerging technology and democracy and civil society.

He has advised key policy and humanitarian efforts globally, integrating technology and public life.

His work on voter registration has led to more than 3 million new registered voters across the United States through organizations that he founded (Secure the Ballot) or where he is a senior advisor (Field Team 6). He built digital and offline organizing tools and partnerships that spanned the United States, reaching more than 25 million people. He managed teams of 20 and multi-million dollar budgets, partnering with major universities and organizations to build a new generation of voters.

His work on humanitarian relief has helped to change the landscape of disaster response around the country. In 2015, he launched Columbia Relief (then called UofSC Relief), which mobilized more than 10,000 volunteers and a billion pounds of donations in response to Hurricane Joaquin, developing a blueprint for locally-driven, technology-enabled disaster relief that has been replicated around the world. He then carried on his work as Senior Advisor to Mayor Steve Benjamin as President of the US Conference of Mayors, helping to build and manage disaster response portfolios for cities around the country. In that role, Cory also built and managed international relationships for US mayors in the first years of the Trump Administration, covertly helping to keep the United States within our Paris Accord agreements.

In 2022, Cory was deployed to Ukraine to advise the technology-enabled humanitarian response to the invasion. He was also tasked with deploying a new platform to collect evidence for war crimes investigations.

Cory’s extensive political experience includes roles on three Presidential campaigns for Hillary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, and Joe Biden. He was one of the first hires on Buttigieg’s historic run in 2020 and led the development of the campaign across the Southeast. He has also worked on or advised more than a dozen campaigns at the Senate, Gubernatorial, House, mayoral, and state legislative levels.

From 2021-2023, he served as an advance lead in the Biden-Harris Administration, primarily working with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. He travelled around the United States and around the world to build events and public engagements for the Biden-Harris Administration. Notable trips included leading the Second Gentleman’s visit to Auschwitz in 2023, as the first Jewish White House principal, and playing a leading role in the first-ever White House visits to Namibia and Samoa.

He is currently working on a PhD investigating the impacts of artificial intelligence on democracy at the University of Melbourne.