leadership
team
The Emerging Leaders Program is guided by leaders committed to the formation of young men and women capable of serving with prudence, courage, conviction, and integrity.
Our leadership team is united by a shared belief: that the preservation of liberty and human dignity depends upon the formation of virtuous citizens and statesmen. Through mentorship, instruction, and personal investment, they work to cultivate leaders who are intellectually serious, morally grounded, and prepared to serve others faithfully.
Leadership
Team
The Emerging Leaders Program is guided by leaders committed to the formation of young men and women capable of serving with prudence, courage, conviction, and integrity.
Our leadership team is united by a shared belief: that the preservation of liberty and human dignity depends upon the formation of virtuous citizens and statesmen. Through mentorship, instruction, and personal investment, they work to cultivate leaders who are intellectually serious, morally grounded, and prepared to serve others faithfully.
Core Leadership
Jack McPherson
Jack McPherson co-founded the Emerging Leaders Program in 2018 with the conviction that leadership formation must unite moral clarity, intellectual seriousness, and real responsibility.
His work focuses on the long-term growth, strategic development, and institutional vision of ELP, helping expand the program’s reach while strengthening its culture of mentorship, leadership formation, and civic responsibility.
Jack’s leadership reflects the program’s commitment to cultivating young men and women capable of serving with prudence, conviction, and integrity in both public and private life.
Dani Landivar
Administrations & Operations Lead
Dani Landivar oversees administrative coordination and operational support for the Emerging Leaders Program, helping sustain the structure, culture, and day-to-day execution of the program experience.
Her work contributes directly to the holistic formation of interns by ensuring that students are supported, challenged, and integrated into a mission-oriented environment rooted in professionalism, mentorship, and personal growth.
Dani plays a key role in maintaining the program’s emphasis on intentional formation, operational excellence, and meaningful community.
Support Leadership
The Support Leadership team provides the Core Leadership Team with strategic guidance, mentorship, operational support, and institutional investment in the long-term mission and growth of the Emerging Leaders Program.
Mark Meckler
Co-Founder & President,
Convention of States
Ginny Rapini
Senior Director of Mentoring,
Convention of States
Kristen Stanciu
Director of Operations,
Convention of States
Chris Thomas
Director of Mentoring,
Convention of States
Past Coordinators
Past Coordinators
The Emerging Leaders Program has been shaped and strengthened by former coordinators whose leadership, mentorship, and investment helped establish the culture and mission of ELP.
Weston Boardman
Jackson Allen
Reagan Green
Faith Green
Andrew Lusch
Voices of Formation
Throughout the year, interns engage with educators, scholars, civic leaders, military officers, professionals, and public servants who contribute to the intellectual and professional formation of the program.
These guests provide practical wisdom, academic insight, and real-world experience that deepen interns’ understanding of leadership, constitutionalism, civic responsibility, and public life.
Leadership Philosophy
The Emerging Leaders Program seeks to form leaders who understand that liberty cannot endure apart from virtue, and that constitutional self-government requires citizens capable of prudence, sacrifice, and civic friendship.
For this reason, mentorship within ELP is deeply personal. Leadership is not treated as a theory to be studied from a distance, but as a discipline to be practiced daily through service, responsibility, humility, and moral formation.
Voices of Formation
Throughout the year, interns engage with educators, scholars, civic leaders, military officers, professionals, and public servants who contribute to the intellectual and professional formation of the program.
These guests provide practical wisdom, academic insight, and real-world experience that deepen interns’ understanding of leadership, constitutionalism, civic responsibility, and public life.
Leadership Philosophy
The Emerging Leaders Program seeks to form leaders who understand that liberty cannot endure apart from virtue, and that constitutional self-government requires citizens capable of prudence, sacrifice, and civic friendship.
For this reason, mentorship within ELP is deeply personal. Leadership is not treated as a theory to be studied from a distance, but as a discipline to be practiced daily through service, responsibility, humility, and moral formation.
Join the Mission
The leaders who shape the future are formed long before they hold positions of influence.
The Emerging Leaders Program exists to cultivate those future leaders now.