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Meet the change leaders: Suzette Brooks Masters

Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Suzette Brooks Masters is a senior fellow at the Democracy Funders Network and director of DFN’s Better Futures Project. She prides herself on seeing around the corner and challenging conventional thinking.

She is a social entrepreneur, philanthropic advisor, thought leader, and strategist in the fields of democracy, futures, and pluralism. Previously, she advised foundations, nonprofit organizations, policy makers and corporations on the impact of immigration on America. She did so from roles at the American Immigration Council, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, Welcoming America, the J.M. Kaplan Fund (where she directed the Migration Program from 2007 to 2016) and as a consultant.


She has received numerous awards for her philanthropic vision and impact, and accolades for her publications. She has served on the boards of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Define American, the New York Immigration Coalition, the Tenement Museum, HIAS, the National Immigration Forum and New York Cares, which she co founded. Masters is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Cambridge University and Amherst College. A lifelong New Yorker, she is the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Masters in May for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of her democracy reform work:

The Fulcrum Democracy Forum Meets Suzette Brooks Masters, Sr. Fellow, The Democracy Funders Networkwww.youtube.com


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Beware for all the president’s men (and women)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House' border czar' Tom Homan, and Attorney General Pam Bondi listen as President Donald Trump speaks before swearing in the new Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2026.

(AFP via Getty Images)

Beware for all the president’s men (and women)

If I were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, I might start packing up my office at the Pentagon.

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(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump Demonstrates Why Euphemisms Damage Democracy

In politics, words matter. In democratic politics, they matter even more.

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How Weak Federal Ethics Laws Enable Presidential Profiteering

The Washington Post

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How Weak Federal Ethics Laws Enable Presidential Profiteering

Since taking office in January 2025, President Trump has pocketed an estimated $3 billion from his various business enterprises. His family is estimated to have raked in billions more. Much of the money appears to be coming from foreign governments and others seeking to curry favor with the Trump White House.

The scale of President Trump’s self-enrichment is unprecedented, as is his openly transactional approach to governing. In an era dominated by enormous concentration of private wealth and political power, Trump’s second term in office has laid bare the many channels — direct and indirect — through which money can reach the president and shape the national agenda. Gaps in ethics rules and a lack of real enforcement options mean that little if any of this profiteering is illegal, pointing to the need for significant reforms.

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