About Us

Anne brings to RAF a nearly 20-year career across the public, social, and private sectors building and scaling high-impact initiatives that reshape public institutions. As a career civil servant at USAID, Anne led some of the agency’s boldest efforts to improve its impact per dollar—including the Office of the Chief Economist and its tiered innovation fund, Development Innovation Ventures—cultivating bipartisan support in Congress and multiple administrations for this focus on outcomes. Previously, she was a leader at J-PAL and Evidence Action, served at the State Department, and advised federal and state government clients at McKinsey & Company.

Robert has served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Managing Director at the New York City Department of Education, as well as a senior White House official and consultant to state and local governments. Across his career, he has worked on big initiatives to make governments work better.

Victoria Houed is an engineer turned policy entrepreneur who has dedicated her career to improving the tech policy ecosystem and government modernization. She was previously the Director of AI Policy and Strategy in the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce, manager at Schmidt Futures where she funded key science and technology policy initiatives and was a fellow for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi where she supported Pelosi during the COVID crisis on all things technology (including broadband, disinformation, antitrust and more). She started her career as a software engineer at Cards Against Humanity and founded BlackByte, a nonprofit for Black women in technology.

Lauren has led government modernization efforts across federal, state, and local institutions. She most recently served as Deputy Policy Director for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where she helped drive the Committee’s state capacity legislative agenda. Previously, she worked in the U.S. Senate as a technology policy fellow for Senator Ben Sasse, advised state and local governments on digital transformation, and was a Senior Data Scientist at Nielsen.

Laurent Crenshaw served as a senior staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives for over a decade, where he advised the House Republican Conference, House Republican Whip, and Rep. Darrell Issa on key technology, innovation and government modernization legislative issues. After his tenure on Capitol Hill, Laurent transitioned to leadership roles at high-growth technology companies. He most recently led Policy, External Affairs, and Payments Operations at Patreon. Along with these roles, Laurent has also served on the boards of the OpenGov Foundation, Public Knowledge, and Foundation for American Innovation (FAI), in addition to the American Library Association's Public Policy Advisory Council.

Maureen comes to RAF with 15 years of public service experience. Since 2019, she has served in several roles across the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Most recently, she was the Chief of Staff for USDA's Farm Production and Conservation's HR Director. She also held positions in USDA headquarters supporting a handful of the mission-support functions (HR, budget, IT, performance, and COVID response). Prior to joining USDA, Maureen worked in government management consulting, both leading projects for federal clients and serving as an internal business manager. She also worked in the budget office of the Arlington County government and started her career as a Hamilton Fellow with the U.S. Department of Treasury. Maureen has an MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Emily has provided financial and operational management to various nonprofits in the democracy reform, policy and advocacy space. She was previously a fellow at Arnold Ventures supporting the democracy, immigration, and climate portfolios. Prior to that, she served as the COO of a global financial services firm, offering index-tracking products focused on the energy infrastructure sector.