Amanda Van Dort is a McCain Institute American Democracy and Technology Fellow, and an Adjunct Professor for Johns Hopkins and GWU teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on issues related to Women, Peace, and Security. She's also a former diplomat, most recently serving the Department of State as Chief of Staff in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues, building on her background advancing the rights of women globally and addressing the needs of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. Amanda is spending her post gov era hitting the books and thinking big thoughts on the roots of American democracy, revisiting documents drafted by the founding fathers, and studying their cultural influences to better understand not just what they said, but what they meant. We're talking about her path into government service, ...