About Us

The Sunwater Institute is a nonpartisan nonprofit interdisciplinary think tank based in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Mission

The Sunwater Institute’s mission is to strengthen the foundations of liberal democracy through interdisciplinary science, technology, and open dialogue.


What Makes Us Unique

The Legis1 story is one of continuous innovation in legislative resources:

Foundational: Sunwater seeks to understand and improve the foundational ideas that underpin individual flourishing and governance of human societies.

Long-Term: Sunwater focuses on long-term developments and solutions, and pays less attention to short-term election cycles, temporary trends and current headlines.

Interdisciplinary: Sunwater’s nonpartisan, empirically based, scholarly approach to exploring fundamental ideas incorporates disciplines as diverse as law, economics, political science, business, data science, sociobiology, human evolution, and neuroscience.

Data and Technology: Sunwater leverages data and technology in ways that sustainably improve policy design, implementation, measurement, processes, and outcomes.


Our History

The Sunwater Institute was founded in 2017 by Matthew Chervenak and Stephany Yu, two American entrepreneurs with an interest in understanding how social systems are built, best operate, and can contribute to human and societal flourishing. Sunwater was born from their desire to create a unique research institute that could work to improve our foundational institutions over the long term.


What We Do

Sunwater creates and fosters ideas, collects data, conducts research, holds events, develops analytics, produces podcasts, and authors peer-reviewed papers, law review articles, policy papers, and blogs.


Scholars

Sunwater brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines – natural science, law, business, political science, and economics – who engage in collaborative research and generate innovative policy recommendations on a range of critical long-term issues.


Leadership

Matthew Chervenak is the President of The Sunwater Institute and responsible for its strategic direction, operations, and output.

The Sunwater Institute’s Board is composed of individuals from a variety of industries and is responsible for the Institute’s leadership, financial health, and independence.

Our Team
Mark Cohen's photograph

Mark Cohen

Senior Advisor

John Duffy's photograph

John Duffy

Senior Advisor

Walter Park's photograph

Walter Park

Senior Advisor

Matthew Chervenak

President and Chairman

Michael Hickey

Board Member

J. Eric McAndrew

Board Member

Stephany Yu

Chairman

Dr. Jonathan Zifferblatt

Board Member

Congressman Daniel Lipinski's photograph

Congressman Daniel Lipinski

Senior Advisor

Honorable Philip Kiko's photograph

Honorable Philip Kiko

Senior Advisor

Sandra Strokoff's photograph

Sandra Strokoff

Senior Advisor

Charles Barnes's photograph

Charles Barnes

Account Executive

Matt Barnes's photograph

Matt Barnes

Sales and Operations Manager

Matthew Chervenak's photograph

Matthew Chervenak

Founder and President

Jessica Friedman's photograph

Jessica Friedman

Director, Marketing and Communications

Nick Harlan's photograph

Nick Harlan

Policy Analyst

Ani Harutyunyan's photograph

Ani Harutyunyan

Scholar

King Laughlin's photograph

King Laughlin

Director, Development

Leo Meyers's photograph

Leo Meyers

Account Executive

J.D. Rackey's photograph

J.D. Rackey

Director, Legislative Studies

Casey Burgat's photograph

Casey Burgat

External Scholar

Robert Gmeiner's photograph

Robert Gmeiner

External Scholar

Matt Jones's photograph

Matt Jones

External Scholar

Tim LaPira's photograph

Tim LaPira

External Scholar

Kenneth Lowande's photograph

Kenneth Lowande

External Scholar

Joseph Kochanek's photograph

Joseph Kochanek

External Scholar

Annelise Russell's photograph

Annelise Russell

External Scholar

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