Meet the Fall 2019 Writing Fellows Program Virtual Class

As we head into October, AF is kicking off the fall 2019 term of the Writing Fellows Program. This fall, we’ll be working with a total of 35 fellows looking to improve their skills and jumpstart their writing careers! Below, meet the 17 fellows who will make up the virtual section of this fall’s class.

Nate Baker
Nate serves as the director of North American programs at Students For Liberty. In this role, Nate works with a talented team of young professionals to educate, develop, and empower hundreds of student volunteers across North America to build a freer future. Nate originally joined Students For Liberty as a student in 2015 and has served in multiple capacities throughout his time with SFL. As a volunteer, he organized numerous student conferences and grew the SFL network in the southern United States. Before joining SFL’s staff, he interned at the Institute for Humane Studies and worked for a cloud computing company in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nate currently lives in Mississippi with his wife and son.

Felisha Bull
Felisha A. Bull joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation in October 2018. A native Texan, Felisha grew up in a small town outside of Houston and moved to San Marco to attend Texas State University where she majored in communications and business. A co-founder of Hill Country Young Republicans, Felisha is well-versed in policy issues and has a passion for engaging young professionals in the political process. In 2017, Felisha served as national committeewoman representing Texas Young Republicans at the national level. After years of working in the political sphere, Felisha now uses her expertise to strengthen the conservative voice in policy debates. Felisha’s previous professional work includes account receivable management and communications consulting, skills she utilizes in her role as the Foundation’s communications associate.

Jeremiah Davies
Jeremiah Davies is a student studying business management at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business. He is originally from Columbia, South Carolina, and plans to get an MBA and return back to the Carolinas after school to work. Along with business, he is also interested in public policy and briefly did an internship for a think tank in Salt Lake City, Utah, researching public policy. He is a recovering lacrosse player, a helpless golfer, and a college football fanatic.

Matt Doarnberger
Matt Doarnberger runs the website libertariansportsfan.com/wp. He is a 2003 graduate of Salisbury University (Salisbury, MD) and lives with his wife and children in Concord, NC. Articles of his have appeared at westernfreepress.com, Mises Daily, and FEE.org. Follow him at www.facebook.com/libertariansportsfan and on twitter at @LibertarianSF.

Conner Drigotas
Conner Drigotas is the director of communications at a national nonprofit law firm. He is also an adjunct professor at Lehigh University. Conner earned his MBA from Lehigh University and holds undergraduate degrees in government & law and psychology from Lafayette College. He writes at connerdrigotas.com. A native Mainer, Conner spends his free time hunting, fishing, and camping with his wife Danielle.

Hunter Estes
Hunter Estes is the development manager for the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. In this role, Hunter coordinates fundraising efforts, grant applications, and donor relations. Hunter loves the Constitution, public policy, and the great state of Mississippi. He is particularly passionate about ensuring liberty in regards to religious freedom, pro-life issues, individual freedoms, and the free market. Prior to MCPP, Hunter worked for Gingrich Productions, former-Speaker Newt Gingrich’s production team; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Team Ryan, Speaker Paul Ryan’s political organization; Senator Ted Cruz’s staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee; and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Hunter received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and is a proud Georgetown Preparatory School alumnus. He was born in Meridian but now lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

Joshua Gregor
Joshua Gregor grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He received a BA in philosophy from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome and an MA in linguistics from Indiana University. He is currently international relations assistant at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has also worked as an editor and translator. In addition to original articles on the Acton Institute site, his translations have appeared in Forbes, PanamPost, and other websites and blogs in the US, Spain, Italy, and Argentina.

Chris Harelson
Chris has served as chief-of-staff in the Utah State Senate, field director with Americans for Prosperity, North American leadership manger with Students For Liberty, executive director of YAL’s Hazlitt Policy Center, and has worked on several campaigns in Utah and nationally. Chris is currently the executive director of Prosperity Council, a Utah-based, start-up think tank.

Grayson Logue
Grayson Logue is an assistant editor for Providence, a quarterly journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy published by The Philos Project and the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Grayson holds a BA in politics, philosophy, and economics from The King’s College. While studying at King’s, Grayson represented the school’s British parliamentary debate society at international tournaments ranging from Jamaica to the Netherlands. He was also an Intercollegiate Studies Institute Honors Scholar. Before joining Providence, Grayson worked in New York public policy as a writer and researcher. In his free time, he can be found holed up in a Brooklyn coffee shop with a good book.

Rory Margraf
Rory Margraf is the author of “I Know My Rights: A Children’s Guide to the Bill of Rights and Individual Liberty” and “I am a Free American… Right? A Guide to Some of America’s Silliest (and Probably Unconstitutional) Laws.” His writing has been featured with the Freedom Today Network, Speak Freely, Being Libertarian, Think Liberty, and the Foundation for Economic Education.

Joel Meng
Joel is a rising senior at Hillsdale College where he studies American studies and journalism. Joel has interned for the White House, The Heritage Foundation, and Congressman Jim Jordan. He enjoys writing for the Hillsdale Collegian—a school newspaper—and producing a radio feature called Go Figure, a data driven look at the news.

Ryan Neuhaus
A recent graduate of Brigham Young University, Ryan Neuhaus’s work in the Conservative Movement has focused on family and child policy, Constitutional studies, and protecting religious liberty. Currently serving as the florida regional coordinator for Students for Life of America, Ryan oversees the state of Florida, training students in undergrad/med/law school to become leaders on campus and in their communities. Also heavily engaged in legislative affairs, he has been a speaker at statewide events concerning family and child policy issues in Florida. Ryan was named a rising leader fellow of the Heritage Foundation in 2019, and is an alumnus of the Heritage Foundation’s Fall 2018 Young Leaders Program. At the end of his senior year of college, Ryan worked alongside the Sutherland Institute conducting policy research and assisting in legislative affairs during the 2019 Utah Legislative Session. His work has been published on The Daily Signal, Newsmax, The Washington Examiner, and Deseret News.

Alix Ollivier
Alix Ollivier is a policy analyst at the Reason Foundation. His interests include urban governance, specifically the pension crisis across American states. His goal is to build American cities that are a little safer, a little more innovative, and with many more opportunities.

Peyton Lofton
Peyton Lofton is the executive vice president of the Wave Center for Policy and Enterprise, the nation’s premier student-led think tank. He primarily handles the execution of larger events and coordinates the team’s research projects. He’s most passionate about K-12 education policy, and he’s also interested in drug and tech policy. When not writing, he can be found in the student section of Tulane football games or representing the Green Wave on Tulane’s rugby team.

Sarah Stewart
Sarah Stewart is a graduate student in the Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University. She has a Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies (honors program and summa cum laude) and a Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics (high distinction). She is currently working toward her Master of Divinity in Christian Thought. In 2019, she received the Rawlings School of Divinity Award for Excellence in Theological Research. She was previously a participant in Liberty University’s Washington Fellowship, an intern at Family Research Council in their Government Affairs Department, and a student fellow with the Center for Apologetics and Cultural Engagement at Liberty University. Sarah has been involved in various political organizations while attending Liberty University. In particular, she has been focused on pro-life work. She has academic writing credits as well as published blogs and devotional writing. Her passions are theology, political philosophy, and the arts.

Craig Trainor
Craig Trainor is a criminal-defense and civil-rights attorney in New York City.  He previously served as a prosecutor and as a law clerk to a federal judge. He received his law degree from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, in Washington, DC, and his bachelor’s degree in government with an English honors minor from John Jay College, in Manhattan. He currently sits on the steering committee of the Federalist Society’s New York City Lawyers Chapter and is a member of the Manhattan Institute’s Young Leaders Circle. His writing has appeared in National Review, City Journal, the Washington Examiner, the Federalist, the American Spectator, and the late Weekly Standard. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Craig now resides in Manhattan. (He credits an early reading of Norman Podhoretz’s Making It for this trajectory.)

Aaron White
Aaron Lloyd White is a graduate from Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of Environmental Studies. He currently works in development and policy analysis. His work has been published in The Sacramento Bee, The Orange County Register, and the Oakland Tribune, among other publications.