David Carroll, Ph.D.
Director, Democracy Program
David Carroll leads the Carter Center’s initiative on developing standards and best practices in international election observation. He has managed or participated in more than 70 Carter Center projects to strengthen democracy and electoral processes around the globe in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Carroll joined The Carter Center in 1991 to serve as the assistant director of the Latin America and Caribbean Program. Since 2003, he has directed the Center’s Democracy Program, playing a key role in the Center’s work to build consensus on international standards for democratic elections, as rooted in states’ obligations in international and regional human rights law.
He received his Ph.D. in international relations from the University of South Carolina, has published articles and book chapters on development and democratization, and has taught at the University of South Carolina, Georgia State University, and Sewanee – the University of the South.
Avery Davis-Roberts
Associate Director, Democracy Program
Avery Davis-Roberts manages the Center’s Democratic Election Standards Project, which seeks to develop the criteria by which observers assess a democratic process. She has worked on Carter Center election observation missions in Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. She gained her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Brett Lacy
Associate Director, Democracy Program
Brett Lacy has worked on election observation and democratic governance projects since 1999 in more than a dozen countries. Before returning to The Carter Center in 2010, she managed civil society, political party, conflict mitigation, media, women’s participation, and legislative-strengthening programs for the National Democratic Institute in West Africa. She has also worked with International Foundation for Electoral Systems, International IDEA, and the International Organization for Migration to contribute to the development of standards for the participation of refugees and internally displaced persons in post-conflict elections.
Lacy previously served at the Center from 2000 – 2003, contributing to programming in Timor-Leste, Nicaragua, Guyana, and Zambia as well as the Center’s Democratic Election Standards program as an assistant program coordinator. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Duke University and a master’s degree in international administration from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies.
Dottie Hunt
Senior Program Associate, Democracy Program
Dottie Hunt works on the ELMO project within the Democracy Program. She previously worked at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the library’s user experience department. She is pursuing additional graduate studies in the field of human and computer interaction. Her research interest includes the intersection of data visualization and user interaction. Hunt holds a master’s in business administration and a bachelor’s in music, both from Wesleyan College.
Elizabeth Plachta, J.D.
Associate Director, Democracy Program
Elizabeth Plachta works on the program’s Democratic Election Standards project and elections-focused efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She has been with the Center since 2010 and has supported election observation missions in Libya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Sudan. Prior to joining the Carter Center, Plachta was a consultant for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, where her work included assisting with programming efforts on prison reform in southern Sudan, supporting a counter-piracy program in Kenya, and participating in prison and security-sector assessment missions in southern Sudan and Ghana. While in law school, Plachta focused primarily on international and human rights law and was involved in international law practica on women’s rights in Tanzania, rule of law in Liberia, and international criminal tribunals. Plachta earned a joint bachelor’s in international affairs and Spanish from Georgia Tech and a law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law.
Erin Crysler
Associate Director, Democracy Program
Erin Crysler currently manages the Human Rights House and Mining Governance projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She joined The Carter Center as an intern in 2007. As an assistant program coordinator, she worked on the 2008 election observation mission in Ghana and a capacity-building initiative for African Union election observers. Prior to joining the Center, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin focused on secondary education, gender equality and AIDS awareness. Crysler earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Georgia and her master’s in international affairs from Georgia Tech.
Jonathan Stonestreet
Associate Director, Democracy Program
Jonathan Stonestreet joined The Carter Center in September 2014. Previously, he was the senior election adviser with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw, Poland. From 1997 to 2003, he worked on democracy and human rights issues as part of the OSCE’s field mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has also worked as an election consultant in various countries, including Albania, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Tunisia, and Ukraine.
Stonestreet earned his bachelor’s degree in government and philosophy from the College of William and Mary in 1987 and a master’s diploma in international humanitarian assistance from Deusto University in Bilbao, Spain, in 1996.
Sarah K. Johnson
Associate Director, Democracy Program
Sarah K. Johnson manages democratic governance and election observation activities for The Carter Center, with a principle focus on the Middle East and North Africa region for over a decade. Prior to joining the Center, she implemented political party programming in Morocco and the oPt, and conducted campaign strategy and survey research in the U.S., Middle East and Europe. She has professional experience in political party building, communications, women’s political participation, and public opinion research. Johnson served as a resident country director for the MENA division of the International Republican Institute, as a senior analyst for Greenberg Quinlin Rosner, and as a White House Intern. She holds a master’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and another master’s in European sciences from the Humboldt and Frei universities in Berlin, Germany. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.