Marci Dale Harris (born December 22, 1974) is an American lawyer and former congressional staffer. She is also the CEO and co-founder of PopVox, an online platform that connects voters with lawmakers.

Early life

Harris was born in Tennessee and attended the

Lausanne Collegiate School Lausanne Collegiate School (; previously Lausanne School for Girls) is an independent, coeducational college-placement school in Memphis, Tennessee. With grades for pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, the school has a sizable international p ...

in Memphis. Her father owned a real estate company. In 1991, as a sophomore in high school, Harris moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

for six months before returning to Memphis to finish her senior year of high school. She then traveled to Paraguay before enrolling in the Franklin School in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, graduating in 1997.

Career

2007–2010: Congress

After receiving a J.D. degree from the University of Memphis and then a master of law from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in 2007, Harris went on to work in the United States Congress as a congressional staffer for three years, focusing on health care reform. She became the Tax, Trade, and Health Counsel to Representative

Pete Stark Fortney Hillman Stark Jr. (November 11, 1931 – January 24, 2020), known as Pete Stark, was an American businessman and politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 2013. A Democrat from California, St ...

of California's 13th congressional district, and oversaw the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee in the areas of Medicare program integrity and transparency.

2010–present: Popvox

Harris reportedly had the idea for Popvox, while working for Pete Stark. noticing that members Congress often received a large amount of input from the public, but oftentimes failed to organize it efficiently enough to employ it constructively. After leaving her position as a congressional staffer in 2010, Marci co-founded PopVox with Radha Chaudhry. The website contains public information about bills that are introduced in Congress. Advocacy organizations can register for a profile on the website and include their positions on certain bills, stating whether they support them or oppose them. The website won the SxSW BizSpark Accelerator startup competition in 2011 and was named one of the Top Open Government Websites by Read Write Web. In addition to running PopVox, Marci has served on the board of LaunchTN, an organization aimed at fostering entrepreneurship in Tennessee. Additionally, she mentors at Code for America Accelerator in San Francisco, California. She has employed the help of her brother, who serves as COO of the website.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Marci American women chief executives American technology chief executives University of Memphis alumni Washington College of Law alumni People from Tennessee Living people 1974 births 21st-century American women