Soren Dayton is a policy and public affairs professional with experience across a range of areas including government reform, telecommunications, foreign policy, among others. Soren has been in Washington, DC since 2003, except for a year and a half sabbatical in India.
Soren is the Director of Governance at the Foundation for American Innovation a center-right think tank focused on building the innovation foundations of American society. There he focuses on methods of improving governance at the federal level, state level, and in civil society organizations. Previously, he worked in a similar role at the Niskanen Center. You can read Soren’s iterative musings on these issues at his Substack, Prototyping Politics.
Previously, Soren has been a policy advocate at Protect Democracy, a a was Senior Vice President, Digital Advocacy in Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ Washington, DC office, and a Senior Vice President — and Senior Counselor while in India — at Prism Public Affairs, which subsequently merged with Rasky Baerlein; at New Media Strategies; on the Hill for Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI); for the John McCain for President campaign; as an independent consultant, among other things. He has also been active in a number of grassroots political organizations.
In India, Soren and his wife worked with International Justice Mission to fight human trafficking. They wrote about their experiences at their blog.
His writings have appeared in Roll Call, Politico, The Hill, the Washington Post, and other outlets. He has appeared on CNN, BBC, NPR, RTE (Irish national TV and Radio), Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, among others.
Soren served as the President of the University of Chicago Washington, D.C. Alumni Association, as a member of the board of advisors of Tech Congress. He was also a Penn Kemble Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy.
Soren lives in Accokeek, Maryland, in the Moyaone Reserve with his wife Amanda Butler and their cat Haider and two lovely kooikerhondjes, Maas and Kwak. They met at an alumni event for their mutual alma mater, the University of Chicago.
To contact Soren, try him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or any of the platforms at the bottom of the page.