The Roosevelt Institution

Jonathan Fantini Porter

School: Georgetown University

Member of:
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Jonathan Fantini Porter founded the Georgetown Roosevelt Institution and is currently policy director to U.S. Representative Joseph Sestak, the highest-ranking former military officer to have served in Congress.

Prior to his involvement in the Roosevelt Institution, Jonathan and six college peers founded the Collegiate Forum- a youth leadership organization that encouraged young people to strengthen communities through civic engagement- and edited its publication The Podium.  Jonathan was a member of Georgetown's student investment fund; the crew team for a period; and, wrote for Georgetown's student newspaper.

Jonathan was also student body president of his Southern California high school where he led a group that raised funds to provide running water and the first primary and secondary school to the rural community of Waslala, Nicaragua.

In 2002, Jonathan was elected to serve as the youngest chairman of an advisory commission to the Speaker of the California State Assembly, Robert M. Hertzberg. In this role he oversaw four committees that provided legislative advise to the Speaker and was one of forty individuals invited to join nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's "Conference for Tomorrow's Leaders," where he was recipient of a grant by the Elie Wiesel Foundation.

Jonathan has had held positions with Senator Edward Kennedy's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein; U.S. Representative Howard L. Berman; and, the office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney.

Jonathan has lived and studied in Brazil, Canada and Germany, and speaks German and Spanish.