SNF Agora Conversation - Year of Democracy: Elections Around the World

David Smolansky served as the Mayor of El Hatillo City in Caracas, Venezuela. His tenure as Mayor gained national and international recognition for its transparency and notable reduction in kidnappings, despite operating in one of the world’s most violent capitals. His commitment to addressing human rights violations and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela led him to play a pivotal role in non-violent protests against Maduro’s dictatorship. As a result of defending democratic values while serving in local government, he faced arbitrary arrest warrants, removal from his Mayoral role, illegal disqualification for public service, banned from voting, and ultimately, forced into exile.

After fleeing Venezuela, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) appointed Smolansky as the special envoy to address the Venezuelan migration and refugee crisis, the largest in the world. He authored 15 reports and conducted over 20 official visits to 11 countries in the Americas, advocating for policies to protect and integrate Venezuelan migrants and refugees who have fled Maduro’s regime.

Sanjay Ruparelia is associate professor of politics and public administration, and the inaugural Jarislowsky Democracy Chair, at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

Ruparelia is a co-chair of the Participedia network, which examines democratic innovations around the world; contributing editor to Indian Politics and Policy, and associate editor of Pacific Affairs and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian Politics; and a country expert for V-Dem: Varieties of Democracy. He hosts On the Frontlines of Democracy, a monthly podcast and lecture series, the latter with the Toronto Public Library. 

Stephanie Talton is the Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) for the Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA) at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and has been the acting Assistant Commissioner since November 2019.  In this role, Ms. Talton is responsible for leading OCA, which is the main conduit between Congress and CBP.  OCA liaises with Congress, to include the Committees with jurisdictional and appropriations oversight of CBP, addressing the needs of the Hill to perform these functions, while advocating for legislation and preparing CBP executives for engagements with the Hill.

Prior to her position as DAC of OCA, Ms. Talton spent three years as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Trade, managing the day-to-day operations of the Office of the Executive Assistant Commissioner, including overseeing communications, executive secretariat, and congressional functions. Ms. Talton started her CBP career in September 2005, as a Congressional liaison, working on a number of issues including appropriations, border security, travel facilitation and cargo security.  Ms. Talton spent five years in OCA as the branch chief for the Field Operations and Intelligence branch, overseeing Congressional strategy and outreach on all issues related to passenger processing and admissibility, cargo security, interdiction efforts at the ports, facilities, targeting and intelligence.

Ms. Talton has a BA in political science from the Johns Hopkins University and an MA in governmental administration from the University of Pennsylvania.  She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and two sons.