Contributing Authors
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe-winning actress and producer. Her films include Halloween, True Lies, A Fish Called Wanda, Freaky Friday and Freakier Friday, Knives Out, Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Last Showgirl and Ella McKay, and she is producer of The Lost Bus. In TV she starred in Scream Queens, The Bear and Scarpetta, which she also produced. She is a best-selling author of 15 children’s books.
She is a board member of People For The American Way and an advocate for children's health, the environment, trans rights, and people in recovery.
The proud daughter of film stars, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, she is married to the musician and filmmaker, Christopher Guest. They have two adult children and one grandchild.
Svante Myrick
Svante Myrick is the president of People For the American Way, a leader in the most important fight of our time: the battle to preserve our democracy against the rising threat of authoritarianism. Myrick is sustaining the vision of People For’s founder, iconic television producer Norman Lear, who created People For to counter right-wing extremism and religious bigotry.
As a former mayor of Ithaca, NY, Myrick is deeply committed to realizing the potential of government to improve people’s lives and to the importance of electing progressives to public office. Myrick’s upbringing laid the groundwork for his life of service and civic engagement. He and his family faced homelessness throughout their lives and relied on school lunch programs and other critical public services. These experiences shaped more than a decade of public service in Ithaca, where he garnered national media attention as the youngest-ever mayor in New York State and for his groundbreaking reforms on drug policy, the environment, and public safety.
Myrick is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Frontier Award and People For the American Way Barbara Jordan Leadership Award, and was named by Rolling Stone as a “Hot Do-Gooder” “public servant to watch,” and in Forbes Magazine’s “30 under 30.” Myrick is a frequent contributor and guest for local and national TV, radio, and print outlets including The Hill, MSNBC, CNN, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The New York Times and more.
NA ENG
Na Eng is a social impact executive and Emmy Award-winning storyteller who champions powerful narratives to move ideas and change norms to accelerate progress for greater social impact. She is the chief creative officer at People For the American Way, where she leads creative storytelling and special innovation projects.
Previously, Eng led external affairs for the McKnight Foundation and held senior communications roles in philanthropy and global humanitarian aid.
Eng refined her instinct for storytelling over two decades as a journalist in New York City. Producing for PBS and CNBC, she traveled the globe to translate complex economic trends and social issues into understandable human narratives. Her pieces reached millions of viewers and earned more than a dozen prestigious national honors, including an Emmy Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Documentary.
She is a graduate of Columbia University, a Fulbright Scholar, and the recipient of a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. When she was five years old, Eng and her family fled the killing fields of Cambodia and resettled as refugees in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she was raised by a single mother.
Alex J. Berliner/ABImages for People For the American Way
About People For the American Way
People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. For more than four decades, we have been dedicated to making the promise of American ideals real for everyone and have worked toward a vision of a vibrant America where basic rights and freedoms are upheld for all, not just the wealthy and the powerful. Learn more at peoplefor.org.
