John S. McCain Democracy Fellow.
Sofia (Gross) Haft was an early employee of Snap, Inc. - building the news team, political partnerships team, global public policy team, and opening the Washington, D.C. office. She most recently served as head of social impact and policy partnerships to address critical topics facing youth around the world. In this role, she led Snap’s civics and democracy efforts that helped 1.2 million Snapchatters register to vote and helped over 4 million Snapchatters learn more about how to run for local office. She was recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30 for policy and social impact.
Sofia completed the Technology and Democracy Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School where she co-authored a case study titled, “Civic Responsibility: The Power of Companies to Increase Voter Turnout.” Sofia studied international studies and near eastern languages & civilizations at the University of Chicago where she was also captain of the varsity swimming & diving team.
Sofia currently serves as a strategic outreach advisor to the University of Chicago Admissions Office and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Institute of Politics at UChicago. Sofia advises a number of civic organizations including the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, Civic Alliance, 50x2026, Civic Responsibility Project, National Voter Registration Day, Vote Early Day and TurboVote. She is also a public affairs officer in the United States Navy Reserve, currently serving as the strategic communications advisor to Task Force 59, a new task force that combines manned with unmanned systems and artificial intelligence for maritime operations in the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet / U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT).
