Kassie Phebillo

I care deeply about students and our democracy. I think the combination is how we will make our country a better place. From June of 2020 to February of 2026, I served in a student-focused role for Campus Vote Project, with the final title of Student Engagement Director.

In that role, I transformed the fellowship to include robust civic leadership learning outcomes that were supported by data-driven and research-informed practices. As our fellowship program grew to over 300 Fellows across nearly 15 states, I focused on social justice approaches to ensure each student was not fed a prescriptive curriculum, but a curriculum that best supported their unique circumstances on their individual campuses in states with varying voting laws. I also spent eight years as a doctoral candidate in the University of Texas at Austin's Communication Studies Program (Political Communication).

For five years, I served as a Graduate Research Associate at the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Engagement, where I researched best practices in engaging young citizens in voting and I coordinated the TX Votes nonpartisan student organization. During my time in this position, the university was recognized with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge's "Most Improved Undergraduate Turnout" award and Campus Vote Project's "Voter Friendly Campus Designation, as well as featured in national periodicals like New York Times and Forbes.com for our voter engagement efforts. I've also worked as an editor, journalist, and K-12 educator.

I have extensive experience in youth voter engagement, academic research, newspaper reporting, institutional communications, nonprofit organizations, and teaching.

I have a background as educator, journalist, research, and advocate. For the past ten years, I have focused on educating college students about political processes through my role as the Student Engagement Director for the Fair Elections Center's Campus Vote Project and the TX Votes Graduate Program Coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin. I also served as a collegiate teaching assistant, high school teacher, and tutor.

Additionally, I have an extensive background as a journalist and editor in Indiana.

My educational background centers around communication, journalism, and civic engagement. I ended a PhD at ABD in Communication Studies (Political Communication) at the University of Texas at Austin. I completed a MA in Communication, Culture & Technology at Georgetown University. I completed a BA in Communication with minors in English and Humanities at the Indiana Institute of Technology.