Staff

David Hoffman is director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life. He develops and teaches courses about civic communication and culture as a faculty fellow in UMBC’s Honors College, and has created and facilitated dozens of programs in which students develop the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and relationships needed to help their communities thrive. He serves as a member (and past chair) of the Steering Committee for AASCU’s American Democracy Project, and previously served as a member of the National Advisory Board for Imagining America. As a member of the inaugural cohort of American Democracy Project Civic Fellows, he led the development of the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Theory of Change, and works with Center for Democracy and Civic Life colleagues and national partners to amplify and implement it. David’s research and publications explore civic agency, civic pedagogy, democratic communication styles and techniques, and culture change within institutions. He is an alum of UCLA, where he served as student body president and University of California student regent. He earned J.D. and M.P.P. degrees at Harvard University, and his Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture at UMBC. When he’s not working, David often can be found setting his fantasy baseball lineups or taking photos; his practice of taking pictures on the UMBC campus once got him labeled as “the #UMBCsky guy.”

Ricky Blissett is associate director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life. As a strategic planner, dialogue facilitator and coach, and research methodologist, they develop and coordinate Center programs and initiatives, including the Center’s civic dialogue work as well as the Center’s research and evaluation agenda. Prior to their role at UMBC, they served as a faculty member in educational leadership and policy at the University of Georgia, Seton Hall University, and Vanderbilt University. As a faculty member, they primarily taught courses in the politics of education policy, public policy analysis, and research and evaluation methodology. They have also served as a founding member of the Just Education Policy Institute; program chair for the Policy and Politics division of the American Educational Research Association; and principal investigator for the Democracy and Equity in Education Politics research group. Ricky has conducted and published research exploring citizen, activist, and policymaker ideologies in educational justice, democratic and equitable approaches to evaluation and methodology, and student advocacy. Their work appears in publications including Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Policy, and Race Ethnicity and Education. Outside of their work at UMBC, they serve as affiliate faculty with the Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab, and they have co-developed the civic dialogue model advanced by the District Dialogue Collaborative. They received their Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University, and they are an alum of UMBC with a B.S. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. During their time as a UMBC student, Ricky was a participant in the first STRiVE leadership for public purpose retreat in 2009, coordinator for an education service organization through the Shriver Center, and active member of UMBC’s Student Government Association (SGA), both as director of academic affairs and executive vice president.

Tess McRae is assistant director for connective learning with the Center for Democracy and Civic Life. She co-develops the Center’s programs, initiatives, courses, communications, and overall strategy with a special emphasis on practices and pedagogical approaches that support engagement, belonging, and civic contributions within the UMBC community. Tess is the lead organizer for the STRiVE leadership for public purpose program and supports the Center’s programs, particularly those for incoming, first-, and second-year undergraduate students, as a designer and facilitator. She is also UMBC’s campus liaison to the American Democracy Project (ADP), a faculty fellow in UMBC’s Honors College, convener of the UMBC Student Government Association (SGA)’s Appeals Board, a reviewer of undergraduate degree proposals for UMBC’s Individualized Study (INDS) department, and a former secretary of UMBC’s Exempt Staff Senate. Tess is a founding staff member with the Center and worked as an undergraduate student intern for four years prior to entering a full-time role. During her time as an intern, Tess served as co-chair of the University System of Maryland (USM)’s Student Civic Leaders Committee, participated in STRiVE and Alternative Spring Break (ASB), produced and illustrated the virtual Co-Create UMBC Tour, worked as the director of communications for UMBC’s SGA and as a graphic designer with commonvision (UMBC’s Design & Print Center), and studied abroad in Brighton, England. Tess earned a self-designed B.A. in Civic Renewal and Creative Expression through UMBC’s INDS program and is pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore. She loves to draw, paint, collage, write poetry, play piano, and sing. In addition to her artistic endeavors, she enjoys watching and learning about musicals, climbing in the treetops on aerial rope courses, and playing cozy video games (her favorites are Ilomilo and Animal Crossing: New Leaf).

Ann Tropea is an editor, communications strategist, educator, and media leader whose work focuses on storytelling, journalism, emerging technology, and civic engagement. As assistant director for engaged media, she leads initiatives that support student media, media literacy and research, and faculty partnerships. Prior to joining UMBC, Ann served as editor-in-chief of Seapower magazine, the flagship publication of the Navy League of the United States, where she led editorial coverage of defense, technology, and maritime affairs. Her career spans journalism, higher education, nonprofit communications, podcasting, publishing, and public speaking, with experience translating complex topics into compelling stories for diverse audiences. Ann is an active speaker and writer on media production, editorial strategy, and the future of communication. She regularly advises student journalists and media leaders and develops educational programming related to media and information literacy. Her previous roles include communications director at Career Valet, managing editor of Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s law journal, editor-in-chief of New York University’s Medium Cool magazine, and associate publisher and nightlife editor of New York City’s GO Magazine. A licensed attorney and certified birth doula, Ann brings a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective to questions of communication, trust, decision-making, and human connection. She holds a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and graduated magna cum laude from New York University with a degree in Communication Studies.

Trentqual Rhone is coordinator for political engagement with the Center for Democracy and Civic Life. He leads the Center’s Political Engagement Working Group and Election Ambassador Program and co-leads the Alternative Spring Break program. Trentqual’s areas of expertise include local and federal politics, student activism, coalition-building, and media. A Black Belt, Alabama native, he began organizing with The Poor People’s Campaign and later worked with Woke Vote to mobilize hundreds of HBCU students across the South. Trentqual earned a B.A. in Political Science from the Illustrious Alabama State University and a master’s in media and strategic communication from The George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, where his research explored how media shapes public opinion, impacts social change movements, and connects political institutions to the communities they serve. Trentqual was a press assistant at Protect Our Care before joining the U.S. House of Representatives, where his work spanned constituent services, crisis response, media relations, digital strategy, and technical writing. Across his experiences, he has helped people better understand, navigate, challenge, reimagine, and reshape the political institutions and systems that affect their lives. In 2021, he was named Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.’s Most Outstanding College Brother of the Year at the national level in recognition of his service. A writer at heart, Trentqual is currently pursuing an M.A. in English with a Film and Visual Storytelling concentration. Outside of work and school, he’s an improviser, a traveling man, a card-carrying Tubi enthusiast, and a lover of all things art, music, and film.

Mehul Lad has served as a Technology Graduate Assistant with Residential Life Facilities & Technology at UMBC, where he supported technology operations, student-facing services, and Residential Life systems. He has also worked as a Residential Life Desk Assistant, which helped him engage closely with the campus community and understand student needs from a service-oriented perspective. In addition, he has research experience through UMBC/NASA-related work involving data science and forecasting. Through his role with the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, he hopes to contribute to a welcoming, inclusive, and thoughtful campus environment where students feel encouraged to participate, share their voices, and engage with civic issues. He is especially interested in learning how dialogue, community-building, and leadership can help students feel more connected to UMBC and to one another. He earned his bachelor of engineering in biomedical engineering from the University of Mumbai in India before coming to UMBC for graduate studies. Outside of work and school, he enjoys badminton, going to the gym, traveling, exploring new places, and following Formula One. He also enjoys meeting people from different backgrounds and learning from their experiences.

Duncan Winger is a special projects intern with the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, where he hopes to advance projects that help civic agency flourish at UMBC and beyond. Duncan is interested in how pedagogy, art, history, psychology, and philosophy can coalesce into transformational learning experiences in diverse settings. He is designing his own degree integrating these lenses of learning with the Individualized Studies department. He is also pursuing research around civic agency. He is a Humanities Scholar, an Honors Forum Team Leader, and an avid supporter of The Art Life, a movement on campus that seeks to create spaces of mutual care, expression, agency, and creativity by facilitating collaboration among campus organizations (check out the series of murals in the Sondheim building’s basement!). Duncan participated in both STRiVE and Alternative Spring Break in 2026. In his free time, Duncan loves to read, converse, reflect, scribble incoherently on whiteboards, make master plans, draw interesting things, run intensely, admire scenery, and recently has gotten into trying to write songs and play guitar.