Meet the Team
Charles Mitchell | Co-Founder & CEO
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Charles has helped build and scale many nonprofits advancing the education revolution and civil rights. Currently, he is CEO of the Open Discourse Coalition, which he co-founded with fellow Bucknell University alumni Denise Chaykun, Allison Kasic, and Ken Langone, and host of the Open Discourse Podcast. He is also chairman of the board of Black Pastors United for Education, the David & Laura Thayer Visiting Fellow at the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy, a senior fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation, a senior advisor to Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, a visiting senior fellow for leadership development at the State Policy Network, co-founder of Threefold Schoolhouse: An Acton Academy, and an elder in his family’s church.
Previously, Charles served for 15 years in executive roles at the Commonwealth Foundation, and concurrently served as founding president of a public interest law firm representing mistreated workers and founding chairman of a First Amendment watchdog group. The State Policy Network recognized his leadership in these areas with its two highest honors, the Joseph Overton and Thomas Roe Awards. He entered into his work in civil society as a campus activist and editor in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and cut his teeth professionally as a staffer at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, as an intern at the Heritage Foundation, and as a participant in the Claremont Institute’s Publius Fellowship and Stand Together’s Koch Associate Program.Charles’s most important earthly affiliation is as husband to Charissa and father of their four daughters. He and his family live just off the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania.
Dawn Toguchi | Executive Director
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Dawn (Meling) Toguchi has served as executive director of Open Discourse Coalition since 2021 as the organization grew from its first in-person lecture to coalescing the support of donors across the country to provide programming every week for students at Bucknell and beyond.
Dawn has been passionate about effective, persuasive communication and civil discourse since college, where she wrote for an alternative student newspaper, through her early career, when she appeared on various news outlets across central and western Pennsylvania, including KDKA, PCNC, and more. Her writing has appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tribune-Review, RealClear Pennsylvania, and PennLive.
Prior to joining Open Discourse Coalition, Dawn spent a decade in marketing, communications, and development for the Commonwealth Foundation. Her collaboration on direct mail and marketing earned the nationwide United States Postal Service Best-Of-The-Best Direct Mail Award in 2018, in addition to other regional Reed Awards. She also applied these practices to strategic donor communication growth, increasing donor engagement, retention, and revenue.
Dawn earned her bachelor of science in business administration from Bucknell University and her master of business administration from Duquesne University while working in finance for U. S. Steel in Pittsburgh.
The best job she's ever had--and ever will have--is mom to her two children.
Alexa Spaventa | Bucknell Director
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Alexa Spaventa serves as Bucknell Director for the Open Discourse Coalition, where she coordinates programming and engagement efforts at Bucknell University. She works with students, faculty, staff, and community partners to plan speaker events, discussion series, and educational programming focused on civil dialogue and intellectual engagement.
Prior to joining ODC, Alexa worked across higher education and technology in roles related to digital preservation, student affairs, software development, and project management at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh Library System, and in the private sector.
Alexa earned both her Master of Library and Information Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Digital Narrative & Interactive Design from the University of Pittsburgh. Her interest in civic dialogue and the exchange of ideas began through participation in Lincoln–Douglas debate, where she was a four-time national qualifier, and continued during college as a student fellow with The Beatrice Institute, where she participated in interdisciplinary seminars and discussions centered on the Christian intellectual tradition. Building on these interests, her graduate research focused on artificial intelligence, digital communication, and online disinformation. She also served for several years as a teaching assistant and mentor within Pitt’s School of Computing and Information.
Rachel Binney | Operations & Events Associate
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Rachel has worked at Open Discourse Coalition since August 2024 following the graduation of her youngest daughter from high school. She is a 1995 graduate of Calvin College, now Calvin University, with a B.S. in Nursing. She served on active duty in the Naval Nurse Corps for six years prior to separation in order to stay at home with her growing family. In addition to educating her three daughters at home, Rachel volunteered as a junior high cross country coach for eight years and is active in her local church. She and her husband Mike have lived in Lewisburg since 2014.
Carol Platt Liebau | Senior Advisor
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Carol Platt Liebau has worked as a think tank president, attorney, author, political and policy advisor, and media commentator. She has served as legislative assistant to Senator Christopher S. “Kit” Bond of Missouri; as a consultant to the U.S. Senate campaigns of John D. Ashcroft of Missouri (1994) and Congressman Tom Campbell of California (2000 and 2010); and as law clerk to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Carol is a graduate of Harvard Law School—where she served as the first female managing editor of The Harvard Law Review—and Princeton University, where she was editorial chairman of The Daily Princetonian.
Kimberlee Josephson, PhD.
Visiting Academic Fellow
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Kimberlee Josephson, Ph.D. is an associate professor of Business Administration at Lebanon Valley College, research fellow at Consumer Choice Center, a member of the Speakers Bureau at Heterodox Academy and is part of the FEE Faculty Network.
Her academic background is in international studies and strategic management, and she teaches courses covering topics on organizational behavior and international marketing. She holds a doctorate in Global Studies and Commerce from La Trobe University in Australia, a master’s degree in Political Science from Temple University, a master’s degree in International Policy from La Trobe University, and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a minor in Political Science.
Academic Review Committee
Tim Sweeney | Chair
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Prof. Sweeney served on the business school faculties of the University of South Florida, St. Bonaventure University, and at Bucknell University, where he taught for nearly four decades.
Prof. Sweeney was recognized with the Bucknell University Teaching Award in 2003, the ECAC Award for outstanding service to Bucknell Athletics in 2000, and was the first recipient of the Academic Appreciation Award in 2010, also from Bucknell Athletics. Among his many roles and achievements at Bucknell, Prof. Sweeney served as the Faculty Athletics Representative, led the University Review Committee, and co-founded the Institute for Leadership in Technology and Management, which he directed for over a decade.
Prof. Sweeney holds a BS and an MBA degree from the University of Scranton, and earned a PhD degree in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University.
