American Center for Education and Knowledge (ACEK) - is a nonpartisan think tank educating, informing, & mobilizing public opinion through honest and open debate.
Maria Bordonaro serves as Assistant to the Chairman of the American Center for Education and Knowledge (ACEK), where she works closely with Chairman Robert Chernin to support the organization’s strategic initiatives, executive operations, and communications.
Bruce Abramson has over thirty years of experience working as a technologist, economist, attorney, and policy analyst. He began his career in the mid-1980s pioneering techniques for statistical modeling in artificial intelligence. Since then, he has applied his analytic methodologies to explore numerous challenging issues, both as a researcher and in the service of his clients. Selected areas in which his analyses have broken new ground include: the world oil market, severe storm forecasting, battlefield intelligence, military logistics, Internet business models, antitrust and intellectual property, strategies for engagement in the Middle East, and American political culture.
Dr. Abramson holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia and a J.D. from Georgetown. He has worked as a University of Southern California professor and a Charles River Associates principal. He has launched and led two tech-law consulting firms, a pro-Israel advocacy group, a nonprofit think tank, and a strategic consulting firm. His clients have ranged from individuals and startups to Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, and international organizations. He has contributed to the scholarly literature on computing, business, economics, law, and foreign policy, and written extensively about American politics and policy.
Ari Storch has more than 20 years of international and domestic political and advocacy experience. Ari began his career in the service of the Government of Israel, working on behalf of four different Israeli Prime Ministers in various roles, first as the as the Public Relations Officer at the Consulate General of Israel in Miami for the Shamir and Rabin governments and then as the Congressional Affairs Aide at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC, for both the Peres and Netanyahu administrations.
After leaving government service, Ari applied his years of international and policy experience to more domestic concerns. First, as the Political and Congressional Affairs Director for the National Jewish Coalition (now the Republican Jewish Coalition), and subsequently at Cassidy & Associates, the nation’s then largest federal lobbying firm. While with Cassidy, Ari simultaneously worked at their strategic partner National Strategies, Inc., which manages multi-state government relations strategies. After a stint as Vice President of the Rhoads/Weber Shandwick Government Relations firm, Ari co-founded Artemis Strategies in 2003, a firm recognized as one of the most effective government affairs firms in Washington, DC. In 2009, while still Co-chairman of Artemis Strategies, Ari co-founded Chrysalis Energy Partners, a unique business consulting firm with a focus on building bridges between government and the clean energy sector.
In his 25 years of government affairs work, Ari has led lobbying teams on behalf of foreign countries, industry leading companies, and start-ups alike. Some of his clients have included behemoths such as SAP, H&R Block, HJ Heinz, and Teva Pharmaceuticals, associations like the American Retirement Association, the International Association of Plastics Distribution, the Alliance for Connected Care, and the Wireless Internet Services Providers Association, start-ups like Omada Healthcare, Scrips American, Qteros, Pivot3, and Hydrovolts, as well as a multitude of other interests in Washington, DC.
Ari has spent over a decade as an active member of the Republican Governors Association’s National Finance Committee and is also the past Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Next Generation Campaign. Ari has been an advisor on four US presidential campaigns as well as for numerous candidates for the US Congress and governors’ mansions across the country. In 2001, Ari was appointed by President George W. Bush to the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
Jay is a Director of The American Center for Education and Knowledge, a non-profit committed to protecting the ideals of individual rights, freedom of will and personal responsibility while defending American exceptionalism.
Jay was elected as the National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee for Vermont in both 2012, 2016 and 2020.
He has served as RNC Vice Chair and on the RNC Executive Committee Jay is currently a member of the RNC standing Committee on Rules. Jay was previously the National Director of Catholic Engagement for the RNC.
In addition, Jay was a member of the Platform Committee, the Committee on Permanent Organization, Rules Committee, and the Committee on Arrangements at the RNC National Conventions. Jay also served on President Trump’s Catholic Advisory Committee and was honored to be selected to give the prime-time invocation on the night President Trump and Vice President Pence were officially nominated at the 2016 Republican National Convention. At the 2020 Republican National Convention, Mr. Shepard was again asked to say an invocation to kick off the Convention.
He has served as a media advisor on various U.S Senate, U.S. Congressional, Gubernatorial, state-wide, and legislative races.
Jay is a Newsmax Insider where you will find his regular opinion pieces. He is also a regular guest on national, regional, and local media.
Jay and his wife are owners of Junction Consulting LLC; a marketing and advertising firm specializing in creating, producing, and delivering corporate and political media and messaging. He is also a partner in a Behavioral Science Research Firm.
Robert is a longtime entrepreneur, business leader, fundraiser, and former radio talk show host. He studied political science at McGill University in Montreal and has spent over 25 years deeply involved in civic affairs at all levels. Robert has consulted on a variety of federal and statewide campaigns at the gubernatorial, congressional, senatorial, and presidential level. He served in leadership roles in the presidential campaigns of President George W. Bush as well as McCain for President. He led Florida’s Victory 2004’s national Jewish outreach operations as Executive Director. In addition, he served on the President’s Committee of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Robert co-founded and served as president of the Electoral Science Institute, a non-profit organization that utilized behavioral science to increase voter participation and awareness. He also founded his own national brokerage and risk management firms that specialized in public transportation. He has spent nearly four decades serving the insurance industry. He built his firm into one of the leading transportation insurance brokerages in the country, developing a long- range strategic plan for market consolidation. Additionally, he co-founded a data analytics firm for home mortgages that developed a proprietary and predictive quality-control score for lenders.
In recognition of his business acumen and leadership, Robert was selected to serve on the Small Business Administration’s National Advisory Council.
