Summer Fellows News
The program will run from Sunday, July 19, to Friday, August 7, 2026. Applications are due by 11:59 pm PST on Thursday, January 15, 2026.
The Fellow Spotlight Series is an inspiring and moving series of "TED"-style talks given by each of our 2025 Fisher Family Summer Fellows to share their backstories and discuss their work.
A panel discussion featuring 2025 Fisher Family Summer Fellows Lilian Tintori and Waleed Shawky, along with Gulika Reddy, Director of the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School, explored the human cost of political imprisonment, the barriers advocates face, and the strategies available to combat them.
In July 2025, the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law will welcome a diverse cohort of 27 experienced practitioners from 18 countries who are working to advance democratic practices and economic and legal reform in contexts where freedom, human development, and good governance are fragile or at risk.
We are concerned and outraged to learn of the state-sponsored abduction of 2022 Fisher Family Summer Fellow Jesús Armas by agents of the Maduro regime in Venezuela. We urge the regime to release him from detention immediately.
The program will run from Sunday, July 20, through Friday, August 8, 2025. Applications are due by 5:00 pm PST on Thursday, January 16, 2025.
The Fellow Spotlight Series is an inspiring and moving series of "TED"-style talks given by each of our 2024 Fisher Family Summer Fellows to share their backstories and discuss their work.
In a panel moderated by Didi Kuo, Bruce Cain, Hakeem Jefferson, and Brandice Canes-Wrone discussed the structural features of American democracy and addressed the issues, strategies, and stakes central to November’s race.
Fuentes, a lawyer, human rights advocate, and agent of social change in Venezuela, is a member of the 2024 class of Fisher Family Summer Fellows at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
Announcing the 2024 Cohort of the Fisher Family Summer Fellows on Democracy and Development Program
In July 2024, the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law will welcome a diverse cohort of 26 experienced practitioners from 21 countries who are working to advance democratic practices and economic and legal reform in contexts where freedom, human development, and good governance are fragile or at risk.
The program will run from Sunday, July 21, through Friday, August 9, 2024. Applications are due by 5:00 pm PST on Sunday, January 14, 2024.
2022 Summer Fellows alumna Geline Fuko (Tanzania) reflects on her experience at CDDRL’s April 2023 LNC reunion in Georgia.
In July 2023, CDDRL will welcome a diverse cohort of 33 experienced practitioners from 21 countries who are working to advance democratic practices and economic and legal reform in contexts where freedom, human development, and good governance are fragile or at risk.
A gift from alumni Sakurako, ’82, and William Fisher, MBA ’84, secures the future of the Summer Fellows Program at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which provides opportunities for civic leaders from around the world to network and learn from Stanford scholars.
Over the weekend of August 13-15, 2022, CDDRL hosted a reunion for the LNC community on campus at Stanford. It was the first global meeting and an exciting opportunity to bring together all generations of our fellows to connect, engage, and envision ways of advancing democratic development. 2018 Draper Hills alum Evan Mawarire (Zimbabwe) reflects on the experience.
CDDRL's Leadership Network for Change and the Center for International Private Enterprise awarded collaboration grants to six teams of alumni to foster cooperation and strengthen democratic development on a regional and global scale.
The Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program reconvened in person for the first time, bringing budding leaders together with the world’s most influential democracy scholars.
Fellows will arrive at Stanford at the end of July to begin the three-week training program that provides a forum for civil society leaders to exchange experiences and receive academic and policy training to enrich their knowledge and advance their work.
Many of our program alumni have played important and influential roles in the country's political, economic, and social development, and have their own perspectives in what follows on why it is important for the international community to pay attention to what is going on in Ukraine and how the crisis is affecting them personally.
A member of the inaugural Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program cohort in 2005, Chito died from COVID-19 on October 9, 2021.
For the next two weeks, Fellows will participate in workshops led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty to study new theories and approaches to democratic development.
The faculty and staff of Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, as well as the undersigned alumni of the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program, wish to protest the completely unjustified arrest and pending trial of the researcher Tatiana Kouzina on June 28 by Belarusian authorities.
Four graduates of FSI’s Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program examine the role the U.S. can play in promoting democracy in their respective countries and throughout the world.
