Lisa Gilbert
Co-president
Lisa Gilbert (she/her) is Public Citizen’s co-president. Previously, Lisa served as Public Citizen’s vice president of legislative affairs, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and deputy director of that division. She is a strong advocate of government transparency and integrity, financial reform, civil justice and consumer protection.
Lisa has built and managed large coalitions of progressive groups. She founded and co-leads the 100-plus member Not Above the Law coalition, designed to push back on the Trump administration’s rule of law abuses; founded the 160-member Declaration for American Democracy coalition, which successfully pushed for passage in the U.S. House of Representatives of the For the People Act (H.R. 1) (a raft of democracy reforms); and runs the Clean Budget Coalition, a 120-plus member coalition that has helped keep poison pill policy riders out of the budget.
Lisa has been named one of D.C.’s top lobbyists by The Hill and an under-40 rising star by Washington Life Magazine every year since 2017.
Prior to joining Public Citizen, Lisa was the democracy advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, where she focused on good government, ethics and campaign finance reform. She also worked as a campaign director who organized outreach campaigns to pass legislation on social justice and environmental issues for organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, Sierra Club and Environment Washington.
Media Appearances:
Lisa has testified before Congress and been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fox News and NPR. She was also a featured contributor to the National Journal’s “Expert Blog” on lobbying and ethics and is a contributor to The Hill.