We are pleased to announce that Ron Gunzburger is joining StoryCorps as Chief of Staff, Special Projects. Ron will work with CEO Sandra Clark and Founder & President Dave Isay to ensure the maximum impact of One Small Step, a major initiative to combat the divisions in our country, bringing strangers with different political beliefs together for a conversation—not to debate politics, but to get to know each other as people. To date, more than 3,400 people have participated in a One Small Step conversation and the effort has garnered notable media coverage, including a “60 Minutes” segment, and most recently, a feature in the Wall Street Journal.
Before joining StoryCorps, Ron—a Democrat—served for eight years as the Senior Advisor (Political Director) for Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan. Ron also served as the Governor’s Director of Covid-19 Response Strategy throughout the state of emergency (2020-22), helping save countless lives and businesses during the darkest days of the pandemic.
Ron comes with a wealth of experience navigating political divides, working as a campaign manager or senior strategist on more than 130 campaigns for centrist, good government candidates. In 1997, he created the popular Politics1.com, a complete online directory of statewide and federal candidates, that he still publishes. Ron’s @politics1com Twitter feed is followed by the nation’s leading political reporters and campaign consultants.
Ron sees StoryCorps—and its One Small Step initiative—as his next opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of Americans. As a child and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, Ron is acutely aware of what can occur when people lose sight of their shared humanity.
An attorney by training, Ron has been a public defender, a state racketeering prosecutor, a litigation partner in a top-100 national law firm, and a governmental general counsel. He also served as a senior civilian commander in the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, one of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies, and successfully advanced transparency, accountability and criminal justice reforms.