Meg Barnette is the Brennan Center’s chief of staff. She works across the organization to ensure alignment around strategy and mission, facilitate and enhance collaboration, and strengthen systems that ensure accountability and transparency.
Before rejoining the Brennan Center, Barnette served as the president and CEO of Nonprofit New York, a nationally recognized intermediary organization that champions nonprofits through capacity building and advocacy to build a more unified, just, and powerful sector.
Prior to Nonprofit New York, Barnette spent more than nine years at Planned Parenthood in New York City, serving in roles including vice president of strategic initiatives, chief strategy officer, and general counsel.
Barnette’s expertise in senior leadership and management stems in part from her first tenure at the Brennan Center, from 2004 to 2011, where she served in roles including chief operating officer.
Barnette was a Skadden Fellow with the Lawyers Alliance and clerked in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr.
She received her BA in tutorial studies from the University of Chicago and her JD from NYU School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden Scholar.