In 2016, A Functional Democracy was founded after three passionate Austinites, Jordan, Hal and Amy, met at a civics happy hour. Together they bonded over the potential of local government to solve many of America’s biggest issues, and a shared desire for increased engagement of under-represented groups in this critical forum. 

Prior to their meeting, Amy had been working as a local news reporter and was tired of showing up to empty City Council meetings. She had started putting together online resources and hosting community happy hours - all with the goal of helping Austinites advocate for the issues that really mattered to them. Meanwhile, artists and designers, Hal and Jordan had been working on a similar mission: they were making work designed to personalize civic engagement. Their participatory art projects were about building community, increasing representation and making civics more accessible. Their two missions complimented each other perfectly, and within a few weeks they had joined forces - a partnership was formed! 

Since then, A Functional Democracy has grown to include a talented coalition of creative activists trying to make our local government systems more inspiring. Every year we invite a group of Fellows and Artists-in-Residence to work with us in improving local government participation. Our model is open and inviting - we seek to create scalable and repeatable projects that others can leverage, and we seek to be a platform for other creative civic leaders to shine.

Amy Stansbury

Amy has been passionate about local news her entire life. As a local news reporter (first in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and then in Austin, Texas) she has seen firsthand the effects of an uninformed electorate. And if there's one thing she's learned, it's that extremists benefit from empty City Halls...and the rest of us (and our democracy suffers). This is the problem she's working to solve with A Functional Democracy. 

Amy is also the Editor-In-Chief of the Austin EcoNetwork, Austin's local environmental news source, as well as a cohost of Shades of Green, Austin's live environmental talk radio show. In her free time, she serves on the boards of Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center and Generation Citizen. She is also the chair of the Austin Young Chamber's Economic Development Committee and a member of the Leadership Austin class of 2018. 

Hal Wuertz

Hal is a designer who loves designing solutions for big, systematic, problems. (Yes ... like civic engagement!) As an accomplished human-centered researcher, she’s passionate about design solutions that are routed in human needs, and she applies this approach to everything we make at A Functional Democracy.

Hal is also a seasoned design thinking facilitator, having led hundreds of workshops for many different kinds of organizations including NGOs, corporations, governments and universities. As part of AFD, she helps facilitate and construct our workshop offerings that lead participants through some of our more advanced learning modules.

Hal grew up in many different countries, and so has had the opportunity to witness a wide array of human governments. While there’s much to be improved about the current incarnation of American democracy, she's passionate about its possibilities.

Hal is one part of WorkbyHal&Jordan.

Jordan Shade

Jordan is a designer and researcher and person who generally feels pretty amazed by human existence. She lives and works in Austin, TX.