ABOUT
Where we came from
The Constituent Service Institute grows directly out of the Casework Navigator program at the nonpartisan nonprofit POPVOX Foundation.
That work began in 2022, when POPVOX Foundation Director of Strategic Initiatives Anne Meeker — a former House casework director — testified before the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress on strengthening casework. Later that year, the Foundation convened caseworkers and civil society organizations for a virtual summit on the future of casework, and in spring 2023 launched the Casework Navigator program to complement the institutional offices that support caseworkers and to bring casework into the wider Congressional modernization conversation.
Over the next three years, the program became one of the only efforts with a view across the entire distributed network of casework — the caseworkers in both chambers and both parties, the institutional offices that support them, the vendors who build their tools, the journalists who cover the work, the academics who study it, and the constituents it serves. It advocated with appropriators, published the Casework Navigator newsletter, and helped keep foundational infrastructure like CaseCompass on track.
The Constituent Service Institute carries that work forward as a dedicated standalone organization.
FOUNDING TEAM
Anne Meeker
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Anne Meeker is the founder and Executive Director of the Constituent Service Institute, and a policy fellow for the 2026–27 academic year at the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her work is rooted in casework: as Director of Constituent Services for Congressman Seth Moulton, she personally closed over 2,500 cases and recovered more than $1 million in delayed and retroactive benefits for constituents, redeveloped the office's data program to tie casework directly to legislation, and led a civic tech project with Code for Boston building tools to help constituents navigate complex Social Security programs — work that helped earn the office its first Democracy Award for constituent service.
She went on to join the founding team of the POPVOX Foundation as Director of Strategic Initiatives, where she led the Foundation's work on constituent-legislator engagement, including launching and running the Casework Navigator program and the Voice/Mail newsletter. Anne has authored numerous reports on casework — including American Ingenuity, Disaster Casework, and Casework in Multi-Member Districts, and is a frequent speaker on the subject across media outlets, podcasts, and state and federal delegations. She has testified before the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress on improving casework; one of her recommendations, the CaseCompass data aggregation system, is now under development by the House Digital Service. She has also been a Fellow with Ohio State University's Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability.
Anne holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of Oxford (St. Hugh's College) and an MSc in History from the London School of Economics. She is a proud Clevelander who will take any opportunity to talk up the Rust Belt.
Katherine Long
SENIOR ADVISOR
Katherine Long holds a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Cornell University, and she studied Nepali language and culture in Nepal with the University of Wisconsin.
She raised two red-headed kids in Vermont while serving for over 15 years in Senator Leahy’s Vermont office, helping Vermonters with a wide range of issues and managing the closeout of his casework operation when he retired after 48 years in office.
She was invited to serve as a Senior Fellow for Casework Programs at POPVOX Foundation, supporting the launch of its Casework Navigator Program. In 2023, she ventured into the civil service as a Program and Budget Analyst with the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, managing a budget of over $1 billion. She most recently served as Senior Advisor for Constituent Services with the Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren, leading a casework “glow up” initiative that resulted in dramatic improvements in case turnaround, successful case resolution, and staff satisfaction.
She has professional experience in mental health, energy efficiency, and agriculture, and is proud to have served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger. While based in Vermont, Katherine enjoys spending time in DC and will be walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela this fall.
Megan Rickman Blackwood, Ph.D.
SENIOR ADVISOR
Megan is a political scientist, government innovation strategist, and public service researcher focused on one central question: how can government earn trust by serving people better?
Her work sits at the intersection of public administration, constituent services, civic technology, and democratic responsiveness. As the creator of Proactive Casework Theory, she studies how governments can identify and address constituent needs before citizens are forced to navigate bureaucratic systems alone.
Over the course of her career, Megan has worked across academia, government, and technology — serving in the Virginia legislature, advising civic technology startups, partnering with elected officials and public agencies, and conducting research that informs both scholarship and practice. Her work has been featured through conference presentations, invited panels, and collaborations with leaders working to modernize public service delivery. Today, as Director of Casework Strategy at Civic, she helps shape the future of AI-powered constituent services, translating research and frontline government experience into tools that help public offices serve their communities more effectively.