Trustee Travis Francis is President of the Center and a Visiting Associate of Eagleton Institute of Politics. Prior to co-founding the Center in 2020 with Judge Lefelt, Judge Francis had been a trial attorney for Prudential Insurance Co. and Senior Trial Attorney with Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company; a lawyer with New Jersey’s Department of the Public Advocate; a Superior Court trial judge in Middlesex County for 15 years; Assignment Judge in Middlesex County for 10 years; and an Adjunct Rutgers Law School professor for many years, teaching civil liberties and personal litigation skills. After his retirement from the bench in 2017, he became of counsel with the New Jersey law firm of Riker Danzig, specializing in mediation and arbitration.