Kim Hermance

Kim Hermance believes effective self-government requires citizens who understand how government works, have the tools to hold it accountable, and are prepared to step forward, take action and lead. That principle has driven her work since 2021 and is at the heart of Project CIVICA, the nonprofit civic action organization she co-founded in January 2024.
Before founding Project CIVICA, Kim helped build and coordinate a statewide network of nearly 2,000 volunteers across more than 45 New York counties. That experience demonstrated what organized citizens can accomplish when they move beyond frustration and have the knowledge, structure, and practical tools to act effectively.
As President and Director, Kim has helped build Project CIVICA into a statewide citizen research and action organization. Its work includes large-scale voter registration and election administration research, statewide poll-watching and voter-turnout initiatives, legislative advocacy in Albany and Washington, D.C., citizen petitions to Congress, and data-driven reports examining voter-list maintenance, election administration, government transparency, and compliance with law.
Central to Kim's work is putting the tools of government accountability directly into citizens' hands. Project CIVICA trains citizens to use New York's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) and Open Meetings Law (OML), follow public money and government spending, examine public records, scrutinize government decision-making, and take action on the findings.
Project CIVICA also engages in legal advocacy, including amicus work before the United States Supreme Court and in New York courts. Its team provides research, resources, and procedural support to citizens pursuing their own pro se Article 78 proceedings involving FOIL, election administration, and government accountability.
Kim has also helped build a publication platform that gives citizen researchers, writers, and advocates an opportunity to publish original research, analysis, and perspectives that might otherwise be lost in today's political and media noise.
Her work is now expanding Project CIVICA's emphasis on citizen leadership development—identifying, educating, training, and preparing citizens for elected office, local party committees, and other positions of civic and political leadership. The organization has also conducted voter-turnout initiatives and advanced the Common Sense Contract in New York and New York City.
For Kim, the objective is straightforward: build citizens who can investigate government, hold it accountable, influence the public debate, organize others, and lead. A constitutional republic is strongest when its citizens understand that they are not spectators in government, they are participants in it.