Paul T. Mero (born December 2, 1957), now retired, worked government affairs for Western Governors University (WGU) from 2019 to 2024.
He is chairman of the board for Transcend Together (formerly Next Generation Freedom Fund (NGFF), a state-based public policy group focused on lifting all Utahns to prosperity.
In 1997, Mero left Capitol Hill to found the nonprofit Projects for America, creating SWAN, a social issues database.
[4] From December 2000 to August 2014, Mero served as president of Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mero launched Next Generation Freedom Fund (NGFF) in June 2016 wherein he now serves as chairman of the board newly renamed Transcend Together.
In Congress, Mero helped to form the Conservative Action Team (evolving years later, through several iterations, into the now House Freedom Caucus) in the House of Representatives following the 1994 election; worked on social issues such as school prayer, defunding the National Endowment for the Arts, AIDS, the expulsion resolution of Congressman Barney Frank and preventing federal "sex studies" of school children; and, authored the controversial "What Homosexuals Do" remarks inserted into the Congressional Record on June 29, 1989, by Congressman Bill Dannemeyer, as well as authoring Congressman Bob Dornan's 1995 floor speech announcing his presidential run in the 1996 election.