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The 2011 - 2013 Democratic GAIN Board of Directors: Ashley Spillane, Executive Director Amy Pritchard, President Help me meet my fundraising goal!
Amy Pritchard is a Progressive Democratic Political Consultant and entrepreneur. For more than 25 years she has worked full time on political and issue advocacy campaigns on the ground in 28 states and for clients in 20 others in the US. Internationally she has work in on programs for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Kosovo, Thailand (Burma program), Iraq, Rwanda, and most recently in Egypt where she ran a voter education program around the 2011-2012 Parliamentary Elections. Pritchard spends the majority of her time working for Mission Control, a political communications, voter contact and new media firm that works with Democratic candidates, party committees, initiative and referendum campaigns, trade associations, labor unions and public interest groups. She joined "TheMCTeam" in 2007 and opened their DC office. AP Campaigns is Pritchard's general political consulting firm for progressive non-profits and partisan organizations. She is also a partner at Digital Turf - a consulting firm that provides website development, digital strategy and online advertising for Democratic and Progressive Campaigns and Organizations. With Mission Control she provides consulting services to a diverse variety of clients like AFSCME, AFL-CIO and Working America, SEIU, UFCW, Change to Win, America Votes, EMILY’s List, Michigan Coalition for Progress, US Action, several ballot measure campaigns and many Democratic candidates and party organizations. Pritchard is the founder of Democratic GAIN . As a active board President, she volunteers with GAIN though raising money, developing program, expanding membership, training, and one on one career counseling for its members (check out her Ohours). Pritchard has trained extensively on a variety of topics that range from voter contact and organizing, targeting, voter files and data management and integration, fundraising, lobbying, new media, organizational & professional development, communications and more. In addition to GAIN, she has trained for the DNC, DCCC, AARP, Wellstone Action, BISC, Progressive Majority and a variety of other organizations. Internationally she has trained women & political parties for National Democratic Institute in Kosovo, Iraq, Rwanda, and Egypt, and helped with Burma border NGO’s communications and New Media in Thailand (Burma Partnership). She also trained women political activists in Venezuela for the Women's Campaign International. Between 1999 and 2006 she was a partner in Mammen Pritchard, a political consulting firm that provided voter contact and direct mail to Democratic candidates and Progressive Organizations. In 2004 she took a leave from her consulting to serve as the Political Director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after consulting with the DNC to develop their voter contact strategies in 2003. At the DNC she managed a staff of over 50 who worked on voter contact, field, and constituencies. She also managed a multi-million dollar voter contact and communications plan. One of the US’s leading experts on initiatives and referenda, Pritchard is a founder and past board member of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, an organization that monitors initiatives and referenda and provides training, research and strategic guidance for progressive ballot measure campaigns. From 1997-1998 Pritchard served as the Midwest and Northeast Political Director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Between 1987 and 1997 Pritchard traveled around the country working on political and issue campaigns in CA, FL, ME, MI, NH, MA, WI, FL, and several others states. Ashley Spillane is the Executive Director of Democratic GAIN and The Atlas Project. Ashley has been affiliated with Atlas from the project’s start, doing everything from researching and writing reports to running the production process. During election-year sabbaticals from Atlas, Ashley has worked with the DCCC’s independent expenditure in 2010 and the AFL-CIO’s direct mail program in 2008. She has also done several campaigns around the country, including the presidential primary campaigns of Tom Vilsack and Hillary Clinton; the 2006 governor’s race in Iowa; John Kerry’s presidential race; and the 2002 Maryland governor’s race. Ashley also has international experience, having consulted for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in the Middle East and Africa. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Alexandra Acker-Lyons is the Director of the Youth Engagement Fund, a collaborative project of institutional and individual donors. She is author of the book "The Political Ladder: Insider Tips on Getting a Job in Politics" and is a recognized political commentator who appears regularly on CNN and Fox News. Alexandra also consults for Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign and trains internationally for the National Democratic Institute. Alexandra’s expertise in youth politics culminated during the 2008 election cycle, when she served as Executive Director of the Young Democrats of America. She was also the National Youth Outreach Director for John Kerry’s presidential campaign. Alexandra previously served as the Executive Director at Democratic GAIN and has also worked for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY). Alexandra graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Binghamton and now lives in Mountain View, CA. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Michael Bassik is Managing Director and U.S. Digital Practice Chair at Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations and communications firm. In addition to his role at Burson-Marsteller, Michael is CEO of Proof Integrated Communications, a full-service integrated marketing and advertising firm within WPP Group.
Michael is an accomplished digital strategist with more than 11 years of experience. He has built several successful online public affairs practices and has been honored for his industry-leading work by Yahoo!, the American Association of Political Consultants and POLITICO.
Throughout his career, Michael has been a pioneer in the field of digital communications. He has blended digital strategy, public affairs and political communications to lead effective campaigns. He has worked with several high-profile clients including IBM, Google, the Democratic National Committee, John Kerry for President, Hillary Clinton for President and Obama for America. Most recently, Michael was Senior Vice President at Global Strategy Group where he established and managed the full-service digital public affairs division. In this role, he developed and oversaw the execution of award-winning online marketing, reputation management and media relations programs for some of the firm’s largest and most highly visible clients, including IBM, Google, Al Jazeera English, Oprah Magazine, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Dan Malloy for Governor (CT). Prior to Global Strategy Group, Michael was Chief Digital Officer for the radio network Air America Media. At Air American Media, Michael successfully led digital strategy through the worst recession in decades, growing the outlet’s online audience and revenue by over 200% – including a new, profitable website and multimillion-dollar subscription podcast business. He also created Ad Progress Network, a stand-alone advertising network representing cross-media ad inventory from Air America, The New Republic, Mother Jones, The Nation and AlterNet. Earlier in his career, he established America Online’s political advertising division, the first such division among the internet portals. As the Director of Political Advertising, he executed the first political advertisements on the internet and worked with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Yahoo!, MSN and The New York Times to author industry-wide policies regarding political and issue-advocacy advertising. Michael has appeared on Bloomberg Radio and NPR’s Morning and Weekend Editions. He was also featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The International Herald Tribune, BusinessWeek and Advertising Age. Michael received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is a member of the New York State Bar and sits on the advisory board of the Personal Democracy Forum and E-Voter Institute. Matt Blizek Help me meet my fundraising goal! Matt managed his first campaign at 19 while a student at the University of Iowa and has never stopped organizing. At 31 he is a nationally known progressive organizer with experience in Field, Fundraising, Training and Online Organizing for numerous campaigns and organizations including the DNC, MoveOn.org, Russ Feingold, Jon Tester, Annette Taddeo, and No on 1 (Marriage Equality in ME). From 2007 though 2011 he served as the National Training Director & Field Director at Democracy for America -organizing 87 trainings in 37 states and mobilizing DFA's million plus members to elect progressives at all levels of office. Matt is proudly serving his second term as a Board Member at Democratic GAIN, the premier organization for connecting talented staff to campaigns and organizations in need. A recent transplant to the Chicago area, he most recently worked as the Field Director for Ilya Sheyman for Congress in IL-10. He is currently the National Campaigns Manager at Rebuild the Dream. Help me meet my fundraising goal! A first generation Puerto Rican-American, Lina was born and proudly raised in the Bronx, New York. As the daughter of a mother who worked as a card-carrying union clothing factory worker and a teamster driver father, she was raised in a strong union household that instilled in her the values of fighting injustice at a young age. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Brandon L. Davis is the National Political Director for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation’s fastest growing union with 2.1 million members in the healthcare field, the public sector and property services. In this capacity, Brandon leads one of the nation’s largest political programs dedicated to winning for working families, and is tasked with developing and implementing a national member focused and member driven campaign to win key 2012 elections while building permanent political infrastructure in the field that will lead to real policy change for working families in 2013 and beyond. SEIU’s political and electoral program is focused on advancing the major issue areas of a winning agenda for working families and the 99%: good jobs; tax fairness; an end cuts to essential services like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; and comprehensive immigration reform. Before becoming the National Political Director, Brandon was the Deputy National Political Director for Member Engagement at SEIU and worked diligently on SEIU’s fight to win historic national healthcare reform. Brandon joined SEIU in 2007 as the Political Director for SEIU’s Missouri State Council. Prior to joining SEIU, Brandon worked extensively on electoral campaigns, including Senator Claire McCaskill’s 2006 campaign, where he served as Political Director and Deputy Campaign Director. Brandon lives the DC area with his wife Brandi and their daughter Bella. Help me meet my fundraising goal! In 2010, Alix Dejean, an accomplished political and fundraising strategist, joined Dewey Square Group’s state and local affairs practice. Dejean provides strategic guidance to clients which build upon deep relationships with mayors, Congressional members, governors and other elected and community leaders across the country.Prior to joining DSG, Dejean served as a principal consultant with the Dejean Group working with an array of non-profit, political, corporate and issue advocacy clients. From 2007 to 2009, Dejean served as the finance director for the African American Leadership Council (AALC). During his tenure, the AALC exceeded its fundraising goals as a result of Dejean’s oversight and strengthened ties to prominent African-American business and political leaders. He also served as the group’s liaison to the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2005, Dejean joined the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as Southern Deputy Finance Director with a focus on developing a strong grassroots fundraising apparatus. Shortly thereafter he became the Northern Deputy Finance Director to help grow and develop donor relationships with the major donors in the region. While with the DNC, Dejean cultivated and grew the party’s network of donors and built deep relationships with the political staff to U.S. Congressional Members and Senators. Previously, Dejean worked for the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry in Florida as a liaison to local-elected officials and a local director of the state’s get-out-the-vote effort. Alix Dejean is a graduate of the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he majored in Political Science with a minor in French and Africana studies. In addition, a board member of the Episcopal High School EHS The Promise Campaign, and the Jessie Banks Scholarship Foundation (NJ). Help me meet my fundraising goal! Ben Goldfarb is Executive
Director of Wellstone Action, the nation’s leading training center for
progressive organizers, candidates, and campaign workers, with over 55,000
alumni. A seasoned community and political organizer, Ben served as
Senior Advisor for Al Franken’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2008, where
he developed the campaign’s constituency organizing programs and directed the
GOTV operation – a campaign ultimately won by just 312 votes. Ben managed U.S.
Senator Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) successful 2006 campaign, making her the first
woman Senator from Minnesota, and was GOTV Director for the Kerry-Edwards
campaign in Minnesota in 2004. Ben co-founded and directed Project Lakes and
Plains, a political research consortium that played a critical role in the
successful election of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton in 2010. From 2003-2005, during his tenure as Executive Director of
Progressive Minnesota (now TakeAction Minnesota), the organization led
successful efforts to raise the state’s minimum wage, engage tens of thousands
of new immigrants in the political process, and win dozens of ballot
initiative, local, and state elections. From 1998-2003, Ben was an organizer
with progressive organizations and electoral campaigns. Ben founded and ran an independent music company from 2003 to
2006, and, most importantly, is the partner of an amazing teacher and father of
a four-year-old daughter and twin baby boys. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Julie Greene is the Deputy Director for the AFL-CIO Political Department, which mobilizes and empowers working families with opportunities to make their voices heard in the political arena, educates voters about candidates’ positions on core economic issues and conducts voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities. As Deputy Director, Greene works with leaders and staff to develop, execute and align programs across multiple departments, campaigns and affiliates, including Working America, nonpartisan voter registration, voter mobilization, member organizing, and political community organizing. As Deputy Director, Greene is also responsible for coordinating the AFL-CIO’s voter rights program which includes both voter registration and protection. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Seth Johnson currently serves the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) as an Assistant Director of Political Action, overseeing the department’s political communications, research, financial and compliance functions and running the unions Independent Expenditure programs. In the 2010 cycle, Seth ran the day-to-day operations of AFSCME’s IE. In the 2008 cycle, Seth was loaned to America Votes, where he served as the progressive coalition’s National Field Director. Since joining AFSCME’s political shop in 1999, Seth has run campaigns for the union in more than a dozen states, and spent two years managing the International Union’s political and legislative program in Maryland. In his younger days, Seth worked as a budget, tax and intergovernmental finance analyst in AFSCME’s Public Policy Department, for the Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts, at the U.S. House Committee on the Budget and for Federal Funds Information for States (a joint project of the NGA and NCSL). Seth holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife Kate and their dog Nessie. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Marlon Marshall currently serves as the Deputy National Field Director for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. He has been actively involved with Democratic politics by working in the field for a number of state house races, a U.S. Senate race and the 2004 Kerry Presidential campaign in Missouri and Ohio.More recently, Marshall served as Field Director in Nevada, Ohio, and Indiana for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign. He then went on to serve as the General Election Director in Missouri for Obama's Campaign for Change. Following the 2008 elections, Marshall served as the National Field Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) where he was responsible for managing a team of Regional Field Directors and the design and implementation of targeted congressional field plans across the country. Marlon is a native of St. Louis, MO., attended the University of Kansas, and now lives in Chicago IL. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Mary Rickles is the Communications Director of Netroots Nation. She has a unique background in both traditional and new media, having worked as a reporter and with agencies, non-profits and corporate companies on projects ranging from brand development to community outreach.She previously was communications director for Democracy for America and, in 2009, was named one of the New Leaders Council’s Top 40 Under 40 Emerging Leaders. Mary grew up in Alabama and now lives in San Francisco. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Courtney Sieloff is an organizer, political strategist and connector. She is the Senior Vice President at Revolution Messaging, a mobile communications and digital strategy political consulting firm in Washington, D.C. Previously, Courtney was the executive director of the V3 Campaign, a nonprofit that aimed to teach other nonprofits how to be politically active. She worked for the National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO), as a regional field director for 10 states. Courtney also worked for The Harbour Group, where she developed social media strategies for associations and nonprofit organizations. She has also been a PAC director for a nonprofit organization and for a Las Vegas gaming corporation, and has worked on a number of candidate and issue campaigns. Courtney is a founder of WIPT (Women in Political Technology) and is also the founder of JobsthatareLEFT. She is a two-time nominee for WIN’s Young Women of Achievement Award. Courtney has a B.A in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Women’s Studies from The George Washington University. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband Luke Peterson, son Teddy Peterloff, and her very spoiled dog, Juno. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Kate Snyder has more than fifteen years of electoral and issue campaign management experience in the progressive political arena. Her focus has been on developing and directing campaign communications strategies designed to shift the debate on key issues at both the national and state level. Kate currently directs a number of critical communications campaigns and coalition building efforts for the Communications Workers of America, including the union’s defense of collective bargaining rights for public and private sector workers and its efforts to ensure affordable broadband access for all and advance federal and state legislation to benefit all American workers and their families.During the first two years of the Obama Administration, Kate’s work with Unity ’09 and Change That Works advanced progressive advocacy efforts in the critical areas of healthcare, financial regulation, climate change and immigration reform. During the 2008 cycle, she served as Communications Director for the America Votes Coalition, supporting independent electoral communications in fourteen battleground states. During 2007, Kate served as Field Director for the Americans Against Escalation and the Iraq Summer campaign, which were critical to changing the conversation about the war in Iraq and reframing it for the presidential primary debate. In 2006, she was the Colorado State Director for Communities for Quality Education, a public education advocacy organization where she developed and implemented innovative programs combining community involvement, issue advocacy, and direct voter contact. During her career, Kate has also worked with the AFL-CIO, Voices for Working Families and ProgressNow. She has advised numerous progressive organizations on communications strategies, and served as a researcher in Parliament and during the 2001 Parliamentary elections in the U.K. Kate is committed to developing young campaign professionals and supporting candidates who are pro-labor and pro-choice. She volunteers and supports organizations that work to elect more women to office and that support women's economic empowerment in developing countries. She received a B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park and a M.S. from the London School of Economics. Kate and her husband, Seth Johnson, live in Washington, DC. Help me meet my fundraising goal! Help me meet my fundraising goal! In 2007, Simone Ward joined the political department at EMILY’s List (EL). EMILY’s List is the largest political action committee in the country and works to elect pro-choice democratic women to office. Simone serves as a Senior Political Tracker working to identify, assess, and support federal races, works with the EMILY’s List Democratic National Convention Committee advisory team and investing in building diverse relationship for the organization. Help me meet my fundraising goal!
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5/17/2013 » 5/19/2013
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