America Votes--Organization
Formed in July 2003 for "purpose of increasing voter registration, education and participation in electoral politics."  A Section 527 organization, America Votes is a partnership of more than two dozen organizations:  ACORN,  AFL-CIO,  AFSCME,   America Coming Together (ACT),  American Federation of Teachers,   Association of Trial Lawyers of America,  The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March,  Clean Water Action,  Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund,  Democracy for America,  EMILY's List,  Environment2004,  The Human Rights Campaign,  League of Conservation Voters,  The Media Fund ,  MoveOn.org Voter Fund,  Moving America Forward,  Music for America,  NAACP National Voter Fund,  NARAL Pro-Choice America,  National Education Association, National Jewish Democratic Council,  National Treasury Employees Union,  Partnership for America's Families,  Planned Parenthood Action Fund,  SEIU,  Sierra Club,  USAction,  Voices for Working Families,  Young Voter Alliance,   and  21st Century Democrats.  America Votes' state organizing directors served an important traffic cop function, ensuring that local groups or chapters were "effectively working together and reaching out to the widest possible audience of voters."
 
 
President Cecile Richards
Prior to being elected to lead America Votes Richards served as deputy chief of staff to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.  Program director at the Turner Foundation.  Founded the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) in February 1995.  Labor and political organizer, including with SEIU.  A Texan, daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards.
 
 
National Deputy Director Shamina Singh
Deputy campaign manager on the Ron Kirk for U.S. Senate campaign in Texas.  Served in the Clinton administration as Congressional Liaison for Health Care at the U.S. Department of Labor, then as executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  Has also worked for the Service Employees International Union and Gov. Ann Richards of Texas.  Masters degree in public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.  Graduate of Old Dominion University.
 
 
National Organizing Director Catherine Duvall
Field director on Rep. Dick Gephardt's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination starting in April 2003.  Field director at the DCCC in the 2002 election cycle.  Campaign manager of Lois Capps' congressional campaign in the 1998 special election in California.
 
 
 
Deputy Political Director Parag Mehta
Deputy Political Director for Governor Howard Dean’s presidential campaign.  Deputy Field Director for former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk’s 2002 U.S. Senate campaign.  Previously, served in both the Clinton and Bush White Houses as Liaison to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and as speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.  B.A. in Plan II Honors from The University of Texas at Austin and Master of Public Affairs from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

 
Deputy Field Director Lilah Pomerance
Before joining America Votes for GOTV, Pomerance ran 21st Century Democrats' Young Voter Project.  NM Field Director for Sen. John Edwards presidential campaign.  Legislative assistant on Middle East and judicial affairs for Sen. Charles Schumer (NY).  Palm Beach County, Florida coordinator for the Democratic Coordinated Campaign in 2000.  Started in politics in the Middle East where she taught conflict resolution courses in Israeli Arab and Jewish schools.  Pomerance is a graduate of Columbia University's Barnard College.
 
 
Election Action Coordinator Ariane Holm
State Director of Youth Outreach (Generation Dean) for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in Virginia; became Northern Region Chair for Virginia Young Democrats in April 2004.  Has worked for various progressive issue campaigns and nonprofit organizations.  Graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in Mass Communications in 2001; pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at George Washington University.
 
 
Data Coordinator Chris Jackson
(started Sept. 2004--voter file access, use and development ) Graduated from Cornell University in 2003 with a degree in Government.  Spent the next ten months organizing for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in New Hampshire, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
  

I N   T H E   S T A T E S
ARIZONA (Phoenix)
State Organizing Director Victoria Tinajero
Arizona field director for Gen. Wesley Clark's presidential campaign.  Former executive director of the Democratic Party in Pima County.
 

FLORIDA
State Organizing Director Ana Cruz (Tampa)
Formed Leaders Edge, LLC, a public relations firm in Tampa, in June 2003.  Executive director of the Florida Democratic Party starting in April 2002.  Served as Sen. Bill Nelson's regional director for West Central Florida and headed up his Hispanic outreach efforts.  Worked on the 2000 Coordinated Campaign.  Part of the Gore 2000 national finance team, serving as regional deputy finance director for Florida.  Managed Bob Henriquez's 1998 State House race, which unseating a Republican incumbent.  Worked on the 1996 Presidential Inaugural Committee.  Coordinated the Florida Latino vote and the Latino Outreach Office at the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  From Tampa.
Deputy Organizing Director Jeffrey Lerner (Miami)

IOWA (Des Moines) and WASHINGTON (Seattle)
State Organizing Director Rob Berntsen
Iowa Caucus Director for Sen. John Edwards campaign starting Feb. 14, 2003.  Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Chet Culver, after serving as Director of the Business Services Division in Culver's office.  He gained his law degree with distinction at University of Iowa College of Law in 1998.  Prior to that, he worked in Washington, DC for three years, after graduating from Georgetown University (1992).  He is a native of Marion, Iowa.
 

MAINE (Portland)
State Organizing Director Erin Lehane
Served as spokeswoman for Think About It, a campaign to build a casino in Maine, on the ballot in March 2003. Member of the Portland-based law firm, Curtis Thaxter Stevens Broder & Micoleau.  Sister of Chris Lehane.
 

MICHIGAN (Royal Oak)
State Organizing Director Ray Plowden
Served Michigan political director on Dick Gephardt's campaign (announced October 16, 2003).  Rep. John Conyers' Chief of Staff since 1995, managing Conyers' Washington, DC and Detroit congressional offices.  Active in numerous Detroit area organizations including the Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, Metro Detroit ACLU, Detroit Youth Foundation and the Michigan Coalition of Human Rights.  Plowden is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.  A native of Michigan.
 

MISSOURI (St. Louis)
State Organizing Director Mike Dolan

MINNESOTA (St. Paul)
State Organizing Director Donald McFarland

NEVADA (Reno)
State Organizing Director Carrie Sandstedt
Sandstedt previously worked as a conservation organizer for the Sierra Club in Las Vegas.  Conservation associate for the California Wilderness Coalition.  Worked on the Chesapeake Bay Program.  Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, 1996-98.  Graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in environmental studies, 1996.
 

NEW HAMPSHIRE (Manchester)
State Organizing Director Heather Stone
Events Director for New Hampshire for Health Care, project of the SEIU, during the New Hampshire primary.  Worked at the Turner Foundation where she managed an $8 million funding program.  She has also spent significant time in Texas politics working on health care legislation in the state legislature and on many state campaigns.  Stone worked for the Texas Freedom Network and co-ran her own political fundraising and event planning business.
 

NEW MEXICO (Albuquerque)
State Organizing Director Chris Cervini
Press Secretary for New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane D. Denish.  Spokesperson for the Mineral Policy Center, a small national non-profit environmental organization dedicated to cleaning up the environmental problems caused by mining and onshore oil development, and to preventing new ones.
 

OHIO (Columbus)
State Organizing Director Scott Nunnery
Director of Democrats' NM Coordinated Campaign in 2000.
 

OREGON (Portland)
State Organizing Director Kevin Looper
In Fall 2000 served as spokesman for yes on Measure 6, the clean money campaign in Oregon.
 

PENNSYLVANIA (Harrisburg)
State Organizing Director J.J. Johnston
Executive Director of SEIU Pennsylvania State Council.
 

WISCONSIN (Madison)
State Organizing Director Peter Shakow
Wisconsin State Director for Wesley Clark's campaign, starting Dec. 27, 2003; previously, starting Sept. 21, 2003, Shakow was Deputy Political Director in Little Rock.  Before joining the campaign Shakow worked as a lawyer in Los Angeles for four years.  He worked in Political Affairs at the White House, 1993-94, and worked on Clinton/Gore '92 in Texas.  Shakow earned his undergraduate degree in History from Brown in 1992, and his law degree from the University of Texas at Austin.