Wellstone Action!

Tanzila "Taz" Ahmed is a writer, political organizer and recent graduate student in Los Angeles. She has been registering youth voters for the past ten years, since her undergraduate days at the University of Southern California.

Kyle Ashby is a graduate of the Women's Studies program at Florida Atlantic University's Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College.

Marcia Avner is Public Policy Director with the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. Her work includes advocacy and civic engagement training and education as well as lobbying on election reform and other issues that are important to nonprofits and the people they serve.

Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Adriana Barboza grew up on the south side of Chicago. She is a 2005 graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she received her bachelor's degree in legal studies with minors in women's studies and Chicano studies.

Fawn Bernhardt-Norvell brings 13 years of non-profit and development experience to her work as Wellstone Action's Deputy Executive Director.

Jeff Blodgett has over 25 years experience in community organizing and political management.

Siobhan hails from the San Francisco Bay Area and brings her love and passion for youth development work to Campus Camp Wellstone.

Seiji Carpenter is currently working on strategy and messaging for the Obama White House, a continuation of work during the Obama For America campaign.

Melvin W. Carter III was elected in 2007 to the St. Paul City Council.

Victoria D. Cepeida-Mojarro is currently the USAS (United Students Against Sweatshops) Development Coordinator. She began working for USAS in December of 2006.

Andrea is currently the Deputy Campaign Services Director for Future PAC- the campaign arm for the Oregon House Democrats. 

Camille Cyprian is the Training Organizer for Campus Camp Wellstone. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with an individually designed major of social justice and community organizing, combining work in African American and Chicano studies, sociology, and law.

Rahna most recently directed the Oregon Bus Project's PolitiCorps program - a 10 week political immersion program for future progressive leaders.

Peggy Flanagan serves as the Director of the Native American Leadership Program.

Howard has made a career of helping young people understand and embrace politics.

Anna Galland's organizing and electoral work began at Brown University in Providence, RI.

John Gilbert has spent the last 4 years working as an organizer on political campaigns in Nevada.

Ben Goldfarb is a seasoned campaign worker and community organizer, and former campaign manager for Minnesota US Senator Amy Klobuchar (2006), the first woman elected to the Senate in the state's history.

Emma Greenman is an accomplished political manager with extensive political and community organizing experience.

Ryan Greenwood has 10 years of community, political, and labor organizing experience. Currently he serves as the Political Director of TakeAction Minnesota.

Pakou Hang is the deputy vice president of field operations for the Children's Defense Fund.

Lonna Hunter leads the organization's Sheila Wellstone Institute, which continues Sheila Wellstone's commitment to building power and visibility for the domestic violence movement, and also helps coordinate the organization's new Native American Leadership Program.

Raised in a working-class immigrant family in Los Angeles, Carlos first became politically active in high school when he joined M.E.Ch.A.

Anne Johnson is a Senior Fundraiser for the National Education Association in Washington, D.C. Anne served as the first director of Campus Camp Wellstone and also helped organize Wellstone Action's national members around progressive issues.

Kevin is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and a student at Oglala Lakota College.  He is president of student senate and a member of the board of trustees for his college. 

Suzanne is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center. She has a background in international project development and management, communications, domestic violence advocacy, and fundraising.

Reverend Jennifer Kottler is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Sojourners.

The injustice Steve and Donna faced in the justice system inspired Donna to
make a commitment to others who may find themselves adrift in a system that
protects the rights of the convicted, rather then the innocent or deceased.

Kelly Lewis is a Community Organizer for OutFront Minnesota. Kelly has extensive experience working for progressive causes.

Nevada has been an advocate for youth, American Indian people, and her community for years.  She serves on the Virginia, MN City Council.

Bill Lofy is a communications strategist and trainer based in northern Vermont currently serving as deputy political director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

She works primarily in the District of Columbia and Maryland and is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive reform strategy to this country's failed ‘War on Drugs.'

Karen Lopez is a 24 year-old Latina immigrant from Colombia who grew up in the Bay Area and now lives and organizes in NYC. Karen has been organizing immigrant workers, womyn of color, urban youth of color, low-income families and young voters for over 6 years.

Rudy is the Deputy Director of Politics for the Center for Community Change.

He is currently a junior high math teacher in St. Paul, MN. Brian has been involved in teaching, organizing and working in grass roots movements since his time spent at Cornell. He has primarily focused on education and has worked with students from the elementary level through college.

Steven Montoya is currently working on the transition from campaign to elected office for Julian Castro, the newly-elected mayor of San Antonio, TX on whose campaign he served as the Field Director.

Erik Peterson brings 25 years experience as a community-based educator, trainer, and community and electoral organizer.

This Bay Area native’s passion for student organizing started at UC Santa Cruz, where Jessica served as Student Union Assembly President for two terms.

Edith is the National Field Director at Choice USA. She started working with Choice USA as a student at UC Santa Barbara

Sarah comes to Wellstone Action after working at the Human Rights Campaign as a Regional Field Director for the Pacific NW and the South.

Maria Schirmer is from Madison, WI and recently graduated from Macalester College in May 2008 with a degree in American Studies and a minor in History.   As a life-long advocate for justice, she has worked on numerous youth activism campaigns. 

For over ten years, Palak Shah has steadfastly worked to advance ideals of equity and social justice.

While a student at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Bill was involved in student organizing on both the campus and statewide levels around higher education access, economic justice, and voting.

Daniel Silva-Alvarez was born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago in the community of Little Village.

Sujata is a campaign and communications professional with 16 years of both political and issue-based campaign management, strategic communications, cause-related and corporate marketing, research, training, and event management experience.

Cristina Uribe is a veteran political strategist, manager and organizer. She is the founder and principal of Next Rung Strategies

Yusufi Vali is an organizer for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation.

Mattie Weiss is a long-time youth movement organizer, writer, and leader. She is a 2001 graduate of Swarthmore College, where she studied political science and organized students and staff around issues of global economic justice, local race politics, and a campus-based living wage campaign.

Brandon White is a Community Organizer, Activist and Author. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Brandon currently serves as the Summit/Issues Director for Michigan Prospect and Michigan Voice.

Calvin Williams is the Fellowship Coordinator at Young People For (People For the American Way Foundation). Calvin holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from LaGrange College, where he was a student government programming board member, Hilltop News contributor, and campus panel organizer.

Erica Williams is the Deputy Director for Campus Progress, and the Policy and Advocacy Manager. Erica has coordinated grassroots campaigns around judicial nominations, affirmative action, and the successful reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

At Wellstone Action, Elana has managed communication and mobilization of our members and alumni, including coordination of two national issue campaigns and efforts to connect our 18,000 training alumni with the progressive movement.