Kim Anderson

Kim Anderson is Executive Vice President of the Democracy Alliance. She previously worked at the National Education Association for over 15 years, most recently as Senior Director of the Center for Advocacy & Outreach at the National Education Association, where she oversaw the organization’s Campaigns and Elections Department, Collective Bargaining and Member Advocacy Department, Government Relations Department, Human and Civil Rights Department, and Minority Community Organizing and Partnerships Department. Prior to that role, she directed the Government Relations department and served as a Manager for Issue Advocacy in the Campaigns and Elections Department. Before joining the NEA, Anderson served as Legislative Director and Counsel to Senator Charles Robb (VA). She has also worked at the law firm of Covington and Burling, and is a former member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia. Anderson received her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and received her law degree from George Washington University.

Anna Aurilio

Anna Aurilio is a long-time environmental advocate. For the past 10 years, she was the Director of the Washington DC office for Environment America, a federation of 29 state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations. Ms. Aurilio led a team of advocacy staff and was responsible for policy and strategy development for campaigns on clean water, clean air, energy, global warming and preservation issues. She has testified in Congress numerous times and has been named a top grassroots lobbyist by The Hill for the past 9 years. Before leading the federal office of Environment America, Ms. Aurilio served as federal legislative director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S.PIRG).Ms. Aurilio received a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986 and a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and Water Resources from MIT in 1992 where she published several papers on water pollution in Woburn Massachusetts. Prior to receiving her Master’s degree, Ms. Aurilio was a Staff Scientist with the National Environmental Law Center where she investigated major water polluters and provided technical expertise for Clean Water Act citizen suits.

Judy Gibbons

Judy Gibbons is a social activist and retired school teacher. Judy taught at Brookline Public Schools in Brookline, MA and the Hunter College High School in New York, NY. She is on the board of the Gallery North Art Center in Setauket, NY; the National Museum of Mathematics in New York, NY; and the East Harlem Tutorial Program, New York, NY. She is active with the College Mentorship Program of the East Harlem Tutorial Program and works with Brookhaven Democrats on activation and support. She is the former Chair of the New York Metro Chapter of the Women’s Leadership Forum and served on the Advisory Board of Organizing for Action from 2014 to 2016. She is married to Francesco Scattone and is the mother of John, a computer scientist, and Anna, a New York City school teacher.

Kim Hoover

Brian Kettenring

Brian Kettenring is the Co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD). Brian served as Executive Director of Leadership Center for the Common Good prior to its merger with CPD in late 2013. As the Director of Common Good, Brian and his team built an organization that worked with partner organizations in 18 states and 45 cities nationally. Common Good and its partners played essential roles in campaigns for economic justice, Wall Street accountability, education reform, environmental justice, and much more. During his 18-year organizing career, Brian has helped run four living wage campaigns, three campaigns against predatory lending, and a wide range of other campaigns, including: urban school reform, campaign finance reform, tenant legislative protections, adoption of a progressive federal budget, passage of a federal economic recovery package, and campaigns promoting smart growth and environmental justice. Brian received a BA in African and European Intellectual History from Carleton College.

Sandy Newman

Sandy Newman founded Voices for Progress and two other successful organizations. Project Vote, founded in 1982, had become the nation’s leading minority voter participation organization by the time Newman left it in 1993. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, founded in 1995, today comprises 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs and elected prosecutors, all advocating programs like Head Start and quality child care. As a donor advisor and strategist from 2003 to 2009, Newman played a key role in reviving then-extinct voter registration drives. Voters registered due to these drives cast 2.3 million ballots in 2008 alone. Sandy and his clients also sparked revived enforcement of laws requiring public assistance offices to provide voter registration services, which has now led to registration of an additional 3.5 million voters. To strengthen rigorous scientific assessment what really works to increase voting, and to explore innovations, they helped establish the Analyst Institute. Before founding Project Vote, Newman clerked for a federal Court of Appeals judge, worked to increase access to healthcare for minorities and the poor as a test case litigator, conducted legislative and policy research for the Democratic Study Group in the House, and worked as a volunteer on passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Newman is president of Newman and Associates, PLLC, which advises donors and foundations on strategies to increase voter participation and strengthen democracy.

Faye Straus

Ted Trimpa

Ted Trimpa is the Principal and CEO of Trimpa Group LLC, a national political consulting and government relations firm that specializes in progressive public policy advocacy and political strategy.  Called “Colorado’s answer to Karl Rove” by The Atlantic, Trimpa is a nationally recognized strategist and operative. Trimpa brings more than a decade of government relations and political consulting experience with a proven record of results. In 2010, he brought together environmentalists and natural gas companies to pass landmark legislation that established health-based emission standards for power plants—making Colorado the first state in the country to do so. In addition to his work in Colorado, Trimpa is a nationally recognized thought leader and a leading advisor to progressive donors and foundations. He has been recognized in national publications, including The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, National Review, and The Advocate, for his central role in designing cutting-edge public policy strategies.