To discuss the 2024 presidential election, we FEATURE Lisa Danetz. Danetz has worked in the voting rights, money in politics, and democracy field as a policy expert, advocate, and lawyer for 20 years. Her work has focused on increasing election- and campaign-based political participation in society through public policy research, litigation, executive and legislative advocacy, and public education, and she has developed a particular expertise on voter registration through government agencies. As a consultant, her most recent work has been with Democracy Fund. She is also the former legal director of Demos, a New York-based public policy center, and worked at National Voting Rights Institute. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election, we FEATURE Melanie L. Campbell, the president and CEO of the Black Women’s Round Table, who has been campaigning in the battle ground states. Campbell is an expert and passionate advocate on issues impacting African Americans, women, immigrants and youth and the intersection of how politics, public policy, race, gender, class and age impacts quality life for all Americans. Campbell has a strong knowledge base in Black voter participation, civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights, election reform, Katrina-Rita Gulf Coast recovery and rebuilding, Census Count, youth leadership development, non-profit management and cross-cultural coalition building. Media includes: The Washington Post, Black Enterprise, The New York Times, Philadelphia Tribune, CNN, NPR.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election, we FEATURE Gayle Alberda. Alberda is an associate professor at Fairfield University. Alberda often serves as a political analyst for the media. She comments on local, state, and national politics and elections for local, regional, national, and international print and broadcast media. She has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Good Morning America, Al Jazeera America, Hartford Courant, CT Post, WNPR, WICC, Associated Press Radio, NBC CT’s Face the Facts, WTHN’s Capitol Report, Channel 12’s Power and Politics, and many others.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election, we FEATURE Aimee Allison. Allison is the founder and president of She the People, the national network elevating the political voice and power of women of color. By bringing together the most promising women of color candidates, strategists, and movement leaders, Allison is one of the primary architects for the electoral successes in 2018 that made it the “year of women of color in politics.” Media includes: The New York Times, The Hill, ESSENCE Magazine.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election, we FEATURE Nichole M. Bauer. Bauer is an associate professor of political communication in the Department of Political Science & the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. She studies the challenges facing women in politics as candidates, lawmakers, and voters. Her current research examines how strategic campaign communication affects voters decision-making especially when voters are considering non-traditional candidates. More specifically, Bauer’s research agenda focuses on identifying the psychological underpinnings motivating political attitudes and behaviors. Media includes: NPR.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election, we FEATURE Lauren Bealore. As associate director of state and local policy for Prosperity Now, Bealore leads the national work of advancing Prosperity Now’s policy development at the state and local level to support championing economic opportunity to build power for all communities. In this role, Bealore has specific policy expertise that includes financial security, business & entrepreneurship, housing, workers rights, and consumer protection. Bealore‘s experience in the fields of policy and advocacy has allotted her a career that spans across the areas of political strategy, policy implementation and civic engagement. Media includes: Forbes, POLITICO, NBC News, Comcast Newsmakers, News One, NowThis, Newsweek.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election, we FEATURE Rahna Epting. Epting is the executive director of MoveOn and MoveOn Political Action, the largest member-led political campaigning organization with nearly ten million members. MoveOn mobilizes the left to win elections and enact progressive change. Before taking on this role, she served as MoveOn’s 2018 elections program director. Previously, she served as Every Voice’s Chief of Staff, where she managed state and national campaigns to make democracy work for all. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP, USA Today, MSNBC, NBC, CNBC.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Arizona, we FEATURE Marisa Franco. Franco is a Phoenix-based organizer, writer and strategist. She is the Executive Director and co-founder of Mijente and Mijente Support Committee, a digital and grassroots organizing hub for Latina/o and Chicanx people. In her 20 years of work as an organizer and movement builder, Franco has helped lead key grassroots organizing campaigns rooted in low-income and communities of color, characterized by their innovation and effectiveness. Media includes: CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, MSNBC, Univision, Politico, Democracy Now.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Arizona, we FEATURE Dana Marie Kennedy. She is the State Director for Arizona AARP. She is a founding board member of Emerge, Women Leaders for a Democratic Future and was the founding executive director for Emerge Arizona Kennedy served on several boards including: Arizona’s List, Progressive Majority, the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and the Point South Mountain Residential Association and Kennedy was on the steering committee for Emerge America. Media includes: The Arizona Republic, The Capitol Times, The Tucson Daily Star, The Tucson Citizen.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Georgia, we FEATURE Sara Totonchi. Totonchi is a transformational leader whose career has focused on human rights and social justice for people in the Deep South, especially those impacted by the criminal legal system. In 2022, Sara served as Senior Advisor for Research and Policy for Stacey Abrams’s gubernatorial campaign. Before that, for more than twenty years, Sara’s advocacy home was the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR), a public interest law firm that works for equality, dignity, and justice for people impacted by the criminal legal system in the Deep South. Media includes: The Economist, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Daily Report, Al Jazeera America.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Georgia, we FEATURE Kathy Diaz. Kathy Diaz is a facilitator and community organizer. She is a Latinx first-gen immigrant who has supported many campaigns and initiatives for immigrants’ rights, workers rights, language justice and climate justice in the U.S. and beyond. Prior to moving into consulting Diaz focused on immigrants’ rights and electoral organizing. Alongside her team at Mijente, Diaz demonstrated that Latinx folks have political power with or without papers in the Gente4Abrams campaign, increasing the Latinx vote by fourfold in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial primaries and helping to flip the state in 2021. Media includes: Indy Week, Spectrum News 1, Next City.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Georgia, we FEATURE Venkayla Haynes. Haynes is the director of communications for Black Voters Matter, an influential organization that enhances Black voter participation, shapes progressive policy, and has significantly influenced increased Black voter turnout in the 2020 Presidential Election, 2021 Georgia Special Election, and 2022 Midterm Elections across numerous states. Her expertise lies in strategizing and managing the organization's communications. Media includes: Forbes, Essence, NBC.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Georgia, we FEATURE Pat Mitchell. Mitchell is a lifelong advocate for women and girls. At every step of her career, Mitchell has broken new ground for women, leveraging the power of media as a journalist, an Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer to tell women’s stories and increase the representation of women on screen and off. Transitioning to an executive role, she became the president of CNN Productions, and the first woman president and CEO of PBS and the Paley Center for Media. Today, her commitment to connect and strengthen a global community of women leaders continues as a conference curator, advisor and mentor. Media includes: CNN Productions, NBC, CBS, ABC.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Georgia, we FEATURE Loretta Ross. Ross teaches a course on white supremacy, human rights and calling in the calling out culture as a associate professor at Smith College. Since beginning her academic career in 2017, she has taught at Hampshire College, Arizona State University and Smith College as a visiting professor of clinical practice teaching courses on white supremacy in the age of Trump, race and culture in America and reproductive justice. She has co-written three books on reproductive justice: Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice; Reproductive Justice: An Introduction; Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique; and Calling in the Calling Out Culture. Media includes: The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Oprah Winfrey Radio.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Michigan, we FEATURE Shobita Parthasarathy. Parthasarathy is a professor of public policy and women’s studies at the University of Michigan. She studies policy and politics related to controversial emerging technologies, particularly genetics and biotechnology, in the United States, Europe, and India. Parthasarathy has advised the American Civil Liberties Union; US Government Accountability Office; European Patent Office; Dutch Medical Biotechnology Commission; Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society (US Department of Health and Human Services); Austrian Genome Research Programme; Policy Committee of the University of Michigan's Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies; and individual members of the US Congress. Media includes: The New York Times, Nature, The Conversation, PBS.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Michigan, we FEATURE Fatima Salman. Salman is a macro social worker and community organizer who serves as the chairperson of the Council of Chapter Presidents for the National Association of Social Workers. As part of University of Michigan School of Social Work's ENGAGE team, she works with communities and organizations in Wayne and Washtenaw counties to increase their capacity and resources in order to meet their goals. Salman is a lecturer for the U-M School of Social Work, serves on the board of the Guidance Center in Detroit and is a Racial Equity Fellow with Detroit Equity Action Lab. She also sits on the Community Advisory Panel for Detroit Public Television and was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to be on the Growing Michigan Together Council higher education workgroup. Media includes: The Washington Post, Fox 2 Detroit.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Michigan, we FEATURE Chantá Parker. Parker is a partner with the Management Center where she coaches leaders to be more equitable, sustainable, and results-driven. She is the founding managing director of the Neighborhood Defender Service in Detroit where in 2019, she built a client-centered, holistic public defender office for residents of Wayne County. In 2020, Parker was named one of Crain’s Detroit 40 under 40 business leaders for her work in building a public defender office from the ground up. Media includes: Detroit Free Press, The Gambit, New Orleans Times-Picayune, WDET Radio Detroit Today.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Nevada, we FEATURE Laura Martin. Martin is the executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, the largest and oldest progressive, base-building organization in Nevada. Her expertise in leadership development and winning campaigns lends itself to her unique perspective on what it takes to win in the battle ground state of Nevada. She is the first woman, and first Black person to lead PLAN in the organization’s 27-year history. Additionally, Martin serves on the Western States Center board, as well as the board for Earthworks and People’s Action, and a graduate of Emerge Nevada. Media includes: Politico, The Washinton Post, The New York Times, The Nation, MSNBC, CNN.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in North Carolina, we FEATURE Jennifer Wight Ferris. Ferris is the senior state strategy director for Progress Now. Previously, she served as director of reproductive advocacy at Progress North Carolina. A third-generation feminist activist, Ferris has been working to advance reproductive rights and access for more than a decade. She has worked on the front lines as the volunteer coordinator for her state abortion fund but now helps shape – and advocate for – abortion policy in North Carolina. Media includes The News & Observer, Daily Tarheel, Nation Swell, WFMY News 2, ABC 11.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in North Carolina, we FEATURE Kristin Goss, the Susan B. King Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and director of Duke in DC. Goss’ research focuses on why people do (or don't) participate in political life and how their engagement affects public policymaking. Her current research projects focus on the role of philanthropic billionaires in policy debates and on the evolution of gun-related advocacy over the past decade. Goss has also written widely on gender and politics. She is the author of The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women's Groups Gained and Lost Their Public Voice. The book documents and explains the surprising rise – and even more surprising fall – of American women's groups on the national stage. Media includes: Raleigh News & Observer, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Newark Star Ledger.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in North Carolina, we FEATURE Erin Siegal McIntyre. Siegal McIntyre is a journalism professor, investigative journalist and author. Siegal McIntyre was previously a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, and was a 2012-2013 Soros Media Justice Fellow reporting on aggravated felony deportations. She has spoken at various conferences, including the Logan Symposium in Investigative Reporting at UC Berkeley, and is a past board member and Diversity Committee co-chair for the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS). Media includes: The New Yorker, the Atlantic, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Latino USA.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania, we FEATURE Avery Blank. Blank has worked in the public sector at all levels of government including experience at the Executive Office of the President of the United States, the private sector at Johnson & Johnson, and non-profit consulting with the University of Maryland Center for Health & Homeland Security. She speaks on many issues, including women’s leadership and equality, millennial engagement, strategic positioning and thought leadership, social media presence and influence, gender policy, and political engagement. Media includes: Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, The Globe & Mail, NBC News.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania, we FEATURE Kelly Dittmar. Dittmar is an associate professor of Political Science at Rutgers University–Camden, director of research, and scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She is the author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns, as well as multiple book chapters on gender and American politics. Dittmar’s research focuses on gender and American political institutions, including Congress, with a particular focus on how gender informs campaigns and the impact of gender diversity among elites in policy and political decisions, priorities, and processes. Media includes: MSNBC, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania, we FEATURE Dr. Kimberly C. Ellis. Ellis is a storyteller, branding/PR, digital strategist and marketer, scholar of American and Africana studies, political analyst and campaigner, a public historian and influencer, performing artist, activist and entrepreneur who loves technology and world travel. She can often be found working on public art and civic tech projects that change the physical and cultural landscape of cities, from political campaigns to helping to design federally-funded parks to historic preservation projects. Media includes: The Guardian, BBC, MSNBC, Al Jazeera America, The Pittsburgh City Paper, Ebony Magazine.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania, we FEATURE Nichola Gutgold. Gutgold is a professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State University. She has authored more than 10 books, including, most recently, Electing Madam President: When Women Run, Women Win. She is also a consultant on women political candidates and an election night commentator. Her most recent book is Still Paving the Way for Madam President and she recently helped develop a new documentary pilot on women who have run for the US presidency. Her book Gender and the American Presidency, was written with Theodore F. Sheckels and Diana B. Carlin and invites readers to consider women qualified enough to be president and to explore reasons why these women have been dismissed as presidential contenders. Media includes: The Morning Call, NPR.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Wisconsin, we FEATURE Lisa Graves. Graves created True North Research and is its executive director and editor-in-chief. She has spearheaded several major breakthrough investigations into those distorting American democracy and public policy. True North has several research projects, including KochDocs.org and iwfexposed.org, which shine a light of these issues. One of the nation’s foremost experts on how special interests distort our political system, Lisa has been a frequent guest on MSNBC and has also appeared on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNBC, BBC, the CBC, Democracy NOW, C-Span, and NPR.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Wisconsin, we FEATURE Christine Neumann-Ortiz. Neumann-Ortiz is the founding executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a low-wage and immigrant workers center with chapters in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, including a student chapter called Students United for Immigrant Rights with members from 3 high schools. Voces de la Frontera is increasingly recognized as Wisconsin’s leading voice for immigration reform. Media includes: The Nation, Telemundo, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, CNN
NPR.
To discuss the 2024 presidential election in Wisconsin, we FEATURE Gwen Leaffe Carr. Carr is the founder of the Wisconsin American Indian Democratic Caucus. She has turned out the greatest number of American Indian voters in the history of Wisconsin. Her political expertise has successfully elected numerous officials locally and nationally. She is currently serving as the executive director of the Carlisle Indian School Project, which honors the students of the first government-run boarding school for Native Americans. Carr has been a senior advisor to Congressional, Senate and Presidential elections since 1991. Media includes: Insight, Wisconsin Public Radio.















