Difference between revisions of "Demos USA"

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*[[Ruth Wooden]]
 
*[[Ruth Wooden]]
  
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===Staff at January 2007===
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===Staff January 2007===
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[[Miles Rapoport]]
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*[[Miles Rapoport]] President
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President
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*[[David Callahan]] Research Director and Senior Fellow
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As President, Miles sets Demos' agenda and oversees the management of the organization and fundraising efforts. Prior to assuming the helm at Demos, he served for ten years in the Connecticut legislature. As a state legislator, he was a leading expert on electoral reform, chairing the Committee on Elections. In 1994, he was elected as Secretary of the State of Connecticut. As Secretary of the State, Rapoport released two unique reports on the state of democracy in Connecticut. His articles have appeared in national magazines and newspapers, and he is the founder of Northeast Action, a leading political reform organization in New England. Rapoport moved to Demos from his position as Executive Director of DemocracyWorks, a Hartford-based group that works on democracy reform.
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*[[Steven Carbo]] Senior Program Director of the Democracy Program
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*[[Donna Colon]] Director of Administrative Services
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*[[Stuart Comstock-Gay]] Director of Democracy Program
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*[[Tamara Draut]] Director of the Economic Opportunity Program
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*[[Michael Lipsky]] Senior Program Director, Public Works
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*[[Timothy k. Rusch]] Director of Communications
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*[[Dianne Stewart]] Director, Public Works
  
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David Callahan
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===Program and Administrative Staff===
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Research Director and Senior Fellow
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*[[Myra Batchelder]] Policy Analyst, Economic Opportunity Program
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David Callahan is author of seven books, including The Moral Center (Hartcourt), which will be published in September, which examines some of our most polarized conflicts and presents unexpected solutions that lay out a new road map to the American center. His previous book, The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead. This critically acclaimed book looks at ethics in America in an era of rising inequality, growing bottom-line pressures, and changing values. (Learn more about the book.) David's articles have been published in such places as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The American Prospect. He is also a regular commentator for Marketplace and a frequent public speaker. At Demos, which he co-founded in 1999, David oversees the Fellows Program and the Ideas for Change events series. He has also written Demos reports on election reform, poverty, and economic opportunity. David received his B.A. at Hampshire College and his Ph.D in Politics at Princeton University
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*[[Patrick Bresette]] Associate Program Director, Public Works
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**[[Aaron Brown]] Creative Services Manager
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*[[Ricardo Burgos]] Financial Coordinator
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*[[Shari Cohen]] Associate Director, Fellows Program
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*[[Lisa J. Danetz]] Senior Counsel, Democracy Program
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*[[Regina M. Eaton]] Deputy Director, Democracy Program
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*[[Jose Garcia]] Senior Research and Policy Associate
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*[[Marcia Kinsey]] Program Associate, Public Works
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*[[Frances Kunreuther]] Director, Building Movement Project
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*[[Caroline McAndrews]] Program Associate, Building Movement Project
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*[[Scott Novakowski]] Policy Analyst, Democracy Program
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*[[Johanna Novales]] Policy Analyst, Democracy Program
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*[[Myriah Pahl]] Administrative Assistant
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*[[Donna Parson]] Special Assistant to the President
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*[[Sophie Rogers-Gessert]] Director of Foundation Development
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*[[A.B. Beatrice Sampong]] Director, Individual Giving
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*[[Mayuran Tiruchelvam]] Program Assistant, Building Movement Project
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*[[Terisa Traylor]] Program Associate, Democracy Program  
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*[[Holly Traynor]] Administrative Assistant
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*[[Carol Villano]] Executive Assistant to the President
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*[[Brenda Wright]] Legal Director, Democracy Program
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*[[Cindy Zeldin]] Federal Affairs Coordinator, Economic Opportunity Program
  
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Steven Carbo
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===Fellows Program===
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Senior Program Director of the Democracy Program
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*[[Sasha Abramsky]] Senior Fellow
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Steven Carbo has extensive experience in advancing progressive civil rights, social justice, and community economic development policies at the federal, state and community levels. Before joining Demos, Steven had worked as Legislative Director for U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez, Special Counsel on Environmental Justice for U.S. Representative Jose Serrano, and Legislative Staff Attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Over the years, he has helped shape federal and state policies and programs on voting rights, fair employment, education, environmental justice, economic development, and affordable housing. He holds a J.D. and B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
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*[[Algernon Austin]] Senior Fellow
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*[[Rich Benjamin]] Senior Fellow  
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Donna Colon
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*[[John Bonifaz]] Legal Fellow
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Director of Administrative Services
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*[[Jonathan Cohn]] Senior Fellow
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Donna joined Demos in February 2004. She comes from the not-for-profit social services sector where she has held various administrative positions over the past 10 years including the Director of Operations. In the for-profit sector Donna has worked in banking, brokerage and marketing. She holds a B.A. with honors from The College of Staten Island.
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*[[Allison H. Fine]] Senior Fellow
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*[[Robert Frank]] Distinguished Senior Fellow
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Stuart Comstock-Gay
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*[[Robert Kuttner]] Distinguished Senior Fellow
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Director of Democracy Program
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*[[Jim Lardner]] Senior Fellow
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Stuart came to Demos through the affiliation with the National Voting Rights Institute, where he served as Executive Director from January 2004 to December 2006. Prior to joining NVRI, he served as the Vice-President & C.O.O., and Vice President for Programs, of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation in Concord, NH. Before joining NHCF, Stuart served as the Executive Director of the Maryland ACLU in Baltimore. He has spoken and written widely on topics related to democracy, foundation practices and civil liberties. He received his MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from Bucknell University.
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*[[Lorraine C. Minnite]] Senior Fellow
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*[[Nomi Prins]] Senior Fellow
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Tamara Draut
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*[[John Schwarz]] Distinguished Senior Fellow
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Director of the Economic Opportunity Program
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*[[Linda Tarr-Whelan]] Distinguished Senior Fellow, Women's Empowerment
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Tamara oversees Demos' research, policy and advocacy work on issues related to economic security and mobility. She is the author of Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Ahead published by Doubleday in 2006 (learn more about the book). Her research focuses on the growing debt burdens facing low- and middle-income households, and more broadly the challenges confronting households trying to work or educate their way into the middle class. Tamara is co-author of the recent Demos reports, "The Plastic Safety Net: The Reality Behind Debt in America", "Millions to the Middle: Three Strategies to Grow the Middle Class," "Retiring in the Red: The Growth of Debt Among Older Americans," and "Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: The Growth of Credit Card Debt in the 90s," among others. Tamara's research has been covered extensively by dozens of newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Her writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe and The Boston Review. She is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and Fox News. Tamara holds an M.P.A. from Columbia University and a B.S.J. from Ohio University.
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*[[Jennifer Wheary]] Senior Fellow
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Michael Lipsky
 
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Senior Program Director, Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector
 
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Michael came to Demos from the Ford Foundation where he worked for 12 years, most recently as Senior Program Officer in the Peace and Social Justice program. Responsible for the foundation's portfolio on "government performance and accountability," he helped assemble the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, a national network of organizations devoted to budget transparency and accountability, and International Budget Project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Prior to Ford, Michael taught political science at the University of Wisconsin, and, for 21 years, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His best-known books are Protest in City Politics, Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting (with S.R. Smith), and the award-winning Street-Level Bureaucracy. He holds degrees from Oberlin College and Princeton University.
 
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Timothy k. Rusch
 
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Director of Communications
 
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Tim directs Demos' communications efforts and strategy, including media relations, web development and editorial operations. His prior experience includes more than five years in public broadcasting at Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), where he served as project manager for community outreach and directed production of web content, digital curricula and groundbreaking interactive television broadcasts. At WPT, his work focused on national and statewide projects and station campaigns, including the nationally simulcast anti-violence program Safe Night USA, the women's health series Creating Health, Bill Moyers' On Our Own Terms series and the Kids Vote youth voting program. Tim has held several positions in communications, media production and public education; just prior to Demos he served as Regional Media Manager at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where he directed outreach programs, media campaigns and training throughout the Midwest. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
 
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Dianne Stewart
 
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Director, Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector
 
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Dianne came to Demos in 2003 to help build Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector. Dianne has 20 years of experience inside state government, in the private sector and in a state-level policy NGO working on issues of governance, particularly as they affect low-income families. As the founder and Director of the Office of Governmental Affairs at the Texas Department of Human Services and the 11-year Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Ms. Stewart has worked from within and from without in efforts to improve the operations and decision-making of state government.
 
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Program and Administrative Staff
 
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Myra Batchelder
 
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Policy Analyst, Economic Opportunity Program
 
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Prior to joining Demos in July 2005, Myra was the Community Advocacy Manager at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), where she worked on community advocacy and public policy issues. Before working at SIECUS, she held a one-year research fellowship at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington, DC. Myra currently serves on the Board of Directors for a state pro-choice organization. During college, she interned at The Century Foundation, Steps to End Family Violence, and ran a summer youth employment program at the Gratiot Technical Education Center (a Michigan Works! one-stop). Myra holds a B.A. in Political Science and Public Policy from Sarah Lawrence College.
 
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Patrick Bresette
 
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Associate Program Director, Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector
 
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Patrick is responsible for taking the work of the program out to the states and partner organizations and seeking ways to imbed the lessons learned and strategies developed into the everyday work of the many stakeholders for an effective public sector. Patrick comes to the project after thirteen years as Associate Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities and before that as a legislative aide in the Texas House of Representatives. He brings with him a broad understanding of how to work with and within the public sector for positive social change. His years of work leading the policy team at CPPP, spearheading the organization's legislative initiatives, and leading diverse coalitions of partner organizations situate him well for his outreach and partnership development efforts with this initiative. Patrick has an MPA from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a BFA in Sculpture from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
 
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Aaron Brown
 
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Creative Services Manager
 
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Aaron obtained his BFA in Visual Communication Design: Computer Imaging from The University of Dayton. He started working on the web in 1996 at the UDRI. After graduating, Aaron moved to New York in 1999 and immediately began work at MSGI Interactive as a web designer. During his tenure with MSGI he worked for such clients as Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival, Wallace Funds, High Museum of Art and Lincoln Center.
 
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Ricardo Burgos
 
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Financial Coordinator
 
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Ricardo joined Demos in May 2000. Prior to coming on board, Ricardo worked for four years at the EastWest Institute as Office Manager. He also served for eight years as Accountant/Office Manager at the Big Apple Circus, another nonprofit organization. He holds an associate's degree in accounting and business administration from Baruch College.
 
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Shari Cohen
 
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Associate Director, Fellows Program
 
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Shari brings to her position at Demos her expertise on public intellectuals, leadership and values. Since 2003 she has had her own consulting practice doing policy analysis, leadership development and executive coaching for clients such as the World Bank, Carnegie Corporation, Charney Research, and SHARE. Prior to that Shari was the founding director of the Jewish Public Forum, the think tank wing of CLAL (National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), a leadership training institute. In her position at CLAL she built an interdisciplinary seminar and research program on the future of religion, ethnicity, civic engagement and social change. Her book, Politics Without a Past (Duke University Press, 1999) is about leadership and civil society in post-communist transitions. She has also written on public scholarship and technology. She has a BA from Cornell University, a PhD in political science from University of California, Berkeley, and taught there and at Wellesley College.
 
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Lisa J. Danetz
 
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Senior Counsel, Democracy Program
 
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Lisa is a voting rights and campaign finance lawyer who spent five years at Demos' affiliate, National Voting Rights Institute, prior to joining the Demos staff in January 2007. Her past and current work includes litigation and negotiation with states regarding implementation of the National Voter Registration Act, constitutional litigation to promote and defend campaign finance reforms, legislative drafting, and FEC enforcement work. Ms. Danetz's media credits include The Washington Post, TomPaine.com, Associated Press, Roll Call, Boston Phoenix, Law.com, BNA Money in Politics, and other publications, as well as radio and television appearances. She also has been a frequent panelist at campaign finance and voting rights events. Prior to her time at Demos and NVRI, Ms. Danetz spent several years in the private sector doing civil litigation. Subsequent to law school, she held judicial clerkships with United States Circuit Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert, Jr., and United States District Judge Stanley R. Chesler. Ms. Danetz received her B.S. from Yale University and her J.D. cum laude from New York University School of Law.
 
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Regina M. Eaton
 
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Deputy Director, Democracy Program
 
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Regina M. Eaton recently joined the Democracy Program focusing on policy issues aimed at increasing voter registration and turn out, including Election Day Registration. Prior to her present position, Ms. Eaton was a consultant with Break the Chains, a national organization building a national movement within communities of color against punitive drug policies. Ms. Eaton was the first Executive Director of The Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) from March 2001 to March 2005. As Director, Ms. Eaton was both the chief executive officer and principle spokesperson of the organization. From March of 1991 to March of 2001 Ms. Eaton served as Counsel to New York State Assembly Deputy Speaker, Arthur O. Eve, gaining extensive experience working with various levels of government and community based organizations to develop legislation, obtain funding and/or modify programs to serve the people of the state of New York.
 
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Jose Garcia
 
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Senior Research and Policy Associate
 
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As the Senior Research and Policy Associate he is responsible for providing quantitative and statistical analysis for the Economic Opportunity Program. He has over 10 years of experience working on Civil Rights, Census advocacy and Socio Demographic analysis. Prior to working at Demos, Jose was the Vice President for Policy at the National Institute for Latino Policy (NILP), where he was in charge of the program priorities for NILP. Mr. Garcia has worked extensively on Census and Voting rights issues and lead a National Latino Data Center. Mr. Garcia has acted as Chair of the Steering Committee of the Census Information Center which counsels the Census Bureau on issues of underrepresented communities and assists in informing marginalized communities on products from the US Census Bureau. Mr. Garcia's latest publication provides background statistical data abstracts on Latinos and the Criminal Justice system. In addition, Mr. Garcia collaborated with Mr. Angelo Falcon on "The Atlas on Puerto Ricans on the Mainland". Mr. Garcia has spoken on television and on the radio and has been quoted in national, local, and ethnic newspapers and journals including The New York Post, Daily News, Orlando Sentential, NY1, Univision, Telemundo, Univision and El Diario. Mr. Garcia received his Masters in Social Work with a concentration in Social Policy from the University of Connecticut where he received the Alumni Award and his Bachelors from Dayton University where he received the O'Reilly award for Service Leadership.
 
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Marcia Kinsey
 
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Program Associate, Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector
 
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Marcia joined Demos in September of 2003, providing research support and helping to produce the analytical and organizing tools for use by our state partners. Marcia most recently served the United States government as a diplomat in Belize in Central America. Prior to her stint in the U.S. Foreign Service, Marcia worked for seven and a half years as a public policy analyst for the Texas-based Center for Public Policy Priorities. There, she researched policy issues affecting low-income Texans including the Texas state budget; low-income programs such as welfare, food stamps, child care, transportation and child protective services; hunger; and poverty. Marcia has a bachelor's degree in Economics from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.
 
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Frances Kunreuther
 
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Director, Building Movement Project
 
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Frances Kunreuther is the Director of the Building Movement Project, working to support social change organizations in the United States. Housed at Demos, the project has developed strategies for movement capacity building and has conducted a study of generational differences in social change organizations. Before bringing the project to Demos, Kunreuther spent five years at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University where she was a Practitioner Fellow. In addition to developing the Building Movement Project, her work at the Center focused on bridging the practice/academic divide such as convening a seminar series for faculty and practitioners on social change and social movements, organizing a conference on governance and accountability, and chairing a committee on the role of unions as nonprofit organizations. In 1997, Kunreuther was a fellow at the Annie E. Casey. Prior to the fellowship, she was the Executive Director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a multi-service agency for lesbian and gay, homeless, and HIV-positive youth. For over twenty years, Kunreuther worked in nonprofit organizations in New York City addressing the needs of homeless youth, immigrant groups, domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, and crime victims and defendants in the criminal justice system.
 
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Caroline McAndrews
 
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Program Associate, Building Movement Project
 
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Caroline McAndrews joined Building Movement Project in September 2004. Prior to that, she was a Program Associate at the Ms. Foundation for Women, where she was a member of the economic security team, providing funding, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to nonprofits across the country working with women to start small businesses, organize for workers rights, and develop leadership in labor unions. Before working at Ms., she served as the IDA Program Coordinator for Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition, a low-income housing developer in Redwood City, California. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Urban Studies.
 
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Scott Novakowski
 
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Policy Analyst, Democracy Program
 
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Scott Novakowski joined Demos in September 2005. He recently attained a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work where his major method of concentration was Policy Practice. While attending graduate school, Scott served as co-chair of the Committee for Multicultural Awareness and Social Justice, an organization he co-founded and now serves as a consultant. Scott also completed an internship with DemocracyWorks where he lobbied the Connecticut General Assembly on issues of open government and immigrants' rights, and also coordinated an initiative to increase civic engagement among 16-24 year olds. In 2005, Scott was selected as Connecticut's Student Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. As an undergraduate, Scott completed a thesis on the welfare rights movement.
 
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Johanna Novales
 
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Policy Analyst, Democracy Program
 
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Prior to joining Demos in July 2005, Johanna attained a master's in urban planning from Hunter College, where she participated in a project dealing with culturally appropriate economic revitalization and potential Olympic impact in an immigrant community in Queens. During graduate school she also interned at New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) in the Political Integration Project. She is a founder and steering committee member of Q-Wave, a New York organization for queer women and trans and genderqueer people of Asian/Pacific Islander descent. She has a master's in women's studies from the University of York, England as well as a bachelor's in English and women's studies from Southern Methodist University. Her previous experience includes work in publishing and nonprofits.
 
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Myriah Pahl
 
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Administrative Assistant
 
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Myriah joined Demos in September of 2005. She recently graduated from Eugene Lang College of the New School University in 2005 where she concentrated in Religious Studies and Media Studies. Her senior project focused on examining dance as a religious experience as well as examining religion as an active social force. Myriah worked with the Study Circles Resource Center in Connecticut before coming to Demos.
 
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Donna Parson
 
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Special Assistant to the President
 
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Donna coordinates staff activities, meetings and projects initiated by the President's office, and directs the Demos Forum: Ideas for Change events program. She has over twenty-five years experience building grassroots advocacy organizations. Donna was formerly the Director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group and Northeast Action and the Field Director of Public Campaign. She has also worked in the political arena directing several Congressional campaigns.
 
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Sophie Rogers-Gessert
 
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Director of Foundation Development
 
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Sophie initially joined Demos in 2004 as an intern. Since coming onboard full-time, she has worked closely with the development, finance and executive departments, and now directs the foundation development campaign at Demos. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she majored in anthropology and philosophy. Prior to coming to Demos, she worked as a contributing researcher for several academic texts and interned at the American Anthropologist. Her research project, "Waking from the American Dream: Education, Political Economy, and Social Mobility," examines current barriers to social mobility in the U.S.
 
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A.B. Beatrice Sampong
 
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Director, Individual Giving
 
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Ms. Sampong is an organizational and management strategist with extensive experience in facilitating the operational and financial goals of organizations. With a background in Communications/Media, Ms. Sampong worked in the fundraising and strategic planning efforts of the pre-eminent Lakeside School in Seattle before moving into a business management focus which involved technical project management and operations consulting. She has worked with a variety of private, public, and not-for-profit organizations in the cities of Seattle, Boston, Washington, D.C., New York, Accra, and London. Ms. Sampong holds her first degree from Harvard/Radcliffe Colleges, with degree credit awarded from University of London, and her M.B.A. from Boston University Graduate School of Management.
 
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Mayuran Tiruchelvam
 
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Program Assistant, Building Movement Project
 
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Mayuran Tiruchelvam began working with Building Movement Project in December 2005. Mayuran has worked with Critical Resistance, an organization working towards the end of the prison-industrial complex, and Estacion Libre, a national collective building with the Zapatista movement of Mexico to support autonomy in US based communities of color. Mayuran also works with the NYC Childcare Collective, providing childcare to facilitate the participation of low-income parents in building a movement.
 
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Terisa Traylor
 
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Program Associate, Democracy Program Traylor works in Demos' Boston office, where she also attends law school. She came to Demos through the organization's partnership with the National Voting Rights Institute, where she began work in the fall of 2006. Prior to joining the organization, she had worked as a Legal Assistant, Preschool Teacher and Administrative Assistant in Seattle, Washington, Boston and Virginia. She received her BA from the Evergreen State College in Tacoma, Washington.
 
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Holly Traynor
 
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Administrative Assistant
 
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Holly joined Demos in February of 2005. She graduated from Gettysburg College in 2003 where she received a B.A. in philosophy with a Spanish minor. In her senior thesis, she presented the theory of gender as a social construction, specifically concentrating on the norms associated with femininity and its implications in homosexual culture. Prior to joining Demos, Holly worked for The Center for Public Service at Gettysburg College as a Program Coordinator for after-school tutoring events and also served as an advocate for awareness of hunger and health issues.
 
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Carol Villano
 
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Executive Assistant to the President
 
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Carol comes to Demos after a 23-year career in teaching. During that time, she developed curriculum, taught reading, composition, and computer courses to students and teachers, and was President of a major reading council. Carol made professional presentations at State and International Reading Conferences and did teacher training in Guatemala and for American graduate education students. She was responsible for computer training for the entire school district of Greenlawn, Long Island. In addition, Carol organized major events for poets, authors, and artists, and has become a trained mediator.
 
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Brenda Wright
 
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Legal Director, Democracy Program
 
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Brenda joined Demos with 18 years of experience in litigation, public education and advocacy on voting rights, campaign finance reform and election reform issues. She directs Demos' litigation initiatives in the Democracy Program and participates in Demos' research and policy work on democracy issues, working out of Demos' Boston office. Before joining Demos, Brenda served as Managing Attorney at the National Voting Rights Institute, which has worked in close partnership with Demos since 2005. Brenda also served previously as Director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C. Her extensive trial and appellate experience in voting rights and campaign finance cases includes two arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. She has testified before Congress, federal agencies and state legislatures and has authored numerous law review articles and other publications on voting rights, campaign finance reform and other democracy issues. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and a member of the Advisory Boards of Common Cause Massachusetts and the Prison Policy Initiative. She received her law degree from Yale Law School and her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College.
 
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Cindy Zeldin
 
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Federal Affairs Coordinator, Economic Opportunity Program
 
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Cindy joined Demos in March 2006, where she is responsible for developing the Economic Opportunity Program.s outreach and legislative strategy in Washington, DC. Previously, she was a Senior Program Associate in the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, and has also worked in state government in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of a team conducting performance evaluations of state programs. Cindy has written articles for several online commentary sites, including TPMCafe.com and TomPaine.com. She has a B.A. in Political Science from Emory University and an M.A. in Public Policy with a concentration in Women's Studies from The George Washington University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Women's Studies Endowment, an alumnae-run organization that provides small scholarships to Women's Studies graduate students in Washington, DC.
 
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Fellows Program
 
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Sasha Abramsky
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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As a Senior Fellow at Demos, Sasha's work focuses on issues of electoral participation, particularly the consequences of felon disfranchisement laws. Sasha is a freelance magazine writer, newspaper op-ed writer and book author. He currently teaches in the Writing Program at the University of California, Davis. Sasha's latest book on felon disfranchisement, Conned, was released in March 2006 by the New Press and he is currently working on another book, on vengeance politics, to be published by Beacon Press in late 2006. In 2002, Sasha was a media fellow at the Center for Crime, Communities and Culture of the Open Society Institute. His first book, Hard Time Blues was published in 2002 by St. Martin's Press. Born in England and raised in London, Sasha attended Balliol College, Oxford University, with a BA in politics, philosophy and economics. He later attained his master's degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
 
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Algernon Austin
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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As a Senior Fellow at Demos, Algernon's work, in addition to speaking and writing on the topic of his recent book, will focus on obstacles to the growth of the black middle class, and on the collateral costs of mass black incarceration. Algernon is a sociologist of racial relations and a specialist on black America. He is the author of Getting It Wrong: How Black Public Intellectuals Are Failing Black America (2006) which criticizes leading scholars for ignoring important economic and social advances that African-Americans have made in recent decades. He is currently speaking widely on the book in a talk called Challenging the Bill Cosby Consensus. His earlier book Achieving Blackness: Race, Black Nationalism and Afrocentrism in the Twentieth Century, (New York University Press, 2006) is a socio-history of black nationalism. He is the founder and has a weekly column for the Thora Institute www.thorainstitute.com, which disseminates social scientific data and analysis about black Americans for the purpose of improving the socioeconomic standing of black Americans. He writes for and speaks to scholarly and popular audiences and appears regularly on black talk radio. He is also a quarterly columnist for the New Haven Register. Mr. Austin received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University in 2001, and served as a faculty member at Wesleyan University from 2001 to 2005.
 
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Rich Benjamin
 
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Senior Fellow Rich Benjamin's work at Demos focuses on social alienation, civic engagement and popular culture. He has a background in media, politics and academia. From 2001-2, he was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Law School. He has also served as senior editor of The Race Relations Reporter and a campaign staffer for President Clinton's 1996 re-election effort. Rich has lectured on youth, media and American politics in the US and Europe. His commentary has been featured in newspapers nationwide, NPR, Fox Radio, the blogosphere, and many scholarly venues. This scholarship earned professional support from Brown University and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Rich's public service includes operating as a senior advisor to Why Tuesday?, a bi-partisan campaign to increase civic participation, and serving on the Advisory Board of The Roosevelt Institution. Rich holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, a professional certificate from the New York Film Academy, and a PhD from Stanford University.
 
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John Bonifaz
 
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Legal Fellow
 
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John Bonifaz is the founder of the National Voting Rights Institute and serves as a Senior Legal Fellow at Demos in its Democracy Program. John has been at the forefront of key voting rights battles in the country over the past dozen years. In 2006, John took a leave from his position as general counsel at NVRI to run as a Democratic candidate for Massachusetts Secretary of State. Prior to serving as NVRI's general counsel, John served as executive director of NVRI from 1994-2004. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Brown University.
 
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Jonathan Cohn
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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Jonathan Cohn is a senior editor at The New Republic, where he has been since 1997 and served previously as executive editor. Jonathan's writing on domestic policy and politics--particularly health care--have appeared in the Boston Globe, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Washington Monthly, and the Washington Post. His book on the U.S. health care system, Sick, will be published by HarperCollins in 2007. Prior to joining The New Republic, he worked for The American Prospect, where he remains a contributing editor. He is also a former media fellow with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. A graduate of Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Crimson, Jonathan spent his summers writing local news articles for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Miami Herald. He now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife and two children.
 
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Allison H. Fine
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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Allison Fine's work at Demos focuses on unleashing broad participation in our democracy. Her first book, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, was published in Fall 2006 by Wiley & Sons. Allison's writing focuses on the use of social media, interactive digital tools, for positive social change. Social media enhances the connections between people and citizen self-organizing into strong communities. She is a frequent speaker and commentator and has been published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Foundation News & Commentary, been quoted in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, National Public Radio. Allison was the Founder of Innovation Network, Inc. (InnoNet) and served as Executive Director and President from 1992-2004. InnoNet is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping nonprofits better plan and evaluate their services and programs. Allison served as the C.E.O. of The E-Volve Foundation in 2004-2005. The mission of E-Volve is to support and promote open source technology efforts aimed at increasing citizen participation. Efforts including online voter registration websites and virtual phone banks.
 
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Robert Frank
 
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Distinguished Senior Fellow
 
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Robert Frank's work with Demos focuses on the impact of economic inequality on American society. He is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times and author of the forthcoming book, Does Rising Inequality Harm the Middle Class? His eight previous books include Luxury Fever: Money and Happiness in an Age of Excess and The Winner-Take-All Society (with Philip J. Cook). His numerous articles have been published in both scholarly journals and leading opinion magazines. He is the H.J. Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. He holds a BS in mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MA in statistics from UC Berkeley and a PhD in economics, also from UC Berkeley.
 
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Robert Kuttner
 
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Distinguished Senior Fellow
 
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Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. He writes regularly for the magazine on political and economic issues. Bob has just completed a book, to be published in 2007, on the connection between political and economic inequality and systemic risks facing the economy. He is pursuing these issues as a distinguished senior fellow at Demos. Bob is the author of six previous books: Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets (1997); The End of Laissez-Faire (1991); The Life of the Party (1987); The Economic Illusion (1984); Revolt of the Haves (1980); and Family Re-union (2002), co-authored with his late wife, Sharland Trotter. His syndicated weekly editorial column originates in The Boston Globe and appears Mondays on the Prospect website. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Dissent, and Harvard Business Review. He has been a John F. Kennedy Fellow at Harvard, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Radcliffe Public Policy Fellow.
 
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Jim Lardner
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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James Lardner is the founder of Inequality.org, and co-editor of Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences. As a journalist, he has written many articles for the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Nation, U.S. News & World Report, and the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of Fast Forward: A Machine and the Commotion It Caused, and the co-author, with Thomas Reppetto, of NYPD: A City and Its Police.
 
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Lorraine C. Minnite
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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Lorraine C. Minnite has taught American and urban politics at Barnard College since 2000. Prior to that she was the Associate Director of the Center for Urban Research and Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Her research is concerned with issues of equality, social and racial justice, political conflict and institutional change. Prof. Minnite has consulted with various labor, advocacy, and governmental organizations, and political campaigns which have relied on her expertise in public policy and demographic patterns in New York City. An experienced survey researcher, she has published on various aspects of political participation, immigration, voting behavior and urban politics. She is currently working on a book on the politics of electoral rules called The Myth of Voter Fraud. Prof. Minnite holds a B.A. in History from Boston University, and an M.A and Ph.D. in Political Science from the City University of New York.
 
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Nomi Prins
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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Nomi Prins is a journalist and author. Her new book, Jacked: How "Conservatives" are Picking your Pocket (whether you voted for them or not) recounts her travels across America and issues that impact our wallets. Her last book, Other People's Money was chosen as a Best Book of 2004 by The Economist, Barron's, and Library Journal. Before becoming a journalist, she served as a managing director for Goldman Sachs in New York and ran the analytics group at Bear Stearns in London. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, Fortune Magazine, and The Guardian. She is a television commentator on CNBC and the BBC, and frequent guest on Marketplace Radio, Air America, and many NPR affiliates. Visit Nomi's website.
 
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John Schwarz
 
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Distinguished Senior Fellow
 
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John Schwarz's work at Demos focuses on developing a new vision for a more democratic and fairer America based on the value of freedom, the argument in his book, Freedom Reclaimed: Rediscovering the American Vision (2005). He is currently professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at University of Arizona, where he has been since 1970. He has published five books and articles of his have appeared in every major professional journal in political science as well as many outlets for the general public, including the Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. His prior book, Illusions of Opportunity: The American Dream in Question, was entered in nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Two of his other books, America's Hidden Success and The Forgotten Americans, have been placed on lists of the best fifty books on American economic and social policy written during the past half century. In 1984, America's Hidden Success was named through the American Political Science Association as the best book of the year on public policy. It was named by The Washington Monthly in 1984 as one of the best five books of the year. He has a BA from Oberlin College and a PhD from Indiana University. He also was educated at The London School of Economics and Political Science and L'Institut d'Études Politiques at the University of Paris.
 
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Linda Tarr-Whelan
 
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Distinguished Senior Fellow, Women's Empowerment
 
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Linda Tarr-Whelan is Managing Director of Tarr-Whelan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm. Ambassador Tarr-Whelan was appointed by President Clinton and served as the US Representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from 1996-2001. She also served in high-level positions in the Carter White House, New York State government, the National Education Association and AFSCME. As the CEO and President of the Center for Policy Alternatives, Ambassador Tarr-Whelan built the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) into a leading state progressive policy and leadership center.
 
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Jennifer Wheary
 
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Senior Fellow
 
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Jennifer Wheary's research and writing focuses on the future middle class, demographic change, educational access, and economic opportunity. Her articles have appeared in the New York Daily News, Newsday, and other newspapers around the country. Prior to joining Demos, Jennifer worked in the academic, non-profit, and private sectors. She consulted for schools in both Colombia and Brazil, designed and launched a successful online science journal, co-founded an adult literacy program, helped build a new business division at an Internet startup, and headed interactive research for the largest Spanish-language media company in the U.S. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.{{ref|3}}
 
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==Notes==
 
==Notes==

Revision as of 08:30, 25 May 2007

Demos USA is the US arm of Demos the Market friendly New Labour Think tank.

People

Board of Trustees

Staff January 2007

Program and Administrative Staff

Fellows Program

Notes

^ Miles Rapoport Named President of Demos, New Public Policy Network FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, MARCH 6, 2001, 7:20 PM, CONTACT: Demos, David Callahan of Demos, 212-633-1405 x205, e-mail: dcallahan@demos-usa.org

^ Staff bios, accessed January 2007.

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