Home » 2010 Dallas Campaign Academy Agenda

DFA Campaign Academy Agenda

Dallas, TX              June 5^th - 6^th 2010

Saturday

Sunday      

Please complete evaluations and remember to turn them in at the end of the day. 

Training Presenters

Matt Blizek – Field and Planning

Matt was born and raised in rural Iowa and first got involved in politics at the University of Iowa.  In 2001 he managed his first campaign in an attempt to elect a UI student to the Iowa City Council.  Not long after he was elected Vice-President of the student body where he fought against radical tuition hikes, corrupt apartment management companies and police harassment on campus.

Matt spent the 2004 election cycle fundraising for the DNC and doing GOTV for MoveOn.org.  In 2006 he was selected to join Russ Feingold’s Patriot Corps program and was deployed to Montana where he did Field Organizing for Senator Jon Tester.

Matt is currently the National Field Director at Democracy for America; for the last three years Matt has managed a national training program for Democratic activists and candidates.  Since joining DFA he has organized over 56 campaign trainings in 31 states, training over 3,000 people to become better activists, campaign staff or candidates.

Kendra-Sue Derby- Field

Over her career, Kendra-Sue Derby has fought for progressive causes and candidates. She focuses her work on administrative and field activities. Most recently she was Senior Consultant to the Jon Tester for Senate and Montana Democratic Party. She also worked at Alliance for Justice from 2001 through 2006 as the Director of Field Operations. She trained thousands of activists and campaign employees when she worked for The Ron Brown - Paul Tully Institute for Political Action and as an independent contractor. Kendra has worked on campaigns of all sizes, ranging from City Council to Presidential, including the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Democratic presidential campaigns. In 2004 she ran the Democratic Party of Oregon’s coordinated campaign. Kendra currently resides in Denver.

Andy Szekeres- Fundraising & Finance

Andy Szekeres is a nationally touted fundraiser in Progressive circles. Most recently, Andy served as the finance director for the No on 1 Protect Maine Equality Campaign where he raised over 4.9 Million dollars in less than 5 months. His impressive track record includes raising over $16 million dollars in the last three election cycles.

Andy has also served as a Statewide Field Director for both issue and candidate campaigns, giving him a unique perspective and political insight that are rare amongst Political Fundraisers.

His past candidates include No on 1 - Protect Maine Equality, Congressman Polis, Fawcett for Congress, Lamm for Congress, Yes of Referendum I, Vallas for Governor, Skinner for Senate and 23 other races.

Allan Oliver – Communications

Allan has previously served as Deputy Director of Communications and Director of Cabinet Affairs for Governor Bill Richardson.  Previously he has served as Senior campaign manager, political strategist with legislative and advocacy experience and speechwriter. Served as Campaign Manager for Zamora for Attorney General, Communications Director for Lt. Governor of New Mexico, and as Deputy Chief of Staff for the NM House Majority Leader. Florida State Campaign Director for the League of Conservation Voters. Expert on US and international election law, and experienced election monitor. Graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Jason Watson- Base-building, Volunteer Management and Planning

Jason is a National Field Organizer for the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions at Democracy for America. Jason started his political action work during his college years as a member of the Yale College Democrats. He continued on after graduating and ended up going to work on the Hillary for President 2008 campaign as a Regional Volunteer Coordinator in Las Vegas, NV and New York, NY. He helped to shore up record levels of democratic turnout in these important primary states, which lead to large popular vote victories for the Hillary Campaign in his regions.

After his work on the presidential race Jason went to work with the Chris Gregoire gubernatorial race in Washington State. As Regional Field Director for two counties he was responsible for an impressive 9-point positive swing, from the 2004 election, in the second largest county in the state and a 7-point positive swing in the fifth largest county. He then went to work for SEIU’s Change That Works campaign and helped to organize membership and supporters throughout Virginia to call on their leaders to pass important Health Care Reform legislation. Jason is a graduate of Yale University in New Haven, CT.