Home » Chicago Training Agenda

DFA Campaign Academy Agenda

Training Presenters

Anastasia Apa – Finance & Fundraising

Anastasia Apa is a political management and fundraising consultant who has traveled the country for the past eight years to help Democrats build the strongest campaigns possible.  She has worked at the local, state and federal level in the Southern, Midwestern and Eastern part of the country. Apa focuses on fundraising and planning because she believes a solid plan and the money to implement it is the way to a win.  She is based in Miami, Florida and runs a campaign staffing network which trains, retains and places experienced campaign operatives on races.

Matt Blizek - Training Director – Field, Planning & Online Organizing

Matt was born and raised in rural Iowa and first got involved in politics at the University of Iowa.  In 2001 he managed my 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.

After graduation 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.

For the last two years Matt have managed a national training program for Democratic activists and candidates at Democracy for America.  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.

Ben Chao - Communications

Ben Chao has served as a hard-nosed strategist, media consultant and Democratic evangelist for over 300 races in 38 different states from California to New York since 1992.  In that time he has earned a reputation for taking on the toughest fights … and winning.  

Campaigns & Elections Magazine named him one of their "Rising Stars of Politics" in 1998.  One statewide Democratic official in South Carolina called him “our Lee Atwater”.  Conservative FoxNews Host Laura Ingraham said of Chao, “he’s like James Carville with hair”.  Chao’s work was recently featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on the same night he collected six Pollie Awards for his outstanding TV and radio commercials.

In addition to beating Republican incumbents in congressional and statewide campaigns, Chao is considered a top primary election specialist in the Democratic Party.  He earned his reputation after defeating an incumbent Democrat in a Democratic primary.  As Congressman Artur Davis’ top strategist and media consultant in all of his campaigns, he was the architect of the stunning victory over Earl Hilliard in 2002.

Chao served as Bill Richardson’s National Political Director in his presidential race in 2007/2008.  Chao led a paid staff of over 250 and created an extensive national political network in all 50 states for Governor Richardson.  Chao has also worked with corporate and issue campaigns for clients like the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church handling all public relations and media for Coretta Scott King’s funeral.  Other work includes work for the NAACP, Comcast, General Mills, Delta Airlines and the U.S. Department of Defense.

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.

Mario Piscatella – Candidate Speaking & Literature Design

After managing one Congressional campaign and consulting on another during his final semester at San Diego State University, Mario has been all over the country working on federal and coordinated campaigns, touching thirty five states in 2008 after spending nearly all of 2007 in Iowa on Chris Dodd's Presidential Campaign.  Serving as Western Iowa Regional Director, Mario spent eleven months learning the ins and outs of caucuses, an experience he would apply as a lead trainer for the Nevada Democratic Party during the final weeks of their caucuses and later to a unanimous caucus victory in a Virginia Congressional Primary.  Mario spent the final months of the 2008 campaign on an idealistic crusade, assiting the Obama Coordinated efforts in Florida and Ohio while assisitng the victorious red to blue campaigns of Alan Grayson, Jim Himes and Mary Jo Kilroy.  With experience in all aspects of campaigning, Mario focuses on strategy, communications and field and is always in search of good, proud, Democratic candidates to help.