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DFA Campaign Academy Trainers

Matt Blizek - Training Director

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.

Bryan Hageny- Deputy Training Director

Bryan grew up in the fiercely contested swing state of Wisconsin, and is proud of its progressive tradition. While attending the University of Wisconsin he worked for Howard Dean, John Kerry, and Tammy Baldwin. Following Graduation he served in a number of political and activist roles. To this end Bryan worked as an Assistant Director of a large canvassing office in Boston, next as an Organizer of Power Shift 2007 (first ever student global warming conference held at the University of Maryland), and then as a Community Organizer in Pennsylvania. In 2008 Bryan was hired as DFA's Deputy Training Director. Most recently Bryan worked as a Field Organizer on Darcy Burner's 2008 bid for Congress. 

Anastasia Apa - Finance

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.

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.

Jennifer S. Coken- Field

Michael Cook- Field, Finance

Michael Cook is a veteran of more than 25 political campaigns at the local, state and federal level. During his tenure as Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Arkansas he helped revitalize and re-organize the state party. His work there earned him recognition by the National Journal's "Hotline" as one of Arkansas' Rising Stars in 2003, and the Arkansas Times proclaimed him the "Wizard of Voter Turnout" during the hotly contested 2004 campaign season. He is the only Arkansas Executive Director who has simultaneously served as Coordinated Campaign Director, overseeing the Democrats' most intensive field operation ever in a presidential election year. He was a member of then-Governor Clinton's campaign staff during the 1992 presidential race, serving both in New Hampshire and at the fabled Little Rock headquarters. Michael previously served as consultant with Southern Strategy Group, a political and governmental consulting firm in Little Rock. In 2006, he managed the first winning Democratic campaign for Arkansas Lt. Governor in sixteen years. Michael is a veteran of the United States Army Reserves and holds a bachelor's degree in History from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He currently serves as the Chief of Staff for Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter.

Dorie Clark- Communications

Principal, Clark Strategic Communications. Dorie is a media consultant with extensive campaign and non-profit experience at the national, state, and local levels. Clark served as the New Hampshire Communications Director for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, developing and executing his media strategy in the state and managing relations with local and national press. Previously, she was the Press Secretary for former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s campaign for Massachusetts governor. Clark also ran the successful re-election campaign for Massachusetts State Representative Jarrett Barrios (now a State Senator), and has served as a media consultant on a wide variety of races. Prior to her work as a campaign communications specialist, Clark was a staff writer for the Boston Phoenix, covering local politics and policy and winning two New England Press Association awards. She was also a regular contributor to the Boston Globe and Commonwealth magazine. She also co-founded a political action committee, OutSomerville, and won an award for GLBT advocacy from the Young Democrats of Massachusetts. Clark has taught campaign management at Emerson College and media studies at Tufts University. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College and Harvard Divinity School. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

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.

Bridget Dooley - Field

Bridget is a political consultant specializing in field work and a union organizer.  She has served as Field Director and Campaign Manager on a variety of Congressional and local races throughout the Midwest, taking on ruthless Republicans, timid Democrats, and the Chicago political machine. Bridget currently is works for AFSCME Council 31 in Illinois on a strategic campaign to organize the employees of one of the largest healthcare systems in the Chicago area

Maya Enista- Online Organizing, Youth Organizing

Chief Operating Officer for Mobilizing America's Youth. Maya has been active in public service, focusing mainly on voter empowerment and youth civic engagement, throughout her years in college. She began her career at 17 years old as the East Coast Coordinator for Rock The Vote. She continued her work as the National Field Director for the Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project. In addition to her Voter Empowerment work, Maya has worked with The Center for Civic Responsibility as an Empowerment Civics Coordinator, facilitating trainings for local New Jersey residents. Maya grew up in Maplewood New Jersey and attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.

Carrie Giddins- Communications

Carrie Giddins served as the communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party for the 2008 Iowa Caucuses, helping run the most successful and most widely attended caucuses in history. A native of New York City, Giddins has worked in politics for over a decade. Before her year in Iowa, Giddins was the deputy communications director for EMILY’s List, a political action committee helping to elect democratic women. In 2004, she was the deputy communications director for John Kerry’s presidential campaign in Iowa. In 2002, Giddins worked at political direct mail in San Francisco, also doing general consulting for local and statewide California candidates. Giddins was the program manager for the League of Conservation Voters, running the GOTV effort in 42 states in the 2000 election. Just this year, Giddins launched Giddy Up! Communications a political communications consulting firm. In February 2008, she was named the political operative to watch by Politico.

Scott Goodstein- New Media

Scott Goodstein spent the last twelve years managing political campaigns and building progressive coalitions. After working for several members of Congress, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, Goodstein founded Catalyst Campaigns (www.catalystcampaigns.com). A master at mixing online and offline organizing tools with culture, music, politics and messaging- Goodstein knows how to build sustainable niche based organizations from the ground up including: Punkvoter.com, Rock Against Bush, MilitaryFreeZone.org, Save CBGB, and Operation Ceasefire. Goodstein received both a BA and an MPA from The American University School of Public Affairs.

Ellery Gould- Communications

A campaign veteran before he finished college, Ellery has experience at virtually every level of politics and in every region of the country; from City Hall to the halls of Congress, Connecticut to Arizona.  A Tennessee native, he took his talents for winning "red states" to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 where he oversaw media campaigns for some of the toughest races in the nation and helped bring a Democratic majority to Congress for the first time since 1994.  Most recently, Ellery managed the U.S. Senate campaign of a little-known former state legislator in Georgia – a state that hasn’t seen a top-of-the-ticket Democratic win in over a decade – turning it into one of the most improbable and competitive races of 2008.

Lewis Granofsky- Field

Lew kicked off his political career recruiting for the DNC Training Academy in 1995. In 1996, he worked alongside future FieldWorks partner Laurie Moskowitz and successfully coordinated a statewide initiative drive in Michigan, generating over 40,000 signatures from all 83 counties to place Senator Carl Levin on the ballot. In 1997, he began working with the Fund for Public Interest Research, one of the country's largest canvass networks. As a canvass director, Lewis continuously broke recruitment and fundraising records, including running the most successful canvass in the organization's 20 year history. While overseeing his fundraising canvasses, Lewis also managed many of the Fund for Public Interest Research's non-fundraising outreach projects. Lewis reunited with Laurie, his mentor, and came to work with FieldWorks as a vice-president in May 2005.

Arshad Hasan- Field, Precinct Organizing

Executive Director, Democracy for America; Arshad joined Democracy for America in early 2005 to develop and direct the DFA Training Academy. Before joining DFA, Arshad worked with MoveOn PAC during the 2004 Elections. Previous to his electoral experience, Arshad based his professional political career in environmental issue advocacy and organizing. His non-electoral experience includes work on legislative issue campaigns, corporate accountability campaigns, and grassroots fundraising. Arshad traces his Dean roots to February of 2003 when he founded one of the nation's first organized Dean groups, Philly For Dean. Whenever possible, Arshad likes to take off from DFA and work on campaigns with staffers he’s trained. In the 2006 general election, Arshad worked as the GOTV Director for Jerry McNerney for Congress. Arshad was born and raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota and went to college at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lauree Hayden- Field

Lauree Hayden works with the political shop of SEIU International. For the last year and a half, she served as the Political Director of SEIU Local 21 LA, the union for public service workers in Louisiana. She worked to set up a political program and help navigate the new local through the post-Katrina political waters. She began organizing around environmental justice issues before becoming active in Democratic electoral politics in Massachusetts. She served as an Associate at the public relations and political consulting firm of Hattaway Communications. She served as Howard Dean's Congressional District Director in New Hampshire and later on staff at America Coming Together (ACT). She came to labor with a focus on the South/Southwest region because she believes that building a strong labor movement in the region is critical to changing relations of power on the ground and building real and lasting change for working people in America.

Millie Herrera - Communications

Millie Herrera was born in La Habana, Cuba, and in 1967 left the Castro regime for Spain with her mom, step-dad and baby sister. Seven months later the family migrated to the United States and settled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Millie resides in Miami, Florida since 1987 with her daughter Ana Maria.

Millie founded The Miami Group after 18 years in management information systems development and implementation for the banking, insurance and energy industries, and later, in travel technology marketing management. The Miami Group provides business and marketing consulting services to businesses, non-profit organizations, and political campaigns.

Pursuing her passion for community involvement and public policy advocacy, Millie has over twelve years of successful issue advocacy and political consulting experience. She became active in the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party in 1995, where she served as Deputy Director until 1997. She was a charter member of the Miami-Dade Chapter of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, and was elected its first president. In 1998, she was elected first vice president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, and president from 2000 to 2004. She was reelected President for the 2007-2008 term. Millie was a Florida delegate to the 2000 DNC Convention, and a member of the 2004 DNC Platform Committee for the Florida delegation. She was elected Alternate delegate for Florida to the 2008 DNC Convention.

She currently co-hosts and produces “Democracia Al Dia”, a weekly Spanish language progressive radio program, at 7:30 pm every Thursday at La Poderosa 670 AM in Miami, Florida.

Andrea Hildebran- Finance, Issue Campaigns

Principal of Progressive Persuasion Consulting, is a writer and activist with 17 years experience in legal, legislative and grassroots advocacy, non-profit management, as well as ballot measure and candidate campaigns. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, launching and serving within Kentucky’s campaign against an anti-gay Constitutional amendment banning marriage and civil unions. Prior to moving to Kentucky, Andrea was a fundraiser for Houston’s No on City Prop 2 campaign, and for Vermonters for Civil Unions. She was the Public Education Director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) in Boston, and the Producer of One in Ten, a commercial talk radio show for the LGBT community. She chaired both OutSomerville, a political action committee for LGBT people in Somerville, MA, and Boston National Voices, a multi-racial coalition formed to facilitate cross-community responses to hate incidents in the Boston area. Andrea lives in St. Petersburg, FL and works as a consultant with progressive non-profits and on issue campaigns.

Erin Hill- Online Fundraising

Erin Hill currently works as the Political Director for Act Blue. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2001 with a concentration in Public Policy studies and a degree in English literature. Erin has worked in the Massachusetts State House, on Capitol Hill, and at Democratic National Headquarters in fundraising, operational and legislative research capacities. She spent the 2004 election cycle working on the finance staffs of the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Selene Hofer-Shall- Finance

A former crisis counselor, Selene joined the Dean for America Operations Team in 2003, helping to compile the largest FEC reports in Presidential Campaign History. She was one of the 12 original staffers of Democracy for America, working as Operations Director and assistant to the Finance Director.  Since leaving DFA, Selene has worked on numerous successful campaigns from city councils to United States Congress.  As the Finance Director for Peter Welch (VT-AL) in his successful 2006 race for Congress, she broke all previous fundraising records for the district.  Following the 2006 election, she worked in San Antonio, TX as the Finance Director for Ciro Rodriguez in the TX-23 run-off election, raising over $600,000 in less than three weeks to successfully oust a 7-term Republican incumbent. Selene returned to work for Congressman Welch as the Political and Finance Director on his first re-election campaign, as part of a team that successfully warded off all Republican opposition and secured not only the Democratic but also the Republican nomination.  Selene is a managing partner of Theseus Advisors, LLC, a political consulting firm based in Burlington, VT. She specializes in political outreach, candidate messaging, fundraising and event planning.

Chris Montana – Field

Chris first became involved in politics through the College Democrats of Minnesota in 2003 later serving as state president in 2004 and again in 2005.  Working on races from city council to mayor and serving on the state party's Executive committee for two years, Chris gained his undying love of field organizing and joined Wellstone Action! as a field trainer to spread that love. In April of 2006 Chris left Wellstone Action! to serve on then State Representative Keith Ellison's congressional campaign as Field Director winning hotly contested primary and general elections. After serving in Congressman Ellison's DC office Chris returned to school at the University of DC and currently resides in Washington, DC.

Karl-Thomas Musselman- Online Fundraising, New Media

Karl-Thomas currently enjoys employment at ActBlue where he works with campaigns and the Netroots. He graduated from the University of Texas-Austin in 2006 with a Bachelor's in Government. Destined for NASA, he was redirected into politics thanks to Al Gore and Howard Dean. Prior to working at ActBlue he served as Tech Coordinator for the Travis County Coordinated Campaign where he raised over $3500 for innovative student GOTV projects. Before that he was a leader of the student coalition that fought against the Texas Gay Marriage Amendment, increasing student turnout by a factor of 10. He is the former Editor of the Texas political blog the Burnt Orange Report and continues as a steering member of Democracy for Texas.

Jay Parmley- Finance

Jay Parmley is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Democratic Party.  Parmley initially joined the staff of the South Carolina Democratic Party as part of former DNC Chairman Governor Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy.  From 2005-2008,  Parmley worked for the Democratic National Committee, first in Mississippi and then in South Carolina.    In 2001, at the age of 30, Parmley was the elected as the fulltime Chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party.  He served two terms and did not seek reelection in 2005.  At the time of his election he was the nation’s youngest chairman of a State Democratic Party. He is a past president of the Young Democrats of America, serving from 1999-2001. Parmley was appointed by Governor Dean as an At-Large member of the Democratic National Committee in 2005, and is a member of the DNC Budget and Finance Committee.

Mario Piscatella - Field Organizing & Candidate Management

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 IowaMario 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. on Chris Dodd's Presidential Campaign.  Serving as Western Iowa Regional Director,

Mark Riddle - Communications
As a partner at FRCR, Riddle has written, directed and produced award winning ads that have led to many of the top Democratic wins since 2004. Before joining FRCR, Mark Riddle was a veteran of Democratic campaigns from the presidential, statewide and congressional level. A native of Maine, Riddle has served as political director and press secretary for the New Democratic Network in Washington D.C. and has worked on five statewide campaigns, including managing a winning gubernatorial race, serving as a statewide director for the General Wesley Clark Presidential campaign, and serving as press secretary on two U.S. Senate races. Riddle also served as the Executive Director of the Kentucky State Democratic Party. In 2006, Riddle was named a “Rising Star” by Campaign and Elections Magazine.

John Rowley- Communications

John first worked as a TV and radio reporter in Iowa. He has produced TV and radion commercials for over 200 campaigns and was the youngest principal in a Democratic media firm (26) in the Democratic party when he and Bill Fletcher formed Fletcher and Rowley Consulting, Inc. Rowley is now president of Fletcher Rowley Chao Riddle (FRCR, Inc.) FRCR, Inc. has worked in over 35 states and won races from governor to city council. The firm has won more legislative races for Democrats that any other Democratic media firm. the firm has an 85% win record for women candidates and an 87% win record for African-American candidates. Rowley's commercials have won Pollie awards, Silver Microphone Awards and Vision Awards. His work has been featured on CNN and in Campaigns and Elections Magazine, the New York Times and the Washington Post. His firm has never worked for a Republican candidate. In 2006, his firm helped Democrats take three Republican seats (Foley, Ney, Pombo).

Jamal Simmons- Communications

Jamal Simmons is president of New Future Communications, based in Washington, DC. He has been a senior aide to several Democratic political candidates, serving most recently as traveling press secretary to former 2004 presidential candidates U.S. Senator Bob Graham and Retired General Wesley K. Clark. He was also communications director for U. S. Senator Max Cleland's reelection campaign. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Simmons managed media relations in 40 states for Vice President Al Gore before spending four weeks in West Palm Beach as a Gore spokesman during the Florida recount effort. Prior to that, he served as chief of staff to U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D, MI) and as a political appointee in the Clinton Administration under U.S. Trade Representative and Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor. Simmons got his start in politics and communications by managing logistics for dozens of national reporters while traveling with President Bill Clinton during his successful 1992 campaign.

Helen Strain- Field

Florida native who has worked in hundreds of campaigns from City Hall to Congress across the United States for over 20 years. She worked for the Clinton Group, a political telephone firm as a Program Manager, House Victory 2000 for the Florida Democratic Caucus as a Regional Organizer; she has served as Vice-Chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a member of the DNC. Some highlights of her career were Advance for Election Day – Clinton/Gore 1996 in Little Rock, Ark,  Field Director for Janet Reno for Governor, Campaign Manager for Dave Aronberg for Florida State Senate and Lois Frankel for West Palm Beach Mayor as well as Field Director for Angela Alioto for San Francisco Mayor, and as the Field Director for the Florida Association of Planned Parenthoos Affiliates. Her specialty is in "foot, phone, and mail." developing field plans and implementing the tactical door to door, phone, and direct mail campaigns. She currently serves as the Vice President of External Affairs for Planned Parenthood of North Central Florida

Don Weigel- Communications, Finance

Don Weigel began organizing in college, running a non-partisan voter registration drive and founding the College Democrats.  After college, he helped coordinate the first-ever full-ticket campaign for city council, efforts which elected only the second Democrat in over twenty-five years.  In 2006 Don served as deputy executive director and then in 2007 and 2008 as the executive director for the Democratic house caucus in Colorado helping expand their majority by four seats and organizing their incumbency protection program. Don has served as a press secretary, communications director, and campaign manager to a handful of congressional candidates in New York and Alabama.