DFA Campaign Academy Trainers

Matt Blizek  

Matt is the National Training Director at Democracy for America. He was born and raised in rural Iowa and first got involved in politics at at 19 while attending the University of Iowa.  In 2001 he managed his first campaign in an attempt to elect a UI student to the Iowa City Council. Since then he has has done Field, Fundraising and Online Organizing for numerous campaigns including the DNC, MoveOn.org, Russ Feingold, Jon Tester, and the No On 1 campaign for marriage equality in Maine.

For the last five years Matt managed national field and training programs for Democratic activists and candidates at Democracy for America.  While at DFA he organized over 71 campaign trainings in 33 states, training over 8,000 progressives to become better activists, campaign staff or candidates.

Nick Passanante - Deputy Political Director

Nick is the Deputy National Field Director at Democracy for America.   He got his start in electoral politics in 2006, when he was inspired by Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter’s message of education reform and joined his successful campaign as a campus organizer and GOTV coordinator.   More recently, Nick was a vagabond campaigner during the 2008 cycle who worked in 8 different states (NH, CO, TX, WY, PA, OR, MT, CA), first as a Regional Director and Youth Voter Outreach Coordinator for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign, and then as the Deputy Director for Field Operations on Lt. Col. Charlie Brown’s campaign for Congress in CA-04.   While working for Lt. Col. Brown, Nick supervised what was considered to be the largest congressional field program in the nation during the 2008 cycle, making an average of 30K+ voter contacts per week.

Prior to 2008, Nick worked for President Bill Clinton as a personal aide and liaison, as well as short stints with the Boys and Girls Harbor of E. Harlem NYC and the Prague Society for International Cooperation.   He is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Monique Teal, National Field Organizer

Monique began organizing while attending college at Southern Oregon University. Her proudest victory is persuading the City Council to install speed bumps, lights and crosswalks on Siskiyou Blvd – a major street running through town. Monique joined DFA in 2011 after two years as the National Field Director of the US Student Association (USSA). While with USSA, Monique engaged students across the US in healthcare reform, financial reform, state budget fights, immigration reform and the 2010 election.

In her free time, Monique likes talking, cooking, summer, the State Fair of Texas, college football, listening to music, laughing, roadtrips, being with family and trying new things.

Jay Henderson, National Field Organizer

Jay originates from beautiful Menlo Park, California. He attended Oberlin College and cut his political teeth with campus political groups and at the Lorain County Urban League, ACLU of Southern California, and the Office of Mayor Adrian Fenty. Jay got his start at DFA as a Field/Organizer Intern, before being hired on as Operations Manager. Mostly recently, Jay started work as the Western region National Field Organizer.

Outside of the office, Jay enjoys playing ultimate, running, playing the guitar, and reading.

Victoria Victoria Dulce Cepeida-Mojarro

Victoria is a seasoned campaigner, getting her feet wet at New York University where she actively organized students to support Adjunct professor unionizing efforts. She since savored her social justice appetite on a variety of NGO’s including; student organizing, domestic violence work, and immigrant rights work. She nationally organized with United Students Against Sweatshops before her electoral debut in NM ’08, where she successfully swapped her county blue and began her sometimes contemptuous relationship with national electoral work. She has since worked with the DNC in Los Angeles via Organizing for America, and recently was successful in saving a competitive Congressional seat as the NM 1 Field Director.

Victoria also trains with Wellstone Action, Campus Camp and dubs as a yoga teacher.

Matthew Arnold

Matthew “Mudcat” Arnold has developed sophisticated voter contact and volunteer engagement programs for Democratic candidates and progressive advocacy groups from coast to coast. In 2008, he designed and implemented the field program for Darcy Burner’s congressional campaign that made over half a million voter-contact attempts. Prior to the Burner campaign he worked with the MoveOn.org election team to design the organization’s 2008 GOTV plan and innovative persuasion modeling program. He was a core of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and in 2010, he served as Field Director for Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s election campaign.

He currently directs the online outreach efforts for wilderness and public lands protection at the Sierra Club.

Kendra Sue Derby

Over her career, Kendra-Sue Derby has fought for progressive causes and candidates. She focuses her work on administrative and field activities. In recent years she was the Obama Senior State Advisor for New Mexico and 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-Sue has worked on campaigns of all sizes, ranging from City Council to Presidential, including the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Democratic presidential campaigns. In 2004 she ran the Democratic Party of Oregon’s coordinated campaign. Kendra-Sue currently resides in Roswell, GA.

Jennifer Coken

Jennifer has been a grassroots organizer since 1987 and has worked for the Public Interest Research Groups, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Congressional Hunger Center, the Gore Lieberman Campaign, the Virginia Statehouse Caucus and an additional 40+ clients working on issue and electoral campaigns. Since moving to Colorado in 2004, Jennifer started the Blue Flower Fund to elect progressive, pro-choice women to state and local offices; ran the 527 for the statehouse in 2006; and was elected Chair of the Democratic Party of Denver County in 2007. As Chair, Jennifer had the pleasure of debating then Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams on MSNBC during the 2008 Presidential election. In 2010 Jennifer was a candidate for the Statehouse but lost in a hotly contested 3-way primary election, which involved suing the Secretary of State’s Office (she won).

She currently directs the Western Clean Energy Campaign (WCEC) working to transition the West off fossil fuels and on to clean, renewable energy.

Paula Zellner

Paula Zellner was born and raised in Green Bay Wisconsin, received her BS in Education from UW Madison in 1985 and now lives in Porterfield township in Northeast Wisconsin. From 1985 until 2002, Paula taught students with disabilities at Shawano High School. In 2002, she was asked to coordinate Tom Barrett’s campaign for Governor as the Northern Wisconsin Field Director. Since that time she has worked on a number of campaigns, including running a successful campaign for a Milwaukee School Board citywide seat. For the past 8 years, Paula was the State Field Director for the Feingold for Senate Committee. In addition, she worked on Senator Feingold’s Progressive Patriots Fund PAC.

She is now employed by the Service Employees International Union. Paula has been active in civic and community organizations, is an elected member of the Democratic National Committee and served as a United Northeast Educators Uniserv Board Member as well as an alternate to the Wisconsin Education Association Council State Board for 6 years. Paula and her partner, Stan Gruszynski, enjoy gardening, horseback riding and their two Daschunds. In addition, Paula enjoys exercising, reading and a quiet rural life.

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.

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. 

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.

Jay Parmley- Finance

Jay Parmley is the Executive Director of the North 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.

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.

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.

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.

Mary Rickles - Communications

Mary Rickles is the director of communications and media for Netroots Nation. She previously worked in marketing and branding at the award-winning San Francisco magazine. Since her first job as a reporter, she has worked with agencies, non-profits and corporate companies on projects ranging from brand development to marketing strategy to event production. She grew up in Birmingham, AL, and currently lives in San Francisco.

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.

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.

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.

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.

John Rowley- Communications

John first worked as a TV and radio reporter in Iowa.  He has produced TV and radio commercials for over 300 campaigns and was the youngest principal in a Democratic media firm (26) in the Democratic party when he and Bill Fletcher formed the Democratic media firm Fletcher and Rowley Consulting, Inc.  Rowley is now president of Fletcher Rowley Riddle (FRR, Inc.) FRR, Inc. has worked in over 40 states and won races from governor to city council. The firm has an 85% win record for women candidates and an 87% win record for African-American candidates. They have help pick up 10 “Red” congressional seats since 2002.  Rowley's commercials have won Pollie awards, Silver Microphone Awards and Vision Awards. His work has been featured on NPR, MSNBC, CNN and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  Publications such as Politico, Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call, Politics Magazine, the New York Times and the Washington Post have also featured his media work.

Julielyn Gibbons - Communications

Julielyn Gibbons has rapidly emerged as an internationally respected pioneer in social media and Internet strategies. Her online outreach and marketing plans were acknowledged as key to the passage of Proposal 2, the 2008 stem cell ballot proposal in the state of Michigan. Along the way, she served as the first Internet Outreach Director for the MI Democratic Party, online campaign coordinator for Progress Michigan, and Julielyn's track record for success with new media and her experience as a blogger made her the first blogger credentialed in the Michigan State Capital.
 
Additionally, Julielyn has worked with various labor organizations across the country,  LGBT groups and issues, and helped lead on and offline communications targeted at increasing Latino voter turnout in Arizona during the 2010 cycle.

A true 'digital native', she has over a decade of direct, hands-on, 'in the trenches' experience with the power of social media, Internet strategies, and communications with proven success helping her clients. Julielyn has presented in front of thousands across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and she is a highly sought after speaker and presenter. She recently completed a senior fellowship with the New Organizing Institute.

Julielyn is the founding member and partner of i3 Strategies and is based in Washington, DC.