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DFA Campaign Academy Agenda

West Chester, PA          March 20-21

Saturday

Sunday      

Training Presenters

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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