Staff Bios

Demos

Executive/Administration

Miles Rapoport
President
As President, Miles sets Demos' agenda and oversees the management of the organization and fundraising efforts. Prior to assuming the helm at Demos, he served for ten years in the Connecticut legislature. As a state legislator, he was a leading expert on electoral reform, chairing the Committee on Elections. In 1994, he was elected as Secretary of the State of Connecticut. As Secretary of the State, Rapoport released two unique reports on the state of democracy in Connecticut. His articles have appeared in national magazines and newspapers, and he is the founder of Northeast Action, a leading political reform organization in New England. Rapoport moved to Demos from his position as Executive Director of DemocracyWorks, a Hartford-based group that works on democracy reform.

Carol Villano
Manager of Executive and Administrative Services
Carol comes to Demos after a 23-year career in teaching. During that time, she developed curriculum, taught reading, composition, and computer courses to students and teachers, and was President of a major reading council. Carol made professional presentations at State and International Reading Conferences and did teacher training in Guatemala and for American graduate education students. She was responsible for computer training for the entire school district of Greenlawn, Long Island. In addition, Carol organized major events for poets, authors, and artists, and has become a trained mediator.

Donna Parson
Senior Projects Manager
Donna coordinates staff activities, meetings and projects initiated by the President's office, and directs the Demos Forum: Ideas for Change events program. She has over twenty-five years experience building grassroots advocacy organizations. Donna was formerly the Director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group and Northeast Action and the Field Director of Public Campaign. She has also worked in the political arena directing several Congressional campaigns.

Darya Larizadeh
Administrative Assistant
Darya joined Demos in September of 2007. She recently graduated from CUNY's Graduate Center with an M.A. in Political Science. At The Graduate Center, Darya further developed her strong interest in women's rights and international human rights law. Her Master's Thesis, entitled "Women's Rights in Iran: A Mis-Framed Tension" looks at the ways in which Iranian women--both secular and religious--understand the concept of human rights in relation to Islam. Prior to joining Demos, Darya worked as an Administrative Assistant at CUNY's Graduate Center. She has held several internships at women's organizations in California and New York, where she has worked on advocacy projects to increase women's awareness and access to healthcare, and to increase women's political participation in governments around the world.

Communications

Timothy k. Rusch
Director of Communications
Tim oversees Demos' communications efforts and strategy, including media relations, web development and editorial operations. His prior experience includes more than five years in public broadcasting at Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), where he served as project manager for community outreach and producer of web content, digital curricula and interactive television educational tools. At WPT, his work focused on national and statewide projects and station campaigns, including the nationally simulcast anti-violence program Safe Night USA, the women's health series Creating Health, Bill Moyers' On Our Own Terms series and the Kids Vote youth voting program. Tim has held several positions in communications, media production and public education; prior to Demos he served as Regional Media Manager at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where he directed outreach programs, media campaigns and training throughout the Midwest. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Aaron Brown
Creative Manager
Aaron obtained his BFA in Visual Communication Design: Computer Imaging from The University of Dayton. He started working on the web in 1996 at the UDRI. After graduating, Aaron moved to New York in 1999 and immediately began work at MSGI Interactive as a web designer. During his tenure with MSGI he worked for such clients as Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival, Wallace Funds, High Museum of Art and Lincoln Center.

Gennady Kolker
Communications Assistant
Gennady joined the Communications Department at Demos in September 2007. In this position, he supports a wide range of media relations, writing and research efforts, as well as policy and event outreach. Gennady also works closely with Demos staff and fellows by coordinating several key elements of the Demos Books Project. Previously, Gennady held internships in Demos' Economic Opportunity Program as well as at the Brennan Center for Justice, in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and at Citizens Union. He received his B.A. from New York University in political science and economics, with minor concentrations in media and legal studies.

Democracy Program/The National Voting Rights Institute at Demos

Stuart Comstock-Gay
Director of Democracy Program
Stuart came to Demos through the affiliation with the National Voting Rights Institute, where he served as Executive Director from January 2004 to December 2006. Prior to joining NVRI, he served as the Vice-President & C.O.O., and Vice President for Programs, of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation in Concord, NH. Before joining NHCF, Stuart served as the Executive Director of the Maryland ACLU in Baltimore. He has spoken and written widely on topics related to democracy, foundation practices and civil liberties. He received his MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from Bucknell University.

Steven Carbo
Senior Program Director
Steven Carbó has extensive experience in advancing civil rights, social justice, and community economic development at the federal, state and community levels. He currently serves as a Senior Program Director in the Democracy Program, which supports public policy changes that eliminate barriers to political participation, providing policy makers and activists with applied research, policy analysis and organizing assistance. The Program's current policy agenda includes Election Day Registration, felon re-enfranchisement, and enhanced implementation of the National Voter Registration Act.

Before joining Demos, Steven worked in the public and nonprofit sectors in New York, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Philadelphia. His varied professional experience has included work as Legislative Director for U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Special Counsel on Environmental Justice for U.S. Rep. José Serrano, and Legislative Staff Attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He has helped shape federal and state policies and programs on voting rights, fair employment, education, environmental justice, economic development, and affordable housing. He holds a J.D. and B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lisa J. Danetz
Senior Counsel
Lisa is a voting rights and campaign finance lawyer who spent five years at Demos' affiliate, National Voting Rights Institute, prior to joining the Demos staff in January 2007. Her past and current work includes litigation and negotiation with states regarding implementation of the National Voter Registration Act, constitutional litigation to promote and defend campaign finance reforms, legislative drafting, and FEC enforcement work. Ms. Danetz's media credits include The Washington Post, TomPaine.com, Associated Press, Roll Call, Boston Phoenix, Law.com, BNA Money in Politics, and other publications, as well as radio and television appearances. She also has been a frequent panelist at campaign finance and voting rights events. Prior to her time at Demos and NVRI, Ms. Danetz spent several years in the private sector doing civil litigation. She held judicial clerkships with United States Circuit Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert, Jr., and United States District Judge Stanley R. Chesler. Ms. Danetz received her B.S. from Yale University and her J.D. cum laude from New York University School of Law.

Regina M. Eaton
Deputy Director
Regina M. Eaton joined the Democracy Program in 2006 focusing on policy issues aimed at increasing voter registration and turn out, including Election Day Registration. Prior to her present position, Ms. Eaton was a consultant with Break the Chains, a national organization building a national movement within communities of color against punitive drug policies. Ms. Eaton was the first Executive Director of The Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) from March 2001 to March 2005. As Director, Ms. Eaton was both the chief executive officer and principle spokesperson of the organization. From March of 1991 to March of 2001 Ms. Eaton served as Counsel to New York State Assembly Deputy Speaker, Arthur O. Eve, gaining extensive experience working with various levels of government and community based organizations to develop legislation, obtain funding and/or modify programs to serve the people of the state of New York.

Scott Novakowski
Senior Policy Analyst
Scott Novakowski joined Demos in September 2005. He holds a Master of Social Work degree with a concentration in Policy Practice from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and a B.A. in Sociology, also from the University of Connecticut. In 2005, Scott was selected as Connecticut's Student Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. Prior to joining Demos, Scott was an intern with DemocracyWorks where he lobbied and testified before the Connecticut General Assembly on issues of open government and immigrants' rights, and also coordinated an initiative to increase civic engagement among 16-24 year olds. At Demos, Scott works primarily on securing state compliance with the public assistance provisions of the National Voter Registration Act and other reforms to ensure historically marginalized populations have access to the democratic process. Scott has spoken at various conferences and testified before the Election Assistance Commission on democracy issues and has had articles published in the Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education and Tompaine.com among others.

Brenda Wright
Legal Director
Brenda joined Demos with 18 years of experience in litigation, public education and advocacy on voting rights, campaign finance reform and election reform issues. She directs Demos' litigation initiatives in the Democracy Program and participates in Demos' research and policy work on democracy issues, working out of Demos' Boston office. Before joining Demos, Brenda served as Managing Attorney at the National Voting Rights Institute, which has worked in close partnership with Demos since 2005. Brenda also served previously as Director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C. Her extensive trial and appellate experience in voting rights and campaign finance cases includes two arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. She has testified before Congress, federal agencies and state legislatures and has authored numerous law review articles and other publications on voting rights, campaign finance reform and other democracy issues. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and a member of the Advisory Boards of Common Cause Massachusetts and the Prison Policy Initiative. She received her law degree from Yale Law School and her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College.

Allegra Chapman
Counsel
Allegra recently joined Demos to work on voting rights, with an emphasis on National Voter Registration Act litigation. Before joining the organization, she worked for the Mental Health Law Project at MFY Legal Services, Inc., where she engaged in class-action litigation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Prior to that, at Lansner and Kubitschek, Allegra both defended mothers at child-removal hearings and conducted class-action litigation in the area of family constitutional rights. Right after law school, she clerked for the Hon. Michael L. Rankin, of the District of Columbia Superior Court, for two years. And before pursuing her law degree, Allegra worked for the South Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C. as a researcher and speechwriter. She received her B.A. in philosophy from McGill University and her J.D. from Emory University.

Development

Sophie Rogers-Gessert
Director of Foundation Development
Sophie initially joined Demos in 2004 as an intern. Since coming onboard full-time, she has worked closely with the development, finance and executive departments, and now directs the overall development campaign at Demos. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she majored in anthropology and philosophy. Prior to coming to Demos, she worked as a contributing researcher for several academic texts and interned at the American Anthropologist. Her research project, "Waking from the American Dream: Education, Political Economy, and Social Mobility," examines current barriers to social mobility in the U.S.

Rachel Whiting
Manager of Individual Giving
Rachel joined the Demos development team in December 2006, and has since been supporting the organization's individual giving program and foundation development efforts. She is currently the research associate for Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow Linda Tarr-Whelan's upcoming book on women's leadership, and also works closely with the Demos Forum events program in helping to organize the Women's Leadership Initiative events series. Rachel previously held a position with the Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), working to engage women in U.S. foreign policy issues, and advocating for international women's rights at the UN. She received her B.A. in Multicultural & Gender Studies from Chico State University.

Economic Opportunity Program

Tamara Draut
Director of the Economic Opportunity Program
Tamara oversees Demos' research, policy and advocacy work on issues related to economic security and mobility. She is the author of Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead published by Doubleday in 2006 (learn more about the book). Her research focuses on the growing debt burdens facing low- and middle-income households, and more broadly the challenges confronting households trying to work or educate their way into the middle class. Tamara is co-author of the recent Demos reports, "The Plastic Safety Net: The Reality Behind Debt in America", "Millions to the Middle: Three Strategies to Grow the Middle Class," "Retiring in the Red: The Growth of Debt Among Older Americans," and "Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: The Growth of Credit Card Debt in the 90s," among others. Tamara's research has been covered extensively by dozens of newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Her writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe and The Boston Review. She is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and Fox News. Tamara holds an M.P.A. from Columbia University and a B.S.J. from Ohio University.

Jose Garcia
Senior Research and Policy Associate
As Senior Research and Policy Associate, Jose is responsible for providing statistical and policy analysis for the Economic Opportunity Program on issues such as household debt and assets. He is co- author of Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies are Drowning Americans in Debt, published by Demos and the New Press in April 2008.

Jose's writings and opinions have appeared in the Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, Baltimore Sun, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Kansas City Star, The News Journal, The New York Post, Daily News, Orlando Sentinel, NY1, Univision, Telemundo, Univision and El Diario.

Prior to working at Demos, Jose was the Vice President for Policy at the National Institute for Latino Policy (NILP), where he was in charge of the program priorities for NILP. As a staff member, he published the East Coast Latino Voting Rights Act Reauthorization Manual and Latino Criminal Justice Statistical Abstract, among others.

Jose received his Masters in Social Work with a concentration in Social Policy from the University of Connecticut where he received the Alumni Award and his Bachelors from Dayton University where he received the O'Reilly Award for Service Leadership.

Caleb Gibson
Advocacy & Legislative Coordinator
Through outreach on Capitol Hill and collaboration within the national public policy community, Caleb works with decision makers, advocates and the Economic Opportunity Program staff and fellows to advance an effective and responsible legislative strategy. Caleb comes to Demos from the U.S. Senate, where he served for many years both as a legislative aide and as a speech writer. Caleb has also braved the political front lines in campaigns at the gubernatorial, congressional and presidential levels, most recently acting as Research Director for a successful Senate campaign. A graduate of Harvard University, he earned his degree in Sociology with a concentration in Afro-American studies, government, and urban studies.

Events/The Demos Forum

Donna Parson
Senior Projects Manager
(See Executive/Administration)

Oneca Hitchman
Events Coordinator
Oneca is responsible for planning and implementing Demos Forums as well as fundraising and program-related events. Prior to joining Demos, Oneca organized seminars for Donald Trump. She has also held positions at L'Oreal, and at Utdendahl Capital Partners, where she executed conferences for shareholders participating in the Community Reinvestment Act. Oneca graduated from Brown University with a triple concentration in Public Private Sector Organizations, American Civilization and Ethnic Studies. She also studied at the University of the West Indies. Her senior thesis, Robin Hood's Crusade: The Reproduction of Class Stratification in Jamaica, investigates the self-replicating effects of elite social networks and their negative impact on the nation's economy, which earned her academic honors.

Fellows Program

David Callahan
Demos Co-Founder & Senior Fellow
David Callahan is author of seven books, including The Moral Center (Hartcourt), published in 2006, which examines some of our most polarized conflicts and presents unexpected solutions that lay out a new road map to the American center (Learn more about the book.) His previous book, The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead looks at ethics in America in an era of rising inequality, growing bottom-line pressures, and changing values. (Learn more about the book.) David's articles have been published in such places as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The American Prospect. He is also a regular commentator for Marketplace and a frequent public speaker. At Demos, which he co-founded in 1999, David is involved in developing several new projects and also works in the Fellows Program. He has also written Demos reports on election reform, poverty, and economic opportunity. David received his B.A. at Hampshire College and his Ph.D in Politics at Princeton University. 

Sasha Abramsky
Senior Fellow
Sasha is a freelance magazine and newspaper op-ed writer and book author.  His most recent book American Furies: Crime, Punishment and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment was published by Beacon Press in 2007.  Earlier books include Hard Time Blues, published by St. Martin's Press in 2002 and Conned, published by the New Press in March 2006.  His work has been published in the New York Times, L.A. Times, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, American Prospect, the Nation, Village Voice, Los Angeles Weekly, London Independent and many others.  In 2002, he was a media fellow at the Center for Crime, Communities and Culture of the Open Society Institute.  Sasha was born in England and grew up in London.  He attended Balliol College, Oxford University where he earned a B.A. in politics, philosophy and economics.  Sasha earned a Master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.  He currently lives in Sacramento, California with his wife and daughter.

Benjamin Barber
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Benjamin R. Barber, the internationally renowned political theorist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. As President of CivWorld (at Demos), the international NGO that sponsors Interdependence Day and the Paradigm Project, Barber was Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University for 32 years, and then Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society at The University of Maryland. Dr. Barber brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, culture and education in America and abroad. He consults regularly with political and civic leaders in the United States and around the world, and for five years served as an informal consultant to President Bill Clinton.

Benjamin Barber's 17 books include the classic Strong Democracy (1984), reissued in 2004 in a twentieth anniversary edition; the recent international best-seller Jihad vs. McWorld (1995 with a post-9/11 edition in 2001, translated into twenty-seven languages) and Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, published in 2007 by W.W. Norton in the United States and in seven foreign editions. The paperback will be published in March 2008. Columbia University Press will also publish a new paperback edition of The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House in 2008.

Barber's honors include a knighthood (Palmes Academiques/Chevalier) from the French Government (2001), the Berlin Prize of the American Academy of Berlin (2001) and the John Dewey Award (2003). He has also been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Social Science Research Fellowships, honorary doctorates from Grinnell College, Monmouth University and Connecticut College, and has held the chair of American Civilization at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris.

Barber is a regular commentator for National Public Radio's Marketplace and his blog can be found on The Huffington Post. He has written for Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, The American Prospect, Le Nouvel Observateur, Die Zeit, La Repubblica, El Pais and many other scholarly and popular publications in America and abroad. He was a founding editor and for ten years editor-in-chief of the distinguished international quarterly Political Theory. He holds a certificate from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an M.A. and Doctorate from Harvard University.

Rich Benjamin
Senior Fellow
Rich Benjamin's background is in media, politics and academia. He has lectured on youth, media and American politics in the US and Europe.  His social and political commentary is featured in newspapers nationwide, NPR, Fox Radio, the blogosphere, and many scholarly venues.  This scholarship earned professional support from Brown University and the National Endowment for the Humanities. From 2001-2, he was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Law School.

Rich's public service includes operating as a senior advisor to Why Tuesday?, a bi-partisan grassroots campaign to increase civic participation, chaired by Jack Kemp, Bill Bradley, and Andrew Young. He also serves on the Advisory Board of The Roosevelt Institution.

Rich holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, a professional certificate from the New York Film Academy, and a PhD from Stanford University. He is currently working on a book about boomtowns and exurbs to be published by Hyperion Books.

Shari Cohen
Senior Fellow
Shari Cohen writes about leadership and social innovation. She is working on a book that shines the spotlight on the need to shift our culture of public policy problem-solving, which she argues is stuck--in short term thinking, polarization, and other dysfunctions--whether with respect to healthcare, climate change, or national security. Her first book, Politics Without a Past (Duke University Press, 1999) is about leadership and civil society in post-communist political transitions. She has also written on long term thinking, social problem solving, and public scholarship for publications such as the Boston Globe and the Forward.

At Demos, she is working on a project on the long term future of social provision, and has consulted on a variety of other projects including developing the fellows program. She has also consulted for the World Bank, Carnegie Corporation, Charney Research, and SHARE doing scenario planning, leadership development and policy analysis. She was the founding director of the Jewish Public Forum, the think tank wing of CLAL (National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), a leadership training institute where she built an interdisciplinary seminar and research program on the future of religion, ethnicity, civic engagement and social change.

She has a BA from Cornell University, a PhD in political science from University of California, Berkeley and was an assistant professor of political science at Wellesley College.

Jonathan Cohn
Senior Fellow
Jonathan Cohn is a senior editor at The New Republic, where he has been since 1997 and served previously as executive editor. Jonathan's writing on domestic policy and politics--particularly health care--have appeared in the Boston Globe, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Washington Monthly, and the Washington Post. His book on the U.S. health care system, Sick:  The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis, will be published by HarperCollins in 2007. Prior to joining The New Republic, he worked for The American Prospect, where he remains a contributing editor. He is also a former media fellow with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. A graduate of Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Crimson, Jonathan spent his summers writing local news articles for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Miami Herald. He now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife and two children.

Lew Daly
Senior Fellow
Lew Daly writes on religion, morality, and American political thought. Lew's first book, God and the Welfare State (Boston Review Books/The MIT Press, 2006), investigates the historical and philosophical lineage of "faith-based initiatives" in U.S. welfare policy, and was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, America, Public Justice Report, and elsewhere. Lew has published articles, reviews, and commentary in many publications, including The Boston Review, The Journal of Markets & Morality, Sightings, and Church & Society, and he has lectured widely on religion and American political development. He is currently completing two books, The Gift of the Past (with Gar Alperovitz), a study of distributive justice in the emerging knowledge economy, and Godless Economy (University of Chicago Press), a comparative study of religion, welfare governance, and theories of the state in the U.S. and Europe.

Prior to joining Demos, he was a fellow of the Schumann Center for Media & Democracy, where he worked closely with then-president Bill Moyers. He formerly worked as a research consultant with the Democracy Collaborative of the University of Maryland, and as a researcher and strategist on challenges from the religious right, conducting the first major studies of conservative renewal movements in the mainline Protestant churches. In the mid-1990s, he did pastoral work in a federal prison as well as community organizing. Lew holds degrees from Oberlin College (B.A.), Brown University (M.A.), Union Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and SUNY Buffalo (Ph.D.). Lew lives in upper Manhattan with his family. 

Allison H. Fine
Senior Fellow
Allison Fine's work at Demos focuses on unleashing broad participation in our democracy. Her first book, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, was published in Fall 2006 by Wiley & Sons. Allison's writing focuses on the use of social media, interactive digital tools, for positive social change. Social media enhances the connections between people and citizen self-organizing into strong communities. She is a frequent speaker and commentator and has been published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Foundation News & Commentary, been quoted in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, National Public Radio. Allison was the Founder of Innovation Network, Inc. (InnoNet) and served as Executive Director and President from 1992-2004. InnoNet is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping nonprofits better plan and evaluate their services and programs. Allison served as the C.E.O. of The E-Volve Foundation in 2004-2005. The mission of E-Volve is to support and promote open source technology efforts aimed at increasing citizen participation. Efforts including online voter registration websites and virtual phone banks.

Robert Frank
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Robert Frank's work with Demos focuses on the impact of economic inequality on American society.  He is author of the forthcoming book, Falling Behind:  How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class, which will be published in July 2007 by UC Press. He is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times.  His eight previous books include Luxury Fever: Money and Happiness in an Age of Excess and The Winner-Take-All Society (with Philip J. Cook). His numerous articles have been published in both scholarly journals and leading opinion magazines. He is the H.J. Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. He holds a BS in mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MA in statistics from UC Berkeley and a PhD in economics, also from UC Berkeley.

Nicole Kazee
Fellow
Nicole Kazee is a PhD candidate in political science at Yale University. Her work largely focuses on the role of business in American social and economic policy. Her dissertation, entitled "Wal-Mart Welfare," examines the role of employers in state work support policies (including Medicaid/SCHIP, minimum wages, and earned income tax credits). The project aims to explain why state governments choose (or don't choose) particular antipoverty policies to support low-income workers, and to identify the conditions under which employers will shape these choices. Nicole is also a fellow at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Prior to joining Demos, Nicole was a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She holds a B.A. from Wake Forest University and an M.A. from Yale, both in political science.

Robert Kuttner
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. He writes regularly for the magazine on political and economic issues. Bob has just completed a book, to be published in 2007, on the connection between political and economic inequality and systemic risks facing the economy. He is pursuing these issues as a distinguished senior fellow at Demos. Bob is the author of six previous books: Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets (1997); The End of Laissez-Faire (1991); The Life of the Party (1987); The Economic Illusion (1984); Revolt of the Haves (1980); and Family Re-union (2002), co-authored with his late wife, Sharland Trotter. His syndicated weekly editorial column originates in The Boston Globe and appears Mondays on the Prospect website. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Dissent, and Harvard Business Review. He has been a John F. Kennedy Fellow at Harvard, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Radcliffe Public Policy Fellow.

Jim Lardner
Senior Fellow
James Lardner is the co-editor with Chuck Collins of Inequality.org, an online research center for journalists, teachers and concerned citizens.  He is also co-editor and one of the authors of Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences. As a journalist, he has written for the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the Nation, and other publications. He is the author of Fast Forward: A Machine and the Commotion It Caused, and the co-author, with Thomas Reppetto, of NYPD: A City and Its Police.

Lorraine C. Minnite
Senior Fellow
Lorraine C. Minnite has taught American and urban politics at Barnard College since 2000. Prior to that she was the Associate Director of the Center for Urban Research and Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Her research is concerned with issues of equality, social and racial justice, political conflict and institutional change. Prof. Minnite has consulted with various labor, advocacy, and governmental organizations, and political campaigns which have relied on her expertise in public policy and demographic patterns in New York City. An experienced survey researcher, she has published on various aspects of political participation, immigration, voting behavior and urban politics. She is currently working on a book on the politics of electoral rules called The Myth of Voter Fraud. Prof. Minnite holds a B.A. in History from Boston University, and an M.A and Ph.D. in Political Science from the City University of New York.

Keesha Middlemass
Senior Fellow
Keesha Middlemass' research and writing is at the intersection of race, institutions and public policy.  She is currently working on a book project examining the consequences of a felony conviction in five public policy areas - political, housing, education, employment and health care - and the role institutions play in confining former felons to the margins of society.  Keesha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American Politics and Public Policy.  She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for SOULS: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society and is a board member of Change the Cycle a non-profit focused on teaching financial literacy to student-athletes.  Keesha was a Mellon Post Doctoral Fellow on Race, Crime and Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice and is a former APSA Congressional Fellow.  She holds a B.A. from Wichita State University and M.A. (American Politics) and Ph.D. (Public Policy and American Politics) from the University of Georgia.

Nomi Prins
Senior Fellow
Nomi Prins is a journalist and author.  Nomi's work focuses on corporate governance, economic policy, Wall Street and the political/regulatory environment. Her book, Jacked: How "Conservatives" are Picking your Pocket (whether you voted for them or not) (2006, PoliPoint Press) recounts her travels across America and issues that impact our wallets. Her last book, Other People's Money was chosen as a Best Book of 2004 by The Economist, Barron's, and Library Journal. Before becoming a journalist, she served as a managing director for Goldman Sachs in New York and ran the analytics group at Bear Stearns in London. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, Fortune Magazine, and The Guardian. She is a television commentator on CNBC and the BBC, and frequent guest on Marketplace Radio, Air America, and many NPR affiliates. Visit Nomi's website.

John Schwarz
Distinguished Senior Fellow
John Schwarz's work at Demos focuses on developing a new vision for a more democratic and fairer America based on the value of freedom, the argument in his book, Freedom Reclaimed: Rediscovering the American Vision (2005). He is currently professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at University of Arizona, where he has been since 1970. He has published five books and articles of his have appeared in every major professional journal in political science as well as many outlets for the general public, including the Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. His prior book, Illusions of Opportunity: The American Dream in Question, was entered in nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Two of his other books, America's Hidden Success and The Forgotten Americans, have been placed on lists of the best fifty books on American economic and social policy written during the past half century. In 1984, America's Hidden Success was named through the American Political Science Association as the best book of the year on public policy. It was named by The Washington Monthly in 1984 as one of the best five books of the year. He has a BA from Oberlin College and a PhD from Indiana University. He also was educated at The London School of Economics and Political Science and L'Institut d'Études Politiques at the University of Paris.

Linda Tarr-Whelan
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Hon. Linda Tarr-Whelan, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow on Women's Leadership is currently writing a book on the topic. Ms. Tarr-Whelan has had a varied career as a nurse, management consultant, advocate, non-profit leader, communicator, union negotiator and government official at the state, national and international levels.

She served as Ambassador to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in the Clinton Administration and as Deputy Assistant for Women's Concerns in the Carter White House. She was the first nurse appointed to these positions. Ladies Home Journal named her as one of the 50 most powerful women in Washington. She is a co-founder of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the Center for Women in Government at SUNY Albany, and Quantum Leaps, Inc.

Her policy experience also included a sub-cabinet appointment in New York State government, director of policy for a large public sector union and chief lobbyist for the National Education Association. As CEO of the Center for Policy Alternatives, the leading progressive policy and leadership center for the 50 states, she focused on women and the economy. She and her husband created a successful international management consultancy that worked with leaders of foundations, non-profits and international organizations.

Linda began her career as a nurse and holds a BSN from Johns Hopkins, an MS from the University of Maryland, and honorary PhDs from Chatham University in Pittsburg and Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. Linda and Keith, who have two adult children and three grandchildren, live on St. Helena Island, SC.

Jennifer Wheary
Senior Fellow
Jennifer Wheary's research and writing focuses on the future middle class, demographic change, educational access, economic opportunity, and the strategic development of human capital for the 21st century. Her articles have appeared in the New York Daily News, Newsday, and other newspapers around the country. Prior to joining Demos, Jennifer worked in the academic, non-profit, and private sectors. She consulted for schools in both Colombia and Brazil, designed and launched a successful online science journal, co-founded an adult literacy program, helped build a new business division at an Internet startup, and headed interactive research for the largest Spanish-language media company in the U.S. She holds a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Public Works: The Demos Center for the Public Sector

Dianne Stewart
Director
Dianne came to Demos in 2003 to help build Public Works: the Demos Center for the Public Sector. Dianne has 20 years of experience inside state government, in the private sector and in a state-level policy NGO working on issues of governance, particularly as they affect low-income families. As the founder and Director of the Office of Governmental Affairs at the Texas Department of Human Services and the 11-year Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Ms. Stewart has worked from within and from without in efforts to improve the operations and decision-making of state government.

Michael Lipsky
Senior Program Director
Michael came to Demos from the Ford Foundation where he worked for 12 years, most recently as Senior Program Officer in the Peace and Social Justice program. Responsible for the foundation's portfolio on "government performance and accountability," he helped assemble the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, a national network of organizations devoted to budget transparency and accountability, and International Budget Project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Prior to Ford, Michael taught political science at the University of Wisconsin, and, for 21 years, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His best-known books are Protest in City Politics, Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting (with S.R. Smith), and the award-winning Street-Level Bureaucracy. He holds degrees from Oberlin College and Princeton University.

Patrick Bresette
Associate Program Director
Patrick is responsible for taking the work of the program out to the states and partner organizations and seeking ways to imbed the lessons learned and strategies developed into the everyday work of the many stakeholders for an effective public sector. Patrick comes to the project after thirteen years as Associate Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities and before that as a legislative aide in the Texas House of Representatives. He brings with him a broad understanding of how to work with and within the public sector for positive social change. His years of work leading the policy team at CPPP, spearheading the organization's legislative initiatives, and leading diverse coalitions of partner organizations situate him well for his outreach and partnership development efforts with this initiative. Patrick has an MPA from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a BFA in Sculpture from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.

Marcia Kinsey
Program Associate
Marcia joined Demos in September of 2003, providing research support and helping to produce the analytical and organizing tools for use by our state partners. Marcia most recently served the United States government as a diplomat in Belize in Central America. Prior to her stint in the U.S. Foreign Service, Marcia worked for seven and a half years as a public policy analyst for the Texas-based Center for Public Policy Priorities. There, she researched policy issues affecting low-income Texans including the Texas state budget; low-income programs such as welfare, food stamps, child care, transportation and child protective services; hunger; and poverty. Marcia has a bachelor's degree in Economics from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas.

Partners and Affiliated Projects

Building Movement Project

Frances Kunreuther
Project Director
Frances Kunreuther directs the Building Movement Project, which works to strengthen U.S. nonprofits as sites of democratic practice and advance ways the nonprofit sector can build movement for progressive social change. The Project is currently focused on three areas: generational change in leadership, the role service organizations play in social change, and nonprofits as sites of public engagement. In addition to Building Movement, Frances is a senior fellow at the Research Center for Leadership and Action at NYU and co-author of From the Ground Up: Grassroots Organizations Making Social Change (Cornell, 2006) and the forthcoming Up Next: Generational Leadership Change in the Social Sector (Jossey-Bass, Summer 2008). Frances was a senior fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University for five years after heading the Hetrick-Martin Institute for lesbian and gay youth. She has worked with immigrants, homeless families, domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, and substance users during her thirty years in the nonprofit sector.

Caroline McAndrews
Director of Leadership and Communications
Caroline McAndrews joined the Building Movement Project in September 2004. She directs the work on generational changes in leadership, and is responsible for the development of products that can be distributed throughout the country, coordinating BMP communications, including the development of columns, podcasts, and reports.

Prior to Building Movement, Caroline was a member of the economic security team at the Ms. Foundation for Women, where she provided funding, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to nonprofits across the country, working with women to start small businesses, organize for workers rights, and develop leadership in labor unions. Before working at Ms., she served as the IDA Program Coordinator for Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition, a low-income housing developer in Redwood City, California.

Trish Tchume
Director of Civic Engagement
As the Director of Civic Engagement for the Building Movement Project, Trish supports the Project's ongoing work of integrating social change values and practices into nonprofit service organizations. Prior to joining the Building Movement Project in April of 2008, Trish served first as a Campus Organizer and then as a Community Outreach Manager for Action Without Borders/Idealist.org. Additionally, she serves as a member for the national board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network. Through each of these roles, Trish has had the privilege of helping to strengthen the social justice work of inspiring individuals and nonprofit organizations by connecting them with resources and networking opportunities.

Business for Shared Prosperity

CivWorld / The Paradigm Project

Inequality.org

The National Voting Rights Institute
(see Demos' Democracy Program above)

Michele Wucker
Senior Fellow and Executive Director
Michele Wucker is the recipient of a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on changing views of citizenship, exclusion, and belonging. She is the author of LOCKOUT: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right (Public Affairs 2006/paperback 2007; a Washington Post Book World "Best Nonfiction of 2006" Selection) and Why The Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians and the Struggle For Hispaniola (FSG/Hill & Wang, 1999). She is co-founder of WPI's Immigrant Voting Project and of WPI's Citizenship and Security Program, and a research fellow at the Immigration Policy Center.

Ms. Wucker lectures frequently about immigration, cross-cultural conflict and conciliation, and Caribbean politics. She is an advisor to Batey Relief Alliance and the Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring (DREAM) Project. Formerly Latin America bureau chief for International Financing Review, she has written for many U.S. and Latin American publications including The American Prospect, America Economia, The Guardian, Newsday, The New York Times, Texas Observer, Valor Economico, Tikkun, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and World Policy Journal. Ms. Wucker appears frequently on MSNBC as a commentator on immigration, and has been a source for major U.S. and international media including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Reuters, CNN, CNBC, National Public Radio and Public Radio International. She is a graduate of Rice University and of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Kate Maloff
Director of Development and Administration
Kate Maloff recently returned to the World Policy Institute, where she was an associate at the Program on Citizenship and Security in 2005. Prior to rejoining WPI, Kate worked on development for the non-governmental organizations Sightsavers International and WaterAid America, and consulted for New York City.s Administration for Children.s Services on advocacy and development initiatives. Kate holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she concentrated in Political Science and French and specialized in Middle Eastern Affairs.

Benjamin Pauker
World Policy Journal Managing Editor
Benjamin Pauker was a co-founder of Northeast Adventure magazine where he served as editor from 1997 to 1999. A graduate of the University of Rochester, he also worked for the Corporate Strategy Board in Washington, D.C. from 1999 to 2000.

U.S. in the World Initiative

Priscilla Lewis
Director

Priscilla co-founded the U.S. in the World Initiative in 2003, during her tenure as Program Officer for Peace and Security at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).  She was responsible for designing and implementing grantmaking strategies to address two of today's most critical global security needs:  the need for farsighted U.S. leadership in international efforts to solve global problems, and the need for greater respect and understanding between Muslim and Western societies.  

She joined RBF in 1995 as Director of Communications, after serving as Vice President for publications at the Council for Aid to Education.

From 1980-1990, as Director of Publications at the Russell Sage Foundation, Priscilla developed and managed a publishing program that produced a half-dozen scholarly titles per year. She has also worked as a freelance writer and editor for business and nonprofit clients.  Priscilla graduated summa cum laude from Oberlin College and holds a master's degree in English literature from Yale University.

Sue Veres Royal
Deputy Director
Sue became the deputy director for the U.S. in the World Initiative in 2006, after serving as the U.S. in the World Training & Learning Officer at the Aspen Institute's Global Interdependence Initiative.  In that capacity, she designed and conducted trainings and briefings for diverse audiences, reaching hundreds of foreign policy advocates and experts, from the grassroots to Washington policy circles.

Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Sue was the Executive Director of Student Pugwash USA, a national organization promoting social responsibility in science and technology through campus-based chapters, seminars and conferences, and online publications.  As Executive Director, she designed an outreach strategy that resulted in a six-fold increase in the number of participating academic institutions.

Sue has also been the director of Environmental Education Programs at the United Negro College Fund and has worked as a policy analyst and a research assistant in the environmental field. She received her bachelor's degree from Bowling Green State University and her nonprofit management executive certificate from Georgetown University.