EMPOWER PROJECT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Software Engineer
- Software Engineer
Ali is a software engineer based in San Francisco. Previously, she worked on Twitter's Android application for several years, as well as helping with applications for eye research at UCSF, scavenger hunt events, and access to social services in San Francisco. She is passionate about the intersection of tech and social good and excited to be a part of Empower Project's work in this area. Outside of software, Ali works as an EMT in San Francisco, and previously led a morning workout group called November Project.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Executive Director
- Executive Director
Amanda Brink is a longtime Wisconsin political operative who brings over a decade of experience to Empower Project as Deputy Executive Director. Prior to joining Empower Project, Amanda served as campaign manager 2 statewide campaigns, including Tony Evers for State Superintendent where he doubled his fundraising from previous cycles and won with 70% of the vote. Amanda got her start in politics with OFA in 2007, was also the GOTV Director for Wisconsin in 2016, worked on the Democratic National Convention Committee, and served as the Operations Director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin for 6 years. Amanda has extensive experience in operations, grassroots organizing, voter mobilization, fundraising, digital engagement, campaign management, campaign advance, logistics and more. She enjoys vlookup and spending time with her husband and two maltese puppies → Blue & Gizmo.
Analiese Eicher is a Wisconsin born, raised, and based politico. She represents District 3 on the Dane County Board of Supervisors and also serves as the Chair of the board. Eicher is a member of the City of Sun Prairie Plan Commission and is the former Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. She is the Vice Chair of the Emerge Wisconsin Board of Directors. Eicher lives in Sun Prairie with her partner and dog, Bernie.
Dan is a full-stack developer based in Washington, D.C. He has developed enterprise software for automated transcription and translation, voice analytics, taxes, and small-business lending. He is interested in socially positive uses of technology and began contributing to relational organizing software as a volunteer before the 2021 Georgia Senate elections. He has authored a program that composes random Shakespearean sonnets, and he captains a championship-winning competitive karaoke team.
Elizabeth Treviño has over a decade of Wisconsin campaign experience, working in both Field and Compliance & Operations.
She currently serves as the state director for All on the Line.
Liz got her start in politics as a field organizer with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's 2010 Coordinated Campaign and has since served in a number of organizing roles including Statewide Campus Director for the 2012 Wisconsin Coordinated Recall Campaign, and Field Director for the Senate Democratic Committee and Compliance and Operations Director for Burke for Wisconsin.
Job Titles:
- Advisory Council
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director for Bernie 2020
Emily Isaac was the National Relational Organizing Director for Bernie 2020. She conceptualized and executed the largest relational organizing program in U.S. politics, working with both the national and state field teams to build a network of 1.5 million voters. Previously, she was the Field Director for Sri Preston Kulkarni's congressional campaign, where she organized a robust multilingual outreach program in 15 different languages.
James is an organizer at heart with a passion for health care equity. Since 2016, he's worked on federal, state and local campaigns across the midwest and east coast. When he's not working, James is busy exploring Western New York and binging shows on Netflix.
Jennifer is a 2019 graduate of the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs and recently completed an evaluation of a workforce development program for the state of Wisconsin with the UW-Madison Center for Education Research. As a graduate student, Jennifer worked as a health policy research assistant, at the U.S. Department of State in Guatemala as a Counter Narcotics intern, and as a graduate student assistant for the Mayor's Innovation Project at the Center for Wisconsin Strategy. Before getting her masters degree, Jennifer worked at the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the Latino Academy of Workforce Development. As a college student, Jennifer successfully lobbied the state legislature to include technical college IDs in Wisconsin's voter ID law and served as the chair of the Women's Caucus for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Job Titles:
- Advisory Council
- Representative for AFSCME International
John Grabel is a Political Action Representative for AFSCME International, and also serves as the Wisconsin State Director for For Our Future (FOF). Prior to FOF, John served as the Executive Director of We Are Wisconsin, which first implemented the Relational Voter Program (RVP) in Wisconsin during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. In 2016 John and his team brought RVP to FOF, where, along with the Analyst Institute, they ran a test of the program's ability to increase voter turnout
Jon Bauman is a fancier of cats who speaks quietly and patiently to computers in exchange for an exceedingly comfortable material existence. He has worked in many programming disciplines from console video games, web development, kernel programming, distributed systems and web browser development. He is a proud alumnus of the University of Michigan, Etsy and Mozilla. He enjoys helping others learn programming and trying to make tech more humane.
Keisha enjoys reading, researching, and a good basketball game every now and then. She takes great personal satisfaction in her work as an organizer with Black Leaders Organizing Communities, and she looks forward to the road that lies ahead. As an advocate for self-care, she retains her cool composure by setting aside time to get in touch with herself.
Kevin is a full-stack developer based in Bend, Oregon. He has worked on enterprise software in several different industries including bio-tech, fin-tech, and manufacturing automation. After several years in the corporate environment, he yearned to work in a space where he felt he could make a difference and, as a result, now finds himself at Empower. Outside of work, he can be found exploring the beauty of Central Oregon, woodworking, playing board games, and spending time with his new daughter.
Job Titles:
- Head of Product
- Product Leader
Lauren Janas is a product leader with over 11 years of experience working in tech. She graduated from Stanford with a BS in Symbolic Systems, where she received the Sterling Award as one of the top 25 students in her class. Outside of work, she is a performing arts lover who has performed at the White House as well as a passionate traveler who has visited all seven continents.
Job Titles:
- Regional Partner Success Director, Southern Region
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Principal
Mike is a field organizer turned software designer. Mike founded multiple software firms over two decades and has experience working in state government, on a myriad of political campaigns, and has worked with multiple issue organizations such as America Votes Wisconsin. Mike became involved in the birth of the Relational Organizing movement during the 2011 Wisconsin recalls where he designed the myRVPlist.com software tool to manage relational voting programs.
Job Titles:
- OEA Board Member
- Strategist
Nick is a civic engagement strategist with a particular focus on the dynamics between emerging technologies, voting policies, demographic shifts and cultural change. This is towards achieving consistent participation, more effective governance, and diversifying who drives and benefits from the increased technicalization of civil society.
Job Titles:
- Data Analyst
- Director of Data Analytics
Nori is a data analyst using lean six sigma methods and data science for organizational tracking and improvements. She has 20 years of experience in the semiconductor and biotech industries, in supply chain management, organizational operations, and hardware design with over a dozen original patents.
She holds an MBA & MS from MIT Sloan's Leaders for Global Operations Program.
Born into a family of activists, Rhonda is a third generation organizer, with over twenty-five years focused on the challenges & issues that impact the lives of women with children. Her primary focus has been working to build grassroots leaders to address and move local policies to strengthen and support neighborhood communities. Rhonda has been boots on the ground educating proactively through the myriad of campaigns for change by voter and civic engagement. She consistently gives voice and raises awareness about the disparities that low-wage working populations face. In her passion and commitment to social justice, her aim is to address the many venues of systematic oppression. Rhonda has managed to engage and empower people into action with the barriers of no personal security (homelessness) and beyond bars of correctional institutions (prisoners). In each opportunity, the goal for her has always been to transfer contacts into a leaders/activists for the individual, and families to strengthen communities. Rhonda has been with 9to5 National Association of Working women since 2008, active in advocacy and policy work for economic justice for women. Wacky skill: Recycled Landscaping…ask and she will gladly share. Loves: The beauty of trees, and being outside enjoying all aspects of nature (bugs included). How do you unwind: Chilling with her companion dogs Monty & Fe-Fe outdoors in all four seasons, sipping natural teas, while listening to the natural sounds of nature on her walks.
Job Titles:
- Special Projects Manager
- Tech Support Specialist
I grew up on the Border of US and Mexico, started out late in my professional life as an intern for Congressman O'Rourke where I learned how to handle casework after spending a decade working in Hospitality. I started at 15 years old as a dishwasher for a local bakery and worked my way through every position in front and back of the house and ended as Assistant Bar Manager at a World Class Golf Resort. I quickly realized that serving people was no different than serving constituents. From there, I spent the past 6 years Organizing for Campaigns and Non Profits. Working everything from Precinct to Presidential campaigns. I worked my way up from a canvasser to a consultant. As well as organizing for Non profits working in Education and Food Reclamation. During my time organizing, I realized there was a huge gap between those in organizing and those that understood modern technologies that could simplify a organizers work, so I decided to transition to Tech in order to learn skills I could share with my community.
Sam King works at the intersection of technology and social good. At Stanford, he received an award from President Clinton for founding Code the Change, which helps computer science students use their skills for social good. He also worked on education, diversity, and inclusion at Google. Then he worked on the Healthcare.gov fix-it team, which saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and millions of hours of time.
Job Titles:
- Advisory Council
- Co - Founder and President of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
Saru Jayaraman is the Co-Founder and President of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley. After 9/11, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded ROC, which now has more than 30,000 worker members, 770 employer partners, and several thousand consumer members in a dozen states nationwide. The story of Saru and her co-founder's work founding ROC has been chronicled in the book The Accidental American. Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was profiled in the New York Times "Public Lives" section in 2005, named one of Crain's "40 Under 40" in 2008, was 1010 Wins' "Newsmaker of the Year" and New York Magazine's "Influentials" of New York City. She was listed in CNN's "Top10 Visionary Women" and recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014, and a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2015. Saru authored Behind the Kitchen Door (Cornell University Press, 2013), a national bestseller, and has appeared on CNN with Soledad O'Brien, Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, Melissa Harris Perry and UP with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, the Today Show, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her most recent book is Forked: A New Standard for American Dining (Oxford University Press, 2016). She attended the Golden Globes in January 2018 with Amy Poehler as part of the Times Up action to address sexual harassment. In 2019, she was named the San Francisco Chronicle Visionary of the Year.
Job Titles:
- Senior Software Engineer
- Software Engineer
Sierra is a software engineer who is incredibly excited to be working on tech for political change. She lives in Seattle and believes deeply in the power of organizing at the local and regional level. She previously worked at a mental health startup.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Paid Relational Director
Stanley has 12 years of experience in campaigns, government, higher education, and health care. He got his start as a field organizer in 2008 and then spent five years at the U.S. House of Representatives working for Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. He's also held public affairs roles in the City University of New York university system and at Blue Cross Blue Shield. Stanley grew up on the Jersey Shore and graduated from Monmouth University (NJ) with a degree in Political Science.
Toby has been working in the progressive movement since 2008, doing both political and union organizing in Illinois, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. He has served as America Votes Wisconsin's Data Manager/Director since 2013.
Job Titles:
- Data and Field Manager at Wisconsin Voices
- OEF Board Member
Valeria Cerda is the Data and Field Manager at Wisconsin Voices. Valeria's main role is to head the Relational Voter Program (RVP), to provide training and technical support for the VAN and the Wisconsin Voter App. Valeria is excited about creating and implementing the Relational Voter Program with and for our participating partners and about developing women and POC into well-seasoned organizers that would prepare them for roles as organizers in Wisconsin's progressive organizing community. Valeria has a strong background in community organizing on Milwaukee's South Side around immigration, labor rights and neighborhood development