2022 Andrew Goodman National Civic Leadership Training Summit

Mo is the Digital Marketing Manager at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. Mo has been a digital communication specialist for the past four years, working for a variety of non-profits in the progressive movement space. Mo believes a robust digital strategy is a key factor in leveraging progressive wins, increasing accessibility in our movement spaces, and transforming narratives in service of cultural shifts. They currently live in Arkansas with their wife and 4 kids. They are a meme connoisseur, a Gemini with no behavior, and they have never met a sandwich they didn't love.

Erin Baranko is a Program & Communications Assistant at All In Together. In this role, she provides operational and logistical support for programs and initiatives at AIT. Erin enjoys working at the intersection of civic engagement and gender justice and is passionate about making voting and civic participation more accessible. Before joining All In Together, Erin worked as a Council Aide for the Los Angeles City Council where she counseled constituents on key issues and upcoming legislation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claremont McKenna College in History and Gender & Sexuality Studies.

Samuel Beskind, a recent Stanford University Management Science and Engineering graduate, fell in love with the game of basketball at age five. That love inspired him to dream big and work relentlessly — eventually leading him to become Captain of the Varsity Men’s Basketball Team at Stanford University. While at Stanford, he discovered a passion as deep as the one he has for basketball: helping student-athletes connect with their communities, engage in democracy, and utilize their platform for good. To pursue that passion, he is the current Student Lead of #AllVoteNoPlay, helped develop the #AVNP Playbook, and looks to inspire civic action among student athletes nationwide in 2022.

Katy Butler is the Director of Digital Strategy and Advocacy at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. She works with the Programs and Communications teams to support the lifecycle of digital campaigns and strengthen engagement strategies. Katy has more than 8 years experience as an activist, digital organizer, and campaign strategist. Prior to starting a career in social justice Katy was a youth activist focused on anti-bullying and LGBTQ inclusive legislation on a state and national level; now she is passionate about developing students and young adults to become catalysts for change. After working with nonprofits focused on environmental justice, racial equity, LGBTQ rights, job equity, mental health, and gender equality, Katy comes to all her work with a focus on intersectionality. She holds a dual B.A. in Women’s Studies and Sociology from The George Washington University and a Master’s in Diversity and Equity Education from the University of Illinois. Katy lives in Chicago, IL with her wife, toddler, and furry friends (1 cat and 2 dogs). She plays rugby on the women’s team in Chicago and enjoys drinking multiple cups of coffee a day.

As the Director of Day On Democracy, Marina can be found talking about the ideal Election Day on college campuses at all hours of the day. Since leading a successful Election Day class cancellation effort in college, she has turned her attention to working with students across the country who advocate for similar measures.

Pete Davis is a writer and civic advocate from Falls Church, Virginia. He works on civic projects aimed at deepening American democracy and solidarity. Pete is the co-founder of the Democracy Policy Network, a state policy organization focused on raising up ideas that deepen democracy, and is currently co-producing a documentary on the life and work of civic guru Robert Putnam. In 2015, he cofounded Getaway, a company that provides simple, unplugged escapes to tiny cabins outside of major cities. His Harvard Law School graduation speech, “A Counterculture of Commitment,” has been viewed more than 30 million times — and was recently expanded into a book: Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in An Age of Infinite Browsing. Pete is also the author of Our Bicentennial Crisis: A Call to Action for Harvard Law School’s Public Interest Mission, a book on reviving Harvard Law School’s public interest mission, and the co-author of How To Get Away: Finding Balance in our Overworked, Overcrowded, Always-On World, a book articulating Getaway’s philosophy of balancing technology and disconnection, city and nature, and work and leisure. His opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Daily News, Aeon, The Guardian, Fast Company, America Magazine, and The Falls Church News-Press.

Dave Dennis, Sr. was a Freedom Rider and Co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) in Mississippi, which organized activists for a voter registration drive during “Freedom Summer.” Mr. Dennis spoke at the funeral of James Chaney, and he worked closely with both civil rights icons Bob Moses and Medgar Evers.

Sarah deVeer began working for the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) in 2017 after earning her degree from Bard Annandale in Film and Electronic Arts, with a focus in documentary and community connections. Since then, she has been focusing on a variety of initiatives through the CCE, including education outreach, voter outreach, activism support, and community relation facilitation. A career highlight for Sarah was successfully obtaining a polling place on Bard's Annandale campus during the 2020 United States presidential election, after the institution had engaged in fighting for an on-campus polling place for 20 years.

Ryan Drysdale is associate director of campus partnerships for the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge at Civic Nation and has over 10 years of experience in community and civic engagement.

Prior to joining the Challenge, Drysdale worked with community development organizations in Southeast Asia and has worked, volunteered, and studied on six continents. He has also served as a regional manager for Inspire U.S., a youth civic engagement program in 11 states.

Drysdale received his BA in international relations from the University of Iowa and his Master’s in international relations from Syracuse University, including coursework in Chile. He is a 2017 New Leaders Council Fellow, served on the advisory board for the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his partner and 35+ plants.

Richard C. Fording is the Marilyn Williams Elmore and John Durr Elmore Endowed Professor of Political Science at the University of Alabama. He earned his B.A. at the University of Florida (1986), and his Ph.D. from Florida State University (1998). His primary teaching and research interests include public policy, race and politics, state politics, social movements, and quantitative methodology. He is the author or coauthor of articles appearing in a variety of journals, including American Political Science Review, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Political Science and Journal of Politics. He is the coauthor of Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race (University of Chicago Press).

Wambui Gatheru is the Director of Programs at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. Wambui is a proud first-generation Kenyan-American. She began her career as a grassroots national organizer, quickly working her way into local Massachusetts politics where she successfully managed the 2018 Question 2 ballot initiative supporting a congressional mandate to get big money out of politics. The question had received 80% of the vote on the ballot, making it the winningest question on the ballot that year. Afterwards, she continued her career as a Partnerships and Outreach Manager, where she utilized her experience as a Black woman to form deeply intersectional and inclusive relationships. Now as the proud Director of Programs at The Andrew Goodman Foundation, she supports the visions and power of young voices in our democracy.

Prabhat Gautam, M.P.A (ऊ/him/his) is the Data Manager at IDHE and has worked for the past five years to study and maintain the longitudinal National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, NSLVE (“n-solve”). Prabhat manages the systematic processes of data analysis, as well as generation and dissemination of NSLVE reports in the service of colleges and universities participating in the voting study. In addition to this, he works on various research and analytical outputs using NSLVE data in collaboration with campuses and other stakeholders. Prabhat’s interests include design and development of new research that seeks to explore inquiries related to equity, diversity, and inclusion in access to political learning and participation in our democracy. Prior to this, Prabhat has worked within different contexts of policy advocacy, higher education, and international development. He has an M.P.A from Cornell University and a B.A. from Kenyon College.

Dr. Jessica Hare serves as the Vice President of Outreach at American Promise. Dr. Hare received her Doctor of Social Work degree from the University of Southern California and is also an Alumna of the University of South Carolina where she received her Master of Social Work degree and Winthrop University where she received her Bachelor of Social Work degree.

Dr. Hare has over 15 years of professional social work experience that ranges from child welfare, military social work, medical social work, and school social work. She is an active member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and prides herself on upholding the organization’s mission and vision. She has proven to be committed to the empowerment of black women and girls while advocating on their behalf to promote leadership development and gender equity in the areas of health, education, and economic empowerment. Dr. Hare is also an active member of the National Association of Social Workers serving the Georgia Chapter and is a member of the Political Action for Candidate Election (PACE) committee.

Dr. Hare plans to continue utilizing her social work knowledge and skills to stand against social injustice while empowering not only oppressed populations but all populations. In her downtime, she enjoys exercising, traveling, and spending quality time with her children Morgan (13) and twins Nicholas & Megan (7).

Charles Imohiosen is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Andrew Goodman Foundation. A long-time AGF Board Member, Charles is an entrepreneurial executive with an extensive multidisciplinary strategy and operations background that bridges the private and public sectors. Charles’ public sector career has spanned federal, state and local, government, including serving as Chief Operating Officer for New York’s leading economic development agency, Empire State Development, and serving in policy-making roles for the White House and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In the private sector, Charles co-founded a social impact-focused real estate development company; was the Chief Operating Officer for a technology-driven practice group at a large AmLaw 100 global law firm, where he also served on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; practiced litigation as an attorney at another AmLaw 100 law firm; and led global customer engagement for a large privately-held enterprise software company, where he and his team helped businesses, hospitals, and government agencies navigate digital transformation projects.

Charles has a deep and abiding commitment to civic participation, social impact, and innovation. He has been a community leader; worked on dozens of political national, state and local political campaigns, including his own campaign for state legislature; managed several voting rights-related initiatives and pro bono engagements, including serving as Co-Chair for the Voting Rights & Engagement Working Group for an AmLaw 100 firm; served on various non-profit boards of directors; and is currently a Director for Groundswell, a nonprofit that builds community power through equitable community solar projects, clean energy programs, and pioneering research initiatives. He also advises early-stage companies and is a member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York.

Charles earned a B.A. with Honors in Philosophy and Physics from Williams College, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and served as a law clerk to Judge Colleen McMahon in the Southern District of New York. He lives in New York City with his wife, two daughters, and dog.

Evan Malbrough is a native of Smyrna, Georgia. He is a 2020 graduate of Georgia State University with a degree in Public Policy and a minor in Cello Performance. At GSU, Evan was a founding member of Vote Everywhere GSU and served as an Ambassador for Amazon Prime Student, Kaplan Test Prep, & GoPuff. Evan also served as a Summer Research Fellow at the United States Department of Defense at the Pentagon. Upon graduating, he became a 2020 Puffin Democracy Fellow with The Andrew Goodman Foundation as well as a brand ambassador for Mars-Wriggly and Instagram. Evan is the founder of the Georgia Youth Poll Worker Project, where he recruited 1,000 poll workers to work the 2020 General Election and 2021 Georgia Senate Runoff. Evan now works as a Voting Access Project Fellow at the ACLU of Georgia. Finally, Evan is a writer who has been published in Forbes, Teen Vogue, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and more.

Mike Monetta serves as Vice President of Volunteer Advocacy and Training for American Promise. He has over a decade of experience in the 28th Amendment movement, previously serving as National Director and Organizing Director for Wolf-PAC. He has helped to build volunteer teams all across America, lobbied in over 20 statehouses, and testified at dozens of committee hearings on the dire need to end the corrupting influence of big money in American politics. He is excited to bring his experience and perspective to American Promise and the fight for the For Our Freedom Amendment.

Erin Mysogland is the Assistant Director of the Center for Community Action and Research and an Adjunct Lecturer of Peace and Justice Studies and History at Pace University. In both roles she works with students on civic engagement and social justice advocacy. She has a Master’s in History from Columbia University and continues to research themes including youth and activism.

Hayley Piazza is a rising sophomore at Pace University majoring in Health Science on a pre-physician assistant track. Hayley’s passion for civic engagement began when she was young and has only grown over time through her involvement in various clubs and organizations on campus. As a STEM major, one of Hayley’s goals during her time as an Andrew Goodman Ambassador is to motivate her fellow STEM and pre-health majors to be civically engaged. In the future, Hayley hopes to become a physician assistant, but also hopes to pursue a career in health policy to help eliminate disparities in health care.

Henry is a native Floridian and graduate of CU Boulder (Class of 2015). Since graduating, he’s worked nearly the entire spectrum of professional politics: staffing gubernatorial, congressional, and senate campaigns, working in nonpartisan issue-advocacy as a grassroots lobbyist, completing a youth leadership fellowship, and acting as a campaign consultant for dozens of campaigns. Now he’s working with Unify America to help address the extreme polarization we see in American politics, build a more equitable society based on mutual respect & understanding, and replace partisanship with problem solving.

Teri Platt is a Community of Practice Fellow, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge at Civic Nation.

Teri Platt, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and the Director of the Isabella T. Jenkins Honors Program at Clark Atlanta University. She has over 15 years of higher education teaching experience in courses on American political institutions, public policy, urban politics and planning, and research methodology. Dr. Platt has a long-standing commitment to research and service in areas of civic engagement and community-based participatory research activities. She is currently a Faculty Affiliate with Data Science Initiative of the Atlanta University Center Consortium and the Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development at Clark Atlanta University where she is a social science researcher and lead of the Community Engagement and Dissemination Core. Through her work with the CCRTD, Dr. Platt has received funding to explore the relationship between civic engagement, self-efficacy, and prostate health through the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Platt was a 2021-2022 Fellow with the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement at the University of California, Irvine where she evaluated student voter engagement at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). She is also the Faculty Champion for the Andrew Goodman Foundation HBCU Cohort; a Co-Designer with the Ask Every Student Initiative of the Students Learn, Students Vote coalition; a member of the Executive Council of the Students Learn, Students Vote Coalition; participant in the HBCU Community of Practice for the ALL IN Democracy Challenge; and Faculty Champion for the Democracy Fellows of the Campus Vote Project.

An active member of scholarly associations, Dr. Platt has served on committees and participated in the annual meetings of the American Society for Public Administration, Conference for Minority Public Administrators, Southeastern Conference for Public Administration, National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Midwest Political Science Association, and American Political Science Association.

Dr. Platt resides in Atlanta with her family and is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She provides additional service to the community through her church and the Atlanta Public Schools.

Amanda Pohl is the Executive Director for Deliver My Vote and Deliver My Vote Educational Fund, dedicated to increasing voter access and participation across the U.S. for every voter – at home or at the polls. She is a lifelong Virginian and a macro social worker passionate about social justice, education, and community-led change. Amanda has more than a decade of experience in program development, project management, and nonprofit leadership. Amanda has developed national programs, built processes, and challenged the status quo throughout her career. Her experiences, and stories she continued to hear from those in her community, led her to run for public office and challenge the assumption that elected seats belong to incumbents.

Nick Ramos is a lawyer, advocate, and organizer who serves as VoteRiders’ Wisconsin Voter ID Coalition Coordinator. Previously, he spent four years as the Community Outreach Liaison for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, providing high-quality constituent services and implementing programs dedicated to enhancing the lives of the local veteran and homeless populations. Nick’s love for civic engagement began during his time in law school, when he participated in voter protection efforts across the state of Wisconsin during the 2016 election cycle and developed strategies to expand voting while recruiting and training hundreds of volunteers. Nick received his B.A. in Philosophy from Miami University and his J.D. from Marquette University Law School.

As a career college basketball coach, Eric Reveno has spent his life working passionately to help college players to be the best they can be. Along the way at Stanford and University of Portland, he has helped build some championship teams but he is most proud of the young men he has helped develop and the diverse “huddles” he helped grow into tightly bonded families. As the Associate Head Coach at Georgia Tech in 2020, he started the #AllVoteNoPlay movement which rippled through college athletics inspiring programs and leagues to cancel play on Election Day, and eventually resulted in permanent NCAA legislation. Now coaching at Oregon State, he continues to work to grow the movement, leading by example to help coaches do all they can to engage their teams in the most basic civic duty of voting.

Sam Robson is a Philosophy and Political Science student at the University of Alabama. He is currently managing a voting rights restoration clinic, Return My Vote, with the Blackburn Institute and researching student voting access with Dr. Richard Fording. Sam also works as an editor of the undergraduate Capstone Journal of Law and Public Policy. A University Fellow and Honors College student, Sam is dedicated to promoting civic engagement on his campus and his community through advocacy, research, and education. He hopes to attend law school upon graduation and wishes to pursue a career in public interest law.

Margaret Sasser is the Director of Communications at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. In her role, Margaret works to support the work of AGF's programs with strategic communications and marketing. Prior to joining AGF, she worked at Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center that supports equitable school experiences for all students. As a Research Associate, she developed social justice, anti-bias professional development and curricular resources for K-12 educators. She is a two-time graduate of the University of Alabama, where she obtained a Master's degree in American Studies, focusing on American popular music, and a Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, concentrating on gender and race theory. Born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, Margaret is passionate about civil rights issues, storytelling, and helping students to become active members of their communities.

Gabrielle Slaughter is the HBCU Lead Program Manager at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. Gabrielle is a graduate of Spelman College with a bachelor's degree in Political Science. Her passions include dancing, social justice, and public interest. She takes pride in being a servant leader and mentor for young black and brown girls in her community. Her long term goals include becoming an attorney and serving as representation for others who desire to implement change in our legal system.

Caroline Smith is the Senior Program Manager: Partnership Strategist at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. Caroline is from Maplewood, NJ, and received her BA in Sociology and a certificate in Community Action/Public Policy at Connecticut College ('18). After graduation, she began her organizing career with the Student PIRGs at Rutgers University-Newark and then jumped into national electoral work on Senator Cory Booker's presidential campaign for the 2020 primary cycle. Caroline joins AGF excited to re-focus her efforts on combating voter suppression and boosting civic/electoral engagement among young voters.

Dr. Nancy Thomas directs the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life, the nation’s leading applied research center on student political learning and participation in democracy. Her work and scholarship center on higher education’s democratic mission, college student political participation and voting, campus climates for democratic learning and engagement, and dialogue, free speech, inclusion, and academic freedom. She founded and oversees the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, NSLVE (“n-solve”), a study of student voter participation at nearly 1,200 U.S. colleges and universities nationwide. She is the author or editor of multiple book chapters, papers, articles, and collections on higher education’s role in democracy, including the monograph, Educating for Deliberative Democracy. Dr. Thomas holds a law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Kaylee Valencia is the Program Manager at The Andrew Goodman Foundation. Kaylee is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a bachelor's degree in Political Science. Her passions include creativity, civic engagement, social justice, and community building. Kaylee's experience is in amplifying the voices of young people by working to institutionalize civic engagement in higher education, as well as in helping others find what they care about and encouraging them to fearlessly pursue it. She believes that your vote is your voice, but your capacity to make meaningful change extends so much further than the ballot box.

Jourdyn Wilson is the civic organizer at All in Together. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a minor in African American History/Chinese Studies from Texas Southern University. She is a well-traveled Black women who speaks three languages. Jourdyn has been organizing in the Houston area since she was 16 years old. Her campaign experiences range from local city race to presidential races. Jourdyn champions for healthcare, education, affordable housing, and criminal justice reform. She currently lives in 3rd ward, Houston, TX. She a member of many Houston civic organizations such as the Houston Black Democrats, Urban League, and ROAD Women. Also, Jourdyn is a proud member of Swing PHI Swing Social Fellowship Inc. In her down time, she cosplays, plays video games and a part-time mixologist.
Jourdyn hopes her career choices, like working at non-profits, will help her goal of ushering in the next generation of Black women in community leadership.

As the SLSV Coalition's Human-Centered Designer, Maddie applies a human-centered design approach to creating tools, systems, and resources for increasing student voter participation. Her work focuses on several of the SLSV Coalition’s national partnerships with a main focus on Ask Every Student. Maddie’s past work includes developing Democracy Works’ Votes & Ballots and building a region-wide coalition of college student activists and organizers in Baltimore, Maryland. She was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and lives in Baltimore, Maryland.