Arekia is the Executive Director of MS Votes, an organization committed to civic engagement of Mississippians across generations, cultures, identities, inequities and struggles, with particular focus on young people. Arekia has been working on addressing voter disenfranchisement, voter ID laws, rural voter turn out, increasing voter participation in all elections and she also advises political
Cecilia Xie Birge is an Assistant Principal at Princeton High School where she taught math and special education. Her teaching experience spans from low performing urban schools to magnet schools and top-rated suburban schools. Cecilia is also a well-respected debate coach for the Princeton High School Speech and Debate Team, a national championship team. Before
Rebecca Casper was re-elected to a second term as Mayor of Idaho Falls in November 2017. Idaho Falls is a city of 65,000 located on the banks of Idaho’s Snake River and is the largest city east of Idaho’s capitol. The city follows the strong mayor model and supports 11 departments and 7 enterprise funds
Katie Castellano brings a political operative’s mentality to fundraising. She has a diverse background running political operations in battleground territories around the country, as well as having a successful record of raising resources for candidates and political organizations. She has worked on campaigns and for state parties in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Esder Chong was born in South Korea and raised in Central New Jersey. She graduated from Rutgers University-Newark (c/o 2020), where she majored in Philosophy. As a freshmen, she founded and led RU Dreamers, a student organization that advocates for undocumented, DACA, and TPS students’ access to higher education. Through this organization, she led efforts
Christabel Cruz is the director of NEW Leadership® at the Center for American Women and Politics. Christabel is a current Ph.D. candidate in the department of political science at Rutgers University-New Brunswick where she is majoring in women and politics and minoring in American politics and race & ethnicity politics. Her graduate research explores Latina candidate
Marilyn D. Davis is the New Jersey Area Director for Government Affairs for a telecommunications company. In this role, Ms. Davis manages relations with elected officials and community partners as well as oversee legislative and regulatory matters. Previously, Ms. Davis worked at the Democratic National Committee as the National Director of Community Engagement until December
Deidre DeJear is an entrepreneur and social activist with over 10 years of experience assisting small businesses and community organizations. In 2008 she started her own small business, Caleo Enterprises, which has provided over 400 entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations with affordable marketing tools and business strategies. Deidre was the Iowa African-American Vote Director in the
Kelly Dittmar is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University–Camden; and Director of Research and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She is the co-author of A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Representation Matters (Oxford University Press, 2018) (with Kira Sanbonmatsu and Susan J.
Ellie Espling is an accomplished political leader in Maine and currently serves her state as a Constituent Services Representative for U.S. Senator Susan Collins. Prior to joining the staff of Senator Collins, Ellie ran for a Maine State Senate seat only to lose by a small margin. She previously served in the Maine House as