Caron Atlas, Cultural Organizer

Caron Atlas is a consultant working to strengthen connections between art and culture, policymaking, and social change. She is a cultural organizer with the Center for Civic Participation, and previously with National Voice. Other recent consultancies include the Ford Foundation, Creative Capital, Animating Democracy, and 651 Arts. Atlas is an adjunct faculty member at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She writes frequently about cultural policy, co-edited an anthology of critical writings about art and civic dialogue, and is currently co-writing a publication about equitable community development that builds on local culture. Atlas was the founding director of the American Festival Project, a national coalition of activist artists, and worked for several years with Appalshop, the Appalachian media center. She has a master's degree from the University of Chicago and was a Warren Weaver fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation.

Pat Clark, Pennsylvania State Coordinator

Pat is managing partner of the company Jackson/Clark Partners, a consulting and management firm specializing in cultural, community and technology development projects. He is a founding core member of the Ground Zero Action Network (G0), a Pittsburgh community entrepreneurial organization, and is a founding member of the Golden Triangle Community Development Corporation.

During the past two years Pat served as the manager of G0 projects including the UltraViolet Loop, an innovative transportation solution connecting Pittsburgh’s central neighborhoods; the SkinnyBuilding project, which has created Downtown’s most visible and innovative public art space at Forbes and Wood; and G0 Thursday Nights, a public discussion forum and gathering of Pittsburgh’s creative community each week at the Chart Room Café Downtown. He currently serves as project administrator for Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto’s Guyasuta Fellowship Program, an initiative that allows young people to work with City Council to research and prepare recommendations for youth policy for Pittsburgh.

Before founding Jackson/Clark, Pat spent seven years with General Nutrition Centers, serving as Director of Real Estate Systems and Analysis. Before moving to Pittsburgh, he spent four years in artist management with the New York firm Idol Makers Management, working with clients including platinum recording stars Salt-N-Pepa. Pat has produced several video, record, concert and radio projects. His extensive professional background also includes seven years of experience in the international video program distribution and marketing industry with the Washington, D.C. firm Adler Video Marketing.

Pat is on the board of Preservation Pittsburgh, serves as a board officer for PCTV21 and on the advisory board of the Office of Cultural Tourism of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is also a member of the Friendship Preservation Group and the Elks. Pat lives with his wife, writer Al Hoff, in Friendship.

Peter Davis, Data Technology Consultant

Peter is a Data Technology Consultant who works with non-profit, governmental and commercial groups to foster better understanding of data analysis and reporting, and to facilitate the most appropriate use of data. Before entering private practice in 2005, Peter was Director of Database Development for CTSG and later, Director of Data Warehousing for Kintera. Peter has deep experience in data analysis, database design, high performance reporting architectures, data warehousing and web based reporting.

In the non-profit sector, Peter has worked with the Fund for Public Interest Research. While at CTSG/Kintera, Peter worked with non-profit advocacy groups like Working Assets, the National Philanthropic Trust, Lance Armstrong Institute, Amnesty International, National Resources Defense Council, World Wildlife Fund, and Oceana. In the commercial sector, Peter has consulted for SAS Institute and worked with Fortune 500 companies in the Aerospace, Pharmaceutical and Banking industries. While at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Peter worked on the Consumer Expenditure survey redesign with teams from the BLS and the Bureau of the Census.

Peter currently serves as a volunteer board member of the Science Factory Children’s Museum.

Ryan Friedrichs, Michigan State Coordinator

Ryan has been working to mobilize and empower historically underrepresented voters for over 10 years. As a Michigan native and graduate of the University of Michigan, Ryan worked with the United Farm Workers and founded a nationally recognized community coalition called Voice Your Vote. In 2000, he helped found and served as National Field Director and then Executive Director for the Youth Vote Coalition, as well as served as national volunteer director for the coalition’s partners, including MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign. Ryan attended Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. His master’s thesis was a study for Michigan Democratic Party of cost effective young voter mobilization in Michigan’s 2002 election. At the Kennedy School Ryan also served as a research assistant to Al Franken and David King, and as a teaching assistant to Marshall Ganz.

Ryan worked for Senator Hillary Clinton’s political teams at HillPac and Friends of Hillary, and co-founded and served in 2004 as Campaign Director for the Young Voter Alliance, a member of the national America Votes coalition. Following the election Ryan worked for Andy and Deborah Rappaport’s Skyline Public Works foundation, leading a team of professors and consultants evaluating progressive young voter mobilization in 2004. Ryan recently returned to Michigan and lives and works in Detroit. He is newly engaged to Jocelyn Benson, a professor of race and the law and election law at Wayne State University. Ryan currently serves as the Coalition Coordinator of Progressive Michigan, a statewide coalition focused on mobilizing communities of color, young voters, new citizens and low income voters.

René Redwood, Special Counsel

René Redwood is the CEO of Redwood Enterprise, LLC and Senior Counsel at the Center for Civic Participation. She is considered one of the nations' foremost experts and advocates on diversity, "glass ceilings," and affirmative action. Her firm, Redwood Enterprise, LLC uses a cooperative business model to provide strategies and structures to enable the client’s mission.

For more than two decades, René has informed and contributed to the debate on access, inclusion and equal opportunity while directing initiatives for public, non-profit, and private organizations. She currently serves on the court appointed Coca Cola Oversight Task Force that certifies the Company’s compliance with a historic discrimination settlement agreement.

During the 2004 election cycle, René worked with a cadre of civic participation and voter engagement organizations to have a strategic and tactical interface for all stages of the election. This included pulling together critical linkages between legal defense and grassroots organizers; expanding the use of technology to give voters direct access to boards of elections and legal networks; helping expand and implement non partisan coordinated GOTV activities; develop strategies and templates for election administration that included voter verification, “curing” practices and quality control protocols for the registration process.

Redwood is a skilled facilitator with experience in project and personnel management, building capacity of constituency networks, communications, and political and Election Day legal operations. She was the Executive Director of: a prominent polling and consulting firm; the Presidential Glass Ceiling Commission (Civil Rights Act of 1991, Title II); and a coalition of leading legal defense groups. She has been a Senior Fellow in Technology and Democracy, run Congressional District offices and organized with District 1199. René is often described as smart, strategic and energetic, and has been featured in an array of publications including Time Magazine, Black Enterprise, and Essence.

Bob Schaeffer, Florida State Coordinator

BOB SCHAEFFER, head of Public Policy Communications in Sanibel, Florida, works with national non-profit organizations, grassroots activist groups, political campaigns, foundations, and socially responsible businesses seeking to deliver their messages to mass audiences more effectively and efficiently.

Since 1970, Bob has held senior positions with many statewide and local campaigns for both candidates and ballot questions specializing in strategy, field organization and earned media. As a consultant, he has designed campaign plans, trained staff, and built broad-based electoral coalitions. He now coordinates the statewide Florida civic engagement “Table,” whose members were responsible for registering 524,000 voters in 2004 and running a non-partisan get-out-the-vote drive that significantly increased turnout in historically disenfranchised communities.

Prior to becoming a full-time consultant specializing in strategic, political communications in 1984, Bob was Editorial Writer at the NBC-TV affiliate in Boston, host of a talk show on a regional National Public Radio station, and writer for an alternative weekly newspaper. He previously served as Research Director for the Massachusetts Legislature's Human Services Committee and staffed several activist groups in New England.

Bob Schaeffer has led more than 250 workshops on political campaign management, media relations, public speaking, strategic planning, and advocacy skills for groups in 42 states, Canada and Russia. His publications include Winning Local and State Elections (Free Press/MacMillan, 1986; paperback edition 1998), Giving the Media Your Message, and The News Media and the Big Lie.

Reverend Romal J. Tune, Faith Initiatives Organizer

Reverend Romal J. Tune served in the U.S. Army from 1989-1992 during the Gulf War, Desert Storm. A diligent student, he graduated magna cum laude in 1996 with a Bachelors of Science from Howard university and in December 2000 from Duke University Divinity School, where he received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship and the Deans Award to assist with his studies. During the 2000 presidential campaign Reverend Tune served as the Faith Community Coordinator for the North Carolina Democratic Party.

In his work as a social justice advocate, Rev. Tune has developed an extensive network of clergy across the country. Since joining People For the American Way, he has created and launched a national voter registration program called the Sanctified Seven-Victory through Voting, designed specifically for African American Churches. Rev. Tune has served on panels for distinguished organizations such as the Congressional Black Caucus, and has moderated discussions for The Faith and Politics Institute between Members of Congress and Church leaders. In the course of his extensive and active ministry, he has been recognized by various organizations, national publications and news media for his commitment to equality and passionate stance against injustice. His commitment to the call for spiritual healing, racial parity, social justice, and economic equity for all people has garnered him national recognition as a skilled communicator, preacher, national leader, public advocate, motivator and teacher.