Leading from the Inside Out
2010-2011 Participants

	Aaron Dorfman | Executive Director, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. NCRP works to ensure America’s grantmakers are responsive to the needs of those with the least wealth, opportunity and power. Before joining NCRP in 2007, Dorfman served for 15 years as a community organizer with two national organizing networks, spearheading grassroots campaigns to improve public education, expand public transportation for low-income residents and improve access to affordable housing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Carleton College (where he studied under the late Senator Paul Wellstone) and a master’s degree in philanthropic studies from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Dorfman frequently speaks and writes about the importance of diversity in philanthropy, the benefits of foundation funding for advocacy and community organizing, and the need for greater accountability and transparency in the philanthropic sector.
	Ai-jen Poo | Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance Ai-jen has been organizing immigrant women workers in New York since 1996, where she started as the Women Workers Project organizer at CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities. In 2000 she helped start Domestic Workers United, an organization of nannies, housekeepers and elderly caregivers in New York organizing for power, respect, fair labor standards and to help build a movement to end oppression for all. DWU helped to organize the first national meeting of domestic workers organizations at the US Social Forum in 2007, which resulted in the formation of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. In April 2010, she became Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Ai-jen also serves on the Board of Social Justice Leadership, the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, the Labor Advisory Board at Cornell ILR School, and the New Labor Forum Editorial Board.
	Al Davidoff | Chief of Staff, American Federation of Teachers Al Davidoff is the new Chief of Staff at the 1.5 million member American Federation of Teachers, overseeing a staff of 350. Davidoff began his work in the labor movement as a student and custodian at Cornell University where he helped link the anti-apartheid and labor causes, and helped organize 1,100 service workers into the UAW. Davidoff was elected President of the Local and coordinated a militant, decade-long living wage struggle for low income workers. In 1997 Davidoff was named AFL-CIO NYS Director where he led the re-organizing of 2 million members into more dynamic regional federations centered around the Union Cities program. He also assisted major unions restructure to better organize and mobilize workers. Davidoff served as the Upstate Organizing Director and Vice President for 1199, the Healthcare Workers Union. Davidoff built a diverse new organizing team that won over 40 campaigns in hospitals and nursing homes over a four year period.
	Amado Uno | Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO Malcolm Amado Uno currently serves as the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO, the first and only national organization for Asian Pacific American union members and workers to advance worker, immigrant and civil rights. During his tenure, Amado has rejuvenated APALA to become an effective national advocate for Asian Pacific American workers by creating strong labor and community partnerships, advocating for multi-generational leadership in the labor movement and creating pipelines to encourage greater participation by students and young people in unions. Prior to joining APALA, Amado worked as the Organizing Director with Asian Pacific Islander American Vote, where he implemented their national voter mobilization program to increase the civic participation of Asian Pacific American voters. He serves on the Executive Committee of the National Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) and the board of directors for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN). Amado is a recipient of the Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship and the Coro Fellowship and received his graduate degree in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
	Ana Yanez Correa | Executive Director, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition Ana Yáñez-Correa was born in Mexico and began her advocacy work in high school. She later earned a BS in Criminal Justice and a Masters in Public Administration and is working towards her Ph.D. in Policy and Planning.  She served as Chief of Staff for a State Representative focusing on criminal justice-related policies, and as Policy Director for the League of United Latin American Citizens of Texas, where she developed and advocated for their legislative platform. Since 2005, Ana has been the Executive Director of TCJC. During the 80th Legislative Session, Ana was formally honored by the Texas Legislature for “working toward real solutions to the problems facing the Texas criminal justice system.” Ana continues to educate key stakeholders to further policies that promote alternatives to incarceration, successful re-entry, and fairness in the justice system. Throughout her tenure at TCJC, Ana has fostered relationships among a wide range of groups and community members, allowing TCJC to promote policies that serve all facets of society.
	Anita Earls | Executive Director, Southern Coalition for Social Justice Anita Earls is a founder and Executive Director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a non-profit organization in Durham, North Carolina. A civil rights attorney with over 20 years’ experience, her work has involved addressing structural racism, protecting minority voting rights and furthering community empowerment. She is a member of North Carolina's Equal Access to Justice Commission, serves on the North Carolina State Board of Elections, volunteers with the Women’s Center of Chapel Hill, and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences at Duke University. From April 1998 to August 2000, Ms. Earls was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. A graduate of Yale Law School, she began her career litigating civil rights cases with Ferguson, Stein, Wallas, Adkins, Gresham & Sumter in Charlotte, North Carolina.
	Arturo Vargas | Executive Director, NALEO Educational Fund Arturo Vargas is the Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), a national membership organization, and the NALEO Educational Fund, a national nonprofit organization that strengthens American democracy by promoting the full participation of Latinos in our civic life. The NALEO Educational Fund’s programs include naturalization promotion and assistance, voter engagement, technical assistance and support to Latino public officials, and policy, research and advocacy on political participation. Prior to joining NALEO, Arturo was the Vice President for Community Education and Public Policy of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Before joining MALDEF, Arturo was the senior education policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza. Arturo holds a master’s degree in Education and a bachelor’s degree in History and Spanish from Stanford University.
	Benjamin Jealous | Executive Director, NAACP Benjamin Todd Jealous became the youngest national leader of the NAACP on September 1, 2008. During his career, he has served as president of the Rosenberg Foundation, director of the U.S. Human Rights Program at Amnesty International and Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers. From his early days of organizing voter registration drives up until his nomination and election as NAACP president, Jealous has been motivated by civic duty and a constant need to improve the lives of America's underrepresented. A graduate of Columbia University in New York, Mr. Jealous is also a Rhodes scholar, holding a master’s degree in Comparative Social Research from Oxford University.
	Dan Lashoff | Climate Center Director, NRDC Daniel Lashof is the Director of NRDC’s Climate Center. Dr. Lashof has written extensively on many aspects of the global warming problem and national energy policy. His recent publications include Dangerous Addiction: Ending America’s Oil Dependence, A Responsible Energy Policy for the 21st Century, and The Role of Biotic Carbon Stocks in Stabilizing Greenhouse Gas Concentration at Safe Levels. Dr. Lashof was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry and has served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Atmospheric Chemistry. Dr. Lashof has followed international climate negotiations since their inception and attended the Kyoto and Hague Climate Conferences as an observer. Dr. Lashof is frequently asked to testify on aspects of global warming and energy policy before various Congressional Committees, and has appeared on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour and Crossfire, among other television and radio broadcasts. Before joining NRDC, Dr. Lashof served on the staff of the US Environmental Protection Agency where he was the lead author and editor of the report to Congress Policy Options for Stabilizing Global Climate. Dr. Lashof obtained his A.B. magna cum laude in Physics and Mathematics from Harvard University. He obtained his Ph.D. from the interdisciplinary Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley.
	Dan McGrath | Executive Director, TakeAction Minnesota Dan McGrath is Executive Director of TakeAction Minnesota, an organization of 10,000 individuals and 30 member groups united behind a vision of social, racial and economic justice.  Mr. McGrath got his start as a canvasser at Progressive Minnesota and quickly worked his way up to Executive Director.  He has worked on numerous legislative, issue and electoral campaigns and has worked inside the labor movement for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  His overseas experience includes work at the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation in the Republic of Ireland, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) and as an election observer in El Salvador.  He is a board member of Win Minnesota, the Hamline Midway Coalition, and chairs the Midwest Democracy Network steering committee. TakeAction Minnesota’s work includes campaigns to expand access to health care, strengthening democracy, and reform the criminal justice system. TakeAction Minnesota also leads two community organizing campaigns in the Hmong and Native American communities. Its reNEW Minnesota Campaign is recognized as an innovative civic engagement strategy that is creating progressive governing power at the state level. TakeAction Minnesota is building the movement for a more just society by organizing at the grassroots, developing new leaders, building dynamic coalitions, educating and mobilizing voters, and advocating for federal, state and local legislation.
	Diann Rust-Tierney | Executive Director, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Diann Rust-Tierney became the Executive Director and national spokesperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) in 2004. She manages and directs the unified network of more than 100 Affiliate organizations, dedicated advocates and volunteers, and prominent national human and civil rights organizations. Founded in 1976, NCADP is the nation’s oldest organization devoted exclusively to abolishing capital punishment in the United States. Rust-Tierney served on NCADP’s Board of Directors. Before coming to NCADP, she was the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project in Washington, D.C. She had worked in other capacities at ACLU, including Chief Legislative Counsel, and Associate Director of its Washington, D.C. Office. She began her career as a staff attorney for the National Women’s Law Center. Rust-Tierney received her undergraduate degree in political science from the College of Wooster in Ohio and her law degree from the University of Maryland.
	Erich Pica | Executive Director, Friends of the Earth Erich has been a member of the Friends of the Earth team for more than a decadeódirecting its domestic policy programs for the last six years, notably our tax and budget work, including our Green Scissors campaign. He has also led Friends of the Earthís fight for strong global warming legislation over the past two years. In 2008 he authored the major critique describing the weaknesses of the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill. This year, he led a campaign to demand that the House of Representatives pass stronger legislation than the polluter-friendly bill it was considering. This effort has now grown to the point that more than 300 progressive groups are demanding a better climate bill in the Senate.
	Gustavo Torres | Executive Director, CASA de Maryland, Inc. Gustavo Torres, CASA’s Executive Director, has been recognized nationally and internationally for his leadership and vision in the immigrant rights movement in the United States. Originally a union leader from Colombia, Mr. Torres came to the U.S. to avoid political persecution. He joined CASA’s staff as a community organizer, and has served as CASA’s Executive Director since 1994. Under his leadership, CASA has grown from an organization with a handful of staff members and a budget of under $500,000 to a nationally awarded multi-service Latino advocacy and support agency with a staff of 80 and a budget of over $6 million. Mr. Torres was selected to serve on the transition teams of Governor O’Malley and Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett. Mr. Torres was the founding president of the Maryland Latino Coalition for Justice, is the current President of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, and has served as the Vice President of the Prince George’s Chapter of the NAACP, on the Prince George’s County Executive Transition Committee, and on numerous task forces and leadership groups addressing issues of diversity, immigrant rights, and multiculturalism across the Washington metropolitan area. In December 2001 Mr. Torres received the Ford Foundation’s prestigious "Leadership for a Changing World" award, akin to the MacArthur Genius Awards presented to 12 grassroots leaders nationwide. In 2002, Mr. Torres was named one of 15 Washingtonians of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine, and in 2008 Mr. Torres received the Prince George’s County Community Foundation’s “Bridge Builder” Award.
	Ilyse Hogue | Director of Political Advocacy and Communications Center for Community Change, MoveOn.org Ilyse Hogue is the Director of Political Advocacy and Communications for MoveOn.org. In her four years at MoveOn, she's focused on communicating the voices of the organization's 5 million members to help shape the priorities of our elected leadership. Ilyse helped to shape the political and communication strategy for the organizational effort to regain the Democratic majority in both chambers in 2006 and win the WhiteHouse for Preisdent Obama in 2008. Since the last election, she's focused on helping to shape the debate about health care policy and pass the health care reform legislation. MoveOn's current priorities include fighting against corporate lobbyist influence in Washington, reigning in Wall Street, leveling the economic playing field for the middle class and electing progressive Democrats in November. Hogue will again be at the center of the organizationís communications and political strategy as they work on these projects. Prior to joining MoveOn, Ilyse was Campaign Director at the Rainforest Action Network, initiating and implement the Global Finance Campaign, which ultimately resulted in a groundbreaking framework for private investment in endangered habitats and climate intensive industries. Ilyse has an advanced degree in Resource Ecology Management and has studied the impact of resource constraints in cultural conflict.
	Jonathan Liss | Executive Director, Tenants and Workers United and Virginia New Majority Jon Liss directs Tenants and Workers United, with 1,000 low-income, predominantly Latino/a members in Northern Virginia. TWU builds power through grassroots organizing and direct action with particular focus on local / regional struggles for better schools, affordable housing and just immigration policies. This spring TWU mobilized over 10,000 people to push for national immigration reform. Jon also directs Virginia New Majority which organizes voters throughout Virginia. With offices in Alexandria and Richmond and over 200,000 voter contacts during the last two years, VNM is the largest non-profit field organization in Virginia.
	Judith Browne Dianis | Co-Director, Advancement Project Judith Browne-Dianis has an extensive background in civil rights litigation, which includes fighting to protect the rights of displaced Hurricane Katrina survivors. She was instrumental in securing a victory in Kirk v. City of New Orleans, which barred the city from bulldozing homes without first giving home owners opportunity to challenge the demolition. Through litigation and public speaking, Browne-Dianis staunchly advocates justice and equity for displaced New Orleans residents. She also served as co-counsel in NAACP v. Katherine Harris, et al., representing black Floridians in a lawsuit to remedy voting rights violations related to the November 7, 2000 election.  Browne-Dianis began her civil rights career at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), practicing law in the areas of housing, education, employment, and voting rights. In its 30th Anniversary issue in 2000, Essence magazine named Browne-Dianis one of “30 Women to Watch” and featured her in an article defining the Black agenda for the millennium.
	Kirk Noden | Executive Director, Mahoning Valley Organizing Project Kirk is veteran community organizer who has successfully built community organizations in Chicago, Birmingham England, and Ohio. Kirk currently directs the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, a broad based multi issue organization with twelve staff in Northeast Ohio. Kirk is also one of the founders of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a statewide alliance of ten labor, community, and faith groups across the state and he serves on the board of Policy Matters Ohio, the state’s premier progressive think tank. Kirk has organized a diverse range of constituencies ranging from Polish immigrants on the west side of Chicago to Pakistani Muslims in Birmingham to white working class people in Youngstown. He’s led campaigns on a variety of issues such as living wage, vacant properties, education reform, Islamic cultural awareness for police, immigration reform, and health equity. He’s the grandson of a New Castle steelwork and a Westinghouse Factory union steward and was born and raised in Ohio and now lives in the city of Kent, OH.
	Patti Devlin | Federation Liaison to the General President, Laborers' International Union of North America Patti Edwards Devlin is the Federation Liaison to the General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America. She has been a union activist since 1986, when she became a union shop steward while working as a clerical worker in Washington, D.C. In 1991, Patti graduated from the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and spent the next ten years organizing health care, public sector, industrial and construction workers throughout the United States. During her 15-year tenure at LIUNA, Patti worked as LIUNA’s Assistant Director of Organizing for six years before being promoted to serve as an assistant to LIUNA’s General President Terry O’Sullivan in 2003. In her role as a senior advisor to the General President, Patti often serves as LIUNA’s lead representative on multiple national and global multi-union collaborations and coalitions. Patti also serves as a board member of the Partnership for Working Families and on the National Advisory Committee of the Labor Project for Working Families.
	Pramila Jayapal | Founder & Executive Director, One America Pramila Jayapal is the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica, the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Washington State. Under her leadership, OneAmerica has organized tens of thousands of immigrants from diverse communities around immigration reform, immigrant integration and racial profiling, and achieved significant policy change. In addition, OneAmerica has registered and mobilized over 25,000 New American citizens to vote since 2006. Nationally, Ms. Jayapal has helped to lead the fight for due process and comprehensive immigration reform, serving as Vice Chair of the Rights Working Group national coalition as well as on the Executive Committee of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement. In 2008, she was appointed by Governor Gregoire as Vice Chair of the New Americans Policy Council. She and OneAmerica have received numerous recognitions and awards. Pramila is an immigrant from India, and came to the U.S. when she was 16 to attend college. She received her U.S. citizenship in 2000 and is the proud mother of a 13-year old son.
	Raquiba LaBrie | Program Director, Open Society Institute Raquiba LaBrie directs U.S. Programs' Equality and Opportunity Fund at the Open Society Institute (OSI). The Fund focuses on ensuring justice and equality, prohibiting arbitrary and discriminatory government action, and lifting barriers that prevent people from participating fully in economic, social, and political life. In 2007, LaBrie helped design and launch an OSI initiative to respond to the sub-prime lending crisis, which became the Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative. She was previously the program director of U.S. Programs' Sentencing & Incarceration Alternatives Project, which sought to reduce the scale of U.S. incarceration. She also directed the Soros Justice Fellowships and served as program officer for U.S. Programs' Access to Justice program, which focused on strengthening the federally funded civil legal aid field. Prior to joining OSI, she was an associate in the exempt organizations practice group of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. She graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School.
	Rebecca Tarbotton | Executive Director Rainforest Action Network Rebecca Tarbotton is the acting Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network (RAN). RAN is a savvy, hard-hitting environmental action organization with 25 years of experience pushing corporations to balance profit with principles. Under Rebecca's leadership, RAN is working to protect endangered forests and the communities that depend on them, transform North America's dirty energy expansion into a clean energy future and to combat global warming. Prior to RAN, Rebecca had over ten years of experience in non-profit grassroots campaigning and advocacy throughout California, India, and the UK winning important victories for local communities and food sovereignty. Rebecca is a regular panelist on international and human rights conferences, and is frequently featured in major international media outlets.
	Rinku Sen | Executive Director, The Applied Research Center Rinku is a leading figure in the racial justice movement with extensive expertise in feminism, immigration, economic justice, philanthropy and journalism. She serves as Vice Chair of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and an Advisory Committee member of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity. Previously, she was the Co-Director of the Center for Third World Organizing. Rinku has written extensively about immigration and community organizing in publications such as The Huffington Post, Jack and Jill Politics, AlterNet, and Racewire. Her book, Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing was released in 2003. Her latest book, The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization won the Nautilus Book Award Silver Medal. Her awards include the 2009 Northstar Fund News Prize, the 2008 Progressive Leadership Award from Citizen Action of New York, and being named by Utne Reader one of the fifty activists and non-conformists transforming technology and the world in 2008.
	Tracy Sturdivant | Vice President for External Affairs, Center for Progressive Leadership Tracy Sturdivant is the incoming Executive Director for State Voices, a national network of “state tables” - built from the states up—that helps grassroots organizations win shared policy and civic engagement victories and build long-term power. She previously served as the Vice President for External Affairs at the Center for Progressive Leadership, a national progressive training institute. Before joining CPL, she served as a program advisor for philanthropist Jon Stryker. She identified funding opportunities in Michigan and worked with progressive organizations to define and support their infrastructure needs. Prior to joining this donor advisory team, she served as the Director of African American Outreach for People for the American Way Foundation. She served as the Vice President of the White House Project where she created the organizations political leadership training program, Vote, Run, Lead. Tracy serves on the board of advisors of several organizations, including the Proteus Fund and Center for Democracy in the Americas.
	Vanita Gupta | Deputy Legal Director, Director of Center for Justice - American Civil Liberties Union Vanita Gupta is Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is also Director of the organization’s newly-formed Center for Justice, which addresses systemic problems in the U.S. criminal justice system, including the treatment of prisoners, the death penalty, and the policies of over-incarceration that have led the United States to imprison more people than any other country in the world. In addition, Vanita is an adjunct clinical professor at NYU School of Law, where she teaches and oversees a racial justice litigation clinic. From 2006-2010, Vanita was a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, where she won a landmark settlement on behalf of immigrant children detained in a converted medium security, privately-run prison in Texas. Prior to joining the ACLU, Vanita was at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund where she successfully led the effort to overturn the wrongful drug convictions of 38 defendants in Tulia, Texas, and served on the legal team that won freedom for renowned prison journalist Wilbert Rideau in his fourth retrial after he had already spent forty-four years in prison.