Board & Staff

CENTER FOR LOBBYING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
2009

Staff

Larry Ottinger President 202.387.2008 larry@clpi.org
Matt Saperstone Manager 202.387.5072 matt@clpi.org Erin M. Moffet Administrative and Program Associate 202.355.7090 erin@clpi.org

CLPI Board of Directors Bios:

DIANE CANOVA, ESQ., CHAIR
Diane Canova has over 20 years experience in nonprofit leadership, strategic planning, public policy, government relations and lobbying focused primarily on a wide range of health and social service issues. She is currently the managing Senior Fellow and Senior Program Officer of Partnership for Prevention.  She is the founder of Advance Advocacy, Consulting for Change, which seeks to increase public interest advocacy through strategy development, training, coalition building and communications. Diane recently served as the first Executive Director of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA) where she opened a Washington, D.C. office and led strategic planning, program implementation, fundraising and advocacy. Ms. Canova was instrumental in building a collaboration of over 30 organizations to develop and advocate for federal legislation to expand awareness, research, and prevention of sudden cardiac death.

Prior to joining SCAA, Ms. Canova served as Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations for the Council on Foundations where she directed policy decision-making and advocacy on critical nonprofit tax and philanthropy issues. Previously, she was Vice President of Advocacy for the American Heart Association, leading efforts to greatly enhance grassroots capability, develop a strong policy research component and become a leader in nonprofit media advocacy. Successful legislative and regulatory campaigns include increasing availability of automatic defibrillators, raising tobacco taxes, restricting tobacco advertising and marketing to children and enhanced Medicare preventive services.

Ms. Canova also served as Director of Government Relations for the American Red Cross and began her career in Washington working in the U.S. House of Representatives. She received her Juris Doctor from the Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville and Bachelor of Science in Education from Kent State University.

GARY D. BASS, PH.D., VICE CHAIR
Gary D. Bass, Ph.D. is the Founder and Executive Director of OMB Watch, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that promotes greater government accountability and transparency and increased citizen participation in public policy decisions. Dr. Bass has testified before Congress, appeared on national television, addressed groups across the country, and written extensively on federal budgetary, program management, regulatory and information policy issues. He has been selected as one of the NonProfit Times Power and Influence Top 50 every year since 1999.

Dr. Bass has led many advocacy campaigns — often in coalition with local, state and national groups — in pursuit of a government that promotes social justice and responds to community needs. He plays a national leadership role in protecting the advocacy voice of nonprofits. Dr. Bass is also a strong advocate for strengthening government transparency and using newer information technologies to empower citizens and community groups to challenge unchecked institutional power. In 2006, Dr. Bass was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame honoring his many years of advocacy in protecting public access to government information.

In addition to his role at OMB Watch, Dr. Bass is an affiliated associate professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute and also teaches in the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate program at Georgetown's Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. He has served on numerous boards and has been an advisor to many organizations. He received a combined doctorate in psychology and education from the University of Michigan, along with the University's highest award for graduate student teaching and several awards for academic excellence.

ALENE VALKANAS, SECRETARY
Alene Valkanas is a recognized national leader in nonprofit advocacy and management. She recently retired as the executive director of the Illinois Arts Alliance (IAA) where she served for 20 years. During that time, Ms. Valkanas was an active and vocal champion of Illinois’ vibrant cultural community, defending the freedom of artists, developing innovative programs and research projects, and tirelessly advocating on behalf of the arts and arts organizations.

Over the years, she quadrupled IAA’s membership, training a statewide network to support the arts. A national campaign to promote reauthorization of the National Endowment of the Arts, produced under her direction, received the 1990 Award of Excellence in Government Relations from the American Society of Association Executives. She also received their Certificate of Excellence for IAA’s Speakers Bureau program in 1999. In 1993, Ms. Valkanas oversaw the campaign that reinstated funding for the CityArts program of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Ms. Valkanas’ work in arts advocacy was preceded by fourteen years in public relations, program development and cultural affairs. During her twelve years as director of public relations and programming for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, she produced more than 500 multi-disciplinary cultural events culminating in a major

citywide festival of contemporary American music. Before becoming an arts administrator, Ms. Valkanas was an educator in the field of English and art at the secondary-school level. Ms. Valkanas is a founding chair of the State Arts Action Network, a former officer of the Donors Forum of Chicago, and was an important leader of the State Arts Advocacy League of America (now defunct). She holds an M.A.T. in art education from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in English from LaRoche College.

MICHAEL CORTÉS, PH.D., INTERIM-TREASURER
Mike Cortés is a research and management consultant who helps advocacy organizations use public policy research and analysis more effectively. He teaches courses on public policy analysis and advocacy at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. He is past director of the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management, where he directed and taught courses in the Master of Nonprofit Administration program. Previously he served as director of the Program on Nonprofit Organizations at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs, and co-director of the University of Colorado Latino Research and Policy Center. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy, and the UCLA Urban Planning program.

Prior to becoming an academic, Mike was vice-president for research, advocacy, and legislation at the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C., and director of planning, finance, and administration at the Levi Strauss Foundation in San Francisco. Mike’s research publications and conference papers have addressed policy analysis and advocacy, Latino nonprofit organizations and philanthropy, nonprofit uses of technology, and disabilities among migrant and seasonal farm workers.

He has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including the Center for Community Change, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, the Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, the Independent Sector research committee, and editorial boards of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and Nonprofit Management and Leadership. Mike holds an M.S.W. from the University of Michigan, and an M.P.P. and Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

ANJEANETTE ALLEN
Anjeanette Allen has worked in several capacities which confirm her commitment to the field of public service and issue-based advocacy. She recently served as National Field Director with People for the American Way, a national organization headquartered in Washington, DC with more than one million members and supporters that defends constitutional and civil rights. Shortly before arriving in the nation’s capital, Anjeanette embarked upon a writing career and joined the Brevard Ebony Newspaper in Florida as a contributing writer focused on political, community and cultural issues locally and nationally.

Anjeanette achieved many professional milestones in her home state of New York. As Director of Public Engagement at New Visions for Public Schools, Anjeanette developed and defined a comprehensive plan of action and strategic communications that advanced public education reform and the Small Schools movement in New York City. As a lead organizer for M&R Strategic Services, a public policy media and public relations firm, Anjeanette worked on the successful Smoke-Free Workplace Issue Campaign. This work contributed to the historic passage of the Smoke-Free Work Place Act 2002 (Intro. 256 A) by the New York City Council by an overwhelming majority which went into effect on March 30, 2003.

Returning back to the roots of her activism training as a child, Anjeanette became the Northeast Regional Director for Voter Empowerment for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Anjeanette conducted numerous trainings on issue, campaign, organizing tactics, and voter registration/mobilization strategies. As the New York State Director for the NAACP National Voter Fund (NVF), Anjeanette worked to develop and maintain grassroots networks to promote a progressive electoral reform agenda, fair election administration, voter re-enfranchisement, and redistricting. As the NVF’s Brooklyn Congressional Director, during the 2000 presidential election year, Anjeanette and her team recruited and trained more than 250 volunteers who canvassed 240 political precincts and raised voter turnout by 11 percent in Brooklyn.

As the City-wide Project Coordinator for the New York City Black Advisory Committee on Census 2000 (NYC BLAC) and the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, Anjeanette worked with Dr. John Flateau and a one-hundred plus consortium comprised of civic, business, religious, labor, media, community leaders, and elected officials to advocate for fair Census 2000 and Redistricting practices.

Anjeanette earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University and a Master of Public Administration, from New York University, with a specialization in Non-profit Management and Public Policy Analysis.

DAVID F. ARONS, ESQ.
David Arons is the former Co-Director of the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest. He is currently, Director of Government Relations for the American Cancer Society in Minnesota. David serves the nonprofit sector as a public interest lobbyist, organizer, teacher, attorney and volunteer. He is co-author of Seen but Not Heard: Strengthening Nonprofit Advocacy (Aspen Institute, 2007); editor of Power in Policy: A Funder’s Guide to Advocacy and Civic Participation (Fieldstone Alliance, 2007); co-author of Surveying Nonprofits: A Research Handbook (Aspen Institute 2003); co-author of A Voice for Nonprofits, (Brookings Institution, 2003); and author of Teaching Nonprofit Advocacy (Independent Sector, 1999).

Prior to working at CLPI, David directed a civic education program at the Lincoln Filene Center at Tufts University. He worked in Government Relations as a lobbyist at Independent Sector from 1994 to 1997 on issues pertaining to nonprofit advocacy rights, tax policy, budget and telecommunications. David earned a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law, has a M.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University and received a bachelor’s degree in political science from James Madison University.

DEBORAH AUGER, PH.D.
Deborah Auger, Ph.D. is on the graduate faculty of the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware where she serves as Director of the MPA MidCareer Program and head of the nonprofit leadership specialization area. She has worked extensively conducting training for nonprofit directors in the U.S. and Japan, and serves on the Board of Editors of the central journal in the field, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. In the advocacy area, Dr. Auger founded and serves as annual instructor for her Nonprofit Advocacy and Government Relations Module as part of the University’s sixteen-week Nonprofit Management Certificate Program. She has conducted advocacy training for prospective board members as part of the Delaware Association of Nonprofit Agencies’ “Leadership Delaware” program, for nonprofit staff as part of DANA’s annual conference, for the national Alliance for Nonprofit Management annual conference, and for the Center for Disabilities Studies Executive Leadership Seminar.

Dr. Auger’s teaching areas include collaboration and partnerships, government-nonprofit relations including contracting issues, public policy and advocacy initiatives, strategic leadership for nonprofits, and social service networks. She received her MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and her Ph.D. “with distinction” from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Auger also holds an appointment as Associate Scholar in the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

MARCIA AVNER
Marcia Avner is Public Policy Director for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN), an association of 1,680 of the state’s nonprofit organizations. Ms. Avner joined MCN in this post in 1996. In the 1980s she was one of MCN’s founding directors and, for two years, its board chair. In her work with MCN she advocates nonprofit sector issues in legislative arenas and supports nonprofit involvement in public policy work with advocacy and media training, issue briefings and skill building workshops.

Prior to MCN, Ms. Avner was, for five years, state communications director for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone and also worked directly with Sheila Wellstone in her creation of the Wellstone Initiative for Safe Homes. Ms. Avner also has been Executive Assistant to St. Paul Mayor Jim Schiebel. She was Assistant Commissioner for Energy in the Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development during the Perpich administration. Prior to these activities, Ms. Avner was, for six years, Legislation and Education director for the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG) and, for four years, Executive Director of the Minnesota Project, a rural community development organization.

Ms. Avner has a B.A. from Carnegie Mellon, a M.A. from University of Arkansas, and is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Minnesota. She is also the author of The Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations: Shaping Public Policy at the State and Local Level (2002), and The Board Member’s Guide to Lobbying and Advocacy (2004) published by Fieldstone Alliance. She also serves as a senior training consultant with CLPI.

KATHY BONK
Kathy Bonk co-founded the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) in 1988 and serves as its executive director. She is a co-author of the Jossey-Bass Guide to Strategic Communications for Nonprofits (1999), part of the Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Public Management series.

In 1989, Ms. Bonk was awarded a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship, which enabled her to work with nongovernmental organizations in Russia, the Ukraine and Eastern Europe. In 1977, she was a public information officer for the U.S. Department of State. In that capacity, she developed media policy recommendations for the International Women's Year Commission under Presidents Ford and Carter, the beginning of her international experience. Her government career also includes four years with the Justice Department in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division. From 1978 through 1987, Ms. Bonk directed the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund's Media Project.

DAVID COHEN
David Cohen is a Senior fellow at Experience Corps and Civic Ventures, a advisoring both organizations on matters of policy, program and civic leadership. The overarching theme is to help practitioners use the talents and experience of older Americans to the fullest, thereby enabling the whole society to benefit from their “experience dividend.” He also serves as a Board member Global Integrity. Prior to Mr. Cohen’s retirement from the Advocacy Institute, which he co-founded with Michael Pertschuk, he served as its Co-Chair from 2001 through 2005 and pioneered the Institute's work in its international capacity building programs. Mr. Cohen Co-authored Advocacy for Social Justice: A Global Action and Reflection Guide, published by the Kumanan Press in the fall of 2001.  He was an active participant in the Advocacy Institute's Leadership for a Changing World Program, where directed the learning initiatives aspect of the program.

Mr. Cohen has been an advocate and strategist on many of the major social justice and political reform issues in the United States since the early 1960s, including civil rights, anti-poverty, modifying the Congressional seniority system, and reforming U.S. political processes by eliminating abuses of power and the corrupting influence of money on American politics. From 1975 to 1981 he served as President of Common Cause, the largest voluntary membership organization in the United States working on government accountability issues. Mr. Cohen continues to counsel social justice movement groups in the U.S. and abroad, including South and Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, to gain support for their public agenda.

THOMAS C. LAYTON
Thomas C. Layton is the president of the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, where he also serves as a board member. He joined the Foundation in 1975. The Foundation makes grants of approximately $4 million a year with its principal activities focused in the San Francisco Bay Area and the state of Hawaii.

Prior to coming to the Foundation, he was a business executive and, later, the vice president and national director of the Coro Foundation. Currently Mr. Layton serves as a trustee of the Cow Hollow Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund, and Hispanics in Philanthropy, and he is on the Council on Foundations’ Governance Committee. In recent years he has served as a trustee or director of numerous organizations including the Council on Foundations, Women and Philanthropy, the Tides Foundation, the Center for Citizen Initiatives, Northern California Grantmakers, and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

Mr. Layton is active in a number of “philanthropic infrastructure” organizations including the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Grantmakers in the Arts, and the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights. He was the 1998 recipient of the Council on Foundations’ Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking. A native of Carmel, California, Mr. Layton received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Occidental College in Los Angeles.

LORI MCCLUNG
Lori McClung is the President of Advocacy & Communication Solutions, where she directs strategic communication planning, government relations and advocacy efforts, policy analysis and strategy development for ACS clients. Ms. McClung has been involved in youth policy and advocacy for more than 10 years. She was formerly a Senior Fellow for education and youth development issues for The Center for Community Solutions. In this role she was responsible for advocating on primary and secondary education issues at the local, state and national level; advocating on youth development issues; and leading a statewide campaign to significantly increase the State of Ohio’s investment in early care and education. She also served as Associate Director of Community Solutions.

Previously, Ms. McClung was Director of Government Affairs for the Cleveland Municipal School District. In this role, she secured $6 Million in Capital funding from the State of Ohio for the district and successfully lobbied to halt proposed rule changes by the Federal Communications Commission that would have cut $70 million in educational technology funding. In addition, Ms. McClung has been an advocate for a child-welfare agency, successfully coordinated a county mental health levy, and was the campaign press secretary for a member of Congress. Ms. McClung also was a reporter for two daily newspapers focusing on crime and political issues.

Ms. McClung is involved in a diverse group of activities, including serving on the board of the Greater Cleveland Media Development Corporation, the Coalition for Greater Cleveland’s Children, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, and the national board of Parents for Public Schools. She received a “Friend of Public Education” award from the Ohio Federation of Teachers in 2005 and an award from the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center in 2002 for her outstanding volunteer work. She also led a successful advocacy effort to raise $200 million more in the state budget for early care and education. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and a Certificate in Journalism from the University of Cincinnati.

MARCUS S. OWENS, ESQ.
Marcus S. Owens is a member in Caplin & Drysdale's Washington, D.C. office. He joined the firm in February 2000. Prior to that, Mr. Owens was employed by the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service and served as the division's director for the last ten years. In that capacity, he was the chief decision-maker regarding design and implementation of federal tax rulings and enforcement programs for exempt organizations, unrelated business income tax, private foundation excise taxes, hospital reorganizations, college and university guidelines, political organizations, and tax-exempt bonds. He also served as the IRS's primary liaison with other federal agencies, Congress, and state regulators on exempt organizations issues.

Since joining Caplin & Drysdale, Mr. Owens has been representing a broad range of nonprofit organizations including private foundations, charities, U.S. affiliates of foreign charities, and trade associations. The context has ranged from tax planning, the process of formation and application for exemption, through IRS audits including large case or team audits. Particular projects have involved the emerging rules for foreign grant making and organizations interested in public policy but concerned with legislative and political activities. He also is a frequent lecturer on the complex laws affecting exempt organizations. Mr. Owens serves as a Director of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance. He also is a recipient of the IRS Commissioner's Award for exemplary service.

HOWARD SCHOENFELD
Howard Schoenfeld is a Managing Director in the Pricewaterhouse Coopers Washington National Tax Services practice. As a member of the Exempt Organizations Tax Services practice, Mr. Schoenfeld brings more than 30 years of experience at the IRS involving legislation, litigation, and administrative issues relating to tax-exempt organizations to PwC's clients. For the past 12 years at PwC, he has represented both nonprofit organizations and their donors on transactional issues, controversy matters, and regulatory and legislative developments.

While at the IRS, Mr. Schoenfeld served as Special Assistant for Exempt Organization Matters to the Assistant Commissioner for Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations (EP/EO). In this position, he provided policy-level advice and guidance on all technical and enforcement matters relating to nonprofits, and handled matters relating to legislative, litigation, and administrative issues in the exempt organization area. He also led the development of Form 990 and Form 990-PF annual returns, and coordinated their implementation with states, academic groups, and other interested stakeholders. He earlier held the position of the Chief of the Procedures Section in the IRS Audit Division's Exempt Organizations Branch, and was Technical Advisor to the Assistant Commissioner (EP/EO). He began his IRS career as a revenue agent. Mr. Schoenfeld was a four-time recipient of the Senior Executive Service Special Act Award and the Commissioner's Award.

Mr. Schoenfeld has advised a number of foreign governments and leaders of the non-governmental sector on various continents on matters relating to tax administration. He has spoken at many tax conferences on exempt organization matters and was adjunct faculty at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies. Mr. Schoenfeld received a B.A. in Accounting and LL.B. from the University of Baltimore.

PAUL THORNELL
Paul Thornell serves as Vice President of Federal Government Affairs in the Global Government Affairs office of Citigroup. Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. Thornell served as Vice President of Public Policy and Field Leadership at United Way of America. In this position from 2002 to January 2007, he developed and advocated on behalf of United Way’s public policy agenda before Congress and the Administration; led the organization’s relationship management work with the nearly 1,400 local United Ways; and oversaw United Way of America’s work in Disaster Preparedness and Response. Prior to his joining United Way of America, Mr. Thornell was Managing Director for Public Affairs in Hill and Knowlton’s Washington office managing a variety of clients, for whom he provided strategic counsel and directed government relations. Mr. Thornell served for two and a half years at the White House as Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for Vice President Al Gore. Before joining the Office of the Vice President at the White House, Mr. Thornell served from 1996 to 1998 on Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle’s leadership staff. From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Thornell was Senior Legislative Representative at the advocacy group People For the American Way. In this role, he represented the organization’s interests before Congress and the Executive Branch on various First Amendment, civil rights and public education issues.

Mr. Thornell received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a board member of DC Habitat for Humanity and Generations United.

---

THOMAS A. TROYER, ESQ., CHAIR EMERITUS
Thomas A. Troyer, a member in Caplin & Drysdale's Washington, D.C. office, is one of the leading authorities on tax-exempt organizations in the country. He has spoken and written on taxation and tax matters affecting tax-exempt organizations since the 1960's. Having built Caplin & Drysdale's distinguished exempt organizations practice group, of which he is the senior member, he has served in a long list of professionally distinguished positions, including Vice Chair for Government Relations of the ABA Tax Section, Chair of the ABA Tax Section's Exempt Organizations Committee, Chairman of the Foundation Lawyers' Group, Member of the IRS Commissioner's Advisory Group on Exempt Organizations, and Member of the Treasury Department's Advisory Committee on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs. Mr. Troyer has also served and continues to serve on the boards of many philanthropic organizations, including The Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Children's Defense Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School.

---

CLPI Staff Bios:

 

Lawrence S. Ottinger, President

Larry Ottinger is President of the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest. Prior to accepting the position with CLPI, Ottinger served for four years as Director of Policy and Leadership Development at the Fannie Mae Foundation where he led signature partnerships and programs promoting innovation in affordable housing policy at the state and local levels.

 

Previously as Senior Counsel at People for the American Way, and before that at Bernabei & Katz, Larry spent over ten years as a successful civil rights and First Amendment lawyer and policy advocate. In these positions, he led successful issue-based coalitions and gained years of relevant policy, communications, relationship and project management, and other advocacy experience, including lobbying on Capitol Hill and in the states.

Larry is Co-Chair of the Ottinger Foundation and has served on the family foundation’s board since 1978. He has also formerly served on the boards of 20/20 Vision, the 20/20 Vision Education Fund, and NARAL.

Larry graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was an associate editor of the Stanford Law Review. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Berkeley with a high distinction in general scholarship and highest honors in an interdisciplinary, social sciences major.

 

Matt Saperstone, Manager

Matt Saperstone joins CLPI from Tennessee where he was most recently a policy analyst for Governor Phil Bredesen. In that role, Matt oversaw key items on the Governor's agenda and worked with senior staff in preparing the Governor for speeches, briefings, press conferences and other policy related activities. Matt's main responsibility was coordinating the Governor's Task Force on Energy Policy, which ultimately led to a comprehensive energy report and subsequent legislation designed to lower residential energy usage and develop a clean energy technology industry in the state.

 

Prior to that, Matt worked for McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations in Nashville where he assisted clients with legislative outreach, fundraising, grassroots campaigns, nonprofit advocacy, marketing and branding strategies, research and media relations.

In 2007, Matt graduated from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute with a master's in public policy and a focus on nonprofit management and leadership. While at Georgetown, Matt completed internships with DC Central Kitchen and U.S. Representative Robert Andrews.

 

Erin M. Moffet, Administrative and Program Associate

Erin Moffet rejoins the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest as the Administrative and Program Associate. Previously, Erin had served as an intern at CLPI during the summer of 2008 when she assisted with policy and communications work. Most recently, Erin served as an intern on the Health Care Team at Dutko Worldwide, a government affairs strategy and management firm in D.C. She has also had the opportunity to work with the Washington Times while in Denver attending the Democratic National Convention in August of 2008, as well as serve an internship at the office of Congressman Rick Boucher during the summer of 2007.

 

Erin was born and raised in Abingdon, Virginia, a small town in Southwest Virginia bordering Tennessee. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Elon University, receiving a bachelor's degree in political science and a minor in communications. While at Elon, Erin served a term as the Opinions Editor for the school newspaper, The Pendulum, and was also active in organizations such as Model UN and the North Carolina Student Legislature and frequently worked for The Elon University Poll. She is an avid sports fan with her heart belonging to the Washington Redskins. Erin also loves University of Tennessee football, Carolina basketball and the Atlanta Braves.