Network's Board of Directors

Steve Doherty, Founding Co-Chair -- Steve currently serves as the Chairman of Montana's Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Commission and has been a practicing attorney since 1984. Steve is a partner at Smith, Doherty & Belcourt, PC, in Great Falls. He served in the Montana State Senate from 1991-2003, including four years as Minority Leader. He is also a former Fleming Fellow for the Center for Policy Alternatives. Steve is also a member of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association.

David Sirota, Founding Co-Chair -- David is the New York Times-bestselling author of Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government -- And How We Take It Back. He also serves as Senior Editor at In These Times magazine, and is also a writer for Working Assets. David is a twice a week guest on the Al Franken Show. He recently left his position as a fellow for at the Center for American Progress. He spent time in D.C. working under Representative Bernie Sanders from Vermont and senior Democrat, David Obey, on the House Appropriations Committee.

Joe Bolkcom, Iowa Senate -- Democrat Joe Bolkcom is currently serving in his third term in the Iowa Senate. He was first elected to the Senate in 1998 and re-elected in 2002 and 2006. He previously served for six years (1993-1998) on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Joe was elected a Senate Assistant Majority Leader for the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions. Before becoming a County Supervisor, Joe worked for three years at the county public health department helping address the county’s leading health issues including youth access to tobacco products and environmental health concerns.

Wes Boyd, President of MoveOn.org -- Wes Boyd and his wife Joan Blades were the cofounders in 1987 of Berkeley Systems, a San Francisco Bay area software company. After selling the company in 1997, Boyd and Blades went on to found MoveOn.org.

David Brock, President and CEO of Media Matters for America -- David is the author of four political books, including The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy. His preceding book, Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, was a 2002 New York Times best-selling political memoir in which he chronicled his years as a conservative media insider. Brock serves on the advisory board of Democracy Radio Inc. and is the recipient of the New Democrat Network's first award for political entrepreneurship.

Anna Burger, SEIU -- Hailed by Fortune Magazine as “the most powerful woman in the labor movement” and named as one of Washingtonian's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2006, Anna Burger is both a top ranking officer at SEIU, the nation's largest and fastest growing union, and the first chair of America's newest labor federation, Change to Win.

Morgan Carroll, Colorado House -- Rep. Morgan Carroll was recently elected to a Leadership Post by the House Dems as Majority Caucus Chair. Rep. Morgan Carroll was first elected by the voters of House District 36 in 2004 and won with significant bi-partisan support. She quickly established herself as a leader at the Capitol and was appointed Vice Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and to Business Affairs, and Labor Committee, Legislative Council Committee, Interim Auto Insurance Committee, National Conference of State Legislatures Future Health Care Leaders, Commission on Health Mandates, and to the Work Force Development Council (State Workforce Investment Systems).

Rep. Garnet Coleman, Texas House of Representatives -- Rep. Coleman has served in the Texas House since 1991. Twice in his career, he has been named to the prestigious Texas Monthly Ten Best Legislators list and has earned accolades and awards for his work on mental illness, voting rights, children's health insurance, and urban development.

Asm. Adriano Espaillat, New York Assembly -- Assemblyman Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic. In 1996, he became the first Dominican to be elected to any state house in the country. During his time in the legislature, he has focused on making sure that New York's is a shared prosperity.

Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers -- Leo Gerard rose through the ranks from working in a smelter at age 18 to serving as President of the United Steelworkers. In this position, he has grown the union's ranks and helped launch the Apollo Alliance.



Joe Hoeffel, former Congressman and state legislator -- Congressman Hoeffel served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1977 to 1984. In the 1990s, he served two terms as a Montgomery County Commissioner and was elected in 1998 to the U.S. Congress, where he served for three terms. Hoeffel is a lifelong Pennsylvanian.

Steve Kest, Executive Director of ACORN -- Kest is the National Executive Director of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN, which was founded in 1970, is one of the largest and most powerful organizations of low and moderate income individuals and families in the country, with over 175,000 members organized in 800+ neighborhood chapters in 90 cities. Kest has worked for ACORN since 1975, serving as Head Organizer in Arkansas, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and as national Campaign Director, before becoming Executive Director in 1990.

George Lakoff, Senior Fellow at the Rockridge Institute -- Lakoff is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and a famous expert on the art of political framing. He is the author of Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think and Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values, Frame the Debate.

Ned Lamont, President of Lamont Digital Systems -- Lamont founded his own company, Lamont Digital Systems, in 1984. A graduate of both Harvard and the Yale School of Management, he spent eight years in local government, and chaired the state investment advisory council. In 2006, as a strong anti-war proponent, he electrified the netroots and moved the debate on Iraq by successfully defeating Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Primary for Senate. Ned also has policy expertise on a range of issues including health care and trade.

Robert McChesney, Founder and President of Free Press -- McChesney serves as Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of many books regarding media reform, including the award-winning Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times and Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935. McChesney serves as President of Free Press, a grassroots media reform organization he co-founded.

Rep. Hannah Pingree, Maine House of Representatives -- Representative Hannah Pingree represents ten coastal and island towns in the Maine House, where she serves as chair of the Health & Human services Committee. She works as capital campaign director for North Haven Community School. Prior to her election, she worked for iVillage.com, the largest political website for women, and for her mother, Chellie Pingree, in her run for the U.S. Senate.

John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress -- Prior to launching the Center, Podesta served as Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton. He serves as a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and is considered one of the nation's leading experts on technology policy.

Lee Saunders, Executive Assistant to the President of AFSCME -- Saunders serves as executive assistant to Gerald McEntee, the President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Previously, Saunders served as administrator of AFSCME District Council 37 in New York.

Lisa Seitz Gruwell, Political Director for Skyline Public Works -- Prior to joining Skyline, which merges venture capitalism with political philanthropy, she served as Press Secretary and District Director for former California Assembly Majority Leader Kevin Shelley. Seitz Gruwell has helped elect progressive candidates across the country at all levels of government.

Naomi Walker, State Legislative Issues Coordinator for the AFL-CIO -- Naomi Walker researches, coordinates, and serves as a spokesperson on state legislative issues for the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Rep. Neva Walker, Minnesota State House -- In 2001, Rep. Walker became first black woman to serve in the Minnesota Legislature in the state's history. Rep. Walker works as a community organizer and focuses her legislative work on issues of social and economic justice.

Rep. David Zuckerman, Vermont State House -- Zuckerman is a legislator in the Vermont House of Representatives. He currently serves as the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee. Working with both parties he has focused on agricultural policy, real healthcare reform, workers' rights, affordable housing, and civil rights. David also serves on the Chittenden County Board of the Vermont Farm Bureau and has served on the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee, and the Burlington Electric Commission.