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Our Staff
Bodunrin Banwo joined Project Vote in August 2009 as a Election Administration Coordinator for the state of Arizona. Prior to joining Project Vote, Mr. Banwo served in the United States Peace Corps in Paraguay, South America, where he became fluent in two languages (Spanish and Guaraní), and helped his community establish a sustainable Honey Co-opt. Prior to his work in the Peace Corps, Mr. Banwo managed two political campaigns in the central Florida area in 2006, and in 2004worked as a field coordinator for the Castor for Senate campaign. Mr. Banwo has a BA in Political Science from Bethune-Cookman University. Mr. Banwo currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
Stan Brinkley came to Project Vote in October 2008 as the Finance Director. Prior to joining Project Vote, Mr. Brinkley served as Director of Finance for the American Geophysical Union in Washington DC and Newspaper Association of America in Vienna VA, where he had oversight for Finance & Accounting, as well as the Information Technology area. Mr. Brinkley was also the former Assistant VP/ Controller for Avistar in NJ, overseeing finances for multiple operation sites. Mr. Brinkley holds a BS degree from Ramapo College of New Jersey, and will pursue his MBA in the near future.
Amy Busefink has been Project Vote’s National Voter Registration Director since June 2006, when she assumed responsibility for Project Vote’s 2006 voter registration program. She comes to Project Vote with four years of grassroots organizing experience, including managing the North Florida field program of the successful 2004 Florida Minimum Wage Campaign. She graduated from Florida State University in 2003 with a B.A. in Political Science. She resides in Tampa, Florida.
Daniel Charlton joined Project Vote in August 2009 as a Field Coordinator. Since joining Project Vote, Mr. Charlton administered a volunteer voter registration drive in Virginia and is coordinating outreach for future field operation and collaborations. He also currently serves as Project Vote’s representative to the Virginia Civic Engagement Table. Prior to joining Project Vote, Mr. Charlton worked in various capacities on electoral or issue-based field campaigns across the country. Mr. Charlton has a BA in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy from the James Madison College at Michigan State University.
Ali Cochran, who joined Project Vote in June 2008, coordinates program outreach and field research across a number of key Project Vote program areas. Prior to joining Project Vote, Ms. Cochran worked with non-profit, grassroots organizations ACORN and the African Community Center in Colorado, and taught English as a Foreign Language in Rome, Italy. Ms. Cochran graduated from Colorado State University with a BA in International Studies, and during her studies completed a Semester at Sea, a global student travel abroad program. Ms. Cochran currently resides in Denver, Colorado.
Rosemary Englert joined Project Vote in 2009 as a Legal Fellow after graduating from the George Washington University Law School in May. In addition to taking a wide variety of election law classes in law school, Rosemary worked on voting rights and campaign finance policy issues at the Department of Justice Voting Section, and as a research assistant for a GW law professor. She has also worked on education litigation at the Citizens' Commission for Civil Rights in 2008, and was a law clerk at Obadal, Filler, MacLeod, and Klein, where she did legal and legislative work for trade associations and their political action committees.
Erin Ferns began working with Project Vote in August 2006. Since then, she has led the research for Project Vote's premier election bill tracking Web site, www.ElectionLegislation.org - among other research projects - as part of the Election Administration program. While earning her BA in journalism at San Diego State University, Ms. Ferns interned with the city's leading social and economic justice research and advocacy organization, Center on Policy Initiatives. Before graduating with honors in May 2006, Ms. Ferns served as a boycott coordinator for UNITE HERE, local 30. She resides in Los Angeles.
Jody Herman began consulting for Project Vote in 2007. She has worked with non-profit research, advocacy, and direct-service organizations in the United States and Mexico. Her previous work and research has focused on poverty, welfare, social justice, and LGBT and women's rights. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University, where she earned her M.A. in Public Policy.
For the past twenty years, Douglas Hess has worked for a variety of local, national and international non-profit organizations in the U.S. and Haiti. His work has focused on political participation and civil rights, as well as community development, child nutrition, and anti-poverty policy. From 1994 to 1996 he directed Project Vote’s Public Agency Registration Project. His undergraduate degree is from Grinnell College and he has a Master of Arts degree in policy studies from Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Hess is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. Mr. Hess has also served as an adjunct faculty member in political science at Grinnell College and George Washington University.
Jennifer Jacquot-DeVries has been a fundraising and development consultant with Project Vote since January 2008. As Grants Manager,she coordinates fundraising deadlines and applications to secure Project Vote’s programmatic and general support. Ms. Jacquot-Devries previously worked with Minneapolis Public Schools, the Foundation for Immigrant Resources and Education,and the AmeriCorps, teaching and tutoring in underprivileged urban communities in the Twin Cities and Chicago. In May 2008 Ms. Jacquot-Devries received her MFA from Hamline’s Graduate School of Liberal Studies. She resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Before joining Project Vote, Teresa James served as a legal editor with LexisNexis, a global legal and business information service. Her editing experience followed years in the practice of law at Legal Aid, a private law firm, and in her own practice. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and of Case Western Reserve Law School. During her time in college and in legal practice she maintained her community involvement with organizations such as the ACLU and the Lorain County Urban League . Teresa has served on the boards of the Oberlin ACLU and the Lorain County Legal Aid. She has also been active in Ohio community organizations involved in promoting open, fair, and transparent elections.
Nicole Kovite returned to Project Vote in 2008 as Election Counsel and Director of the Public Agency Registration Project. Previously Ms. Kovite worked for Project Vote in 2004 as the Washington State Election Administration Project Manager, where she succeeded in helping to reverse an illegal citizenship checkbox requirement to registration, resulting in roughly 2,500 more registered voters in historically tight election. Ms. Kovite is an attorney licensed in Washington State, where she worked for Scheer & Zehnder LLP, a civil litigation defense firm, the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney, and most recently for the King County Prosecutor’s Office where she tried and won twelve jury trials. Prior to her work as an attorney, Ms. Kovite was staff for the Unemployment Law Project in Seattle, The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 925 in Seattle, and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC. Ms. Kovite is a national member of The Order of the Barristers.
Michael McDunnah joined Project Vote full-time in August 2008 after working with the organization for several months as a grant writer and consultant. His prior experience includes nearly ten years of fundraising and communications work for nonprofits, including serving as the Development & Communications Director for Rainbow House, a Chicago domestic violence agency, and over five years at IFF, the Midwest’s largest nonprofit CDFI, where he helped secure foundation, corporate, and government grants and program-related investments. A graduate of the Johnston Center for Integrated Studies at the University of Redlands, Mr. McDunnah resides in Washington, D.C.
Brian Mellor brings to Project Vote a wide array of legal
and campaign experience including community and labor organizing, issue
advocacy, and public interest law. He began working on voter engagement and
rights issues in 2004 as a local field director on a voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaign, and helped develop and administer Project Vote's 2007-2008 voter participation program. Mr. Mellor manages Project Vote’s litigation team, which has been part of
legal challenges that overturned onerous restrictions on voter registration
drives and other statutory or regulatory obstacles to voter participation. Mr. Mellor holds a B.A.from Williams College and a J.D. from Boston University.
Lorraine C. Minnite joined Project Vote as Director of Research in January 2010, after serving a term on the board of directors and authoring the 2007 Project Vote report The Politics of Voter Fraud. For nearly ten years Ms. Minnite taught American and urban politics at Barnard College, and prior to that she was the Associate Director of the Center for Urban
Research and Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public
Affairs. An experienced researcher concerned with issues of inequality, social
and racial justice, political conflict, and institutional change, Dr. Minnite has published on various aspects of political
participation, immigration, voting behavior and urban politics, and is
currently finishing a book on the politics of electoral rules. With Frances Fox Piven and Margaret Groarke she is co-author of Keeping Down the Black Vote: Race and the Demobilization of American Voters,
published by The New Press in 2009. Dr.
Minnite has also consulted with various labor, advocacy and governmental
organizations which have relied on her expertise in voting, public
policy, and demographic patterns in New York City. Dr. Minnite holds a B.A. in History
from Boston University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the City
University of New York.
Michael Richards came to Project Vote in April 2009 as the Election Administration Coordinator for the State of Florida. Mr. Richards previously worked as an Aide to an Orange County, Florida commissioner performing such duties as tracking bills in the Florida Legislature, speech writing, and handling all issues pertaining to the Orange County district. Before Project Vote, Mr. Richards also served as a translator and editor for the geopolitical magazine, Heartland, an Italian Eurasian Review. He earned his B.A. in Italian and International Affairs and his MS in International Affairs concentrating in Human Rights from Florida State University. While studying, Mr. Richards performed two internships at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy in the Political / Military Affairs Office and Public Affairs Office.
Estelle H. Rogers joined Project Vote as Director of Advocacy in January 2010, after serving for several years as a frequent consultant to the organization. Prior to joining Project Vote, Ms. Rogers was most recently a Senior Attorney at Advancement Project and Special Counsel to the Voter Protection Project of America’s Families United, an initiative dedicated to ensuring maximum civic participation in the presidential election of 2004. From August, 2003, through July, 2004, she was Advocacy Legal Specialist in Moscow, Russia, representing the American Bar Association. For four years prior to her work in Moscow, she served as Executive Director of the Death with Dignity National Center. Her earlier experience includes executive positions at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Ms. Rogers has spoken widely, particularly on health, bioethics, and reproductive rights issues, including numerous media interviews and appearances and presentations to conferences, law schools, universities, and legislative hearings. Ms. Rogers authored the recent Project Vote report The National Voter Registration Act at Fifteen, and among her other publications are two law review articles and a chapter in the book Changing America, a 1992 publication presenting a comprehensive policy agenda to the incoming Clinton administration.
Yolanda Sheffield brings a variety of legal experiences to Project Vote. Before joining in September of 2008, she worked as a law clerk for a federal district judge and as an adjunct professor of criminal justice. She began her legal career as a litigation associate at an international law firm where she worked on criminal and constitutional law cases. A 2005 graduate of Washington and Lee School of Law, Ms. Sheffield serves on the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington’s Next Generation Leaders executive committee. Ms. Sheffield also writes on a variety of subjects for an online magazine focusing on issues in the African-American community.
Michael Slater came to the organization in 2004 with eleven years’ experience in community, labor and faith-based organizing. In 2006 Mr. Slater took over Project Vote's Election Administration Program, and has overseen its successful expansion into one of the leading voter protection and election administration operations in the country. In 2008 Mr. Slater was promoted to Executive Director, and now oversees all the implementation and strategic growth of all Project Vote operations. During his tenure with Project Vote, Mr. Slater has helped lead a successful effort to overturn laws in seven states restricting voter registration, including Project Vote v. Blackwell, contributed to the passage of election legislation in half a dozen states, and has authored or edited numerous publications on election policy. Mr. Slater splits his time between Washington, D.C. and his home in Salem, Oregon.
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