David D. Burstein
Founder and Executive Director of 18in08
David D. Burstein, 20, is the Founder and Executive Director of 18 in ‘08. The nation’s largest youth run nonpartisan not-for-profit young voter engagement organization. The organization is based on the documentary film of the same name which David directed and produced. In 2008, 18 in ‘08 lead a major national campaign to register, engage, and mobilize young voters for the 2008 election registering over 25,000 new voters, hosting over 1000 events at high schools, colleges, and in communities in 35 states, including a 23 state film tour, youth policy forums with Senatorial and Congressional candidates, a young celebrity get out the vote PSA series featuring Olivia Wilde and Maggie Gyllenhaal among others. David has devoted much of his time, efforts, and energy throughout his life to youth empowerment and political involvement. In 2003, David worked with a group of fellow students to create the highly successful Westport Youth Film Festival. The festival has since become the world’s premiere film festival run by high school students for high school students, for which David served as Director until leaving high school. In May of 2005, David was appointed to serve on the Weston Commission for Children and Youth, responsible for advising his home town on issues and activities related to students and children. He advises many youth oriented not-for-profits and serves on the advisory boards of the Westport Youth Film Festival, the Youth Entitlement Summit and Presidential Classroom. He is a sophomore at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. David has appeared as a commentator on youth and politics for a range of publications and media outlets including: CNN, FOX News, ABC Evening News, NPR, C-SPAN, The New York Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times, and The Politico among others, he is also a contributor to the Huffington Post. He lives in Weston, Connecticut. He is currently at work on a book about the Millennial Generation.
Nancy Bocskor
Professional Fundraiser and Political Consultant
Nancy Bocskor helps individuals and organizations raise money and win campaigns – without losing their souls, savings or sanity. Her mission, in the United States and internationally, is to teach citizens how to communicate with passion to affect change in their communities.
Her current projects include working with CLIME (the Center for Liberty in the Middle East) to launch a Women’s Online Activism Institute in North Africa and the Middle East, and setting up a young women’s leadership program for the Navajo Nation called the “Window of Hope” Foundation.
She is an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management where she teaches both an online and a “live” fundraising course.
Nancy started her political career in the office of then-freshman Congressman Newt Gingrich. She has served as a chief of staff on Capitol Hill, as a campaign manager, as a fundraiser and as a political educator. In 1990, Nancy started The Nancy Bocskor Company, a political consulting firm specializing in training for officeholders, candidates and campaign workers, and fundraising for Members of Congress.
Nancy has taught campaign schools in all 50 states and a dozen foreign countries, and consistently receives top marks for her innovative techniques and her humorous anecdotes.
Nancy was selected by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies as a “mentor” to women candidates from the Middle East, where she spent a week in Turkey training more than a dozen candidates from Jordan, Morocco and Algeria. One of her candidates was the top woman vote getter in Jordan and is now a member of the Parliament. She conducted a three-day leadership conference for women from Belarus in late 2007, and taught 100 attendees from 30 countries at an International School of Fundraising held in England.
Nancy is a Vice President of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, where she chairs the school’s Curriculum Committee. She is on the board for Running Start, an organization that encourages young women to run for office, and Food for Thought, an organization promoting education in Liberia and Zambia. Nancy’s work on behalf of her clients has been highlighted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and on National Public Radio. Named a “Rising Star in Politics” by Campaigns & Elections magazine, she was featured in the PBS documentary, “Vote for Me: Politics in America.” She has served as a political analyst for CNN, and has appeared on C-SPAN.
Mo Elleithee
Communications Professional and Founding Partner of Hilltop Public Solutions
A founding partner of Hilltop Public Solutions focusing on communications and campaign strategy, Mo Elleithee has spent more than a decade working on some of the most extraordinary campaigns in modern times.
In January 2007, Mo was named Senior Spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In his role as Traveling Press Secretary, he spent much of the presidential primary season as lead spokesman on the campaign plane, interfacing between the candidate and her traveling press corps. Before that, he spent much of 2007 running the campaign’s state and local press operation across the country, ensuring that the campaign’s message was driven at the most local level.
Mo has also been a key operative involved in the elections that helped turn Virginia from a solidly red state to one of the most key swing states in the country today. In 2001, he served as press secretary for Mark Warner as the Democrats recaptured the Governor’s mansion for the first time in 12 years, and he helped hold it as Communications Director for Tim Kaine’s successful 2005 campaign. In 2006, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee hired Mo and Hilltop to run its independent expenditure campaign against then-Senator George Allen. The outcome of that race resulted in a Democratic takeover of the United States Senate. In January 2009, he was named Senior Strategist for former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for Virginia Governor.
Mo’s work in Virginia led the conservative editorial page of the Richmond Times Dispatch to write that “Virginia Democrats smile when their gubernatorial candidates have big Mo.” (11/26/05)
Mo previously served as New Hampshire Communications Director for Senator Bill Bradley’s White House run in 2000, and for General Wesley Clark’s 2004 campaign. Before joining the Clark campaign, he served as National Press Secretary for Senator Bob Graham’s presidential campaign in 2003.
Mo’s campaign work also includes serving as Senior Advisor to Senator Tom Udall’s (D-NM) 2008 campaign and Deputy Campaign Manager on his first winning campaign for Congress in 1998, Campaign Manager on Janet Reno’s campaign for Governor of Florida in 2002, and a number of other campaigns in Virginia, Florida, Illinois, California, North Carolina and Arizona.
Mo received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and his Master of Arts degree from the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University. In 2008, he was named The Graduate School of Political Management Alumnus of the Year.
He can frequently be seen as a commentator on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News.
http://www.hilltoppublicsolutions.com/
Julie Barko Germany
Director, The Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet
Julie Barko Germany serves as the director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet and director of marketing and communications for The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.
Julie is the principal author and editor of several publications, including Constituent Relationship Management for State Legislators, Best Practices for Political Advertising Online, Constituent Relationship Management: The New Little Black Book of Politics, and Person-to-Person-to-Person: Harnessing the Political Power of Online Social Networks and User-Generated Content, as well as The Politics-to-Go-Handbook: A Guide to Using Mobile Technology in Politics and The Political Consultants’ Online Fundraising Primer. She co-authored Putting Online Influentials to Work for Your Campaign, and she has authored chapters in Voting in America and Rebooting America. She has appeared in national and international newspapers, magazines, and media, including MSNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News, CBS, and NBC. In 2008 Julie was honored as a Rising Star by Campaigns and Elections’ Politics Magazine.
Julie previously served as the deputy director of IPDI. She worked as a writer, editor and program manager for international initiatives in Korea, Ukraine, Haiti and the United States. Julie is a founding board member of Young Champions, a non-profit that addresses youth health issues, and a founder of Mobile Monday DC, the local chapter of an international community of mobile technology experts and enthusiasts.
As an undergraduate, she studied Literature, Philosophy and Classics at Messiah College. Julie also studied at Keble College, Oxford University, as well as in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was a Pew Younger Scholar of Literature at the University of Notre Dame. She received an M.A. from The George Washington University, where she was a University Fellow.
www.ipdi.org
Mitch Hoban
Former Staffer in the Office of White House Counsel
Mitch Hoban attends Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Graduate School of Business, from which he will receive a Juris Doctor and Master of Business administration in 2010. He is an Honors at Entrance and Rose Kennedy Scholar and is Director of Corporate Programming for the Business Law Society and a member of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. He is also a part time law clerk at Friedman Properties.
In 2008, Mitch took a leave of absence from law school to intern at The White House in the Office of Counsel to the President. During the internship, he was appointed to a staff position, where he served until the end of the administration in 2009.
Mitch graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of San Diego where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration with an emphasis in real estate. While attending the University of San Diego, Mitch was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the most prestigious national honors society for business students. He served as Vice President of his fraternity and was involved in various organizations including the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the Student International Business Council, Boys & Girls Clubs of San Diego, and Special Olympics. He interned in the commercial real estate industry for CB Richard Ellis and LandGrant Development and studied aboard Semester at Sea. Upon returning from Semester at Sea, Mitch founded and operated, Snafu Sandals LLC, a footwear company with international operations.
Mitch is highly involved in the community. He serves on the Junior Board of Directors of the Lookingglass Theatre, volunteers in state politics and is a member of various other organizations.
Jordan Lieberman
President, Political World Communications, LLC
Jordan Lieberman is President of Political World Communications, LLC which includes Campaigns & Elections’ Politics magazine, its training and political networking events, and related properties. During his tenure, the operation has grown faster than any previous time in its 29-year history. Prior to serving as Publisher and later President of Political World Communications, Lieberman consulted on numerous campaigns and advocacy programs in the United States and abroad. Politics is now read in approximately forty countries.
In 2004 Lieberman split his public affairs and political consulting businesses and formed Campaign Impact Services, LLC. Lieberman, with his partners, handled the direct mail and telephone advocacy programs for more than ten candidates for United States Congress and forty candidates for state house across the country. Previously, he managed numerous races throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. He was among the first Americans to travel to Ukraine and assist the fledgling campaign of now- President Victor Yushchenko by training his campaign management team.
In the last campaign cycle, Lieberman appeared on the BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, National Public Radio, XM Radio and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Times. In 2007, he had a lead role in the movie “Electile Dysfunction.”
John P. McConnell
Speechwriter for President George and Vice President Dick Cheney, 2000-2009
John P. McConnell is a Washington-based writer and consultant in the
fields of politics, business, and entertainment. He served in the
Bush-Cheney Administration as Deputy Assistant to the President and
Senior Speechwriter to the President and Vice President. A former
U.S. Senate page who graduated from Carleton College and Yale Law
School, John first worked in the executive branch for Vice President
Dan Quayle and eventually served more than a decade as a White House
speechwriter. He has traveled across America with presidential and
vice-presidential nominees during four national campaigns, and to 35
countries on Air Force One and Air Force Two.
Tobin Van Ostern
Co-Founder of Students for Barack Obama
Hailing from Richmond, VA, Tobin’s first taste of political campaigning came in the 7th grade when he interned for Mark Warner’s successful race for Governor. Two years later, Tobin became the youngest state gubernatorial appointee when he was selected by Governor Warner to sit on the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which focuses on decreasing smoking among youth.
Following his interest in government, Tobin helped lead the state’s non-partisan Mock Election program while in high school in an effort to increase the number of young voters.
Upon graduating, Tobin earned the Pogue Scholarship for Excellence in Government and International Studies and enrolled at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Once at school, Tobin used his interest in technology and politics to help start Students for Barack Obama (SFBO) in 2006; serving as Deputy Director in an effort to use Facebook as the launching-point for a grassroots effort to convince Senator Obama to run for President. After accomplishing this initial goal, Tobin became the group’s National Director in its capacity as the official student wing of the Obama for America campaign, growing it to one thousand chapters nationwide.
He recently graduated from The George Washington University where he received a degree in International Affairs with a concentration in Conflict and Security and a minor in Political Science and presently serves as the Network Associate for Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress.
Frank Sesno
Director, The School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University
Frank Sesno, a professor of media and public affairs at The George Washington University, is an Emmy-award winning journalist as well as host and creator of Planet Forward, a ground-breaking web-to-television show on PBS. With more than 30 years of experience, including 18 years at CNN where Sesno served as White House correspondent, anchor, and Washington Bureau Chief. He teaches how the media affects the creation of public policy and is a host and producer of in-depth specials and mini-series on PBS and The History Channel.
As a journalist, Sesno has interviewed business and government leaders including U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan and former General Electric Co. CEO Jack Welch, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He covered stories ranging from the Iraq War, the disputed U.S. presidential election of 2000, and the historic series of superpower summits during the 1980s.
Before joining CNN in 1984, Sesno worked as a radio correspondent at the White House and in London for the Associated Press. He has won several prestigious journalistic awards, including an Emmy, several cable ACE awards, and an Overseas Press Club Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Sesno holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College.
Heather Smith
Executive Director, Rock the Vote
Heather Smith, Executive Director, Rock the Vote . Rock the Vote is a national non-partisan organization, at the intersection of youth, politics, popular culture and technology. Rock the Vote’s mission is to build the political power and engagement of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country. Under Smith’s leadership, in 2008 Rock the Vote ran its most ambitious campaign ever, registering more than 2 million people to vote, and helping to fuel record young voter turnout at the polls.
Prior to Rock the Vote, Smith founded and directed Young Voter Strategies (YVS), a nonpartisan effort supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts to re-energize our democracy through developing tools, data and information for political campaigns and organizations to effectively run their own young voter programs. In 2006, YVS coordinated a national nonpartisan project with 15 organizations that collectively registered more than 500,000 young voters using innovative and replicable methods of voter outreach and played a large role in the young voter turnout increase in 2006. Prior to launching YVS, Smith served as the national field director for the Student PIRGs New Voters Project, the a large nonpartisan grassroots effort to register and mobilize young voters.
The New Voters Project registered nearly 600,000 voters and conducted an intensive, multi-faceted get-out-the-vote effort to bring these newly registered voters to the polls on Election Day. Youth turnout was 11 percentage points higher than in 2000. Smith started her organizing career with Green Corps, a Field School for Environmental Organizing. She is a graduate of Duke University.
For her work with young voters, Heather was named one of Campaign & Elections magazine’s Rising Stars in 2006 and featured in an Esquire magazine profile of the “Best & Brightest” in 2007.
