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Jeff Clements

President and Board Member, American Promise and American Promise Education Fund

 

Jeff serves as President of American Promise. He has practiced law for three decades in public service and private practice, and is the author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money & Global Corporations. He is also the founder of Whaleback Partners LLC, which provides sustainable financing to businesses in the local agriculture economy. Previously, Jeff has been a partner in a major Boston law firm and served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the public law enforcement bureau in the Attorney General’s Office in Massachusetts. Jeff has helped to start and been a board member of many non-profit organizations and businesses. Twitter: @ClementsJeff 

John Wass

Board Chair, American Promise and American Promise Education Fund

 

John is a corporate executive and entrepreneur whose body of work includes leadership in the early days of Staples, one of America’s most well-known office supply retailers. He helped expand the company from 3 stores to over 1000 outlets. He managed development programs including a prototype store, the B2B business unit, and a $10B global supply chain. John also co-founded and built a state-of-the-art healthcare information company, which he sold to Cardinal Healthcare. He now serves as CEO of Profit Isle, Inc.

Alicia Hesse-Cleary

Board Member, American Promise and American Promise Education Fund

 

Alicia is an analytical, creative and entrepreneurial leader with proven experience in developing, implementing and directing business development initiatives across sectors, multi-stakeholders levels and diverse communities, including Greater Boston, South East Asia, South & Central America, and Europe. Most recently the founder and CEO of Arts2You in the Boston area, Alicia has extensive experience in the business and non-profit sectors, including operations, strategy and business development and marketing.

Buff Kavelman

Board Member, American Promise and American Promise Education Fund

 

Buff Kavelman is founder and president of The Kavelman Group Philanthropic Advisors (TKG). Buff Kavelman founded TKG in 1997 to serve individual donors, foundations and nonprofit leaders in strategic planning, board development, philanthropic initiatives, and external affairs. Buff is recognized for increasing organizational capacity, launching new initiatives, building effective partnerships, and raising institutional profiles. She has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, served in senior positions at the American Academy in Rome, the Smithsonian and Columbia University. She has participated on many grantmaking panels, including the J. M. Kaplan Fund’s Innovation Prize, the Architectural League of New York, the Utah State Council on the Arts, the Pew Trust’s Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative, and the New York State Council on the Arts, where she chaired two 2012 panels. From 2016 to 2018 she served on the expert selection panel for the New York Community Trust’s Nonprofit Excellence Awards. In 2019 she was certified in Nonprofit Board Consulting by BoardSource and appointed Co-Chair of Philanthropy New York’s International Grantmaking Network. With decades of experience in the philanthropic world, as a funder, board member and a nonprofit executive, she has a uniquely balanced perspective on organizational development.

Debra Winger

Board Member, American Promise and American Promise Education Fund

 

Debra Winger began a career in TV and film and on stage in the mid 70’s. Her work includes Terms of Endearment, Officer and a Gentleman, Urban Cowboy, Big Bad Love, The Sheltering Sky and most recently The Lovers and Patriot. Raising 3 sons, writing a book (“undiscovered”), teaching a fellowship for Dr. Robert Coles’ noted course “The Literature of Social Reflection” and producing several documentaries including the Academy Award nominated film Gasland, about the oil and gas industry in her home state, led her to take note of how her own industry has been changed by corporations; how this not only affected the way business was done and films were made and released, but the livelihood of artists as well. Her support for and involvement with American Promise has been unwavering since its inception.

Cheryl Crawford

Board Member, American Promise Education Fund

 

Cheryl Clyburn Crawford is the Executive Director of MassVote. She grew up in Boston and has worked for many years in communities of color advocating for voting and civil rights. She joined MassVOTE in 2008. ​Cheryl is a critical public face for MassVOTE, recruiting coalition members, new donors, and volunteers. She sits on the Executive Board of the NAACP-Boston Branch as 2nd Vice President and is a past Executive Board Member and former Chair of the Board of Emerge Massachusetts. Before MassVOTE, Cheryl served as Chief of Staff to State Representative Willie Mae Allen. She is a graduate of Lesley College, with a B.S. Education & Psychology. Cheryl frequently serves as a poll worker for the City of Boston. She has served on the American Promise National Advisory Council since the organization was founded, and helped lead the successful cross-partisan campaign in Massachusetts to create the first Citizens Commission to Advance a Constitutional Amendment for Government of the People. Cheryl now serves on the Citizens Commission.

Jason Ford

Board Member, American Promise Education Fund

 

Jason is a passionate and dedicated educator with a wide range of experience in public, charter, and independent schools. He currently serves as the middle school principal at Trinity School in New York City. A native of Houston, Texas, Jason has always been drawn to opportunities through which he can inspire young people to become caring and engaged citizens.

Jim Rubens

Board Member, American Promise

 

Jim Rubens is a former two-term Republican State Senator in New Hampshire. He served as the chair of the Public Affairs and Education committees in the Senate, as Chair of the NH GOP Platform Committee, and as a GOP candidate for US Senate and Governor. Jim is a private venture investor, focusing on New England start-ups in proprietary technology and healthcare solutions, and has been Board President of Headrest, a substance abuse program and suicide prevention hotline serving northern New England. In addition to his work with American Promise, Jim is the New England Chair of Take Back Our Republic, a conservative reform organization. Motivated by deep concern about the corrupting influence of concentrated money on republican principles, free speech and liberty for all Americans, government accountability to citizens, and competitive free enterprise, in 2018-19, Jim worked with American Promise and others to help lead the effort to pass a resolution in the New Hampshire legislature to make his state the 20th to formally call on Congress to pass and return to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment for reasonable limits on election spending. He lives with his family in Hanover, New Hampshire.

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Jeff Clements

President and Board Member

 

Jeff, an attorney, is a founder and President of American Promise. He is the author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money & Global Corporations. In his legal career, he has been a partner in a major Boston law firm and has served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the public law enforcement bureau in the Attorney General’s Office in Massachusetts. In 2012, He founded Whaleback Partners LLC, which provides sustainable financing to businesses in the local agriculture economy in New England. Jeff has helped to start and been a board member of many non-profit organizations and businesses. Twitter: @ClementsJeff

Leah Field

Managing Director

 

Proactively pivoting from a profit driven to a mission driven vocation, Leah joins American Promise as Managing Director. With a strong background in organizational and financial management, she is thrilled to contribute her experience to empowering staff, volunteers, and citizens to win the 28th Amendment. Leah brings a passion for consensus building and increasing organizational awareness among team members; she believes that members are best served by a healthy organization, a state achieved through ongoing goal assessment, feedback, and evaluation. Born and raised in New England, she earned her BA in Psychology from Boston University. Previously, she worked as an Operations Manager at BioMimetic Systems, a biotech firm in Cambridge, MA and most recently, she worked as an Engagement Manager at ATLANTIC-ACM, a Boston-based market strategy and management consulting firm.

Dr. Jessica Hare

Empowerment Director

 

Dr. Jessica Hare is a native of Manning, SC and attended public schools in Clarendon County District 2. Dr. Hare received her Doctor of Social Work degree from the University of Southern California. She is also an Alumna of the University of South Carolina where she received her Master of Social Work degree, and Winthrop University where she received her Bachelor of Social Work degree.

Dr. Hare has over 13 years of professional social work experience that ranges from child welfare, military social work, medical social work, and school social work. Dr. Hare is an active member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women where she serves as the Third Vice President of Membership for her local chapter. Dr. Hare prides herself on upholding the organization’s mission and vision. She has proven to be committed to the empowerment of black women and girls, while advocating on their behalf to promote leadership development and gender equity in the areas of health, education and economic empowerment. She also volunteers as a designated speaker for the Domestic Violence Speaker’s Bureau in Charlotte, NC and has been chosen as the keynote speaker for many domestic violence events. Dr. Hare plans to continue utilizing her social work knowledge and skills to stand against social injustice while empowering not only oppressed populations, but all populations. In her down time, Dr. Hare enjoys exercising and spending quality time with her children Morgan (11) and twins Nicholas & Megan (5).

Marnie Walsh

Empowerment Coordinator

 

A Vermont native, Marnie received her Bachelor’s Degree in Criminology with a Minor in Sociology from Stonehill College. Marnie holds a passion for inclusivity and political mobilization for all people. Marnie’s academic background has provided a crucial foundation of system-level thinking and community and equity-centered solutions. Her academic studies have focused on police brutality, racial injustices, and the advancement of racial equity in policy implementation across the criminal justice system. Marnie joined the American Promise Team to fight for equitable democracy that is for all people.

Azor Cole

Deputy Political Director

 

Azor’s experience as a journalist fostered his skepticism towards concentrated power and spurred his interest in campaign finance reform. His work has appeared in The Daily Orange, The Syracuse New Times, and Envirogorge.  As the Deputy Political Director for American Promise,  Azor builds relationships with elected officials, partner organizations, media figures, fellow staff members, and volunteers to achieve swift, measurable progress around state-specific strategic goals.  Azor is a graduate of Syracuse University.

Liz Harvey

Development Director

 

As a former Development Director, Director of Foundation Support and Major Gifts Officer, Liz has worked in a range of roles at Massachusetts non-profits, supporting efforts to connect individuals and organizations with impactful causes. Most recently, Liz was the Associate Director at the Concord-Carlisle Community Chest where she oversaw marketing and development communications efforts and special events. As the Development Manager at American Promise, Liz looks forward to helping to address the outsized influence of money in politics and engaging, and inspiring others to join the effort.

Jacob Brown

Development Coordinator

 

Jacob Brown hails from Rockville, MD outside of Washington, DC, and is a graduate of the University of Maryland. Jacob’s interests include astronomy; political theory; international relations; environmental, racial and indigenous justice; as well as geographic information systems. Currently, his passion lies with helping others which drives him to work in the non-profit world. After trying a few positions around DC, he moved to Denver and worked for the Anti-Defamation League. Jacob joins the team after over a year of fundraising for ADL and looks forward to bringing his skills and acumen to American Promise to support the passage of the 28th amendment and to empower individuals and communities around the nation.

Corinne Noonan

Leadership Gifts Officer

 

A New Hampshire native, Corinne got her start in the political sphere working on a US Senate race. Motivated by her experiences engaging with community members and hearing their stories, she went on to work with volunteers for issue-based environmental campaigns across the country. Most recently, she organized with the ACLU’s non-partisan effort to bring key civil liberties into the conversation in the 2020 presidential primary. Seeing the challenges presented by allowing big money to control how we elect officials, she is excited to join the fight for campaign finance reform. Corinne is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where she studied English and Government.

Gregory Joseph

Communications Director

 

Gregory Joseph is a seasoned communications professional and writer with a proven ability to develop communications plans that incorporate traditional, new and social media. With experience working within non-profit, political and advocacy media, Gregory has managed numerous political and advocacy campaigns, as well as directing communications, research and policy departments. Most recently, Gregory served as Communications Director for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), the nation’s oldest non-profit solely devoted to ending capital punishment. Prior to NCADP, Gregory served as a Director with the Washington-DC based communications firm, Spitfire Strategies. Gregory has worked on statewide campaigns in North Carolina, California, Texas, New Jersey, New York and Minnesota. In addition, Gregory served as Senior Staff on Bill Bradley’s 2000 Presidential campaign. Gregory got his professional start as an aide to former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun. Gregory was born in New York, raised in New Jersey, and currently resides in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Zye Allen

Communications Coordinator

 

Zye is an Atlanta, GA native and a graduate from Spelman College. After college, she found herself truly enthralled in the work of content creation and seeing goals come together as a result of creative and purposeful work. Zye joined American Promise because she believes in a government by the people and not big money corporations. She knows the importance of a strong digital presence and as an advocate for social justice, wants to use her skills to provide insight on the 28th Amendment as an institute for change.

Mark Steininger

IT and Engineering Project Manager

 

Mark is originally from Fort Collins, Colorado, and he’s been involved in both Massachusetts and Colorado local politics since he was in high school. After working on environmental issues and student loan reform, Mark became interested in campaign finance law and realized the utmost importance of the issue. Mark originally began work at American Promise as an Intern, and after graduating from Boston University he joined the team full time.

Erica Boutin

Finance and Administration Manager

Erica comes to American Promise with a diverse financial background. She served 4 years in the Air Force in financial management. Since her honorable discharge, she earned a BA in Behavioral Science from Metropolitan State University of Denver. She was also an Air Force dependent which provided her with many unique experiences. Erica lived in Central Massachusetts before joining the Air Force and she recently moved back to the area from Colorado. She is looking forward to being a part of a meaningful cause with the amazing American Promise team!

Brian Boyle

Senior Legal Counsel

 

Brian lives in central Massachusetts where he oversees his family-owned insurance brokerage and serves on his town’s finance committee. Before becoming a small business owner, Brian was a litigator in a national law firm and clerked on the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He earned his BA from Harvard College and his JD from Cornell Law School. Brian is passionate about cross-partisan efforts to improve our constitutional democracy and is excited to contribute to American Promise’s mission.

Ayden Nichol

Research Fellow

 

Ayden is a rising sophomore at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he majors in government and competes as a varsity athlete on the Nordic ski team. His political experience includes work as a field manager in Maine during the 2020 elections, and as a volunteer in Massachusetts congressional races in 2018 and 2020. He has long been passionate about democracy reform and is excited to be joining the American Promise team in working towards a more just and representative government. 

Kyle Taylor

Political Research Associate

 

Kyle is a native of California’s Central Coast and a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, where he champions student civic engagement and facilitates multi-partisan dialogue as the Director of External Affairs for BridgeUSA’s Berkeley chapter. He has worked as a Policy and Communications intern for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and as a field organizer empowering Michigan service workers to become leaders in pressuring their representatives to raise their $3.47 minimum wage to $15. Concerned about political polarization and widespread loss of faith in our democratic institutions, Kyle sees the withering accountability lawmakers pay to typical citizens, due largely to unregulated campaign financing, as a fundamental barrier to the healthy functioning of a democracy. Seeing the importance of American Promise’s mission, Kyle is thrilled to play a role in pushing for the 28th Amendment.