Who Is Speaking?

The Speakers At The “Are Y’all Ready To Run?” Candidate And Activist Training

Beverly Stein, Former Chair of Multnomah County Commission, Former Oregon Gubernatorial Candidate and Founder of Tillamook Vote Forward

Beverly Stein retired as a Senior Fellow at the National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC) in the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University.   At NPCC she served as Director of Oregon Solutions and as Director of Research and Development. Her focus was on working on projects aimed at addressing poverty including staffing the Oregon Business Council Poverty Task Force. 

Prior to her work at NPCC she worked for the Public Strategies Group (PSG), headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, for ten years serving as President and co-owner.  PSG’s mission was to work for public purpose organizations across the country committed to innovation, customer-focus and results-based governance.  

Beverly served as the elected Chair of the Multnomah County Board of County Commissioners (Portland, Oregon) and as its Chief Executive for eight years.  In that position she administered a government with 5000 employees and a billion dollar budget. Multnomah County won the Oregon Quality Award (based on the Baldrige Criteria) in 1999 and Stein was designated by Governing Magazine as Local Official of the Year with Portland Mayor Vera Katz in 1996. 

Beverly was elected three times to serve in the Oregon House of Representatives, worked as a Legal Aid attorney and in a solo private law practice, and has extensive experience as a strategic planner and facilitator for non-profit and government organizations.  She ran for Governor of Oregon in the 2002 primary election.  

Beverly graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1970 with a degree in urban studies.  She was awarded her law degree from University of Wisconsin in 1976.  Bev received Human Systems Dynamics certification in 2006.

Beverly currently lives in Cape Meares on the Oregon coast with her husband Butch Freedman, a writer.  A member of the Tillamook County Master Recyclers, she led the effort to ban single use plastic bags in Tillamook County. She taught “Facilitating Effective and Enjoyable Meetings” at Tillamook Bay Community College.  In March 2020 she formed Tillamook Vote Forward to mobilize people in Tillamook County to write letters to turn out the vote in November for Democratic candidates in swing states. 

Caitlin Remmel and Stacia Yim, Georgia State Democratic Party

Stacia Yim and Caitlin Remmel pay homage to the activists who laid the foundation (through organizing, activating, and registering voters) well ahead of the 2020 and 2021 elections and discuss their communication structure as well as efforts to build fellowship within their diverse volunteer community.

Teresa Purcell, Former Candidate for the Washington Legislature, Political Strategist

Teresa Purcell has consulted, coached, and collaborated on over 230 political, issue, public education, and advocacy campaigns throughout the United States. In 1992, she managed the successful, long-shot campaign for U.S. Senator Patty Murray, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Washington State. In 2016, Teresa was a candidate for the Washington State Legislature and defeated the appointed incumbent in the primary, then lost in the general by 559 votes out of 57,000 cast despite the powerful Trump tide in rural Southwest Washington.

In 2001, Teresa founded Purcell Public Affairs Inc. to provide clients with expertise in strategy, communications, and mobilization with an emphasis on building power from the ground up. In addition to her consulting practice, in 2017, Teresa built on the energy of her state legislative campaign and founded two organizations - The Working Democracy Project and The Working Democracy Center dedicated to bringing people from small towns and rural areas together to build progressive political power that advances a democracy, government, and an economy that works for us all.

A native of Washington State and a graduate of the University of Washington, Teresa now resides in her hometown of Longview, Washington.

 Rex Burkholder Former Metro Councilor, Author, Political Strategist

Trained as a biologist, Rex Burkholder worked as a science teacher and in the Northwestern forests. He started the bicycling revolution in Portland, Oregon as a founder and policy director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. His current project is leading an effort to get kids outside to learn, beginning with restoring Outdoor School for All Oregon children. An early leader in sustainability and equity, Burkholder also co-founded the Coalition for a Livable Future, bringing together over 100 diverse NGOs in the greater Portland region. He was a member of the Metro Council from 2000-2012, where he led efforts to reform regional transportation policy and to integrate climate change into the decisions of all levels of government in Oregon. He has served on key task forces as well as national boards including Rail~volution and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations. Recipient of numerous local awards, his work has been recognized internationally as well, being invited to speak in countries throughout Latin America on sustainable transportation and climate change. He was honored in 2010 as a Global Ambassador for Ciclovia, an international movement to reclaim cities from the automobile. His book, The Activist’s Toolkit (2015), is highly praised for it’s creative approach to leadership, helping many around the world be more effective community activists. He blogs about transportation, urban livability and climate change at www.gettingto2100.org.  As a volunteer, Rex founded the Oregon Outdoor Education Coalition in 2014. He led the successful statewide campaign to raise $22 million annually for Outdoor School for All kids in Oregon.

Peter Marks, Oregon-based app-creator turned political organizer.

Peter Marks is an Oregon-based app-creator turned political organizer. He led the design and development of the Bernie 2020 BERN app, which is considered the largest relational organizing campaign in history. He later supported over 1,000+ progressive campaigns and organizations through his work on the Empower app. That experience inspired him to found Oregon Action, an organization supporting progressive Oregon organizations with cutting-edge organizing tactics while driving its own statewide organizing initiatives.

Peter is also the host of a podcast and event series called Rhythm Nation, which explores the intersection of music and activism.

Shauna Ballo, Partner Morel Inc, Chair, NARAL Board of Directors

Shauna Ballo (she/her) is a strategic communications consultant who has worked on behalf of progressive causes for over two decades. She moved to Oregon in 1999 to work for the Oregon House Democratic Caucus and has since had the honor to work for a variety of candidates, ballot measure campaigns, labor unions and non-profits. She has served on the boards of MotherPAC, The Oregon Women’s Campaign School, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon and, most recently, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon - where she co-chairs their PAC Board and is Foundation Board president.

Shauna is a partner at Morel Ink, a Portland-based union printer and mail house, and provides campaign strategy through Sinclair Strategies.

Shauna attended the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Portland State University. She lives in NE Portland with her spouse, teenage daughter and a rotating assortment of pets.

Michelle DePass, Portland School Board Member

Born in the NW, Ms. DePass spent her early years in Venezuela and Mexico before settling back in Portland. A daughter of the Black Panthers, her hero was Angela Davis, once baking a cherry pie for her.

Steeped in a Black academic family that understood injustice and racism and also cared deeply for the environment, she started college as an adult to learn how best to operate and create change within unjust systems. She has a BS in Community Development from Portland State University and an MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

Having been elected in May 2019 to the Board of the state's largest school district, and currently working for the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, Ms. DePass is trying to square land use planning and zoning with America's violent history of land and labor taking, and dreaming of the potential of a city where we have tackled climate change through the lens of Black liberation and where Black boys in particular and all children generally can safely thrive.

Erica Goldman, SwingLeft NW Volunteer Leader, Indivisible Volunteer Leader, MOM’s Demand Volunteer

Erica Goldman is a political activist and super-volunteer.  She has trained thousands of volunteers and led over a hundred phonebanks, canvasses, and other grassroots events. Erica knocked on an unknown voter’s door for the first time 9 years ago, after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School shocked her into action and she joined Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. In 2016, Erica founded Indivisible Oregon, a grassroots organization dedicated to resisting and defeating Trump, which she helped grow to several dozen leaders and thousands of volunteers. In the 2019-2020 election cycle, Erica served as Swing Left’s Regional Organizing Coordinator for the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii, where she supported over two dozen grassroots volunteer groups.  

Erica’s professional experience is with corporate and nonprofit management. She has a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Kimberleyn Carter, Political Strategist. Crisis Communications Strategist. Opposition Researcher. Organizer. Hell Raiser. Abolitionist. Lover of Cake.

Born and raised in Macon GA. 

Executive Director of Rep GA Institute + Represent GA Action Network

Founder + CEO of Carter Strategies LLC, Brand Development Firm

Founding Partner of Polichix LLC, Political Consulting Firm

Founder of Protect Black Girls-Digital Advocacy Org

AKA “The Fluffly Olivia Pope”