Trainers Bureau

It would not have been possible for the NOI to quintuple our number of trainings we offered in 2009 without the help of our staff and allies. We're expanding our training offerings in 2010 via our Trainers Bureau.

After you've taken a look at the NOI Trainers below, you can request one for your event here.

Cheryl Contee
Trainer: online advocacy, blogging, strategy, new media, email, online branding
Cheryl Contee is a partner and co-founder of the social media consultancy Fission Strategy where she specializes in online advocacy, marketing, and communications. Prior to launching Fission Strategy, Cheryl was Vice President at Fleishman-Hillard San Francisco where she acted as lead digital strategist for the West Coast, helping clients manage their brands and online campaigns.

Heather Cronk
Trainer: online strategy, youth organizing, new media
Heather is the Chief Operating Officer at the New Organizing Institute. Prior to her work at NOI, Heather worked with PledgeBank.com to spread PledgeBank as a tool for local community organizing and citizen-centered collective action. Heather's background is in campus organizing, where she worked with Idealist.org's campus program, first as an organizer and then as director. In the role of director, Heather coordinated Idealist’s work with college students, traveling nationally to train at campuses and conferences, running day-to-day operations for the program, organizing a 1500-person national conference on student engagement and activism, and building a strong network of university programs and nonprofit organizations.

Beka Economopoulos
Trainer: online organizing, international organizing, new media, earned media
Beka Economopoulos has 15 years experience as a grassroots field and online organizer, working with local, national, and international NGOs, community groups, and activist mobilizations. Prior to joining Fission, Beka created and ran the Online Organizing department at Greenpeace USA, managing a team with a focus on online/offline integration, volunteer management, leadership development, and online social networking and social media strategy.

Lola Elfman
Trainer: journalism/blogging, online organizing, strategy, email
Lola Elfman is grad student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studies photography and journalism. Lola worked at NOI developing programs and trainings, and was previously a consultant at M+R Strategic Services. A former art teacher with a passion for politics and social change, at M+R Lola developed creative ways for M+R clients to educate and engage their supporters online.

Judith Freeman
Trainer/Speaker: new media, field, strategy, data and technology, modeling/targeting
Judith Freeman is the co-founder and Executive Director of the New Organizing Institute, a training, research and development organization for technology-enabled organizers, activists, staff, and leaders. Recently, she was on leave from NOI to work for the Obama campaign's new media operation. Previously, she was the senior political strategist at the AFL-CIO, where she also co-founded the Analyst Institute. During the 2004 presidential election, she worked on the Kerry campaign's internet operations.

Julielyn Gibbons
Trainer: blogging, online organizing, social networking, coalition-building, email
Julielyn Gibbons is a well known online activist and blogger extraordinaire with a can-do attitude. She is one of the leading voices of Michigan Liberal, the State’s premier political blog. She most recently worked with as a consultant for a variety of organizations on a mission to boost their online presence, expand their use of new online tools, and promote online activism. Julielyn is nationally recognized for building the blogging community in Michigan and has built strong connections with progressive organizations seeking to make inroads into the online world.

Garlin Gilchrist II
Trainer: community organizing, web design, strategy, blogging, social networking
Garlin Gilchrist II is a leader, community organizer, activist, engineer, writer, and Entrepreneur. The SuperSpade: Black Thought at the Highest Level is a website Gilchrist created that is devoted to providing critical analysis of political and cultural events; connecting them to people's everyday decision making. Garlin is also the Founder and Primary Solution Architect of Opportunity Technology, a technology consulting firm that provides its services to socially responsible individuals, groups, and companies.

Adam Green
Trainer: earned media, rapid response, blogging, strategy, new media
Adam Green is a self-described “pro bono philosopher.” A native of New Jersey, he attended law school at the University of Virginia and did his undergraduate work at The George Washington University – where he studied political communications and economics. He currently serves as Civic Communications Director for MoveOn.org Civic Action. Previously, he was Communications Director for the New Jersey Democratic State Committee and was the DNC’s Press Secretary in Oregon during the 2004 presidential campaign.

Greg Greene
Trainer: strategy, campaign design, new media, campaign design
Greg is a Senior Strategist for Blue State Digital. For more than a decade, Greg has been involved in politics, beginning with a stint as a White House intern in 1993. He worked on Cathy Woolard's campaign for Atlanta city council president in 2001 and as research director and press secretary for her 2004 Congressional campaign. Other recent political experience includes three years as a governmental affairs representative for technology concerns and progressive causes, as well as engagements with environmental organizations such as the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and the Georgia Water Coalition. Greg recently worked as a Senior Strategist with Blue State Digital and TK at the National Democratic Institute.

Larry Huynh
Trainer: online marketing, online strategy, campaign design, list-building, testing
Larry Huynh is a principal and co-founder of Blackrock Associates. Last fall, Huynh managed the online strategy and fundraising programs for the winning campaigns of Senators Tim Johnson and Mark Udall. In 2006, Huynh helped elect Sens. Jim Webb and Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Nick Lampson. Blackrock was key to Webb's victory by coordinating and achieving the viralization of the "Macaca" video and raising more than $4 million online. For the firm's work, Blackrock Associates has been awarded twenty "Pollie" awards from the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) and three "Golden Dot" awards from the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI) for achievements in viral video, flash animation, podcasting, and website design. In addition, Huynh was chosen as one of Campaigns & Elections Magazine's 2007 "Rising Stars" in politics. In 2003, Huynh helped lead the Draft Wes Clark movement before serving as Clark's online fundraising and communications strategist during the 2004 presidential campaign, helping raise more than $7 million online -- 40% of the campaign's total fundraising effort.

Before joining Clark for President, Huynh worked in high-tech, marketing, and as a consultant with Mercer Management Consulting. Huynh graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Biochemical Sciences.

Rox Lemieux
Trainer: strategy, online organizing, web development, list-building, social networking
Prior to co-founding Fission Strategy, Roz Lemieux served as the Executive Director of the New Organizing Institute. Roz worked for MoveOn.org Political Action in various capacities-including staff trainer, “geek” organizer, and volunteer program manager from April 2004 to July 2006. Prior to joining MoveOn, she operated a small independent consulting business, conducting online campaigns for progressive candidates and causes. She got her start in online organizing while serving as the Feminist Majority Foundation’s web team director from 1999-2003.

Ian Magruder
Trainer: video, online organizing, youth organizing
Ian Magruder is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley and President of the California College Democrats (CCD). He is a graduate of NOI's 2007 BootCamp and former video producer for Al Gore's Current TV network. His experience in online organizing comes from an electoral perspective: working on local, state, and national campaigns. Before CCD, Ian served as State Field Coordinator for California Students for Barack Obama.

Lauren Miller
Trainer: email, online strategy, campaign design, online fundraising, testing
If you subscribe to progressive e-mail lists, chances are you've read Lauren's work. Since joining Blue State Digital in 2005, Lauren has developed online communications, outreach and social networking programs for more than 50 clients, including the Democratic National Committee, Wal-Mart Watch, Senator Ted Kennedy, the American Red Cross and National Geographic. In addition to serving as BSD'S chief copywriter, Lauren develops copy and programs for BSD clients on social websites like Facebook, Myspace and YouTube.
Previously, Lauren served as State Volunteer Coordinator for the California Democratic Party, and worked in their communications department during the 2004 election cycle.

Lindsay Patross
Trainer: online organizing, community organizing, blogging, social networking
Lindsay Patross works online and offline community building. Lindsay has worked on numerous political campaigns since 2004. In 2005, she began to work with blogging and social media and co-founded the blog IheartPGH.com. Lindsay continues to work on blogging and social media, she working in marketing at Spreadshirt.com and is responsible for the corporate blog and social media communications for North America. Lindsay is also manages the website for VoteVets.org.

Cristen Perks
Trainer: online advertising, strategy, email, testing, campaign design
Prior to joining EchoDitto, Senior Strategy Architect Cristen Perks was a consultant specializing in the creation and marketing of custom issue advocacy campaigns. During the last presidential election, she worked in online advertising at MSHC Partners. It was there that she developed and implemented large-scale online advertising strategies for issue advocacy groups and political campaigns, including John Kerry for President and the Democratic National Committee. Additionally, Cristen has significant experience in online campaign management, search engine marketing and optimization, and technical project management.

Nathan Riding
Trainer: coalition-building, field, volunteer management, voter data/registration

Nathan is National Field Coordinator for Health Care for America Now, working to provide quality affordable health care for all Americans in 2009. Prior to HCAN, Nathan worked as the technology services coordinator in Washington state, managing the Voter Activation Network. He helped 50 nonprofit organizations with their targeting and training in the 2008 election cycle. Nathan has worked as Field Director at Equal Rights Washington, the Washington state LGBT civil rights organization, and formerly served as the Kansas City Program Director at Missouri ProVote. In his free time, Nathan is a student at the University of Washington studying communications, and enjoys rowing, yoga, and meditation.

Julia Rosen
Trainer: online organizing, strategy, rapid response, blogging, campaign design
Julia is the Online Political Director for the Courage Campaign. Julia got her start in politics working for Common Cause. She moved out to California to work for the Alliance for a Better California, where she wrote over 2,000 posts on why Arnold Schwarzenegger is not a Democrat. Julia continued her work within the labor movement serving as the Online Communications Director for Working Californians. Her background is in connecting the netroots and the labor movement to bring about progressive change.

Tracy Russo
Trainer: online strategy, blogging, campaign design, email, new media
Tracy Russo, President of Russo Strategies, LLC is well known for her online outreach work and her ability to integrate online communications and new media opportunities with all aspects of traditional campaigns and organizations. As the Chief Blogger and Deputy Director of Online Communications for the John Edwards for President Campaign, she directed and executed an online communications and outreach strategy that targeted national, niche and local bloggers, online media outlets, social networks and activists.

Katelyn Sabochik
Trainer: new media, campaign design, data analysis, strategy, testing
Katelyn Sabochik is the New Media Director at the Department of the Interior, directing the online, video and design efforts of the DOI. Previously, she joined Blue State Digital in March 2007 as a senior strategist. Katelyn has also worked at the AFL-CIO - during the 2006 election cycle she helped to design and implement an online communication program focused on identifying union activists and engaging them in a wide range of online and offline activities to help elect AFL-CIO endorsed candidates at the federal, state, and local level. Katelyn has also worked as a Consultant with M+R Strategic Services. At M+R, she worked with progressive nonprofit organizations to create, implement and analyze the results of online advocacy and fundraising campaigns.

Michael Silberman
Trainer: blogging, online strategy, new media, online organizing, web development
Michael Silberman is a founding Partner of EchoDitto, a leading strategic online communications and technology team that works with its clients to leverage new media and participatory technologies to affect positive social and environmental change. He also served as the 1Sky climate campaign's Internet Director during its first year, where he planned, led, and implemented a successful nationwide internet organizing, communications, and fundraising strategy. Other recent work includes exciting projects with the Wilderness Society, Seventh Generation, and Mother Jones.

Brandon White
Trainer: online organizing, blogging, coalition-building, strategy, social networking
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Brandon White currently serves as the Summit/Issues Director for Michigan Prospect and Michigan Voice. In this role, Brandon is responsible for driving home policy victories for progressive local organizations across the state along with planning the Michigan Policy Summit, an action-agenda conference for Michigan’s progressive community.