Suone Cotner, Chair, lived in Washington DC for ten years prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1983. Once here, Cotner served as President of the Mt. Baker Group, a fundraising and public affairs consulting company. As a consultant for 14 years, Cotner advised clients on fundraising strategy, and designed and supervised the implementation of both short term and long term fundraising plans to raise between $250,000 and $12 million. In 1997, she joined the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, now the Washington State Association for Justice, which represents attorneys and professionals in the legal field committed to champion the cause of those who deserve redress for injury to person, property or civil rights. As the Development Director and now Deputy Director, she is responsible for the organization's major donor and special project fundraising efforts.
Dean Nielsen, Vice President, is the National Political Director for Progressive Majority, a national organization that recruits, trains and elects progressive champions at the state and local levels. In this position, he directly manages state programs from coast-to-coast. Prior to being promoted, Dean served as Progressive Majority's Washington State Director, where he helped elect more than 100 candidates using Progressive Majority's innovate "farm team" program. After four elections, he held the highest candidate win rate in the organization. Dean is a career politico, having worked in various capacities on more than 250 campaigns throughout the Western United States and Eastern Europe starting with Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. His lengthy client list includes Governor Gary Locke (WA), Solidarity Party (Poland), the Gore/Lieberman Campaign, as well as issue campaigns for groups such as EMILY's List, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, SEIU, Harborview Hospital and the Democratic Party in several states. In addition to campaigns, he helped build and expand a grassroots and grasstops lobbying program for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, conceived and launched the Institute for a Democratic Future, did qualitative research for several casinos in Las Vegas, and managed a crisis communications project for a Fortune 500 company.
Adam Glickman-Flora, Treasurer, is Director of Public Affairs for SEIU Healthcare 775NW, the long-term care workers union representing 30,500 home care and nursing home workers in Washington and Montana. As director of Public Affairs he oversees SEIU Healthcare 775NW's political, legislative, community outreach, and media relations work. Adam grew up on the East Coast and became involved in labor and other social justice work while at Wesleyan University. After graduating, he worked in New York doing communications and political work, including as the Communications Director for New York's Working Families Party. He is married and has two wonderful children - Micah and Asher.
Sharon Smith, Secretary is a Partner at River Run ventures, which just completed a large-scale condominium building in downtown Spokane. For 25 years, Sharon Smith led national operations and marketing efforts for hotel brands such as Hilton, Doubletree and Red Lion Hotels. Sharon served as Chairwoman of the Spokane County Democrats in the 2005/6 election season leading to election victories unparalleled in Eastern Washington in decades.
Brian Arbogast is a founder and board member of the Progress Alliance of Washington. He is also corporate vice president of the Mobile Services organization within the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. His teams are responsible for delivering the mobile services strategy, platform, and experiences for Windows Live, as well as the strategy, platform, and integrated services for network operators and other syndication partners, bringing compelling services to a fast-growing segment of consumers. These development efforts span campuses in Redmond, Seattle, Shenzhen, Tel Aviv and Braga. He has more than 20 years of experience in leading teams that deliver innovative software solutions. Arbogast earned a bachelor's degree of mathematics in computer science from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Matt Lerner is CTO of Front Seat Management, creators of www.walkscore.com. Prior to that, Matt led the team at Microsoft responsible for core parts of the Windows Vista user interface. While at Microsoft, Matt founded www.drivingvotes.org which helped thousands of people plan trips to register Democrats in swing states. Matt co-founded EQuill, which built software for Web development, and sold it to Microsoft in 2001. Matt has a degree in Computer Science from Brown University and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship.
Martin Collier is founding Executive Director and a Managing Board member of the Glaser Progress Foundation created by Rob Glaser, CEO and Chairman of RealNetworks. At the Foundation, Collier oversees initiatives to: find better measures of social, economic and environmental progress; support independent and progressive media; and strengthen the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is a Board Member of the National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture, Treasurer of Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media, and Advisory Board Member of Free Press. Before joining the Foundation, Collier was an analyst for the Washington State Senate and an attorney focused on business, environmental and consumer interest class action litigation. He resides on
Kurt Guenther has helped clients reach the audiences they want with the messages they need to get results for more than 20 years. Known for his enthusiasm and openness to new ideas, Kurt combines research with savvy about people in his broadcast, print, Internet, and overall strategy work. Health, education, conservation, women's rights, workers' rights, freedom of speech, national service, new sciences and world relief & development are among issues Kurt has worked with clients to promote, as well as Presidential, Senate and Gubernatorial candidates. Kurt is a founder of doingsomething, an all-volunteer network featured in the national media, two-term member of the Partner Board at his children's public school, chair of communications for the board of the Washington Environmental Council, and a baseball/swimming/soccer dad. Kurt attended Occidental College and Boston University, where he graduated summa cum laude from the School of Public Communication with graduate work in advocacy. He lives with his wife, two children and a nice dog named Ty in Seattle.
