staff & Board
Senior Leadership Team
For full bios, as well as those of other staff, check out the staff page at our partner organization, Faith in Public Life
board
Bobby Clark, Chair
Bobby Clark is an independent consultant with BRC Strategies, LLC and formerly served as Vice President of Programs and Communications at the Gill Foundation, where he oversaw the foundation’s strategic communications efforts and grantmaking to promote equal opportunity for LGBT people. Prior to joining the Gill Foundation, Bobby helped found and lead ProgressNow, a network of progressive communications and advocacy organizations with affiliates in 21 states. Under his leadership, the network grew to a dozen states and generated thousands of stories in state and national media, while cultivating a network of nearly 3 million grassroots members and activists. Previously Bobby served as one of the earliest staff members on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, launching the campaign’s groundbreaking Internet effort and helping pioneer its innovative use of social media to build the campaign into a national movement. Bobby also led the development of the social networking platform ultimately used by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign to power its website.
Rev. James Gertmenian, D.Div., Secretary
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Scott Nielsen
Scott is the first managing director of advocacy with Arabella Advisors where he helps the foundation, family, and individual clients use their resources to pursue the social and political goals that matter to them. He is also the founder and principal of Alexander Nielsen Consulting, which partners with individual and institutional donors to create and implement pragmatic grantmaking strategies that promote social change. Prior to forming Alexander Nielsen Consulting, Nielsen was a program officer for 13 years at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, including seven years in the MacArthur Fellows Program (“Genius Grants”). Nielsen’s primary fields of grant-making expertise include issue advocacy, voter engagement, public policy, public interest law and journalism, the arts, and academic social science and humanities disciplines. He has written widely on philanthropy and the independent sector and serves as an advisor and board member to several other national nonprofits, including State Voices, Boston Review, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. He is a regular panel contributor and speaker to groups working with or within the nonprofit and civic engagement sectors. Nielsen holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Julia Rosen
Julia Rosen is a leading progressive digital and fundraising strategist and currently works as the Digital Strategy and Analytics Director at GPS Strategy with GPS Impact. An experienced leader in marketing at the intersection of political change and technology, Julia has worked to grow, engage and organize multi-channel audiences towards activism in both the issue and electoral realms for over a decade. Prior to GPS, Julia served as the Director of Marketing for the progressive digital fundraising giant ActBlue where she oversaw all outgoing mass communication and managed a team of designers, content creators and analysts. Her leadership contributed to a dramatic increase in ActBlue’s email fundraising program, which doubled cycle over cycle.
Prior to that, Julia served as a Campaign Director for MoveOn.org where she managed a wide variety of issue campaigns, directed email communications to MoveOn.org’s seven million members, and worked with partner organizations to mobilize volunteers during the 2012 election cycle.
Earlier in her career, she held digital leadership positions at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and several California-based advocacy and nonprofit organizations including the Courage Campaign, California’s largest online progressive organization.
Julia is a board member at the Equality Federation and has conducted trainings for the New Organizing Institute, training organizers in digital organizing best practices.
She believes deeply in building and nurturing diverse talent, and brings a strong network of colleagues, allies, organizers, and friends to all of her endeavors.
Cristina Uribe
Cristina Uribe is a veteran political strategist and organizer, with over two decades of experience working at the intersection of advocacy and politics.
She has held senior management roles at several organizations, serving as the California Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC), Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives at the National Education Association (NEA), the Western Regional Director of EMILY’s List, and Political Director for the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council.
Throughout her career Cristina has worked to drive policy and political change at the local, state, and national level, working with some of the most successful organizations and political campaigns in dozens of states across the country. She is recognized for her ability to build and manage large, diverse coalitions and organize communities in support of successful statewide and local ballot, policy, and legislative campaigns. She has also trained thousands of candidates, staff, and organizers through partnerships with Wellstone Action, EMILY’s List, and EMERGE.
As a consultant, Cristina specializes in providing strategic counsel and project management to a wide range of clients. In that role she delivers political guidance to major institutions and foundations on civic engagement strategies and investments. She also works with labor unions, non-profits, and advocacy organizations to develop plans and implement strategies that include coalition building, communications, research, facilitation, and training.
Cristina is a proud Bay Area native and lives in Oakland, CA. When not working, she can be found running Lake Merritt or at the Coliseum rooting on her beloved A’s. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the CA League of Conservation Voters, as a board member of the Health Access Foundation. She previously served as a board member of EMILY’s List, the Latino Engagement Fund, ProgressNow, Planned Parenthood Mar-Monte, and on the Advisory Committee of the Ascend Fund.