Public Campaign staff photo taken with
actor Sam Waterston in 2009

Nick Nyhart
President and CEO
nnyhart@publicampaign.org

Nick Nyhart is a co-founder and the President and CEO of Public Campaign. A three decade veteran of social change politics, issue advocacy, grassroots organizing, and non-profit management, Nyhart brings a wealth of experience to the national reform movement. Following the 1992 elections, Nyhart became Director of the Northeast Action Money and Politics Project, a six-state venture that laid the groundwork for Maine's 1996 breakthrough full public financing victory. In January 1997, Nyhart joined scores of state and national money and politics activists to found Public Campaign, where he served as National Field Director and Deputy Director before assuming the group's helm in 2000. At Public Campaign, Nyhart has worked to win cutting edge state reform efforts across the country and has organized a number of innovative national collaborations to promote publicly financed elections at the federal level.

 

Susan L. Anderson
Senior Program Advisor
sanderson@publicampaign.org

Susan L. Anderson is the Senior Program Advisor for Public Campaign, a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to comprehensive campaign finance reform. Since 1997, she has worked extensively with national organizations and Congressional offices in promoting “Clean Money Campaign Reform,” a full public financing system now in effect in Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. Before coming to Public Campaign, Susan was at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where she received a master’s degree in public administration. Before resuming her studies, Ms. Anderson spent more than 10 years working on democracy and governance issues in Southern Africa while affiliated with the African-American Institute in New York. As a program director at the institute, Ms. Anderson managed policy and education programs, led international election observer delegations, participated in technical assistance missions, and organized conferences in the United States and Africa.

 

Rick Bielke
Communications Director
rbielke@publicampaign.org

Mr. Bielke joined Public Campaign in 2001 and directs all aspects of our communication efforts. From overseeing the family of websites to message development and implementation to e-advocacy to materials and publications, his goals are to maintain a seamless, consistent brand for the organization. Mr. Bielke also serves as a spokesperson and has appeared on NPR’s Marketplace and in several print and online publications. He is also the director and producer of our educational video, “Clean Elections: Changing the Face of America,” a 12 minute short on the effects of publicly financed elections.

 

Prior to coming to Public Campaign, Mr. Bielke served as Press Secretary for both Ken Toltz 2000 for Congress in Littleton, Colo. and Kate Coyne-McCoy for Congress in Providence, R.I. Mr. Bielke served as Senior Public Affairs Specialist at the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice, where he was the point of contact for communication and media relations for President Clinton's initiative to hire 100,000 police officers. Mr. Bielke began his career at Handgun Control, Inc./Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, a non-profit organization chaired by Jim and Sarah Brady to reduce gun violence. Mr. Bielke holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Auburn University.

 

Solange E. Bitol Hansen
National Programs Director
sbitol-hansen@publicampaign.org

Solange joined Public Campaign in the summer of 2005 as the National Programs Director responsible for co-managing state campaigns and strengthening Public Campaigns work with campaign finance reform allies across the country.

 

Solange has a wealth of experience with progressive organizations and political organizing and has worked on “both sides of the aisle” on Capitol Hill.

 

Prior to joining Public Campaign, Solange was a Senior Legislative Advocate for the Service Employees International Union focusing on federal legislation and policy affecting immigrant workers and their families. Immediately After 9/11, Solange criss-crossed the country organizing low wage immigrant workers, conducting workers rights training and highlighting the wave of injustices committed against immigrant workers. Solange also represented SEIU internationally, speaking out on social and economic justice issues impacting low wage workers at the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, Brazil and at the World Conference on Racism in Barbados. Prior to working at SEIU, Solange served as legislative counsel to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, legislative counsel for the national American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on first amendment/free speech issues and was Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.

 

A member of the California State Bar, Solange is a graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law. In May, 2007 (the honorable) Solange was elected to serve a two-year term to her local town council – after a successful petition drive to be placed on the ballot, she received the most votes out of all candidates running.

 

Bill Ewing
Development Director
wewing@publicampaign.org

Ewing joined Public Campaign in 2002 after serving for nearly fifteen years as a political fundraising professional, working on races ranging from city council to Congress, from mayor to Governor and every office in between. That’s given him a unique perspective on why the current private financing system is unsustainable.

 

Prior to deciding that a career in politics was both right and proper, Ewing spent several years in the commodities business at the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange followed by eight years as an owner/driver in Chicago with Cook DuPage Transportation, providing transportation services for the Illinois Department of Public Aid and the Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens. Those experiences left him with insights on wealth, class, poverty, hope, and opportunity that still govern his approach to civic life.

 

Ewing attended college in Illinois, Michigan, and England and served two years in the Army in Germany. He and his wife Sara have two fine boys, Morgan and Dane, of whom they are inordinately proud.

 

Jeannette Galanis
National Field Director
jgalanis@publicampaign.org

Jeannette joined Public Campaign in December, 2006 as the National Field Director. Prior to this, she has served as staff or manager of several ballot initiatives in Colorado, including the minimum wage increase and the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) reform measure, considered the largest ballot initiative ever run in the US. Before scratching her campaigner itch, Jeannette was the Executive Director of 9to5 Colorado: National Association of Working Women, working on low-wage and low-income women's policy and organizing. Prior to this, Jeannette served as the Colorado Progressive Coalition's Policy Director, working mainly on health care issues, as well as field staff of the Colorado AFL-CIO.

 

While from Colorado, Jeannette did a prior "stint" in DC as the President of the US Student Association, Advance Team Coordinator for the National Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, as well as Senior Organizer for Public Citizen. Jeannette has a bachelor's from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a master's degree from the University of Denver. While her love of political organizing is deep, she relishes her time searching for the perfect pair of shoes.

Johnny Papagiannis
Communications Associate
jpapagiannis@publicampaign.org

As the Communications Associate, Johnny serves as a liaison to Public Campaign's state partners and assists in on-the-ground organizing and communications needs in targeted states, working to coordinate activities for both the federal legislation and individual state efforts. Prior to joining Public Campaign, Johnny spent more than two years as the Field Director for Progressive Maryland, a non-profit, grassroots organization that focuses on issues affecting working families. In this capacity, he ran successful field operations to raise the minimum wage, increase public school funding, and an electoral effort to elect the organizations’ former Executive Director to the Maryland House of Delegates. In addition to this work, he also lobbied lawmakers in Annapolis for passage of the nations’ first state-wide Living Wage law in 2007. Johnny graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Government and Politics with a minor in history. He grew up in Tallahassee, FL and has lived in the Washington DC area for five years. In addition to being a political junkie, Johnny is an avid sports fan and enjoys short walks on the beach and long drives down the middle of the fairway.


Monica Rober
Development and Communications Projects Coordinator
mrober@publicampaign.org

Monica joined Public Campaign in August of 2007 and is a recent graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. While at Trinity, Monica was able to further pursue her interest in gender and politics, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with concentration in American government and a minor in Women, Gender and Sexuality. During her college years, Monica also had the opportunity to explore her passions outside of the academic arena, interning for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and former Deputy Majority Leader of Connecticut, Evelyn Mantilla. In her spare time Monica is an avid fan of Boston sports teams and enjoys a good book.