Ellen S. Miller

Ellen S. Miller is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based, non-profit catalyst that is using new technology to open up Congress. In just two years, Sunlight has created more than two dozen Web sites, databases, distributed research projects, tools and widgets to make information about Congress’ activities more accessible through the Internet. She is the founder of two prominent Washington-based organizations in the field of money and politics -- the Center for Responsive Politics and Public Campaign -- and a nationally recognized expert on campaign finance and ethics issues. Ms. Miller is a well-recognized public speaker, commentator, and writer on the issues of money, politics, and power. Her experience as a Washington advocate for more than 35 years spans the worlds of public interest advocacy, grass roots activism and journalism. In addition to her more than two decades of work on the issue of money in politics, Ms. Miller served as Deputy Director of Campaign for America's Future, where she directed its Project for an Accountable Congress, the publisher of TomPaine.com and a senior fellow at The American Prospect. She spent nearly a decade working on Capitol Hill. She blogs regularly at the Sunlight Foundation site and has written frequently for TomPaine.com, The Hill, The American Prospect, and The Nation.

Michael Klein
Michael Klein is the co-founder and Chairman of the Sunlight Foundation. After more than 35 years of active law practice at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale), Mike retired from that partnership on January 1, 2006 in order to devote all of his time to the array of business and non-profit activities that have increasingly engaged him over the past decade. Principal among these are: Chairman of the Board of Directors of CoStarGroup, Inc. (NASDAQ symbol CSGP) of which he was a co-founder; Vice Chairman of the Board and Lead Director of Perini Corporation (NYSE symbol PCR); a member of the Board of Directors of SRA International, Inc. (NYSE symbol SRX); director of the privately held cargo carrier ASTAR Air Cargo, Inc., formerly DHL Airways, Inc., of which he is a co-owner; Chairman and CEO of the acclaimed DC restaurant Le Paradou LLC, of which he was a co-founder and is the principal shareholder; and Chairman of the Board of the DC art gallery Zenith Gallery, Inc. of which he was a co-founder. Mike also serves as a trustee of The American Himalayan Foundation and of The Shakespeare Theatre Company.

Bill Allison
Bill Allison is a Senior Fellow at the Sunlight Foundation. A veteran investigative journalist and editor for nonprofit media, Bill worked for the Center for Public Integrity for nine years, where he co-authored The Cheating of America with Charles Lewis, was senior editor of The Buying of the President 2000 and co-editor of the New York Times bestseller The Buying of the President 2004. He edited projects on topics ranging from the role of international arms smugglers and private military companies in failing states around the world to the rise of section 527 organizations in American politics. Prior to joining the Center, Bill worked for eight years for The Philadelphia Inquirer—the last two as researcher for Pulitzer Prize winning reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele.

Paul Blumenthal
Paul Blumenthal is a Research Assistant of the Sunlight Foundation and author of the blog, "In Broad Daylight," which tracks daily news on money in politics and reform in Congress. Prior to joining the Sunlight Foundation, he interned at Campaign for America's Future working on its Project for an Accountable Congress. During the 2004 election season, he worked for Rock the Vote as a Research Assistant to the Political Director and as the author of the Rock the Vote blog. He recently graduated from New York University's Gallatin School for Individualized Study and is a native Washingtonian.

Avelino Maestas
Avelino Maestas, the Assistant Managing Editor for Congresspedia, is a former journalist who reported on politics in southern New Mexico. For the past four years, Avelino covered local news in Silver City, New Mexico. Most recently, he was a Staff Writer for the Silver City Daily Press, one of the last independent newspaper operations in New Mexico. Previous to that, Avelino was the News Director for KNFT-AM/FM, heard throughout southwest New Mexico. In 2004, he interned in the office of Senator Jeff Bingamen.

Larry Makinson
Larry Makinson, Senior Fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, is one of the nation's leading experts on the patterns of money in American politics. He began that work as a journalist in Alaska in the mid-1980s and was one of the pioneers of computer-assisted reporting on money in politics. That work eventually took him to Washington, DC where he spent 15 years at the Center for Responsive Politics, including two years as its executive director. While at CRP, he originated the category system for classifying campaign contributions by industry and sector, he authored nearly a dozen books and countless reports on the patterns of funding in federal campaigns, and he helped design the award-winning OpenSecrets Web site. After leaving CRP he spent a year as senior fellow at the Center for Public Integrity, investigating the patterns in Pentagon contracting. Makinson currently telecommutes to Washington from his home on the Oregon coast.

Kerry Mitchell
Kerry Mitchell, Creative Director for the Sunlight Foundation, has been designing and developing Web sites since 1995. Prior to joining the foundation, Kerry worked as the Publications and Information Systems Manager for the University of South Carolina where he automated various levels of data extraction and created systems to streamline offline publication of print materials. As Product Manager for Epinions.com, Kerry served as the official User Advocate as well as the technical liaison between the engineers and designers. Most recently he was working as a technology consultant for JETRO, the Japanese External Trade Organization. He speaks very little Japanese.

Jim Morris
Jim Morris is a Program Director of the Sunlight Foundation. Before joining Sunlight, he was a project manager at the Center for Public Integrity, where he led, among other projects, an investigation of privately-sponsored travel for members of Congress and their staffs. A journalist for 30 years, he has won more than 50 awards for his work, much of which has focused on government agencies. He has worked at a variety of newspapers in Texas and California, as well as U.S. News & World Report and Congressional Quarterly in Washington.

Anupama Narayanswamy
Anupama Narayanswamy is the Investigative Writer for Real Time Investigations, a Sunlight Foundation project. Before joining the Sunlight Foundation, she was a researcher with the Center for Public Integrity and has also worked with Investigative Reporters and Editors as a graduate student. Originally from Mumbai, India she has worked as a reporter with leading Indian newspapers. She has a Master's degree in English Literature from the University of Mumbai and a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Lisa Rosenberg
Lisa Rosenberg is Sunlight's Government Affairs Consultant, lobbying Congress to make legislative changes to improve transparency in government. She has extensive experience in the legislative branch, having worked for many years on and off Capitol Hill. As a Legislative Assistant for Senator John Kerry, Lisa advised the senator on issues relating to technology, consumer protection, campaign finance reform and judicial nominations. As Counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's Special Investigation into campaign finance irregularities, Lisa investigated illegal and improper campaign finance activities during the 1996 federal election and coordinated hearings for Ranking Member John Glenn. Lisa's work off Capitol Hill includes her work as Congressional Liaison for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a federally funded nonprofit corporation providing civil legal assistance for the poor. As the Director of the FEC Watch Project at the Center for Responsive Politics, Lisa testified before the Senate Rules Committee on campaign finance reform issues and matters related to the Federal Election Commission.

Gabriela Schneider
Gabriela Schneider is the Communications Director of the Sunlight Foundation. Prior to joining the Sunlight Foundation, she was the Media Relations Manager for the Council on Foundations, where she secured media coverage for the philanthropic sector. Previously, Gabriela organized grass roots campaigns for the Public Policy Office of the American Psychological Association and worked to protect children's online privacy as Senior Policy Analyst for the Center for Media Education. She earned her Masters of Arts in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and her Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Lehigh University.

Mike Smith
Mike Smith is the Staff Writer at the Sunlight Foundation. Before joining the Sunlight Foundation, he worked for the Proteus Fund, the Florence Fund and the Schumann Foundation, philanthropies that fund in the areas of money and politics, media, environment and civil rights.  He also worked in the Capitol Hill office of U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV as a speechwriter, and Public Affairs Television in New York as a research associate. He attended William Jewell College and the University of Missouri School of Journalism. 

Nisha Thompson
Nisha Thompson is the Organizer and Outreach Coordinator of the Sunlight Foundation. Prior to joining Sunlight, she was on the Leadership Committee of the Area IV Neighborhood Coalition in Cambridge, MA focusing on community development and involvement. In 2004, she interned in the Office of Congressman Ruppersberger (MD-2) and fundraised for the Democratic National Committee's Grassroots Campaign. She graduated from Boston University in 2005 with a double major in Psychology and Political Science.

Nancy Watzman
Nancy Watzman is a Denver-based consultant to the Sunlight Foundation. Over the course of her career as an investigative journalist and researcher, she has worked for a number of Washington-based watchdog and advocacy groups, including Public Campaign, the Center for Responsive Politics, and the Center for Public Integrity. She is co-author, with Micah Sifry, of "Is That a Politician in Your Pocket? Washington on $2 Million a Day," (Wiley Books, 2004) contributed to "The Buying of the Congress" (Avon Books, 1998), and has penned articles and opinion pieces for publications such as Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. She has served as a fellow with the Center for Independent Media and was recipient of a Century Foundation investigative journalism grant. She is one of the "gang of four" bloggers at the Denver Post's Politicswest.com, and also blogs at Muckraking Mom.

Scott Wells
Scott Wells is the Office Administrator of the Sunlight Foundation. Prior to joining the Sunlight staff, he was the Coordinator of Publication Sales for the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and pastored Unitarian Universalist churches in the District of Columbia and Georgia. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia and a master's degree from Texas Christian University. He comes to government transparency through his interest in open-source software and he blogs about improving organization administration practices.

John Wonderlich
John Wonderlich is a Program Director of the Sunlight Foundation. Before joining the Sunlight Foundation, he started a collaborative wiki-based committee watchdogging group called the Congressional Committees Project. He is organizing the Open House Project, to work with Congress and the public to encourage accessibility in the federal legislature. He has a degree in Philosophy from Penn State University.

Greg Elin
Greg Elin, Chief Data Architect of Sunlight Labs, is a research software developer specializing in databases and interactive technologies and is the creator of Fotonotes, an open-source image annotation technology. Since the early 1990’s, he has helped large and small organizations articulate and prototype new technologies. His more than 15 years experience in New York’s hi-tech community includes experiences with dot.coms and non-profits. He has provided database and technology services for a variety of clients including: New York University, American Institute of Graphic Artists, Computer Horizons, and the National Performance Network. Mr. Elin has also facilitated technology discussions organized by Arts International, Dance Theater Workshop among others. From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Elin worked with New York University's IT organization on enterprise wide data and directory information. His Fotonotes image annotation concept has been adopted for use by Flickr.com, a United States Navy micro-satellite project and others. Mr. Elin holds a Masters from the Tisch School of the Arts’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and a B.A. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeremy Carbaugh
Jeremy Carbaugh is a Web developer for Sunlight Labs. Jeremy previously wrote enterprise Web applications for government agencies such as the Department of the Treasury, Department of Veterans Affairs, IRS and FBI. He also co-founded 200 OK, a Washington, DC based Web development company. He earned a Bachelors of Computer Science from James Madison University.

Joshua Ruihley
Joshua Ruihley currently works out of his Lexington, Kentucky home as a technology consultant for Sunlight Labs. A Web development professional for over a decade, Josh’s expertise is in helping non-profits and citizen journalists use new communications technologies to participate in the democratic process. His most recent projects include the Center for Democracy & Technology's Open CRS, New Media Mill's New Media Manager and Open Hearings -- a Web tool he developed to increase public access to congressional committee hearings. Josh earned his Bachelors of Science in Telecommunications from the University of Kentucky, where he focused his studies on telecommunications public policy and computer science.

Garrett Schure
Garrett Schure is a Database Engineer for Sunlight Labs. In the mid-90's he built large-scale SGML based publishing systems as a Software Engineer for the Thomson Corporation. He built the foundations of Sunlight's LOUIS project at the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse in Vermont.

James Turk
James Turk is a technology consultant for Sunlight Labs. The focus of his work is Web application development, including distributed research projects such as EarmarkWatch.org. He currently attends the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he studies Computer Science and Political Science. Before joining the Sunlight Labs, he also spent time working at Project Vote Smart.

Technology advisors:

Micah L. Sifry
Micah L. Sifry is a co-founder and executive editor of the Personal Democracy Forum, which covers the ways technology is changing politics (www.personaldemocracy.com). In addition to organizing the annual Personal Democracy Forum conference with his partner Andrew Rasiej, he consults on how political organizations, campaigns, non-profits and media entities can adapt to and thrive in a networked world. From 1997 to present, he has also worked closely with Public Campaign, a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on comprehensive campaign finance reform, as its senior analyst. Prior to that, Sifry was an editor and writer with The Nation magazine for thirteen years. He is the author or editor of four books, the most recent being Is That a Politician in Your Pocket? (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), written with Nancy Watzman. He is also an adjunct professor at the Political Science Department of the City University of New York/Graduate Center, where he teaches a course called “Writing Politics.” His personal blog is at micah.sifry.com.

Andrew Rasiej
Andrew Rasiej is the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and has served as an advisor to Senators and Congressman and political candidates on the use of information technology for campaign and policy purposes since 1999. For the 2004 Presidential race he served as Chairman of the Howard Dean Technology Advisory Council. He recently ran a highly visible campaign for Public Advocate of New York City, running in the Democratic primary on a platform to bring low cost wireless access to all New Yorkers. Andrew is also the founder and Chairman of MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools and Education), an educational non-profit organization started in 1997 focused on providing technology support to public schools. He served on the 2001 New York City Board of Education's task force on technology and has spearheaded several other innovative projects that support efforts to bridge the "Digital Divide" in public education.