Canvassing Works

Maggie Drummond, GrowSmart Maine, Advocacy Director

“Canvassing for the Fund was my first genuine political experience, starting the summer after I graduated from college in 1998. Fortunately, the experience didn’t just open my eyes to critical issues facing our environment and democracy, it also taught me solid communications skills and gave me much-needed leadership experience- all of which has helped me build a career in non profit and public interest work. Canvassing provides a opportunity for people from all walks of life to participate directly in the political process on issues they care about, and serves as an entrée for thousands of young people for a lifetime of public service and good citizenship. It was invaluable in shaping the person I am today.”  Maggie Drummond

Maggie Drummond is the Advocacy Director for GrowSmart Maine, a non profit organization working to promote quality growth in the State. Maggie started as a canvasser and field manager for the Fund during the summer of 1998. She went on to become a director in the Newton, Massachusetts office that fall & winter, and became the National Canvass Administrator in 1999. Maggie held that position for three years, before moving back to her home state of Maine to direct the Toxics Action Center office from 2001 until 2004.

E. Christopher Wilder, Valley Medical Center Foundation

When the video was shot, Chris worked with City Year.  He's now Executive Director the Valley Medical Center Foundation.

E. Christopher Wilder, Valley Medical Center Foundation, Executive Director

"I owe my success in the fund-raising and nonprofit development world to my years with the Fund, canvassing for the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG). There, I learned the fundamentals of campaign work, and how to lead door-to-door canvass operations benefiting the environment, improving consumer safety and strengthening democracy."  E. Chris Wilder

With eighteen years in the Bay Area's public benefit sector, Chris Wilder serves as the Executive Director of the Valley Medical Center Foundation. The VMC Foundation supports Silicon Valley's largest and busiest hospital, the only one with a 100% open-door policy providing excellent care to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Since taking the position three years ago, Chris has raised more money than in the VMC Foundation's previous twelve years combined.

Before joining the VMC Foundation, Mr. Wilder most recently served as the Executive Director of City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley, California's premiere AmeriCorps program. There he managed a large staff, led a dynamic board and oversaw a fund raising effort exceeding $2,000,000 annually.  Prior to that, Chris served as Assistant Executive Director for the Vanished Children's Alliance, California's oldest and largest missing children's organization.

Today he serves as a commissioner to the Santa Clara County Child Abuse Council and is past Chair of the county's Victim Support Network. Chris also serves on the City Year advisory board, the San Jose Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force Executive Committee and is a founding board member of the California AmeriCorps Alliance. He graduated from Stanford University's Executive Program in Nonprofit Leadership.

Chris has hosted and produced two award-winning cable TV shows: Community Perspectives and For the Animals. Chris is a graduate of San José State University, a lifelong resident of the Bay Area, and a musician/song writer who has performed in two-dozen nations. He has received accolades and commendations from San Jose Mayors Ron Gonzales and Susan Hammer, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren Congressman Mike Honda, Governor Gray Davis and others.

Eric M. Garcetti, Los Angeles City Council President

"Canvassing helped teach me that democracy is something that is best practiced face-to-face. My experience prepared me for reaching out to people who tune out television ads and mailings, but who will engage with a direct interaction at their door. I am certainly a better and more effective public servant because of this experience."  Eric M Garcetti

Mr. Garcetti won a hotly-contested election to the Los Angeles City Council in 2001, becoming one of the youngest city councilmembers in the city's history. Over 100 languages are spoken on the streets of his district, from Hollywood to Downtown and across the Los Angeles River. The neighborhoods he represents constitute the beating heart of Los Angeles.

Council President Garcetti chairs the Rules and Elections Committee. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Energy and the Environment Committee and sits on the Housing, Community, and Economic Development Committee, which he chaired for four and a half years. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Ad Hoc River Committee and the Ad Hoc Homelessness Committee, and serves on the Ad Hoc Stadium Committee. He was unopposed for re-election and began his second term in office in July 2005.

During his first term in office, Garcetti led the effort to fund the nation's largest Affordable Housing Trust Fund, oversaw the economic and cultural revitalization of Hollywood, wrote and championed Proposition O to clean up our local water, won passage of a plan that eliminated the city’s business tax for 60% of all businesses, and helped bring thousands of new high wage jobs to Los Angeles and his district. In his district, he doubled the number of parks, ensured the availability of an after-school program in every school in the district, and reduced graffiti by more than 60 percent.

Councilmember Garcetti's work has been recognized in dozens of awards, including a Green Cross Millennium Award from former President Mikhail Gorbachev for his environmental leadership, a "Tiger Award" from the Valley Industry and Commerce Association for his work on business tax reform, and the first Olson Award from Human Rights Watch for his human rights activism. The Los Angeles Times writes that Garcetti is "smart” and “imaginative” and offers the city “refreshing idealism.” He was featured in LA Weekly's Best of Los Angeles issue and the Los Angeles Alternative Press readers named him "L.A.'s Favorite Elected Official" of 2003. In 2004, The Los Angeles Business Journal named him one of the 25 Angelenos who stand out for their potential to shape lives in Los Angeles. A profile in Los Angeles magazine in 2006 called him "a rising star".

Prior to his election, Garcetti taught public policy, diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College and the University of Southern California. In 1998, the Rockefeller Foundation selected him as a Next Generation Leadership Fellow. Garcetti studied urban planning and political science at Columbia University, where he received his B.A. and M.A. in International Relations. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and the London School of Economics.   Council President Garcetti canvassed with the Fund during college.

Abe Scarr, MASSPIRG, Organizing Director (former Student Empowerment Training (SET) Project, Director)

“I began canvassing after I graduated from college in 2002. I was politically motivated and engaged in my community in both high school and college, but had never worked on a campaign that made an impact on the scale I wanted. When I graduated, I knew I wanted to work as an activist but had no idea how. Canvassing changed all of that. For the first time, I could see concrete results from my actions both on a daily basis and over the course of a campaign. As a developing activist, I especially appreciated the challenge of canvassing: every day I was forced to push myself to perform, and to develop and hone my communication skills. Canvassing opened up the doors for a career in organizing. Six months after I started, I was hired as a campus organizer with the student PIRGs, where I worked for two years, returning over three summers to direct canvass offices. Now I direct my own project, working with student governments all over the country, teaching student leaders skills and organizing techniques that help them be more effective advocates for students. I use the skills I learned canvassing every day.”  Abe Scarr

Abe was the Project Director for the Student Empowerment Training Project, which works with student governments and state student associations across the country, a position he began in August 2005.  Over the course of his first year with the SET Project, Abe launched and organized three regional conferences, training hundreds of students in organizing and campaign skills, hired and trained field organizers to run field campaigns for the Minnesota State University Student Association and the California State Student Association, worked closely with students in South Carolina working to institutionalize the South Carolina State Student Association, and raised enough money to hire 5 additional staff to work with the SET Project over the 2006/2007 school year.  Abe launched his public interest career as a Fund canvasser in October 2002, in Washington DC, working on Greenpeace renewable energy campaign and helping to launch the first U.S. PIRG street canvass. In April of 2003, he started working with the Student PIRGs as a campus organizer. Abe worked with students on the North Shore of Massachusetts to help pass tough new legislation to clean up Massachusetts coal burning power plants, including the Salem Harbor power plant. Between 2003 and 2005, he directed Fund canvass offices in Washington DC, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Manhattan.

Elizabeth Ouzts, Environment North Carolina, Executive Director

"Canvassing is absolutely essential to the work that we do. Having tens of thousands of one on one conversations with people about our campaigns ensures that we are rooted in work that the people of North Carolina care about. Funding our organization through thousands of small, individual contributions allows us to be independent from corporations and political parties. Canvassing has not only built up Environment North Carolina from scratch; it has also played an essential role in a host of victories for the environment--from cleaning up coal-fired power plants to protecting our rivers and lakes."  Elizabeth Ouzts

Ms. Ouzts is responsible for coordinating policy development, research, and legislative advocacy for Environment North Carolina. She works to clean up the largest sources of air pollution in the state—automobiles and power plants—and to preserve the state’s forests, farmlands, and natural areas. Elizabeth serves as the organization’s main representative in North Carolina’s General Assembly, and was one of the primary environmental advocates for the state Clean Smokestacks law in 2002. She has appeared on local affiliates of NBC, ABC, and CBS in Raleigh and Charlotte, and has testified before the state legislature on issues ranging from cleaner gasoline to cleaning up factory hog farms. She is on the executive board of the NC Conservation Network and is a steering committee member of the Land for Tomorrow coalition, the statewide effort to create a permanent, dedicated source of funding for protecting forests and farmlands. A graduate of the NC School of Science and Math and Yale University, Ms. Ouzts began her work with the state PIRGs in New Jersey in 1997, where she completed service for NJ Community Water Watch, a project of NJPIRG Law and Policy Center. In 1998, she returned to North Carolina to work with NCPIRG. She became the director of NCPIRG in 2001, and in 2006 assumed leadership of Environment North Carolina.

Bernadette Del Chiaro, Environment California, Energy Advocate

“As an advocate for Environment California, I understand first-hand the political value of canvassing. The Fund’s huge canvassing presence, both door-to-door and on street corners, played a role in passing our Million Solar Roofs bill, which will make California a world-wide leader in solar power. It absolutely elevated the issue in terms of public awareness, which, in turn, made it clearer to decision-makers that they needed to act. I ALSO know that some of the skills that I learned from my OWN canvassing experience during the summers of 1998 and 1999 have enhanced my effectiveness as an advocate."  Bernadette Del Chiaro

Bernadette directs Environment California’s Clean Energy Program and serves as the contact for state clean energy issues. Since 2003, Ms. Del Chiaro has been the lead advocate of the Million Solar Roofs campaign. She also directed Environment California’s Clean Energy L.A campaign, a successful coalition effort to establish a 20% by 2017 renewable energy standard at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Ms. Del Chiaro advocates in the California state legislature, before the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission, and before municipal agencies and governments on clean energy issues. She's been quoted and published in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Bloomberg News, Sacramento Business Journal, Photon International, and Comstock’s Business Magazine and many more. Del Chiaro has been invited to testify before the Little Hoover Commission and various legislative committees and energy policy workshops.

In addition, Ms. Del Chiaro has authored numerous reports, including Clean and Affordable Power: How Los Angeles Can Get To 20% Renewable Energy by 2017, The Economics of Solar Homes in California, and Bringing Solar to Scale: California’s Opportunities to Create a Thriving, Self-Sustaining Residential Solar Market. She has peer reviewed several other reports including Making Sense of Hydrogen: The Potential Role of Hydrogen in Achieving a Clean, Sustainable Transportation System.

Prior to joining Environment California’s staff, Bernadette served as Organizing Director for the Toxics Action Center where she coordinated the successful campaign to clean up Connecticut's "Filthy Five" power plants. She remains on the Board of Directors for the Toxics Action Center and is a former Board Member of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. In 1998, she graduated from Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing.   As part of her tenure with Green Corps, Bernadette was a Fund canvass director in New Haven, CT during the summer of 1998 and in Newton, MA in summer of 1999. From 1995-1996, Ms. Del Chiaro staffed the local campaign office to stop the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump in Needles, CA.  Del Chiaro holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

Janet Domenitz, MASSPIRG, Executive Director

"I started working at MASSPIRG over 25 years ago. The very first thing I did with MASSPIRG was canvass on a toxics right to know campaign, when the canvass here was brand new. Canvassing completely transformed my view of what was possible---both personally and politically. I didn’t realize I had the courage and tenacity to go door to door, in all different kinds of neighborhoods, to invite and inspire people to take action, until I started canvassing. And I don’t think any of us realized the political force that canvassing could create, but we found out very quickly as we started winning in the Legislature and on the ballot as a result of the citizen base we established through the canvass. To this day, those skills and those political lessons are the fundamentals of my activism."  Janet Domenitz

Janet S. Domenitz has been Executive Director of MASSPIRG since 1989. She is responsible for coordinating policy development, research and legislative advocacy for the largest public interest organization in Massachusetts. She serves on the board of Massachusetts Common Cause and is a former member of the national governing board of Common Cause. Janet is also a board representative and executive committee member of the Consumer Federation of America, sits on the advisory board of Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing, and was a founding member of Earth Day Greater Boston. She joined staff in 1980 after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University. E-mail Janet.

Jerry Hauser, The Management Center, CEO

"Although almost twenty years have passed since my summer canvassing for PIRG, I not only remember that time with great fondness but that initial exposure to the world of public-interest lobbying continues to shape my career path and my political involvement.  Professionally, I currently run a non-profit organization whose mission is to help make progressive advocacy organizations more effective in their work, and I can trace my awareness of the public-interest sector and commitment to advancing its mission directly back to my time at PIRG.  On a volunteer level, I recently participated in a successful grassroots campaign in my hometown (Washington, DC) on behalf of a candidate for school board, and I found myself applying and sharing with others many of the lessons I learned from my canvassing work at PIRG.” - Jerry Hauser, President & CEO, Advocacy Institute

Jerry Hauser is now leading a new venture called the Management Center.  Launched by progressive philanthropist Peter Lewis, the Management Center's mission is to consult with nonprofit advocacy groups to help them consistently achieve outstanding results by using the best management practices of any sector.   Before this, Jerry joined the Advocacy Institute in September 2005 as President and CEO, a position to which he brought his dual passions for promoting social justice and creating high-performing organizations. Prior to joining the Advocacy Institute, Jerry served as the Chief Operating Officer at Teach For America, where he managed all aspects of the national non-profit that recruits and trains outstanding recent college graduates to teach in the nation's most under-resourced schools. During his seven years there, Jerry helped Teach For America expand its reach significantly: applications increased from 3,000 to 17,000 per year and annual fundraising went from $8 million to $38 million. In addition to his time at Teach For America, Jerry also learned about creating strong organizations while working as an associate at the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company in Washington, DC, where he served Fortune 500, state government, and non-profit clients. Jerry began his career as a high school math and history teacher through Teach For America in Compton, California.   He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal, co-led a non-profit foundation for start-up public interest law projects, and helped lead a successful federal court challenge to Amtrak's policy of ejecting the homeless from Penn Station. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science from Duke University, and has studied Spanish in Mexico and Guatemala.   He has appeared on a variety of panels regarding non-profit leadership, and his article on "Organizational Lessons for Non-Profits" appeared in The McKinsey Quarterly in 2003.

Philip D. Radford, Greenpeace, Executive Director

Philip D. Radford is the Executive Director for Greenpeace.  Mr. Radford got an early start in the public interest movement, working as a Fund canvasser for Illinois PIRG while in high school.  He directed canvass offices during college over the course of three different summers and canvassed part-time during the school year.  Mr. Radford started a Free the Planet! chapter on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied political science and business.  Upon graduation, he joined Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing, as a lead organizer between 1998 and 1999.  Mr. Radford then took a position as Field Director for Ozone Action, planning and running a number of campaigns, including the Global Warming 2000 campaign responsible for flipping Senator McCain into a hero on global warming.  In 2001, he founded Power Shift, which convinced 12 cities to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency and persuaded Citigroup to create new ways of financing clean energy to make solar and wind affordable to more Americans.  Mr. Radford then served briefly as a Partner with Clean Edge Inc., the clean technology authority, before joining Greenpeace as the Grassroots Director.  Mr. Radford graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1998 and has received an Executive Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Georgetown University.