Co-Founder / National Director: NORMAN SOLOMON founded the Institute for Public Accuracy in 1997 and is its executive director. Immersed in anti-war, social justice and environmental movements since the late 1960s, he is the author of a dozen books including "War Made Invisible," "War Made Easy" and "Made Love, Got War."

 

Campaign Coordinator: DAVID SWANSON is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org His books include "War Is A Lie." He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts "Talk World Radio."

 

Co-Founder / Policy Director: JEFF COHEN is a media critic, columnist, documentary filmmaker, and retired journalism professor who founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986. For years, he was a regular pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC discussing issues of media and politics; he is the author of "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media."

 

Political Director: SAM ROSENTHAL is an organizer and researcher based in Washington, DC. He previously served as the political director at Our Revolution and in elected leadership with Central Brooklyn Democratic Socialists of America.

 

Senior Strategist: INDIA WALTON is a longtime community activist who emerged in 2021 as a powerful presence in the progressive movement after a stunning Democratic primary victory over a 16-year incumbent mayor of Buffalo.

 

Organizing Coordinator: RYAN BLACK is a political organizer and digital marketing professional based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He previously worked with various marketing agencies and for campaigns across the country as a consultant, campaign manager, and videographer.

 

Coordinator, Defuse Nuclear War / Specialist, Nuclear Issues: EMMA CLAIRE FOLEY is a nuclear weapons policy expert, writer and filmmaker who has spent her career working for nuclear disarmament campaigns. Her commentaries have been featured in Newsweek, NBC, the Guardian and other international news outlets. She is also active in healthcare organizing through the Democratic Socialists of America.

 

Partnerships Coordinator: HANIEH JODAT BARNES is an Iranian American activist, and one of the founding members of Women’s March Los Angeles, and a former board member of Women’s March California and LA. As a Bernie national delegate, she co-founded Muslim Delegates and Allies and currently serves as the National Director of Lift the Sanctions Campaign. Hanieh is a state delegate at the California Democratic Party and for her work, as an activist, she has been recognized by the National Iranian American Council as one of the 40 Iranians under 40 to inspire the community.

 

Whistleblower Advocate: JEFFREY STERLING is a former CIA case officer who was at the agency, including the Iran Task Force, for nearly a decade. He filed an employment discrimination suit against the CIA, but the case was dismissed as a threat to national security. He served two and a half years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act. No incriminating evidence was produced at trial and Jeffrey continues to profess his innocence. His memoir, “Unwanted Spy: The Persecution of an American Whistleblower,” was published in late 2019.

 

Social Media Coordinator: RICCI SERGIENKO is an abolitionist organizer in Los Angeles, working professionally as a digital strategist. Ricci has led widely successful grassroots digital campaigns at the local, state, and national levels. He’s also currently a provisionally licensed attorney in California.

 

Digital Coordinator: BILL LACKEMACHER

 

Board of RootsAction

 

Board Chair: PIA GALLEGOS is a New Mexico-based social activist and has been a trial lawyer for over three decades.  She fights for workers who are discriminated against in promotions and terminations or who are sexually harassed in the workplace.  She has also assisted and advised many progressive nonprofits.

 

Board member: DEBORAH THOMAS was publisher of FAIR for 25 years and before that publisher of Grand Street literary journal for 10 years. She has worked on a variety of progressive magazines including Seven Days, Politics & Other Human Interests and The Nation. She is now Executive Director of the Segue Foundation.

 

Board member: DEBORAH TOLER is a researcher and writer who was previously a Program Director at Oxfam America and a Senior Research Analyst at the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First).

 

Board member: CRYSTAL ZEVON is a lifelong activist advocating for issues ranging from peace, the environment and human rights to media justice. She worked as the West Coast Coordinator of FAIR in the late 1980's. She is a writer, a videographer and is currently devoting most of her time to working with Indigenous groups around preserving Native culture and protecting sacred lands.

 
 
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TESTIMONIALS

  • "If we do not organize the great grassroots, we are doomed to be under the total control of corporate America. We have regressed to the days of the robber barons in the early last century -- but this time, these corporate thieves own and control the mass media. We need to organize to prevent an invasion of Iran and to extract ourselves from Iraq and Afghanistan. And we must begin to take care of our citizens." - Former U.S. Senator Jim Abourezk, early endorser of RootsAction.org