Emerge Board Members

Chair:
Margot Biehle
Margot Biehle is a community activist and lawyer. She is a founding Board member of Emerge California, and currently serves on the Executive Committees of the Sierra Club (Marin Group) and the Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative.

Margot currently serves as General Counsel to Project FROG, a startup that designs high performance green building systems. Previously, she practiced water law as a consultant to the Natural Resources Defense Council, advised emerging companies as a legal and business consultant, and practiced mergers and acquisitions law and securities litigation with the San Francisco office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.

Margot ran for the Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors in 2004 and was elected to the Marin County Democratic Central Committee in 2004.

Margot graduated from U.C.L.A. and received her law degree magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco. She lives in San Anselmo, California, with her husband, Kyle and two children, Ella, and Travis.

Vice-Chair:
Marla Harvey
Marla Harvey is the political organizer for SEIU Local 616, and is responsible for the daily political activities for this 15,000+ member organization. She works with staff and members to increase volunteer recruitment and participation in politics, voter registration, member education, and political contributions. She also leads the local's lobbying efforts with state and local elected officials.

Marla has played a key role in several successful local field campaigns for the Alameda County Central Labor Council, and was the field director for Alameda County "Alliance for a Better California" during the 2005 Special Election. She has also trained several groups on volunteer recruitment, voter outreach and education, issue campaigns, and spoke with our Emerge CA 2006 class on how to get labor support for their campaigns.

Marla received her B.A. in Political Science from UC Berkeley.

Board:

Malia Cohen
Malia Cohen is a member of the Corporate Strategy and Communications team for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco which conducts the Nation's monetary policy, supervises and regulates banking institutions and maintains the stability of the financial system. She manages internal communication policies and protocols within the Twelfth District.

Prior to joining the Fed, Malia was Principal of Power Forward Consulting, a public affairs, media and policy consulting firm. Over the years she has gained an outstanding reputation for her expertise in policy, public affairs, media relations, grassroots and political campaigns.

Prior to establishing Power Forward Consulting, Malia served as Chief Legislative Aide to San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson. Working closely with Supervisor Jacobs Gibson, she analyzed and made recommendations regarding important budget and legislative issues that ultimately helped shaped Gibson's platform.

Malia also served as lead organizer for the Newsom mayoral campaign. She successfully galvanized resident support in District Ten. Malia's leadership helped deliver record breaking voter turnout for Newsom. Subsequently, she served two years with the executive staff of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Malia held key posts including: Executive Assistant to the Mayor, Executive Assistant to the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, and Policy Analyst for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Her expertise in managing political campaigns and fundraising has elevated Malia to lead many successful fundraising and candidate campaigns. In addition, her leadership is reflected in working with community organizations, including serving as Assistant Executive Director of the Hunters Point Youth Park Foundation. Recently, Malia ended a two year term as a delegate to the California State Democratic Party Convention.

Malia earned a Bachelor's in Political Science, with honors from Fisk University, was awarded the prestigious Coro Fellowship in 2001 and recently completed a Master degree in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Amy Everitt
Amy Everitt is the Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice California, a chapter of NARAL Pro-Choice America and creates and implements strategies to elect pro-choice candidates at the local, state and national levels. Previously, she was the Political Director at EdVoice, a statewide education advocacy organization which works to make schools better for kids. Before returning to her native California, Amy was the Regional Political Director at the Democratic National Committee covering the West, Midwest and Northeast regions at different times. She has worked on electoral and legislative campaigns at both the national and state level for more than ten years. From 1995-97, Amy was the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and later served as the Country Manager for Southeast and North Asia for the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

Amy has an undergraduate degree from UC Santa Cruz in American and International Politics and a Master's from UC San Diego's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.

Barbara Ellis
Barbara Ellis is a well known campaign and community organizer with deep roots in the East Bay. She has spent many years building community coalitions around reproductive choice, and expanding and protecting the rights of women. Her campaign work includes local, state and national efforts.

Barbara is currently a principal at Aroner, Jewel & Ellis Partners, a government and public affairs consulting firm in Berkeley. She continues organizing around local community issues, tracks legislation, researches topics of concern to clients and serves as their advocate in local and state matters. Barbara convened female pro-choice and labor union leaders in the successful "Labor By Choice" luncheon group that made national history by leading California unions to oppose a 2006 anti-choice initiative on the California ballot.

Previously she served as a community organizer for then-Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, planning and executing large events on issues of young women's health, resources for caregivers, end-of-life services and general constituent outreach. She is a highly respected grass roots organizer for progressive causes.

Emily Evers
Emily Evers is a member of the Transamerica Community Investments Group which invests over $100m per year in affordable housing nationwide. Emily is responsible for origination and analysis of new community investments.

Prior to Transamerica, Emily worked for Cain Brothers, LLC, the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (the "Trust") and Stockard & Engler & Brigham ("SEB"). At Cain Brothers, Emily was the project manager for Air Force Base conversion into housing. She also created models for affordable senior housing with tax-exempt bonds. As Director of Development for the Trust in San Francisco, Emily made investments in several affordable and mixed-income housing communities.

Emily received her MA/BA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago with honors. Her thesis on non-profit housing intermediaries received a Ford Foundation grant. Emily sits on the Housing and Land Use Committee of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group.

Emily is one of the founders of Emerge.

Hala Hijazi
Hala Hijazi works as the City and County of San Francisco's Project Director overseeing the rehabilitation and the terms for the reuse of the Old Mint Building, a National Historic Landmark. Until January 8, 2004, Hala had worked for former Mayor Willie Brown's Office of Economic Development specializing in marketing, small business retention, and project management for 7 years.

Hala believes that the success of any kind of business is contingent upon the building of personal relationships. In July 2002, Hala created Professionals VIP, a business networking group, which has grown from 150 members to 1600 members Bay Area wide, in an effort to enhance and sustain not only the diversity of the type of businesses, but also the diversity of the participants.

VIP's goals are to assist the Bay Area's rising business and political leaders expand their networks, provide them with a platform to share their views affecting the economic, political and social vitality of this City, and inspire them to be socially engaged and responsible. Professionals VIP meets quarterly and is held at various San Francisco venues.

Hala recently accepted The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's nomination for the 2004 Woman of the Year to advance research.

Lindsay Lassman
Lindsay Lassman is the Deputy Director of Development- Major Gifts for NARAL Pro-Choice America, a pro-choice political advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. She and her team are responsible for raising major gifts from individuals across the nation in support of NARAL's political and educational work.

For the last 10 years, Lindsay has raised money for a number of non-profit and political organizations, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the Florida Democratic Party, Brian Schweitzer for US Senate, the Million Mom March, and a number of local and congressional races. She often conducts fundraising trainings and is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Lindsay is a member of the Development Committee at Congregation Sherith Israel and previously served as the Finance Chair on the Board of the Jewish Study Center in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the University of Florida, and currently resides in San Francisco with her husband.

Teresa M. Olle
Teri Olle most recently was the Program Development Director at Environment California, a statewide environmental policy and advocacy organization. In that capacity she developed and implemented campaigns to change public policy in the area of environmental health, with an emphasis on reducing exposure to chemicals that can cause reproductive and developmental harm. She is most proud of her role in the successful 2003 campaign to pass landmark legislation that banned two neurotoxic flame retardants commonly used in furniture and textiles. She has also advocated to increase parents' right to know about school pesticide use, prohibit toxic chemicals in baby products, establish environmental health tracking, protect California's waterways from pesticide-laden agricultural discharge and the coast from oil drilling. In 2004, Teri relocated to her home state of Wisconsin to turn out infrequent voters as a lead organizer for MoveOn's Leave No Voter Behind Campaign.

Teri has been active in Emerge since graduating from the program in 2004, including serving on the Steering Committee of Emerge America and the Event Committee for Emerge California in 2006. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Sierra Nevada Alliance.

Teri holds a B.A. in Political Science, with honors, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a J.D. from the University of Chicago. Teri worked as a litigation associate at McCutchen Doyle Brown and Enersen in San Francisco, and served as a law clerk for The Honorable Alicemarie Stotler, U.S. District Court Judge for the Central District of California. She is a member of the California State Bar.

Tammy Paster

Carol Ong
Carol Ong has a background in state & federal government affairs, union activism and human rights campaigning. Carol works for State Senator Elaine Alquist, who represents the heart of Silicon Valley in the 13th Senate District. She also was appointed by Assemblymember Jerry Hill to serve as a delegate for the Assembly 19th District to the California Democratic Party. Plus, she serves as an alternate for Assemblymember Fiona Ma to the San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee. Carol has joined numerous political campaigns including coordinating the Asian American Outreach team for gubernatorial candidate, Steve Westly's, campaign in 2006. Traveling around California, she planned public and media events and sought endorsements and fundraising opportunities in the Asian American community.

Carol previously worked as an International Flight Attendant where she became an union activist. She advocated for labor issues in Washington DC and Sacramento, counseled union members on workers' compensation regulations and enforced work rules compliance. She also was a delegate to two local Labor Councils.

Carol is on the Board of Directors for the Betty Ann Ong Foundation. The Betty Ann Ong Foundation was established to honor American Airlines Flight Attendant, Betty Ann Ong, who was first person to notify authorities of the terrorist act on the first airplane to hit the Twin Towers on 9/11. Carol passionately promotes for the continual recognition of the heroism by the Flight Attendants on 9/11.

Carol became a human rights activist in 1989 when she saw the Tiananmen Square massacre unfolded where scores of peaceful demonstrators were crushed by the Chinese government. She worked with various leaders in the China human rights campaign in Washington DC and the Bay Area. She chaired a local pro-democracy for China organization where she organized rallies, boycott campaigns, petition drives and educated the public on the human rights abuses in China.

Carol studied Japanese and Sign Language and speaks Chinese. She uses her language skills when she travels around the world.

Laura Spanjian
Laura Spanjian has been active in San Francisco policy and politics since 1997 when she started as legislative aide to San Francisco Supervisor Leslie Katz. She went on to serve as the Government Relations Director for SF Muni, where she managed and secured approvals and community support for numerous financial and development projects.

Laura has since managed campaigns for former Supervisor and Treasurer Susan Leal, Supervisor Bevan Dufty and CA State Senator Joe Simitian. She was also active on the Hillary Clinton for President campaign, serving on Hillary Clinton's Northern California Steering Committee and LGBT Americans for Hillary.

Laura now works as Assistant General Manager for External Affairs for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She co-chairs the Bay Area Obama LGBT Steering Committee, and the Eureka Valley Library Rebuild. She's a member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee; the National Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund; Equality California (EQCA); the Upper Noe Recreation Center Steering Committee; the Noe Valley Democratic Club, and Friends of Noe Valley. She received the 2007 District 8 Woman of the Year Award for her work in her neighborhood.

Laura graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with two B.A. degrees in English and Communication Studies and received a Masters degree in Communications from Stanford University.

Andrea Dew Steele
Andrea Dew Steele is the Founder and President of Emerge America. She is also a Co-Founder of this first affiliate, Emerge California, and has been working hard to develop and replicate the Emerge brand for over five years. She is passionate about increasing the number of women in elected office at every level. For 8 years, Andrea served as the Political Advisor to Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder of Esprit Clothing and Democratic activist and philanthropist. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Andrea worked for many years in Washington D.C. where she did policy work and fundraising for Democratic candidates and where she developed her passion for electing women to office.

Andrea has three children, and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University and a M.A. in International History from the London School of Economics. Andrea comes to Emerge with a significant fundraising track record and excellent relationships in the Democratic political world.