Meet the team

Adam Taylor, Major Gifts Officer

Adam Taylor is a Major Gifts Officer on the Fundraising Team at VoteAmerica. Born and raised in the Bay Area, he first got involved in San Francisco politics by working as a campaign manager and legislative aide for then District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener. Additionally, Adam was a board member of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, the nation’s oldest queer Democratic club in the country. Since then, Adam transitioned to fundraising in the nonprofit sector - supporting missions ranging from healthcare, early childhood development, and entertainment. He is a graduate of Cornell University, with a degree in Anthropology and Archaeology. Adam lives in San Francisco with his partner Tracii and enjoys gardening, urban hikes, and a good book.

Brenna Cully, Director of Communities

Brenna Cully is the Director of Communities at VoteAmerica. She has extensive organizing experience and a love for voting. She has overseen digital organizing programs for dozens of races up and down the ballot as well as Advocacy and Non-Profit organizations. Brenna spent the last three years as the Director of Customer Experience at Prompt.io, a political texting platform. When not working, she spends her time cooking, reading books, and hanging out with menagerie of pets in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Debra Cleaver, Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Debra Cleaver has been working at the intersection of technology and democracy since 2004. She is a serial founder whose organizations include FutureVoter (2022), VoteAmerica (2020), ElectionDay.org (2018), Vote.org (2016), Long Distance Voter (2008), and Swing the State (2004). Debra is an alum of Pomona College and Y Combinator, and a former Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship. She speaks frequently on issues impacting voter turnout, with appearances at SXSW, Harvard Law, the Harvard School of Government, and University of Michigan. Debra’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, C-SPAN, WIRED, Bloomberg, The BBC, Forbes, and more. When she’s not working, Debra is probably sleeping, since she has learned the hard way that her “passion projects” have a way of turning into national organizations.

Emily Abrams, Director of Partnerships

Emily Abrams is the Director of Partnerships at VoteAmerica. Originally from Los Angeles, Emily got her start in civic engagement as a student at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, registering voters for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Before joining VoteAmerica, Emily led Programming and Member Engagement at NationSwell where she curated strategic collaborations among corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders that strengthened community investment and helped scale promising impact initiatives. Prior to that, she served as National Surrogates Director for Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, overseeing outreach and strategic engagement with elected officials and cultural leaders that helped drive Buttigieg’s historic Iowa caucus win. Emily lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and very fluffy pup, Bean.

Emily Behlmann, Director of Engineering

Emily Behlmann is VoteAmerica's Director of Engineering. Engineering is a second career for Emily, who started her working life as a journalist covering education, politics, and business in Kansas. She has worked in software development and architecture for about eight years, mostly focused on the advertising and fintech industries. Now at VoteAmerica, she’s glad to be able to apply her technical skills to make it as easy as possible for citizens to engage with their democracy. Outside work, Emily can usually be found reading mysteries or camping with her wife, Stephanie, and their basset hound, Copper.

Emma Kraus, Operations and Program Manager

Emma Kraus is the Operations and Program Manager at VoteAmerica. Emma first got involved in politics through the Hillary for America campaign, working as an Organizer in her Ohio hometown. Since then, Emma has worked for a series of political campaigns and organizations including the Texas Democratic Party and Nevada State Democratic Party. She is a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in Public Health and Political Science. In her free time, Emma enjoys going to her local farmer’s market, cooking, cheering on the Cincinnati Bengals, and antagonizing her cats Apollo and Olive and her dog Katy.

Grace Leclerc, Summer Associate

Grace Leclerc is a Summer Associate at VoteAmerica and a recent graduate of Brown University where she studied Political Science and Education. In 2024, she worked as a training designer for the Maine Department of Education Office of Child Nutrition. She previously worked as the Chief of Staff of the Brown Political Review and a research assistant with the Brown Department of Education focusing on civics education. In her free time, she loves playing the saxophone, learning sign language, and spending way too much time on her phone.

Joey Balistreri, Philanthropic Advisor

Joey Balistreri is a fundraising and nonprofit strategy consultant at VoteAmerica. He brings a deep background in nonprofit leadership, fundraising, change management, and strategic operations, with experience across educational equity, LGBTQ+ advocacy, disability advocacy, reentry and justice, and emerging technology. Over the course of his career, Joey has helped secure more than $75 million in philanthropic funding, including multiple six- and seven-figure gifts. Before joining VoteAmerica, Joey served in executive leadership roles at national nonprofits and start-up organizations, advised mission-driven teams on fundraising and growth strategy, and helped lead transformational campaigns, including a capital campaign that supported the creation of Wisconsin’s first LGBTQ+ homeless shelter. He began his career as a Teach For America corps member in Jacksonville, Florida, and now lives in North Carolina.

Lindsay Folker, Fundraising Associate

Lindsay Folker is the Fundraising Associate at VoteAmerica. Originally from Chicago, she got her start in the voting space by working on a range of political campaigns in Madison, Wisconsin after graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in Political Science and International Studies and Environmental Studies. She later moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked at a boutique campaign fundraising firm during the 2024 election cycle. Now at VoteAmerica, Lindsay is excited to support innovative efforts to make voting more accessible. Outside of work, she loves doing yoga, going on hikes, and trying every new restaurant she can find in D.C.

Nathalie Sabicer, College Intern

Nathalie Sabicer is an Intern at VoteAmerica and a sophmore at George Washington University, studying Political Science and Psychology. After serving as a lead intern in a 2024 California State Assembly campaign, she became fascinated with politics and all aspects of the democratic process. Along with working for VoteAmerica, she is also volunteering for A Wider Circle, a local DC organization committed to advocating to address the root cause of poverty in the DC region. In her free time, she loves to read, go hiking, and explore bakeries around DC.

Sandhya Anantharaman, Director of Campaigns

Sandhya Anantharaman is the Director of Campaigns at VoteAmerica. Sandhya most recently served as the Director of Organizing at Kairos Fellowship, partnering with state and local basebuilding organizations on innovative digital organizing strategies. She got her start as a fellow on the Obama campaign and spent years working on electoral campaigns in the South. She has spent the last decade working with digital advocacy groups to learn best practices for digital engagement through testing + experimentation, including at ShareProgress and Color of Change. She was born and raised in Atlanta, GA and is always looking for new book recommendations.

Scott Minkoff, PhD, Senior Research Fellow

Scott is an Associate Professor of Political Science at SUNY New Paltz and a Senior Research Fellow fellow at VoteAmerica. He teaches classes on American politics, state and local politics, public policy, and social science research methods. He is also a co-author on Ed Greenberg and Benjamin Page’s introductory American politics textbook The Struggle for Democracy. Scott Minkoff, along with Todd Makse (Florida International) and Anand Sokhey (CU Boulder), published a book with Oxford University Press.  Politics on Display: Yard Signs and the Politicization of Social Spaces examines one of the most conspicuous features of American political campaigns, yet one that has received little attention as a form of political communication or participation: campaign yard signs. Scott publishes frequently. You can find his work in American Politics Research, Political Geography, Urban Affairs Review, and Social Science Quarterly. (CV)