Staff Bios

Gail Leftwich Kitch

Gail Leftwich Kitch serves as The Voter Participation Center’s Chief Operating Officer. Gail brings years of experience, both as a practicing lawyer and as a successful manager and board member of non-profit organizations active in civic engagement. Most recently, she served as Executive Director of By the People, an intiative founded by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions which uses public television to encourage and support informed non-contentious citizen dialogue around policy issues. Mrs. Kitch was President of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, the national membership organization of the state affiliates of the National Endowment for the Humanities, following service as Director of Cambridge Forum, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a former chair of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, and was a Radcliffe College Public Policy Fellow in the late 90s. Among other activities, Gail currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Conference on Citizenship. She has a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Bill Sather

Bill Sather is the Chief Financial Officer for The Voter Participation Center. Bill’s career in accounting and finance has included positions in disciplines ranging from real estate to politics. Bill joined the VPC after spending several years with MSHC Partners, Inc., a leading progressive political consultancy firm in Washington, DC. A CPA since 1997, Bill graduated with honors and a BS in Accounting from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He enjoys the quiet life with his family in Northern Virginia. A former youth baseball coach and member of the Reston Little League board of directors, Bill enjoyed coaching all four of his kids at various stages of their little league baseball careers.

Leslie Martes

Leslie Martes is Program and Outreach Director at The Voter Participation Center. Leslie brings to the VPC a wealth of political campaign experience across the United States, including work on campaigns in New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Washington, and southern California, and other states. She worked for Dick Gephardt’s Presidential Campaign in Iowa in 2004, and at the Iowa Senate Caucus in 2006. Prior to joining the VPC, Leslie spent four years in North Carolina as the Caucus Director for the State House Democrats. Originally from southern California, Leslie is a graduate of Scripps College in Claremont California.

Chris Kennedy

Chris Kennedy is the Director of Analytics for the Voter Participation Center and leads experiments, modeling, targeting, and data. Previously he worked at Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, where he managed the analytics and online advertising programs promoting action on climate change.  He began his work in progressive politics at Rock the Vote doing experimental design and evaluation, targeted voter contact strategy, and technology strategy. He has also consulted on Avaaz.org’s technology team and with 350.org in support of global progressive online organizing. Kennedy holds a B.A. and an M.P.Aff from The University of Texas at Austin; he has been a member of the Analyst Group since 2007.

Taylor Williams

Taylor Williams is Assistant Program Director at The Voter Participation Center. He helps direct the VPC’s voter registration and vote-by-mail programs in 30 states. In 2008, he was a field staffer for Obama for America, working in Florida, New Hampshire, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and South Dakota. His experience also includes various U.S. Senate and state house races.  He studied political data & targeting at the New Organizing Institute and interned at the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. Taylor is a graduate of Duke University with a B.A. in Public Policy.

Angela Morgan

Angela Morgan is the Research Analyst at The Voter Participation Center. She conducts research on voter mobilization tactics and aids in the design, implementation, and analysis of VPC’s field experiments. Angela studied Minority Politics and Political Methodology at the University of Georgia, where she received both a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science. Morgan is a self-described political junkie and sports enthusiast, and enjoys reading, watching sports on TV, and playing volleyball in her spare time.