Svante Myrick is the President of People For the American Way. 

As one of the most dynamic young, progressive Black leaders today, Myrick is spearheading the transformation of People For as it grows and adapts to today’s challenges. 

Under his leadership, People For has invested in new programs and campaigns that reflect a commitment to building the strongest multigenerational, multiracial, multicultural identity in the organization’s history. These include a new Artists for Democracy program as well as the nonpartisan Grandparents for Truth and Defend the Black Vote campaigns maintained by the People For the American Way Foundation.

As a former elected official who served for 10 years as mayor of Ithaca, NY, Myrick is deeply committed to realizing the potential of government to improve people’s lives and to the importance of electing progressives to public office. People For works to elect visionary progressives at all levels of government and has a track record of success.      

Myrick is singularly focused on making People For a leader in the most important fight of our time: the battle to preserve our democracy against the rising threat of authoritarianism. As such he is sustaining the vision of People For’s founder, iconic TV producer Norman Lear, who created People For to counter right-wing extremism and religious bigotry.       

Previously, Myrick served as executive director of People For and led campaigns focused on transforming public safety, racial equity, voting rights, and empowering young elected officials. Myrick garnered national media attention as the youngest-ever mayor of Ithaca, New York, where he was a leading reformer on drug policy, the environment and public safety. 

Myrick’s personal story is compelling and laid the groundwork for his life of service and civic engagement. Raised by his mother, he and his family faced homelessness throughout their lives and relied on school lunch programs and other critical public services. After attending Cornell University, Myrick served as assistant director of student and young alumni programs at the college and tutored Ithaca youth. These experiences shaped his leadership in Ithaca, where he put progressive values into action to improve the lives of the people in his community. As mayor, Myrick’s innovative leadership included a plan to address the heroin epidemic through supervised injection sites, prevention, treatment, and law enforcement. 

Myrick previously served as director of People For’s youth leadership programs. He is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Frontier Award and People For the American Way Barbara Jordan Leadership Award, and was named by Rolling Stone as a “Hot Do-Gooder” “public servant to watch,” and in Forbes Magazine’s “30 under 30.” Myrick is a frequent contributor and guest for local and national TV, radio, and print outlets including The Hill, MSNBC, CNN, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The New York Times and more.

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Marge Baker is Executive Vice President at People For the American Way, where she oversees the organization’s government affairs and advocacy portfolio. She serves as spokesperson and chief strategist for People For’s ongoing work to confirm fair-minded judges to the federal judiciary and has led the organization’s voting rights advocacy campaigns, including the ongoing fight to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, as well as our efforts to reduce the undue influence of money in politics through a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

In her work at People For she brings a deep understanding of the issues, strong legislative know how, and the ability to build diverse progressive coalitions to win meaningful victories on key progressive issues. Baker’s expertise and insight is frequently drawn upon by TV, radio, and print outlets such as MSNBC, Fox News, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Politico.

She has served for more than 45 years in various public service roles. Prior to her current position, she was the staff director for the late Senator Paul Wellstone on the Senate’s Employment, Safety and Training Subcommittee. She also clerked for the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, served as Chief Counsel to Senator Howard Metzenbaum on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and directed the Consumer Services Division of the New York Department of Public Service.

Baker is a graduate of Yale Law School.

Peter Montgomery has studied the Religious Right movement and its right-wing political allies for more than two decades. He has written extensively about marriage equality, religious liberty, and other conflicts at the intersection of religion, politics and LGBTQ issues. He has been cited as an expert in national publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New Yorker, and has appeared on national broadcast outlets including MSNBC and National Public Radio.

Montgomery is also an associate editor for online magazine Religion Dispatches, and his writing appears in The American Prospect, The Public Eye, Alternet and other progressive outlets. He authored a chapter on the relationship between the Religious Right and Tea Party movements that appears in “Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea Party,” published by the University of California Press in 2012.

Markus Batchelor is an advocate and activist who currently serves as National Political Director at People for the American Way. He previously served as the Ward 8 Representative, Vice President and the youngest-ever elected member of the DC State Board of Education. He is an alumnus of People For’s Young Elected Officials Network.

He has spent his career in government, non-profit and as an elected leader working to close deep divides and advocate for our most vulnerable neighbors and disinvested communities.

He is a third generation Washingtonian and lives in DC’s Congress Heights community, where he was born and raised.

Markus is passionate about racial justice, equity in public education, supporting the next generation of bold progressive leaders, and equality for the 700,000 residents of his hometown by making DC the nation’s 51st state.

Senior Fellow Elliot Mincberg has researched and analyzed the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, religious liberty and other civil rights/civil liberties issues for more than three decades. At PFAW, Elliot’s work centers around judicial appointments, which he’s focused on since Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and right-wing attacks on LGBT rights and religious liberty. Prior to his role as senior fellow at PFAW, he served as legal director and general counsel for PFAW and PFAW Foundation, as chief counsel for oversight and investigations of the House Judiciary Committee, and as a partner at a major DC law firm. He also serves on the Committee on Religious Liberty of the National Council of Churches and the National Advisory Board of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute.

Mincberg has been cited as an expert in national publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Nation and has appeared on national broadcast outlets such as CNN and NPR. He’s testified before Congress on key issues and his work has been published in outlets such as the Aspen Journal of Ideas, Salon, and the Huffington Post. He has actively participated in federal and state court litigation at all levels on religious liberty, discrimination, and voting rights issues.

Raquel Jones is the Vice President of Campaigns and Programs at People For the American Way, where she leads a portfolio that includes political strategy, candidate endorsement, leadership development, religious affairs, artist engagement, national field organizing, and advocacy. She manages a talented team of advocates who design and run nearly all of the organization’s signature campaigns. One recent example is the launch of Grandparents for Truth, a movement to support inclusive books and school curricula that give students the freedom to learn our nation’s full history.

Jones has been essential to the growth of the Young Elected Official’s Network, where she has committed to supporting the newest generation of progressive trailblazers and works to foster their leadership and professional growth. Under her leadership, People For has organized national conferences and training and networking sessions for young officials from across the country. She has overseen the successful planning and execution of the Front Line Leaders Academy, a youth values-based training program, and she has created space for women legislators to convene and organize through the expansion of the network’s Women’s Caucus Fellowship.

Through her commitment to public service, Jones is working to create a new political system of truly representative government that will amplify the voices of youth and marginalized communities; and she is spearheading programs to bring both a racial and gender equity lens to progressive policy making.

During his 35-year career, Roger Vann has held a variety of leadership and senior management positions in the areas of civic participation, racial justice, and corporate governance.

Vann is currently Chief Advancement Officer at People for the American Way. He recently served as Vice President of Youth Prevention and Corporate Responsibility at Juul Labs where he directed the company’s global retail access control, ESG and corporate giving initiatives. He previously served as Executive Director of State Voices where he raised more than $40 million to support large-scale civic engagement programs and issue advocacy campaigns in 20 states. Under his leadership, the organization became the largest provider of nonpartisan civic engagement quality control training and technology nationwide.

As Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he planned and directed a campaign that secured over 430,000 verified voter registrations and contacted over 1.5 million voters during the 2012 presidential election. He also oversaw the organization’s centennial strategic planning process as well as its first comprehensive security threat assessment.

Vann is a proud native of Connecticut, where he led state affiliates of both the NAACP and ACLU and worked for more than 10 years as a radio talk show host and news director.

Vann is an avid collector of African American books and memorabilia. He is a four-year survivor of stage 4 prostate cancer. He and his wife Rae live in northern Virginia. They have three children, one of whom is incarcerated.

Paul Gordon is People For the American Way's senior legislative counsel, where he focuses particularly on matters relating to the federal courts, including the Supreme Court. Gordon specializes in analysis of the real impacts of important court decisions, including cases on money in politics, voting rights, religious liberty, LGBTQ equality, and the growing power of corporate interests. He also regularly engages with government officials and national and state coalitions on judicial nominations to ensure that our courts have highly qualified, independent judges who take seriously our Constitution’s promises of equality, liberty, and justice. Gordon has been cited as an expert in both national and local media such as The Hill, McClatchy, the Latin Post, Al Jazeera America, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Metro Weekly.

Politically active for many years, Gordon has worked with state and local officials for LGBTQ equality and community welfare concerns. Gordon was previously an attorney at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, DC, working on national regulatory policies for television and radio. He is a graduate of Yale University and Georgetown University Law Center.

Rio Tazewell is the Director of Campaigns at People For the American Way. His primary area of focus is developing and leading national campaigns that build support for reforms to expand and protect our democratic freedoms, and push back against Far Right attempts to undermine elections and the rule of law. 

In his nearly 10 years at People For, Rio has coordinated countless campaign efforts to lobby Congress and state legislatures in support voting rights, government ethics, and campaign finance reform. This includes a Constitutional amendment to overturn Supreme Court cases like Citizens United, as well as the Freedom to Vote Act, which has been co-sponsored by every Democrat in Congress. 

Since 2017, he has worked to spearhead coalition efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable for various crimes and misdeeds, beginning with the Mueller investigation, two impeachments, and now four sets of criminal indictments. Additionally his portfolio includes curating and leading campaigns for People For’s “Artists For the American Way” project, including running the ENOUGH of Trump campaign in 2020, which featured work from world-renowned artists and invested resources in GOTV efforts in battleground states. 

He continues to use his strategic capabilities and broad network of connections to amplify and center the work of People For the American Way in the wider progressive landscape.

Alana Byrd is the National Field Director at People For the American Way, where she specializes in education and civil rights policy. She has led rallies to defend education and has built out People For’s “Grandparents For Truth” program, which mobilizes grandparents and their allies to fight back against authoritarianism, bigotry, and censorship. Prior to her current role, Alana led a successful campaign in Ithaca, NY to change the face of policing in the town, and has worked extensively with People For’s Young Elected Officials Network to help YEOs enact change at the state, local, and federal levels.

Before coming to People For, Alana worked for Congressman Brendan F. Boyle for over five years in multiple capacities, including as a legislative aide and campaign aide, after which she worked for a nonprofit connecting unions and environmental groups. Alana graduated summa cum laude from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, her hometown. She now resides in New York with her partner, child, and cat. Besides education and civil rights, she is passionate about maternal health and reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and ending the overpolicing of Black and brown Americans.