Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

STAFF BIOS

David Kass, President
Amy Dawson, Vice President
Jeff Kirsch, Vice President
Miriam A. Rollin, Vice President
Barrie Becker, California State Director
Tim Carpenter, Illinois State Director
Kim Gore, Maine State Director
Kathy "K.P." Pelleran, Michigan State Director
Meredith Wiley, New York State Director
Cynthia Rees, Ohio State Director
Martha Brooks, Oregon State Director
Bruce Clash, Pennsylvania State Director
Mark Rogers, Tennessee State Director
Laura Wells, Washington State Director

David Kass, President
David serves as the President of Fight Crime: Invest In Kids and directs their overall operations. Previously, David served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation at the U.S. Department of Housing, managing the agency's Congressional affairs office.He also worked on crime and children's issues as a staff person on Capitol Hill and for several nonprofits. David received his master's degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs and his bachelor's degree from Amherst College.
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Amy Dawson, Vice President
Amy Dawson helped to establish the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids in 1995. Amy directs Fight Crime's operations in states that are staffed by the national office, and acts as primary liaison with the organization's Board of Directors as well as with national law enforcement associations, violence victims' organizations, and intergovernmental associations. She is also responsible for overseeing the organization's finances, administration, and human resources. Prior to starting Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, she helped coordinate a tutoring and mentoring program for low-income, Spanish-speaking youth in East Palo Alto, CA, and conducted research on issues affecting Native Americans. Amy graduated with honors from the University of California at Irvine.
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Jeff Kirsch, Vice President
Jeff joined our staff in February 2003, bringing with him over 30 years of organizing and advocacy experience. Jeff oversees our staffed state operations (California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington), and has other internal management responsibilities. Previously Jeff served for twenty years as field director and deputy executive director at Families USA, the national consumer health organization, where he managed the organization's education and mobilization activities with grassroots organizations and coalitions around the country as well as the electronic communications and Web site. Jeff also worked for seven years at the food and hunger policy group, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), serving as a field organizer, a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, and ultimately as director. Jeff received his bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia.
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Miriam A. Rollin, Vice President
Miriam joined our staff in April 2001 to increase our policy-maker education capacity, bringing two decades of experience as an advocate for children, youth and families. She held leadership roles at the National Association of Child Advocates, the National Network for Youth, the National PTA, and other education advocacy groups. As a lawyer, Miriam practiced both as an attorney for abused and neglected children and as an Assistant District Attorney, prosecuting juvenile, family violence, and child abuse cases. She serves on the Board of the National Association of Counsel for Children, and is a recipient of the Youth Law Center's "Unsung Hero Award." Miriam earned a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Yale University and a law degree from Catholic University in Washington, DC.
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Barrie Becker, California State Director
Barrie Becker joined our staff in December 2003 to coordinate our California office. She previously served as Executive Director of Legal Community Against Violence for seven years. Ms. Becker also co-founded a small law firm where she represented clients in consumer, housing, contract and family law matters. She was the recipient of the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Nonprofit Leader Fellowship in 2001 and is a graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and Yale University.
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Tim Carpenter, Illinois State Director
When he joined our staff in October 1998 to coordinate the Illinois operation, Tim brought eighteen years of experience in issue advocacy, public education, and public relations strategies at the state and national levels. For eleven years, he was the executive director of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization in Chicago, a nonprofit citywide coalition devoted to promoting tenants' rights and the availability, affordability, and quality of rental housing in Chicago. Tim received a bachelor's degree in natural resources from the environmental advocacy program at the University of Michigan.
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Kim Gore, Maine State Director
Kim joined our staff December 2006 as Maine State Director. A graduate of Indiana University, Kim worked in the White House Press Office during the Reagan Administration and as Assistant Press Secretary to Senator Mitch McConnell early in her career. She served as a legislative staff member for former Governor Jock McKernan and was a staffer on Olympia Snowe's 1994 and 2000 senatorial campaigns. Kim also has experience as a fundraiser at the University of Southern Maine and at Spurwink, one of Maine's largest mental health agencies.
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Kathy "K.P." Pelleran, Michigan State Director
K.P. joined our staff in March 2001 to launch our Michigan office, bringing 25 years of experience in public policy at the state, national, and international level. Her legislative experience includes working for former Michigan State Senator Mitch Irwin for two years, running the Lansing constituent office for U.S. Senator
Carl Levinfor six years, and working as a Congressional press secretary. She also directed several successful statewide issue campaigns including the1994 Arizona ballot question that increased the tobacco tax to provide health care and health education. K.P. currently serves as a member of the Lansing Regional Sister City Commission and is as an elected Trustee for Lansing Community College. K.P. graduated from Lake Superior State University with a bachelor's degree in social science.
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Meredith Wiley, New York State Director
Meredith joined our staff in December 2002, bringing with her a blend of strategic research and analysis, hands on experience managing projects and people, as well as experience in campaigns and elective politics, public policy, communications, and public speaking. As chief of staff to the Oregon Speaker of the House, Meredith worked to design and manage the "Children's Care Team," charged with restructuring Oregon's services to families and children. She's also organized and managed a statewide candidate services program in Oregon to assist candidates in all aspects of campaigns and coordinated program development for an Oregon campaign school. Meredith co-authored "Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence," a book nominated for the Pulitzer Prize that presents the impact of early child abuse and neglect on child development and crime. She received her law degree from the Willamette College of Law and her master's in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
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Cynthia Rees, Ohio State Director
Cyndy joined our staff in March 2004 as the Ohio State Director. Most recently, she served as the Communications Assistant in the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Previously, she was the president of Riverwalk Incorporated, an Ohio-based public relations and government relations firm, where she focused on research and development of multimedia materials and grassroots campaigns. She brings along nearly a decade of experience in media production and public relations at organizations such as KidZTime TV, a violence free children's TV network. She has also volunteered on several statewide and federal campaigns. She attended The Ohio State University.
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Martha Brooks, Oregon State Director
Martha joined our staff in September 2004 as Oregon State Director. She previously developed a successful real estate practice in the Portland, Oregon area and served a leadership role in many local political activities. She received the State and Local Realtor Associations' "Realtor Active in Politics" Awards for her grassroots lobbying activities, candidate campaign volunteer work, local and statewide issue campaign volunteer work, and involvement as an elected local school committee member. Martha has volunteered in her community in numerous capacities including taking the lead in creating an innovative scholarship program at Aloha High School for lower-income kids to help them participate in extra-curricular programs. She attended Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho.
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Bruce R. Clash, Pennsylvania State Director
Bruce joined our staff in January 2001 to launch the Pennsylvania state office. He previously worked in private sector governmental relations, research, and public affairs firms in Washington, DC to mobilize business leaders and non-profit association volunteers to participate in the political process. His experience includes serving as the public affairs director for the International Safety Equipment Association. Bruce majored in Politics and Government at Ohio Wesleyan University, and earned his master's of public administration degree at the American University in Washington, DC.
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Mark Rogers, Tennessee State Director
Mark Rogers joined our staff in September 2004 to launch the Tennessee state office. He has extensive experience in Tennessee politics through his policy and communications work, most notably Governor Sundquist's winning campaign in 1994. After the campaign, he joined the Sundquist administration in the Department of Human Services where he worked on welfare reform and job training. Later, Mark worked with the local business community to implement the Tennessee Job Skills Program. In the last election cycle, he was the Strategist and Policy Advisor for the successful campaign of U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). He is a graduate of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.
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Laura Wells, Washington State Director
Laura joined our staff in September, 2006, as the founding director of our Washington State office. She brings 25 years of experience in administration and promotion of programs for children. Prior to joining our staff, she was a member of the management team of Child Care Resources (CCR), the largest non-profit resource and referral agency in Washington State, where she worked on early childhood issues with a particular focus on improving quality of programs. Her work at CCR also included leadership of the King County Alliance for Human Services, a coalition of community-based organizations, religious leaders and philanthropists working with business and elected officials to stabilize funding for human services. In 2003, she received the Seattle Human Services Coalition Excellence in Advocacy Award. Laura holds masters' degrees in Speech and Hearing Sciences and Public Administration from the University of Washington.
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