Our Staff

Brian Albert

Chief Operating Officer

Robert Borosage

Co-Director

Robert L. Borosage is the founder and president of the Institute for America’s Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America’s Future. The organizations were launched by 100 prominent Americans to develop the policies, message and issue campaigns to help forge an enduring majority for progressive change in America.

Mr. Borosage writes widely on political, economic and national security issues. He is a Contributing Editor at The Nation magazine, and a regular blogger on the Huffington Post. His articles have appeared in The American Prospect, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He edits the Campaign’s Making Sense issues guides, and is co-editor of Taking Back America (with Katrina Vanden Heuvel) and The Next Agenda (with Roger Hickey).

Borosage is the founder and board chair of Progressive Majority, an organization devoted to recruiting and training progressive to run for state and local office. He is co founder and chair of ProgressiveCongress.org, an organization that provides a bridge between progressives in the Congress and the progressive community. He serves on the board of Working America, a grassroots organization of working Americans, and the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive research institute.

A graduate of Yale Law School, with a graduate degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, Borosage left the practice of law to found the Center for National Security Studies in 1974. The Center focused on the tension between civil rights and the national security powers and prerogatives of the executive branch. It played a leading role in the efforts to investigate the intelligence agencies in the 1970s, curb their abuses, and hold them accountable in the future. At the Center, he helped to write and edit two books, The CIA File and The Lawless State. Borosage later became an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington School of Law where he taught a seminar on national security law.

In 1979, Borosage became Director of the Institute for Policy Studies, a research institute that drew its inspiration and fellowship from the major democratic movements of our time – anti-war, women’s, environmental and civil rights movements. He guided the Institute through the Reagan years, and spearheaded its challenge to the renewed Cold War, the revived nuclear arms race, and the assault on Central America. Borosage helped to found and guide Countdown 88, which succeeded in winning the congressional ban on covert action against Nicaragua. Under Borosage’s direction, the Institute expanded its fellowship, launched a successful publications program, and developed a new Washington School for congressional aides and public interest advocates.

In 1988, Borosage left the Institute to serve as senior issues advisor to the presidential campaign of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He traveled the country with Jackson, writing speeches, framing policy responses, and providing debate preparation and assistance. He went on to advise a range of progressive political campaigns, including those of Senator Paul Wellstone, Barbara Boxer and Carol Moseley-Braun.

In 1989, Borosage founded the Campaign for New Priorities, enlisting over 100 national organizations in the call to reinvest in America in the post-Cold War era. The Campaign sponsored analyses of the military budget and of America’s unmet needs, and provided member organizations with crisp materials for publications, speeches, opinion pieces, and ads. It contributed to accelerating the cuts in military spending during the Bush presidency.

Roger Hickey

Co-Director

Roger Hickey is Co-Director of the Campaign for America’s Future. He was also one of the founders of Health Care for America Now!, a coalition of over 1,000 national and local organizations united to achieve quality affordable health care for all. He was also one of the leaders of the successful campaign to stop the privatization of Social Security, called Americans United to Protect Social Security. Hickey was a founder and Communications Director of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that looks at economics from the point of view of working Americans. He was also a founder of the Public Media Center in San Francisco. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Hickey began his career in the 1960s as an organizer for the Virginia Civil Rights Committee.

Richard Eskow

Writer

Richard (RJ) Eskow is a well-known blogger and writer, a former Wall Street executive, an experienced consultant, and a former musician. He has experience in health insurance and economics, occupational health, benefits, risk management, finance, and information technology. He has a somewhat unique perspective on the current financial crisis, since he worked for AIG for a number of years (although not in its infamous Financial Products division).
Richard has consulting experience in the US and over 20 countries. Past clients include USAID, the World Bank, the State Department, the Harvard School of International Public Health, the Government of Hungary, as well as corporations and investors. He has experience in financial and data analysis, systems design, operations, and management.

Richard has also worked in long-range forecasting. With the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, he participated in an online game where 10,000 players enacted future disaster scenarios. He has also done forecasting and analytical work for the Rockefeller Foundation and other organizations. He is among "fifty of the world's leading futurologists" whose "hopes, fears, and best predictions" are collected in a 2011 book entitled The Rough Guide to the Future.

Richard is one of three "previously unknown" bloggers credited with helping The Huffington Post achieve its success in Eric Boehlert's landmark book on blogging and politics. He is a regular columnist for the science and culture blog 3 Quarks Daily and a Contributing Editor for Tricycle magazine. His reflections on blogging and spiritual principles were included in "Best Buddhist Writing of 2008."

He's also an (occasionally) working musician and songwriter who appeared regularly at venues such as CBGB's, the Washington Folk Festival, and motorcycle shows throughout the American South from 1970 through the year 2000. His most recent musical appearance was as the "opening act" for Gen. Wesley Clark at a Democratic Party fundraiser in 2007, but he may be available again for the right price - or the right cause.

Aida Habte

Reception/ Staff Assistant

Terrance Heath

Web Producer

I'm currently the Online Producer at Campaign for America's Future. Prior to my current position I worked as a Blogging and Social Media Consultant for a number of organizations and agencies, as an outgrowth of my work as Blogmaster for EchoDitto, Inc. I stumbled into blogging and social media after starting my own blog, The Republic of T., but I cut my teeth as an activist working on LGBT equality and HIV/AIDS issues. In that capacity I've worked for the Human Rights Campaign and the National Minority AIDS Council. When I'm away from the computer, I'm an avid reader, in the middle of two books at any given moment. I also enjoy singing, acting, computer gaming, and vegetarian cooking. But my greatest joy is going home every day to my partner and our two amazing sons.

Charlyne Ivory

Office Manager/ Accounting Assistant

Currently, I'm the Office Manager for Campaign for America's Future with a background in hotels and property management. Originally, I'm from the Tidewater area, where I attended Norfolk State University and received my BA in Administration.

Dave Johnson

Writer

Dave Johnson (Redwood City, CA) is a Fellow at Campaign for America's Future, writing about American manufacturing, trade and economic/industrial policy. He is also a Senior Fellow with Renew California.

Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience including positions as CEO and VP of marketing. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. And he was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped co-found a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.

Kelisa Kehne-Cliff

Executive Manager

I'm currently the Executive Manager at the Campaign for America's Future, where I'm been since June 2005. Prior to CAF, I worked at various trade associations creating, designing, implementing and tracking recruitment campaigns for new members. I switched careers to work at a non-profit political organization because I was disgusted with the conservative political climate in D.C. (in particular, the White House) and wanted to be part of an advocacy group for change. I grew up believing that America was always the good guy. Perhaps that was naïve, but I always wanted to believe it. I wanted to believe that America would stop the bully, that America would never start a fight, but would certainly end it. I wanted to believe that America stood for something, something that people around the world could look at and admire. That's gone but I'm proud that, here at CAF, we are trying to take our country back—to get others to realize that we are all in this together and together we can be free AND safe while following the principles of our beloved Constitution.

Eric Mills

Chief Financial Officer

I'm currently the Controller at the Campaign for America’s Future, where I've been since March 2005. Prior to CAF, I worked for thirteen years at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, first as their senior accountant, controller and then as their chief financial officer. I received an B.S from Bowie State University in accounting. I received my CPA in 1989.

Isaiah J. Poole

Director of Online Communications

Isaiah J. Poole has been the editor of OurFuture.org since 2007 and also directs the Campaign for America's Future's online communications. Previously he had worked for 25 years in mainstream media, most recently at Congressional Quarterly, where he covered congressional leadership and tracked major bills through Congress. Most of his journalism experience has been in Washington as both a reporter and an editor on topics ranging from presidential politics to pop culture. His work has put him at the front lines of ideological battles between progressives and conservatives. He also served as a founding member of the Washington Association of Black Journalists and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Liz Rose

Communications Director

Elizabeth Rose creates and implements communications strategy for left leaning public interest groups.
She is the former Director of Public Affairs of the Federal Communications Commission. Before her tenure at the FCC, Liz served as a Public Affairs officer at the Labor Department under Secretary Robert Reich where she handled wage and hour issues including the release of the pivotal Glass Ceiling report on Women in the Workplace. Liz was also the Media Relations Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum when it opened in 1993, and before that she served as a press secretary on Capitol Hill for Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV (D-WV) and Rep. Thomas J. Downey (D-NY).

Before joining the Campaign for America's Future, Liz worked for: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Consumers Union, the Save Darfur Coalition and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Liz is married and has two daughters and a stepdaughter and a dog and lives in Washington, DC.

Bill Scher

Senior Writer and Blog Managing Editor

I'm Bill Scher, online editor for Campaign for America's Future. In addition to my blogging here, I have my own blog at LiberalOasis.com. I'm also the author of Wait! Don't Move To Canada!: A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America, a contributor to The Huffington Post and Bloggingheads.tv, and a fellow of the Commonweal Institute.

Following my graduation from Oberlin College in 1994, I headed to DC and worked as an environmental policy analyst for big-shot investors wanting to know how proposals on Capitol Hill could affect the markets. By 1998, I fled the Beltway and moved to San Francisco, mainly to follow my now-wife Gina-Louise. There, I joined a public relations firm specializing in “issues management” and “crisis management."" Come 2001, I had become adept at the ways and methods of the corporate world, and decided to apply my communications expertise to advance liberal ideals.

Gina-Louise and I moved to Brooklyn, NY, and I joined the nation’s oldest women’s legal rights organization, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (now-named Legal Momentum), as Deputy Communications Director. My efforts focused on combating coercive government marriage promotion, domestic and sexual violence, and employment discrimination.

In 2002, I started LiberalOasis.com, one of the early liberal blogs. I managed to become the first blogger to interview a presidential candidate (thereby giving me something for my obit), part of the first group to blog the Democratic National Convention, and one of the first bloggers to regularly contribute to the nationwide liberal talk radio network Air America.

In 2005, Gina-Louise and I took our two cats (The Governor and Maru), ditched the big city, and settled in Northampton, MA, where I finished my first book, Wait! Don't Move To Canada!. After getting married in the summer of 2006, I spent three months traveling the country on a book tour. When I returned home at the end of the year, I was fortunate enough to be able to join the great team at Campaign for America's Future and continue working to take back America.