Greg Adkins is Councilman for the 26th District and is the Legislative Services Manager for the Tennessee Department of Transportation. He has years of extensive legislative experience as the House of Representative Research Analyst for the Transportation Committee.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the Metro Council

Maura Lee Albert is the Nashville Field Coordinator for SEIU Local 205, a graduate of Belmont University School of Religion, and has a background in faith-based social justice and labor organizing.
Trainer Expertise: Power and Organizing

Kenneth Caine is a grassroots organizer on health care issues, a member of Ad-Hoc for Equity, and has direct experience organizing at the neighborhood level through his work on the Bordeaux Landfill with the neighborhood group Bordeaux Beautiful.
Trainer Expertise: Neighborhood Organizing

Jen Cartwright is the Director of Education for the Nashville Peace and Justice Center. She has been a Community Organizer and Popular Educator on a variety of campaigns, including health care and globalization/fair trade issues.
Trainer Expertise: Leadership Institute Coordinator

Stewart Clifton is an attorney and registered lobbyist at the state level for a number of social welfare, cultural and environmental organizations. He served 12 years on Nashville’s Metro Council, has served on the Metro Planning Commission, and chaired the successful Purcell for Mayor campaign in 1999.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the State Legislature

Sharon Cobb is an independent filmmaker and community organizer on health care issues. She has an extensive background in journalism as Southeast correspondent for MSNBC online and former contributor to NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.
Trainer Expertise: Working with the Media

Erik Cole is Metro Councilman for the 7th district and the Public policy director for the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services. He has also served on the Board of Tennessee Conservation Voters Inc. and Tennessee Citizen Action.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the Metro Council

Paulette Coleman is a member of the NAACP Executive Board and Advisor to the NAACP Youth Council. She has been active with the Nashville Women's Political Caucus and with Tennesseans for the Arts and Americans for the Arts. She has organized and lobbied around issues of arts funding, voting rights and election reform. She is also an alum of the Summer 2005 Leadership Institute.
Trainer Expertise: Event Planning

Daynise Couch is the former director of the Nashville Living Wage Campaign, a project of the Tennessee Economic Renewal Network. She has also lead organizing campaigns on Fair Trade legislation, and has a strong background in Nashville’s labor communities.
Trainer Expertise: Strategic Planning, Public Speaking

Melissa Da Silva is an alum of the Spring 2005 Leadership Institute, a board member of the Nashville Peace and Justice Center, and active on several NPJC committees. She has also worked with the Fisk University Race Relations Institute and is currently active with the ONE campaign to end global poverty.
Trainer Expertise: Community Outreach

Jeanna Emert is the Development and Marketing Assistant for Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee. She has a background in campus organizing and messaging for reproductive rights.
Trainer Expertise: Strategic Planning, Public Speaking

Rasheedat Fetugah has been a Community Organizer for the Children's Defense Fund as well as serving as the statewide contact for children's issues for the NAACP. She is also a graduate of Peabody College and a licensed K-8 teacher.
Trainer Expertise: Community Outreach

Sekou Franklin is professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He specializes in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, especially the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, and other people’s movements for social and racial justice.
Trainer Expertise: Power and Organizing

Ronnie Greer  is Councilman for the 17th District. He’s worked as a Substitute Teacher and Youth Counselor and is a participant in the National League of Cities Leadership Program.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the Metro Council

Mike Hodge  is the Programs Manager of the Neighborhoods Resource Center and has been active in neighborhood organizing since 1977. He has extensive experience consulting and training neighborhood groups and working with Geographic Information Systems to address neighborhood concerns.
Trainer Expertise: Neighborhood Organizing

Francie Hunt is State Director of Tennessee Stand for Children, which has organized families, educators and community allies at the state and local level to secure over $102 million in children’s services over the past 5 years.
Trainer Expertise: Strategic Planning

Mike Jameson is Metro Councilman for the 6th district and an attorney with North, Pursell, Ramos & Jameson. He is active with several neighborhood organizations in East Nashville and on the boards of several community agencies.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the Metro Council

Greg King has been a trainer at the Highlander Center and is a national leader in the World Federation of Democratic Youth. He has organized in many different communities, especially youth, People of Color, and Queer communities.
Trainer Expertise: Event Planning

Matt Leber  is the Coordinator of the Nashville Peace and Justice Center. He is a co-founder of the Nashville Homeless Power Project, and has worked as a Community Organizer on a number of issue-based campaigns, including health care, homelessness, immigrant rights, and democratic participation.
Trainer Expertise: Event Planning, Working with the Media

Megan Macaraeg has worked on numerous grassroots organizing campaigns with low-income Communities of Color, including living wage ordinances and voter registration drives. She was trained as an organizer by Stand for Children, is a graduate of the Center for Third World Organizing, and is former Director of Tennessee Citizen Action.
Trainer Expertise: Power and Organizing, Community Outreach, Lobbying at the State Legislature

Robbie Morganfield is the executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University, a program which trains and develops the potential of people of color to become journalists. He is a veteran newspaper reporter and editor, as well as an experienced journalism professor.
Trainer Expertise: Working with the Media

Blaine Ray works for the Neighborhoods Resource Center and specializes in producing information, such as maps, charts, and reports, on the living conditions of Nashville neighborhoods to help neighborhood organizations be more effective in their work.
Trainer Expertise: Neighborhood Organizing

Deirdra Reed is the organizer for Tying Nashville Together, a coalition of church congregations, labor unions, and grassroots organizations which organizes on a variety of social justice issues at the local level. She is a graduate of the Industrial Areas Foundation’s famed “10 day training” in community organizing.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the State Legislature

Sheki Rojas is a youth organizer with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. She has organized in youth and immigrant communities on issues including the DREAM Act and drivers license access.
Trainer Expertise: Event Planning

AJ Starling began as a bus operator, was elected to the executive board of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1235, and today is the Director of Political Affairs for the Tennessee AFL-CIO. He is also State President of the Asa Phillip Randolph Institute and serves on the Metro Election Commission.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the State Legislature

Lynn Williams is Councilwoman for the 34th district, and a freelance writer and media consultant. She is active with the League of Women Voters
and the Nashville Women’s Political Caucus.
Trainer Expertise: Lobbying at the Metro Council