Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. Canvass Leadership Staff

Sarah Hazel
Assistant National Canvass Director; Regional Director for Philadelphia
Boston, MA

Sarah graduated from Lafayette College in 2005 where she was involved in student government and campus activism. Searching for a way to make a larger impact, Sarah started working with Grassroots Campaigns as an Assistant Director in Philadelphia fighting to end the Bush Administration's Clear Skies Initiative. Since then, Sarah has run various canvass campaigns, building up membership for the Democratic National Committee and the ACLU, and training activists to raise over $500,000. She headed to the Midwest in 2006 as a Lead Organizer with MoveOn.org's Call for Change Campaign. Her team of organizers trained dedicated volunteers to get out the vote in targeted House and Senate races. Sarah is now based in the Emerald City, Seattle, where she works as a Regional Canvass Director overseeing three of Grassroots Campaign's West Coast offices.

Steve King
Assistant National Canvass Director; Regional Director for Chicago
Boston, MA

Steve joined Grassroots Campaigns in 2004 by way of American University. After working in polling operations for Quinnipiac University Polling Institute during the early Bush era, he decided it was time to harness public opinion for change rather than simply measuring it.

After working as a canvass director in CT and MA in 2004, Steve joined the central staff of GCI in 2005 to focus on organizational development. In 2006, Steve served as the National Recruitment Director, spearheading the effort to build a national team of organizers to take back congress in the ’06 midterms. Currently, Steve serves as the Regional Operations Director for the East Coast canvass offices.

As Regional Director for the East Coast, Steve now works with the local canvass directors in Boston, New York, and Washington, DC, giving guidance over the phone and running frequent on-site trainings to help new Canvass Directors run the biggest and most successful outreach efforts possible.

David Hackman
Regional Director for Seattle; Client Services
New York, NY

After graduating from Kalamazoo College in 2005, David decided he couldn't sit back and watch the GOP run rampant and reckless through the country. Starting as a canvasser in the Philadelphia office in late ’05, David has had the opportunity to work in a variety of roles on a variety of campaigns. Whether he was working with Environmental Action to stop heinous environmental policy, the DNC to take back Congress, or the ACLU to reinstate the Constitution, David has been excited to see individual people all over the country take a broader interest in our future.

Michael Moeder
Regional Director for Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Kansas City
Los Angeles, CA

In 2004, Michael Moeder made his first foray into electoral politics working with the Democratic Party in Colorado, leading a team of volunteers in a Get Out the Vote Effort. He knew he could not stop at this election and in 2006 Michael joined Grassroots Campaigns on the MoveOn.org Call for Change Campaign. Determined not to have any regrets after that election, Michael became the number one volunteer recruiter in the country on that campaign. In 2008, Michael was the Lead Director of the New York City canvass office. His office trained hundreds of canvassing staff and recruited thousands of small donors, raising over a million dollars. It was the largest office of it's kind and helped make history when Barack Obama won the election on November 4. For some reason, Michael was not as excited as he thought he should be - although this battle had been won there was still so much to rebuild. That night he found his feeling of unrest was best described by Obama himself who said, "This victory alone is not the change we seek - it is only the chance for us to make that change."

Christina Colaizzo
Regional Director for San Diego, Los Angeles, Pasadena and Santa Cruz
San Diego, CA

After graduating from The George Washington University in 2008, Christina was inspired by the wave of activism surrounding Barack Obama's campaign and frustrated by the actions of the Bush administration. She had to get involved in this election.Christina joined Grassroots Campaigns in September of 2008 as an Assistant Director on the MoveOn.org Voter Registration project and helped to open the Fairfax, VA office. In two months, Christina's office, along with along with others across the state, registered over 18,000 young Virginians to vote, helping to ensure a victory for Obama. After the voter registration project, Christina's office transitioned to voter persuasion and launched a GOTV campaign.Seeing the impact of grassroots outreach on elections, Christina realized it was not enough to get someone elected. She needed to continue to advocate for all the issues she campaigned for during the election, which is exactly what she did as the Lead Director of the D.C. office. Excited about the possibility of reaching out to people in new cities throughout the country, Christina spent the last few months on East Coast college campuses organizing the next generation of grassroots activists before relocating to sunny San Diego to head up the outreach office there. 

Amanda Van Kessel
Regional Director for Minneapolis, Boston and NYC 
New York, NY

Amanda thought she did her part in 2004. She voted. And we lost. The country re-elected the worst president in our nation's history, because all she did, and all MOST people did, was vote - which just wasn't enough. After graduating from UW-Madison in 2007, Amanda swore she would find a way to get involved and influence the next presidential election. Either way, she would have no regrets - Amanda was going to make sure that everybody either voted with their time or voted with their dollars, and then they voted in the voting booth, because that is what it takes to win and we could not afford to lose. That is why Amanda started working for Grassroots Campaigns in December '07. Since then she has worked to turn a swing state blue in Albuquerque, NM, spread awareness on Prop 8 with the ACLU in Seattle and eventually worked her way east, running offices in Denver, Boston, DC, and New York City, before stepping up to oversee East Caost offices as a Regional Director. She did her part in 2008. She's still doing it two years later, because the progressive movement has only just begun - we are now left with a not just a mission, but a responsibility.