The VoteAmerica team

Brenna Cully
Director of Mobilization (she/her/hers)

Brenna Cully is the Director of Mobilization at VoteAmerica. She has extensive organizing experience and a love for voting. She has overseen digital organizing programs for dozens of races up and down the ballot as well as Advocacy and Non-Profit organizations. Brenna spent the last three years as the Director of Customer Experience at Prompt.io, a political texting platform. When not working, she spends her time cooking, reading books, and hanging out with menagerie of pets in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Colette Kessler
Finance Director (she/her/hers)

Debra Cleaver
Founder & Chief Executive Officer (she/her/hers)

Debra Cleaver has been working at the intersection of technology and democracy since 2004. She is a serial founder whose organizations include FutureVoter (2022), VoteAmerica (2020), ElectionDay.org (2018), Vote.org (2016), Long Distance Voter (2008), and Swing the State (2004). Debra is an alum of Pomona College and Y Combinator, and a former Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship.  She speaks frequently on issues impacting voter turnout, with appearances at SXSW, Harvard Law, the Harvard School of Government, and University of Michigan. Debra’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, C-SPAN, WIRED, Bloomberg, The BBC, Forbes, and more. When she’s not working, Debra is probably sleeping, since she has learned the hard way that her “passion projects” have a way of turning into national organizations.

Emily Behlmann
Senior Software Engineer (she/her/hers)

Emily Behlmann is a Senior Software Engineer at VoteAmerica. Engineering is a second career for Emily, who started her working life as a journalist covering education, politics, and business in Kansas. She has worked in software development and architecture for about eight years, mostly focused on the advertising and fintech industries. Now at VoteAmerica, she’s glad to be able to apply her technical skills to make it as easy as possible for citizens to engage with their democracy. Outside work, Emily can usually be found reading mysteries or camping with her wife, Stephanie, and their hounds, Rose and Cobb.

Emily Schemper
Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships (she/her/hers)

Emily Schemper is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at VoteAmerica. With nearly a decade spent in the world of social impact, she is known for her ability to forge unconventional and innovative partnerships between leading nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining VoteAmerica, Emily was most recently the Lead Director of Corporate and Foundation Development at Susan G. Komen. First inspired during her elementary school's mock election, she went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Politics & International Affairs from Wake Forest University and was published in American Politics Research 41 (5), 783-818. Emily believes in the power of partnership and collaboration to ensure every eligible American can easily register to vote and cast their ballot. In her free time, you'll find her in the garden with Dolly Parton on repeat.

Emma Kraus
Operations and Program Manager (she/her/hers)

Emma first got involved in politics through the Hillary for America campaign, working as an Organizer in her Ohio hometown. Since then, Emma has worked for a series of political campaigns and organizations including the Texas Democratic Party and Nevada State Democratic Party. She is a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in Public Health and Political Science. In her free time, Emma enjoys going to her local farmer’s market, cooking, cheering on the Cincinnati Bengals, and antagonizing her cat Apollo.

Jennifer Lauv
Data Engineer (she/her/hers)

Jennifer Lauv is the Data Engineer for VoteAmerica. She earned a Bachelor's in Mechanical and Ocean Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While at MIT, Jennifer held various leadership positions in many student organizations, including being the project manager for two sustainability programs and communications coordinator for a climate activism group. During her senior year, she was Fall Career Fair Week-of Logistics Co-Director for the largest career fair the institution holds annually and the Engineering Team Lead on her capstone project. Prior to joining VoteAmerica, she worked as a mechanical engineer at L3Harris and volunteered with the Yang2020 presidential campaign, where she helped scale up the volunteer texting program as the campaign gained momentum.

Rebecca Coffman
Fractional Chief Operating Officer (she/her/hers)

Rebecca Coffman is the fractional COO at VoteAmerica, supporting the CEO part-time in overseeing revenue, fundraising, marketing/PR, general operations, accounting, and HR. Passionate about preserving and protecting American democracy, Rebecca's core experience lies at the intersection of data, technology, and social impact. Prior to VoteAmerica, Rebecca served as founding Chief Operating Officer at Citizen Data, a SaaS public benefit corporation dedicated to leveraging the power of big data and machine learning to reverse polarizing dynamics in this country. Rebecca also previously worked in several positions — including Digital and Communications Director — at Stand Together, a philanthropic network of non-profits focused on eliminating barriers to opportunity. Rebecca believes that voting and democracy are nonpartisan issues and would love to debate anyone who believes otherwise. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband Mike, son Shiloh, and cat Hamlet.

Scott Minkoff, PhD
Senior Research Fellow (he/him/his)

Scott is an Associate Professor of Political Science at SUNY New Paltz and a Senior Research Fellow fellow at VoteAmerica. He teaches classes on American politics, state and local politics, public policy, and social science research methods. He is also a co-author on Ed Greenberg and Benjamin Page’s introductory American politics textbook The Struggle for Democracy. Scott Minkoff, along with Todd Makse (Florida International) and Anand Sokhey (CU Boulder), published a book with Oxford University Press.  Politics on Display: Yard Signs and the Politicization of Social Spaces examines one of the most conspicuous features of American political campaigns, yet one that has received little attention as a form of political communication or participation: campaign yard signs. Scott publishes frequently. You can find his work in American Politics Research, Political Geography, Urban Affairs Review, and Social Science Quarterly. (CV)