Ellen Augustine
In 1994, Ellen was the NWPC-endorsed Democratic candidate for US Congress in CA 10 (Contra Costa and southern Alameda counties, as Ellen Schwartz). Though she did not win, she received the most votes of any person running against an incumbent of all the West Coast states. She is a contributing author to A Game As Old As Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption.  She is co-author of Taking Back Our Lives in the Age of Corporate Dominance (as Schwartz).  She has also written a booklet for parents: Way More Fun Than TV and Video Games. She has founded/co-founded four nonprofits on environmental regeneration, media violence, international citizen diplomacy, and mentoring at-risk youth. Her current speaking topics include “Stories of Hope”—profiles of people who are creating businesses which increase profits by being eco-friendly, and communities and schools which truly nurture and renew us; and “The Great Escape from TV and Video Games.”  Ellen has been featured in Utne Reader and Hope Magazine, received the Women of Achievement and Thread of Hope Awards, and was named one of 21 Visionaries for the 21st Century.  She holds a Masters Degree in Speech Communication.

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Pam Belchamber, Vice-Chair
Pam is new to the NWPC Board this year and she is looking forward to working with the many strong and active members of the organization to promote woman candidates and preserve the long standing rights and freedoms we now enjoy. She has lived in Berkeley since 1968 when she moved from Sacramento to complete her B.A. at UC Berkeley. Political activism was a part of the natural landscape and Pam was actively involved in the anti-war and environmental movements during this time. In the 1970s she was busy promoting grass roots recycling and is still active on the Board of Directors of Community Conservations Centers, Inc., one of the long standing organizations committed to the reduce, reuse, and recycle ethic and offering recycling services to the City of Berkeley. In 1980, her career took her to Solano County for 25 years where she developed a public transit system where there was none, including the popular Baylink Ferry service between Vallejo and San Francisco. Now retired, she is looking forward to becoming fit and healthy (Pam has been training and will run in the SF Marathon on July 31st), taking classes to improve her Spanish speaking skills (she was bilingual as a child), and returning to political action via the NWPC network of active woman in my community.

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Ann Chandler, PAC Chair

Ann has been a member of the caucus since 1979 and a board member since 1984, except for a brief leave of two years.   She has also served as local Caucus President (3 years), Chair of the Susan B. Anthony Celebration (2 years), Susan B. Auction Chair (3 years) and Representative to the State Board (six years). The caucus supported Ann during her eight years on the Berkeley City Council.  There is always a lot of work to do and fun to be had with the dynamic women who belong to and participate in caucus events. Ann is pleased to rejoin the Board and looks forward to the coming year with new adventures.

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Amy De Reyes  

Amy currently serves as Health and Legislative Policy Analyst for Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson.  In that capacity she is responsible for keeping Supervisor Carson’s office in the forefront of the health care debate at a local, state and national level.  She is also responsible for tracking state and federal legislation that impacts Alameda County.  In addition to Health and Legislative policy Amy is the staff person responsible for transportation, land use and planning policy for Supervisor Carson’s office.  Prior to joining Supervisor Carson’s team Amy spent almost four years at Planned Parenthood: Shasta-Diablo where she was the Community Engagement Manager and facilitated an affiliate wide client advocacy program as well worked on state and federal legislation including the budget.  Amy is an active member of League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and is involved in their efforts to promote responsible immigration reform and raise community awareness for immigrant issues. 

Ms. De Reyes received her Bachelor’s of Public Policy with and emphasis in health and is currently a Master of Public Policy Candidate.  In her free time Amy works at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito with the rescue and rehabilitation of Pacific Harbor Seals as well as Hopalong Animal Rescue in Oakland as a mobile dog adoption coordinator.

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Lori Durbin

Lori has been a community and educational activist for the past thirty years.  Her primary interests have been education, women’s issues and women in politics. Lori lives with my husband Gary and have three grown children, Tadish, Nathan and Samantha.  When Lori entered the world of political activism, one of her first actions was to join NWPC.  She became a member of my local Executive Board in 1995 and has held a variety of positions on the local board: Membership Chair for two years and member of the Membership Committee for two years.  Lori served as Co-President for two terms and one term as President and performed the duties as State Director representing the local caucus to the State of California Board for two terms.  Lori has been on the National Board for many years; for the past four years Lori has been the Vice President of Membership and prior to that served on the Political Planning Committee and as the interim Vice President of Development. Lori has been involved with the AAUW, the League of Women Voters, and BWOPA (Black Women Organized for Political Action) and served on the campaign committees of several elected local women and candidates.

Elizabeth Echols

Elizabeth served for nearly seven years as a political appointee in the Clinton Administration. She held several senior positions in the Commerce Department before moving to the White House to work for Vice President Al Gore. Elizabeth worked with Vice President Gore to close the digital divide and to use technology to improve education and health care.  Elizabeth has held several key leadership positions in the technology industry, including Google. 

Annabella Flores

Annie is the oldest daughter of immigrant parents she was raised in Brentwood, California. Annie embarked on her vocation in health care policy right out of high school as a peer counselor for TAP (tobacco prevention program).  She earned a bachelors degree in Public Policy from Mills College, and a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco.

Annie has worked as an eligibility worker for Contra Costa County Public Health and an ER Social Services Worker for San Francisco General Hospital. She has been at the forefront of advocacy and health care policy initiatives addressing under-served populations.  She has been an Oakland resident for the past 7 years and currently serves Assemblymember Sandré Swanson as a legislative public health aid.

Boards & Commissions:

     Graduate of Alameda County Leadership Academy, 2009.

     Board member of NWPC, Alameda North, 2007-Present.

     HOPE, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality, 2003-Present

     LULAC, League of United Latin American Citizens, 1998

     Present

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Frieda Glantz Edgette
Frieda is a Project Manager with Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights (ANR) and the ANR Foundation -- recognized in the 2006 U.S. Surgeon General's Report as the first and leading national organization to focus on the need for local smokefree indoor air policies. She provides political consulting to thirteen states, assisting them in strategic planning, grassroots mobilization, GOTV, and media outreach. At ANR, her close-to-the-heart projects include countering tobacco industry targeting of young adults and women, and educating on the negative impacts of secondhand smoke on women, such as breast cancer and low birth weights. Frieda is also a technical assistance liaison for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s prestigious Tobacco Policy Change Project. In 2003, she graduated cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Political Science and double minors in History, and Women, Culture and Development. Frieda believes strongly in the power of local control and is enthusiastic to focus on issues effecting women in her own backyard.

Ann-Marie Hogan

Ann-Marie Hogan was elected City Auditor of the City of Berkeley in 1994, and re-elected, without opposition, in 1998, 2002, and 2006.   A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, she is a Certified Internal Auditor and Certified Government Auditing Professional.   A former Board member of the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA), Ann-Marie is the California representative for ALGA’s Advocacy Com-mittee, charged with advocating for the establishment and support of publicly accountable independent performance audit functions in cities and school districts in California.  Ann-Marie is a long time Board member and current co-chair of Membership for National Women’s Political Caucus-Alameda North.  Since her undergraduate days at Cal, she has worked in the peace and justice community and as a coach and a tutor for young people and adults.  She is enthusiastic about advocating for auditors and elected women, and has been known to play a little music and sing even more enthusiastically.

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Barbara Kahn
Barbara lives in Alameda, in the same house for 43 years. She has a daughter who is a teacher and a mover and shaker in the school district, and two grandchildren who may really be more fun than politics. She has been active in the local Democratic Club, serving as Newsletter editor for a number of years. She is also part of a group of women called "the Brown Baggers", a name that stems from the fact that some 40 years ago as mothers or school age children they met weekly to discuss school reform in our schools, bringing lunch to the meetings in brown bags ( this was before the age of designer paper bags). They elected two of their members to the school board, and as a group they were instrumental in beginning the process of moving our schools forward. They carry with them a reputation of being powerful political women to this day (Ask Lena Tam about the Brown Baggers) They are nearly all in our 70's but are working at developing a new generation of brown baggers.

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Jerrie Meadows
Jerrie is a lifelong activist: Child Care Parents Association, PTA, Congress of Racial Equality, New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Viet Nam, CARAL, Access and a member of NWPC for about 22 years, the last 20 of which she was Treasurer. [Ed. Note: My guess is that she also holds the arrest record for the Board!] She was honored as the NWPC-AN Woman of the Year at the Susan B. Anthony celebration in 2004. Married, two children and two grandchildren. Before Jerrie retired she worked mostly for trade unions, the poverty program, and staffed (for pay or as a volunteer) numerous political campaigns, first in San Francisco and later in Berkeley.

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ELEANOR MOSES is a retired state manager and social worker, and former legislative consultant to the Assembly Human Services Committee.  She has worked with troubled youth and their families for most of her career with a committment to providing meaningful services, and a voice for the underserved.  Eleanor has worked on many campaigns in the Bay Area helping quality women get elected to public office and is actively involved in the Alameda County  Democratic Club.

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Erica Nietfeld

Erica (Kumé) joined the NWPC executive board in 2007, following her retirement from the University of California.  She has been active in Berkeley politics since the late 1970's and was a member of the steering committee of the Campaign for Economic Democracy.  Most recently, Kumé helped elect Nancy Skinner to the California State Assembly.  In addition to her position of Recording Secretary for the executive board, she is a member of the Bylaws committee and a Susan B. Anthony fundraiser co-chair.

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Catherine Trimbur

Catherine became involved in local politics in 1985, when she was treasurer of Loni Hancock's first campaign for Mayor of Berkeley. Since that time, she has been an active volunteer on many campaigns. Catherine served on the Berkeley Fair Campaign Practices Commission from 1987 to 1990, and on the Berkeley Citizens' Budget Review Commission from 1999 to 2002. She has been a member of the NWPC-AN Executive Board since 1995. During this time, she served at various times as Co-Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Newsletter Editor, PAC Treasurer, and PAC Co-Chair. Catherine lives in Berkeley, with her husband, Mal Burnstein.  They have two grown daughters and four grandchildren. Catherine has a law practice in West Berkeley, specializing in non-adversarial family law, wills & trust, and advice on employment practices.

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Kim McCoy Wade

Kim McCoy Wade is a policy advocate and organizer living in Oakland. She has previously led Together for CA's Future (state budget coalition) and the CA Association of Food Banks, and worked in Washington DC for the Children's Defense Fund and the Alliance for Justice.  As a volunteer, she has served on the Alameda County Procurement and Contracting Commission and the James Kim Technology Foundation board. She is an alumna of NYU Law, Carleton College, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and Emerge.  She lives in Oakland, near the Emeryville and Berkeley borders, with her husband and young son.

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