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THE WORK

My work has spanned over a vast array of topic areas, strategies, and types of organizations (I mean... I was a Latin/Biology Major. And then got a Masters degree in public health. And then worked in politics. It's been a ride.)

 

The common thread? I'm a problem solver. I can bridge and translate between different fields and modes of thinking, apply diverse tools to complex problems, to find the best solution for your team or project.

 

Have trouble getting a campaign or report off the ground? Need to develop and automate tech processes to support your behind-the-scenes infrastructure? Encounter a seemingly intractable problem that needs a fresh set of eyes? I'm your person. I do what needs doing, find what needs finding, and solve what needs solving - all rooted in the values of authenticity, community, creativity, and compassion. Get in touch.

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CV

Sept 2021 - Present
Founder

MOONSHOT CONSULTING LLC

  • Work with Kelman Law Firm (clergy employment law) to optimize client processes, develop online workshop series, and increase attorney efficiency, which has more than doubled the firm's annual income

  • Provided online programming moderation, digital educational platform setup, and technical support for Romemu congregation, including process automation (1000+ members)

  • Edited and project managed writing/production of Patrick Monari's The Academy Chrysalis, a crowd-funded role-playing game (60+ pages) with themes of colonialism, knowledge appropriation, and interrogating exploitative norms of adventure RPGs

  • Advised on campaign strategy and platform development Alaina Reaves for Clayton County Commission (Georgia 2021), led candidate’s debate preparation, constructed interactive GIS district maps for website

 

Previously: sole proprietor advisor/consultant since 2016 for clients incl. Hold the Line project, CTZNWell, act. tv, The Jewish Vote, Don’t Get Purged, Stand Up America, #ResistTrumpTuesdays, Ella Baker Women’s Center (North Carolina)

April 2019 - May 2021
Campaign Strategist

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION

  • Directed ACLU’s electoral campaign strategy and engagement in the following races: 2020 Supreme Court of Michigan, 2020 Montana Gubernatorial race, 2020 New Mexico State Senate, 2019 Aurora, CO city council

    • Each engagement involved managing teams of 10+ and budgets of $150-500K to produce candidate questionnaires, reliable polling, win number calculations, direct mail, digital ad creative and placement (social media, pre-roll, banner/display), paid phones, texting campaigns, splash-pages, all while maintaining legal compliance and collaborative stakeholder relationships with in-state groups

  • Drove ACLU’s state and local judicial election research and strategy, incl. assembling 50-state comprehensive guide to all types of court election and selection from state supreme courts through municipal, term limits, requirements

  • Designed co-led, collaborative electoral toolkit for ACLU state affiliates to guide affiliates new to electoral work using case studies, strategies derived from focus groups of affiliate staff, spreadsheet templates

  • Advised state affiliates on best practices, strategy, tactics on electoral engagements; consulted with Affiliate Support team on electorally focused resources and 2020 polling for Southern Collective vote work

  • Led ACLU national’s tactical and programmatic support of Texas local reproductive freedom initiative wherein existing in-state organizations established a centralized training academy for rural Texans to lead organizing efforts for abortion access and work an inside-outside strategy in key local jurisdictions to pass pro-repro resolutions and policies

  • Executed Rights for All Presidential primary state polling project (April-May 2019), including multiple rounds of review/feedback and results dissemination

 

Related: formed and led 100+ person ACLU Staff White Employee Self-Education/Accountability Group; founding member of ACLU Staff United (NPEU - IFPTE Local 70) & Equity Caucus

Nov 2018 - Present
Executive Board Member

FANDOM FORWARD

Fandom Forward (formerly the Harry Potter Alliance) harnesses the power of popular culture to make activism engaging, accessible, and sustainable.

  • Advise staff on program implementation and strategy, development/grants, political context

  • Co-wrote successful grant applications for Craig Newmark Foundation ($20K) & Protect Democracy ($10K)

  • Co-designed Granger 2020 campaign, which channeled 400K+ fans’ passion for social justice into effective actions during and after the 2020 election cycle

Feb 2017 - March 2019
Research & Data Manager, Elections Coordinator

#VOTEPROCHOICE

#VOTEPROCHOICE works to elect prochoice candidates in every election nationwide, especially down-ballot, through endorsements, partnerships, and comprehensive voter guide.

  • Designed and managed candidate endorsement process, incl. building comprehensive application and evaluation workflow, conducting 500+ initial candidate interviews, automating data collection and presentation workflows, individualized after-action reports for each of 320 endorsed candidates

  • Led 4-person team in researching 9000+ candidates at all levels of government for comprehensive progressive, prochoice Voter Guide, resulting in 5400+ recommendations and accessed and shared by over 30 million voters

  • Constructed database of candidate research, created database usage guides and led related staff trainings; also assembled comprehensive electoral calendar all the way down-ballot for sharing with other progressive partners

  • Analyzed election returns and statistics to guide organizational strategy and priorities

  • Consulted with MoveOn and UltraViolet to guide the creation of their own local endorsement processes

Sept 2016 - Nov 2016
Digital Outreach Manager

GAMECHANGER LABS

Movement 2016 (now Movement Voter Project) builds the progressive movement by connecting donors to the best grassroots voter engagement groups nationwide. Vote Mob is Student Power Network’s voter mobilization program. Local Vote pooled user-created progressive voter guides.

  • Consulted with Vote Mob state groups on their individual digital infrastructure needs, built related resources, implemented solutions tailored to each group

  • Established Movement 2016 (now Movement Voter Project) social media presence, created copy and graphics for regular FB & Twitter posts/graphics using Canva, developed video scripts (ex. 110K+ views on “Bust a move on that ballot!”)

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Related: Movement Voter Project advisory board member (2016 - Present)

August 2015 - June 2016
Co-chair

37TH UNC MINORITY HEALTH CONFERENCE

  • Managed 60 student volunteer planning team to plan and execute the 37th University of North Carolina Minority Health Conference, the longest-running student-run health conference in the US, for 750+ attendees, featuring two keynote speakers, eight breakout sessions, international webcast for remote partners

  • Spearheaded vision and objectives for conference (Theme: “In Solidarity: The Role of Public Health in Social Justice”)

  • Coordinated logistics incl. venue, budget, speaker travel and accommodations, key stakeholder communication

  • Restructured conference to include skills workshops, all-gender bathrooms, pronoun tags for the first time in its history

Won: University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Diversity Award

Nov 2014 - May 2016
Program & Campaigns Director

IMAGINE BETTER

Imagine Better was a start-up project, initially incubated at the Harry Potter Alliance, that sought to transform the energy around popular stories and cultural moments to create positive change and build a more just, loving world.

  • Designed, directed, and implemented Back to the Future Campaign, which built on existing pop culture fan bases and energy to inspire civic imagination

  • Developed organizational partnerships in support of our campaigns, incl. collaboration with the Harry Potter Alliance’s Odds in Our Favor campaign focused on labor justice

  • Created and led pop culture/social justice-related workshops and art installations for 2000+ fan convention attendees

  • Managed communications for US Rebel Alliance campaign (using the Force of We the People to destroy the Empire of money in politics), inc. email communications, website content, video scripts, and social media copy

Even further back:

UNC Center for AIDS Research, Social & Behavioral Sciences Division

Oct 2014- May 2015

Research Assistant

Little Bit Foundation

Aug 2013 - Aug 2014

Operations VISTA

Breakthrough Collaborative

Summer 2012

7th Grade Biology, Journalism Teacher

Oberlin Workshops and Learning Sessions

Fall 2010, 2011, 2012
OWLS Biology 100 Workshops Manager, Workshop Leader

CV: CV

EDUCATION

BACHELOR OF ARTS

Education

MASTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Department of Health Behavior
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2014-2016

Capstone: Housing First: Addressing Homelessness through Community Readiness Assessments and Recommendations for Rapid Re-Housing in North Carolina

Majors: Latin Language & Literature; Biology
Oberlin College
2009-2013

Phi Beta Kappa

Thesis: Lost in Translation: Media Portrayals of HIV/AIDS during the Blood Bank Controversy (1981-1985)

ADDITIONAL COURSEWORK & SKILLS

Software Proficiency:

  • Advanced: Airtable, Canva, Google Suite, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word

  • Basic: ActionKit, ArcGIS, GetThru, CSS, EveryAction, HTML, NGP VAN, SAS, Shulcloud, Wix, Wordpress, Zapier

Language:

Native Fluency: English

Advanced: Latin

Intermediate: Yiddish

Basic: Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Swahili

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Comedic Writing & Performance:

Upright Citizen's Brigade: 

Improv 101, Improv 201, Let's Create (focus: political sketch comedy)

QED: Stand-Up with Carole Montgomery

CV: List

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

Host

LIVECAST: SORTED! AT FANDOM FORWARD'S SMALL THINGS CON (2020)

Sorted! is a livecast show that features conversations with awesome people about how their Hogwarts house and world-changey work interplay. This week's featured guest: Reg Calcagno, professional queer politico! (March 28, 2020). https://youtu.be/bB8ZMdEgfe4 

Interviewee

MAGAZINE INTERVIEW: THE NEW REPUBLIC, "THE NEW MAJORITY BEHIND SEX WORK DECRIMINALIZATION" (2020)

Written by Melissa Gira Grant (Jan 20, 2020). https://newrepublic.com/article/156349/new-majority-behind-sex-work-decriminalization 

Author

OP ED IN ST. LOUIS JEWISH LIGHT (2018)

"Ashamnu: A meditation on immigration for Yom Kippur" published in the St. Louis Jewish Light (Sept 27, 2018). https://stljewishlight.org/opinion/ashamnu-a-meditation-on-immigration-for-yom-kippur/

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Interviewee

PODCAST: SELF-CARE SUNDAYS (2017)

Host Aditi Juneja. Self-care Sundays podcast. (July 9, 2017). "Activist Anna Dardick."

Co-Author

BOOK CHAPTER IN POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES (2017)

Golin C.E. et al. (2017) Chapter 5 Poverty, Personal Experiences of Violence, and Mental Health: Understanding Their Complex Intersections Among Low-Income Women. In: O'Leary A., Frew P. (eds) Poverty in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43833-7_5

Interviewee

RADIO PROGRAM ON WUNC: THE INTERSECTION OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE (2016)

Host: Frank Stasio. The State of Things, NPR affiliate WUNC. (Feb 9, 2016). The Intersection of Public Health and Social Justice.

Co-Presenter

ROUNDTABLE AT SOUTHEASTERN WOMEN'S STUDY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE (2015)

Mattheis, A.A. et al. (2016, March 31). Struggling Together: the Benefits of Interdisciplinary Classes for Learning Intersectional Approaches [Conference session]. Southeastern Women’s Studies Association Conference 2016 Intersectionality in the New Millennium: An Assessment of Culture, Power, and Society, Rock Hill, SC.

Co-Author

POSTER AT AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING (2015)

Samuel, Cleo et al. (2015) Equity in managing pain and side effects from cancer treatment: Findings from photovoice and focus group interviews with breast cancer survivors. 

Presenter

PRACTICUM PRESENTATION: IMAGINATION AS SOCIAL CHANGE (2015)

Dardick, A. H. (2015). Creative Visualization and Cultural Acupuncture: Imagination as Social Change [Presentation]. UNC Health Behavior Practicum Day 2015, Chapel Hill, NC. https://youtu.be/y8UXokbzvwk

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