PolitiCorps Staff

Caitlin Baggott
Program Founder

Caitlin Baggott is the Executive Director of the Bus Project. Her background includes several years working with homeless and incarcerated youth, teaching creative writing and arts in low income schools, and managing a study abroad program. She was one of the volunteers in 2002 who spent innumerable hours and days launching the Bus Project. Somewhere in the mix, Caitlin has also worked as a freelance writer, an editor with Portland Monthly Magazine, a political consultant, and a graphic designer. Caitlin serves on the boards of Oregon Voice (a new organization creating innovative collaborations between civic engagement organizations in Oregon) and The Mother PAC (a new Oregon political action committee promoting family-friendly policies and politicians). As part of her work at the Bus Project, she ran the PolitiCorps program from 2006 thru 2010.

Dani Bernstein
PolitiCorps Director

Dani first joined the Bus as a 2008 PolitiCorps fellow after graduating from Pomona College in her native Los Angeles. After ten weeks immersed in all things Bus, she temporarily said her goodbyes to the Pacific Northwest to work on marriage equality campaigns in San Francisco and New Jersey. She spent a year and a half on the LGBT campaign trail, then found herself back in PDX and at the Bus, where she has worked on the PolitiCorps program since May 2010.

Mariana Lindsay
Year of Service Coordinator

Mariana started volunteering with the Bus back in 2006. She left Oregon for the midwest to attend Beloit College in Wisconsin, but PolitiCorps brought her back as a summer fellow in 2009. After the summer program, she continued with the Bus Project as the Development Associate, also participating in the Year of Service Program. She is currently the Operations Manager at the Bus, in addition to running the PolitiCorps Year of Service program.

Contact us at admissions@politicorps.org

2011 PolitiCorps Leaders

Along with the PolitiCorps Staff, these folks are a crucial part of making the summer happen, planning key pieces of the curriculum and mentoring fellows on projects throughout the summer.

Ben Unger, Legislative Campaign Coordinator
Ben has directed many a campaign in Oregon, including the Yes on 49 campaign, where he fought to protect his family farm and open spaces across the state. In 2008, Ben managed the John Kroger for Attorney General campaign and then joined Attorney General Kroger at the Department of Justice. Ben coordinated the legislative campaign skills classes.

Legislative Campaign Coaches

Beth Bernard | Beth is the Executive Director of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association. She is a veteran of a number of campaigns, including United States Senate campaigns here in Oregon and across the country.

Andrea Cooper | Andrea is the Public Affairs Consultant at the Oregon Education Association. Andrea has run and managed a number of state legislative campaigns in Oregon for FuturePAC, the campaign arm of the Oregon House Democrats.

Stacey Dycus | Stacey is an experienced campaign consultant that most recently managed Tom Hughes’s successful run for Metro Council President. Stacey has worked as a consultant, organizer, and campaign manager all around the state, most notably in Central Oregon, for more than a decade.

Trent Lutz | Trent is the Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Oregon. Before serving as the Executive Director of the DPO, Trent did fundraising and ran political campaigns for some of Oregon’s top elected officials, including former Governor Ted Kulongoski.

Paige Richardson | Paige currently works for Grant Park Strategies, a public affairs and consulting firm. Over the last 20 years, Paige has run a number of statewide candidate and ballot measure campaigns, many of them in Oregon.

Barbara Smith Warner | Barbara currently works for U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. She is an experienced campaigner, managing and directing a number of local, statewide and federal elections.

Equity Curriculum Committee

Jessica Lee | Jessica is the Racial Justice and Alliance Building Program Manager at Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization. She is also an active member of the Oregon State Safe Schools and Communities Coalition and the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon.

Nina Narelle | Nina is an independent consultant with fifteen years experience as a facilitator, organizer, and collaborative thinker. She’s worked on environmental protection issues, urban garden advocacy, voter engagement campaigns, strategic philanthropy and racial health equity – to name a few.