We’ve pulled together a group batch of IPDI Fellows for Winter/Spring 2008. Over the next six months, their research will look at practical applications of technology in the political space.

They will all blog on this site, and their research will be profiled at future IPDI events. You can even see most of them at our 2008 Politics Online Conference next week.

Meet the first batch of our 2008 Fellows:

• Charles Ellison
• Mindy Finn
• Judith Freeman
• Alan Roseblatt
• Lisa-Marie Von Raepke

Charles Ellison

Mr. Ellison is a widely-known and reputable public policy analyst, media and government relations expert with over a decade of experience. Based in Washington, D.C., Mr. Ellison serves as a Senior Advisor to the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver (CAAP-DU). He is also a CAAP Senior Fellow in Public Policy and Chief Editor of the center’s popular flagship website Blackpolicy.org, providing key government relations support on major policy issues important to the Center. He is Chief Editor and Contributor to the ASCENT Journal of Public Policy at AscentPress.org and served as managing editor for the 2005 release on modern political development titled “Standing in the Gap - Leadership in the 21st Century” by ASCENT Press.

Mr. Ellison is a critically-acclaimed author, co-host of the weekly Blackpolicy.org LIVE on XM Channel 130 (POTUS ‘08) and a frequent analyst for XM Radio. He is considered a leading expert on the use of technology in modern politics; e-governance; African American political development; the intersection of media, pop-culture and politics; modern American political and public policy trends; the U.S. Congress; state, local and federal political campaign trends. His highly anticipated political thriller, TANTRUM, is scheduled for release in February 2008.

A former local news radio correspondent and 2000 recipient of the Washington, D.C. “Top 40 Under 40” Award, Mr. Ellison is a former Congressional staffer, award-winning Internet content executive and former public relations director for Mt. Nebo Records, catapulting it from small, independent status to international rotation and recognition. He is a former associate producer for C-SPAN Networks and former marketing and public relations director for Votenet Solutions, Inc. As a commentator and lecturer, he has been featured in numerous television, radio and publishing venues, including: XM Radio, BlackAmericaWeb.com, The Source, Salon.com, BET, ABC News, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Washington Business Journal, Roll Call, National Journal, George Magazine, Pacifica Radio and National Public Radio, among others.

Mindy Finn

Mindy Finn is well known in grassroots politics for her work in leveraging technology to promote democracy at the legislative, campaign and political committee level. Most recently, she served as the Director of “e”Strategy for the Mitt Romney for President campaign.

Finn was selected by Campaigns & Elections as a Rising Star in American politics in 2007 and was recently profiled in a cover story for the Washington Post as part of its Political Operatives series. She has appeared on Hardball, PBS’ the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR, BBC Radio, among others speaking about the use of the role of new media and technology in the political process.

In her role on the Romney campaign, she directed the effort to maximize technology and the web to best communicate the candidate’s message, raise money and mobilize a strong base of support. Tactics included web video, social networking, blog outreach, user-generated content gathering, email list building and online advertising. Through her team’s efforts, the campaign was recognized for such innovative efforts as Sign Up America!, MittTV, mini-Mitt, the Create Your Own Ad contest, and the Five Brothers’ Blog.

In 2006, Finn served as Director of New Media & Technology for U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, where her job also included guiding the campaign’s use of microtargeting to contact and turn out key voters.

Her team helped Senator Santorum recruit over 50,000 active volunteers, provide outreach vehicles to more than 20 affinity groups and raise more than $1.2 million over the Internet, more than any other candidate in cycle. Finn was recognized by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for being the Republican’s best cyber campaigner in the nation and recognized by PoliticsPA for being one of Pennsylvania’s most accomplished political operatives 26 and under.

Prior to serving Santorum, Finn served as Deputy Director of the Republican National Committee’s eCampaign and Deputy Webmaster for Bush-Cheney ’04. Both entities won the Golden Dots for their superior websites.

Finn resides in Washington, D.C. and Boston, MA and originally hails from Houston, Texas. She has a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and is pursuing an M.S. in Political Management from George Washington University.

Judith Freeman

Judith Freeman is the co-founder and CEO of the New Organizing Institute. Previously, she was the senior political strategist at the AFL-CIO. During the 2004 presidential election, she worked on the Kerry campaign’s internet operations. She advises political and non-profit campaigns on organizing and campaign strategy and technology infrastructure. She worked for 5 years as a Network Engineer and Systems Programmer for the Network Security Center at the University of Chicago.

Alan Rosenblatt

Alan Rosenblatt, Ph.D. is the Associate Director for Online Advocacy at CAPAF. He is a frequent speaker and author on digital media, advocacy, and politics, including social networking, blogging, grassroots, and mobile advocacy strategies. He is the founder of the Internet Advocacy Center; an adjunct professor at Georgetown and American Universities, where he teaches Media and Politics in the Digital Age, Internet Politics, and Internet Advocacy Communications; and a blogger at TechPresident.com and DrDigiPol.com. Alan is also a founding team member of Media Bureau Networks (MBN), a pioneer in streaming media services; a contributing editor to Politics Online; and serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals dedicated to the study of the internet, politics, and government. He taught Political Science at George Mason University for nine years. Alan Rosenblatt has a Ph.D. in Political Science from American University, an M.A. in Political Science from Boston College, and a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from Tufts University. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Lisa-Marie Von Raepke

Lisa-Marie is a Fulbright Scholar from Germany and is currently pursuing her Master’s of Political Management at GSPM, specializing in campaign management. She graduated in August 2007 from the University of Applied Sciences Bremen, Germany, with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Management. As part of her program, she studied a semester abroad at Malmö Högskola, Sweden, as an ERASMUS scholar (sponsored by the European Union) in early 2005, and interned in 2005/06 with the Public Relations Department of the Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lisa-Marie was an active participant for the Young Social Democrats of the University of Applied Sciences as well as a member of the Student Council of her department during her undergraduate studies. Furthermore, she interned with the Public Relations Department of the Social Democratic Party of Hamburg, Germany, in 2003, and attended the 2nd International Summer Academy on Political Consulting a nd Strategic Campaign Communication in Mannheim, Germany, in 2006.

Lisa-Marie wrote her Bachelor’s thesis on the Americanization of German campaigns with a special focal point on how American grassroots tactics modernize German electioneering. Her work as a fellow at the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet will continue her research on German electioneering, particularly online campaigning in the upcoming state as well as federal elections.

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