Guest Expert Profiles: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Kevin Gentry

- Kevin Gentry is Vice President for Strategic Development at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. Well known for his fundraising expertise, especially in the area of high-dollar direct mail, Mr. Gentry has conducted marketing and fundraising presentations in thirty states, Canada, Chile, Panama, Poland and South Africa. He has also served as a fundraising consultant to U.S. Senator George Allen, former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, and numerous other elected officials, candidates, party committees and free-market organizations. Between 1997 and 2003, Mr. Gentry served as vice president for both the Mercatus Center and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. Over that period, combined revenue for these two organizations more than tripled. He continues to serve as a fundraising counselor to both organizations. From 1991-997, Kevin served as executive vice president of the Leadership Institute, where he helped increase the Institute's annual revenue from $1 million to nearly $7 million, and also oversaw a building campaign that raised more than $6.5 million.

Kevin Gentry has lectured our trainees on Fundraising.

Grover Norquist

- Grover Norquist has been one of Washington's most effective issues management strategists for over a decade, a key Republican and conservative activist, and a strong ally of the Arab and Muslim American communities. Mr. Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a coalition of taxpayer groups, individuals and businesses opposed to higher taxes at both the federal, state and local levels. ATR organizes the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," which asks all candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to oppose all tax increases. To date, President George W. Bush, 222 House members, and 46 Senators have taken the pledge. On the state level, 6 governors and 1247 state legislators have taken the pledge. In 1998 he co-founded the Islamic Free Market Institute in Washington, DC. Mr. Norquist also serves on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association of America and the American Conservative Union. He is president of the American Society of Competitiveness. He wrote the book Rock the House - an analysis of the 1994 elections, which has been translated and published in Japanese.

Mr. Norquist has lectured our trainees on how to speak to Republicans.

Randa Fahmy Hudome

- Randa Fahmy Hudome is President of Fahmy Hudome International (FHI), a strategic consulting firm with a focus on international energy issues. Prior to assuming the presidency of FHI, Randa served as the Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy in the Administration of President George W. Bush. Her duties involved advising Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on all aspects of international energy policy. Prior to her executive branch experience, Randa was Foreign Policy Counselor during Senator Abraham's tenure in the United States Senate. Randa received her JD in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, in Washington, D.C. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in political science and international studies from Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Insight Magazine recently featured Randa in an article entitled "Women at Home on Bush's Team." It highlighted a new generation of women poised to shape public policy in Washington. Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich appointed Randa to the Maryland Commission for Women. She is currently serving a four-year term as the Chairperson of the 24-member commission.

Randa Fahmy Hudome has lectured our trainees on dealing with elected officials.

Edward Ayoob

- Edward Ayoob is of counsel in the Federal Relations Group in Barnes & Thornburg LLP's Washington, D.C., office. His work on behalf of clients includes areas such as taxation, appropriations, tort reform, and various regulatory concerns, among numerous other issues. Mr. Ayoob is the former legislative counsel, tax counsel, appropriations manager, and foreign affairs advisor to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D - NV). He was also the senator's chief aide on judicial nominations and other issues related to the senator's leadership role. Mr. Ayoob also served as Minority Leader Reid's assistant finance director on the senator's successful 1998 reelection campaign. Mr. Ayoob received his J.D. in 1996 from Duquesne University School of Law, where he was elected vice-president of the Student Bar Association. Mr. Ayoob graduated in 1991 from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in international relations and political science. In 1990, he attended La Sorbonne and the American University of Paris.

Edward Ayoob has lectured our trainees on lobbying policy makers.

George Cody

- Dr. George T. Cody, Executive Director of the American Task Force for Lebanon, has a BS.Ed from Kent State University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer and Volunteer Leader in Bahrain, where he taught English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). He was the Director of Marketing and Travel Consultant for Traveler's Guide in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Cuyahoga County Deputy Director of International Trade in Greater Cleveland before coming to Washington to work for US Representative Ed Feighan (D-OH). During his ten years on Capitol Hill, Dr. Cody worked closely on Middle East issues with Rep. Feighan, who served on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East and the Subcommittee on Human Rights.

Mr. Cody has lectured our trainees on alternative models of political organizing.

M.J. Rosenberg

- M.J. Rosenberg is the Director of Policy Analysis for Israel Policy Forum (IPF), a position he has held since the spring of 1998. In this position, MJ heads IPF's Washington, D.C. office and writes IPF Friday, a weekly opinion column on the Arab-Israeli conflict which is widely circulated throughout the United States and the Middle East. In addition, MJ has published numerous op-eds, in the national and Jewish press. MJ spent eighteen years within the United States government, fourteen on Capitol Hill as an aide to Representatives Jonathan Bingham (D-New York), Edward Feighan (D-Ohio) and Nita Lowey (D-New York) and Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan). Immediately prior to coming to IPF, he was a political appointee to USAID, where he served as Chief of Staff for Thomas Dine, the head of the Eastern Europe/NIS Bureau of USAID. From 1982 to 1986, MJ was editor of Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affair Committee's (AIPAC's) biweekly publication on Middle East Policy.

M.J. Rosenberg has lectured our trainees on Jewish-Arab relations in the United States.

Mara Rudman

- Mara Rudman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she focuses on national security issues and advises Middle East Progress. She is also President of Quorum Strategies, an international strategic consulting firm. From 1997 to 2001, Rudman served at the White House, including as a deputy national security advisor to President Clinton and National Security Council Chief of Staff, where she coordinated and directed activities among the various federal departments and agencies with defense and foreign policy responsibilities. In that capacity, she also played a role on Middle East peace efforts. From 1993-1997, she worked as chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee under Chairman Lee Hamilton. Prior to her committee positions, Rudman was a litigation associate at Hogan & Hartson. Early in her career, Rudman clerked for the Honorable Stanley Marcus, now of the Eleventh Circuit, in the Southern District of Florida. Rudman serves on the Middle East Investment Initiative board, the board of advisors of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, as a member of the Aspen Institute Middle East Strategy Group, and as an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow. She is also a frequent media commentator. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College summa cum laude and her Juris Doctorate cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was the editor-in-chief of The Harvard Human Rights Journal.

Mara Rudman has lectured our trainees on the future of US foreign policy in the Middle East.

Spencer Ackerman

- Spencer Ackerman is a Reporter/Blogger for TPMmuckraker.com, covering national security. Additionally, he's a senior correspondent for The American Prospect and national security correspondent for the Washington Monthly. His writing has appeared in Slate, Salon, Men's Journal, the Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, New York Press and The New Republic. In 1996, the New York Daily News included him in a profile on punk-rock fashion in city high schools, which began Ackerman's long career of embarrassing himself in public. He was named as a potential witness in the Scooter Libby trial and is still bitter about not being called to testify.

Spencer Ackerman has lectured our trainees on blogging, dealing with the media and writing for impact.

Puneet Talwar

- Puneet Talwar is a senior staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is the chief advisor on the Middle East to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE), who is due to assume the Chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 110th Congress in January 2007. He served in the Clinton Administration as a member of the U.S. Department of State's Policy Planning Staff. He also worked as a foreign policy advisor to Congressman Thomas C. Sawyer (D-OH) and was an official with the United Nations (1990-2). He holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Puneet Talwar has lectured our trainees on the direction of US foreign policy and dealing with Congressional staff.

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Guest Expert Profiles: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4