About Us
Build the Next Generation to be Better
We are a group of citizens with extensive political and governmental experience from both sides of the political fence who have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. We know we can do better and must do better to have our democracy survive and thrive.
We have experience in providing bipartisan training. We know when fiercely partisan people learn how to work in collaboration the results are exciting. Our mission is to equip thousands of current and particularly future office holders with the skills of listening, tools necessary for bipartisan cooperation and the fundamentals of campaigns and governing.
We know that honorable people hold legitimately different political views. We are not suggesting that partisans will, nor should they, reach agreement on every issue. But, every issue can be considered in a bipartisan spirit that seeks constructive solutions for the common good over political and self interest.
For more background: http://www.detroitchamber.com/civility-101/
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Lee Cowen
From his early days of working for Cong. John Kasich, going on to a law practice to currently solving client issues with governors across the nation in both parties as President of Cowen Consulting. He is respected for his openness and engagement with partisans in both parties while at the same time active in Republican state, federal and Presidential campaigns. Despite his own viewpoints, partisan politics has never stood in the way of Lee in his professional and personal life because of his profound respect for peoples' differences of opinion. Truly a bipartisan human being in the highest regards.
Lee Cowen
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David Fifer
David is an experienced government affairs professional who has overseen legislative efforts throughout the United States. Notably he has spent time at the Pew Charitable Trusts, served as a consultant to start-ups and NGOs, and worked in the public policy division of a top 100 law firm. As a coalition builder he is known for breaking down partisan barriers and assembling broad based stakeholder groups in support of great ideas. David is a graduate of Florida State University and lives in Cohasset, MA with his wife Jane and their Saint Bernard, Daisy. On weekends you can find them scouting the best oyster bars in the area and counting down until opening day of baseball season.
David Fifer
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Tom Martin
An exemplar of practicing his beliefs for sustaining a healthy planet. Tom is the President and CEO of the American Forest Foundation. He is well-known for a career of conservation leadership including senior positions at the National Parks Conservation Association, Earth Force, National Audubon Society and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Whether discussing ecological and economic challenges with Republicans or Democrats he is respected for his persuasiveness and passion for protecting our environment. Tom works with people of diverse political persuasions to develop sound public policy for the common good of sustaining our nation’s forests.
Tom Martin
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Anne Mervenne
A lifetime of public service with a full appreciation for the difference between political campaigns and public service that seeks the best for the common good. She worked for Republican Governor John Engler and then Co-Chaired the Michigan Political Leadership Program (MPLP) for twenty years with distinction. Anne serves on several boards including the Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield board. She is loved and respected by the 600 Republican and Democratic fellows she guided to a new way of engaging in politics and government service. Anne, taught bipartisanship by living it while maintaining a fiercely partisan desire to win campaigns.
Anne Mervenne
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Bob Mitchell
Is founder of the Michigan Political Leadership Program operating at Michigan State University for the last 26 years and now volunteering as Founder and President the Bipartisan Leadership Project. An educator and a business innovator having initiated the nation’s first independent electric transmission company. He has had an extensive partisan career in campaigns and government service in the cabinet of Gov. Blanchard, Chief of Staff of US Sen. Gravel and heading an agriculture agency in Michigan for President Carter. Bob believes deeply in the power of inclusion and collaboration in seeking consensus to find the best solutions be it in his renewable energy business or equipping the next generation to exercise greater bipartisanship at all levels of government.
Bob Mitchell
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Dick Schubert
Deeply principled in life, work and politics. He was the First President and CEO of the Points of Life Foundation for President George H. W. Bush. As President and CEO of the American Red Cross he led with honor and dedication to serving those in need. Dick was also the President of Bethlehem Steel and was Deputy Secretary of Labor. He has served as the Chairman of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, served on the executive committee of the American Friends of the Czech Republic. He is currently Chairman Emeritus of the International Youth Foundation and Chairman Emeritus of the National Job Corps Association. Dick has always exhibited team leadership in business that respected his employees and inspired them to strive for the highest standards.
Dick Schubert
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Don Tucker
Brought to political activism and public service in the late ‘60’s, Don was on the campaign staff of US Sen. Phil Hart and Sen. McGovern’s national campaign in the early 70’s, while earning a law degree. He served as Sen. Hart’s Legislative Counsel during Watergate, and returned to Michigan to serve in various Democratic Party leadership roles for more than 20 years. He served as the state housing authority chair for nearly a decade, having been appointed by both Republican and Democratic governors, and on the board of the MPLP in the early 90’s. He currently runs his consulting practice from his mountaintop home in South Carolina and serves on a national affordable housing non-profit board. His life is filled with bi-partisan friendships.
Don Tucker
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Brad Viator
Brad Viator has made a career by advising companies and trade associations on how to effectively navigate complicated legislative, regulatory, and media environments. In fact, Brad launched a program at Georgetown University called The Campaign Institute that teaches senior electric company leaders how modern campaigns work, including the tools and tactics required in these engagements. At his company B Strategic, Brad advises clients on engagements with a wide range of external audiences including organized labor, environmental NGOs, state elected officials, and local community organizations. Prior to founding B Strategic, Brad served as Vice President of External Affairs at The Edison Electric Institute, where he led external engagement with state elected officials and state regulatory leaders. Brad launched an advocacy community called We Stand for Energy and built an internal Public Affairs firm for EEI’s members in 2015. Brad earned his Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Texas A&M University. He serves on his local PTA Executive Board and coaches a wide range of youth sports.
Brad Viator
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Donna Cooper
Donna Cooper is a recent graduate of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. She currently serves as an intern for the Bipartisan Leadership Project. She also works as the Program Assistant for the BLP’s partner, the Political Leadership Academy at George Mason University. She is interested in political leadership, environmental justice, and local peacebuilding. During her time in undergrad, she served as a peer mentor for the Honors College and as a Resident Assistant. She is continuing on at The Carter School for her Masters degree.
Donna Cooper
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Ashley Montenegro Alexander
Ashley Montenegro Alexander is a government affairs specialist for CATALYST based in Tampa, FL. Before joining CATALYST, Ashley served as the finance director for the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). A well-seasoned government affairs professional, Ashley has managed relationships with over 400 corporate and individual clients throughout her career. As a part of the RAGA team, she helped to more than quadruple their fundraising totals over the past six years. Ashley also provided policy support in areas crucial to the role of state Attorney Generals. In addition to overseeing RAGA’s fundraising operations, she provided fundraising and policy support for their policy arm, The Rule of Law Defense Fund.
Well-versed in political campaigns, Ashley’s political career began in 2011 as she assisted the Republican Party of Florida’s Political Department on a series of state-wide down-ballot races. She also worked on campaigns at the presidential level where she headed Mitt Romney’s Women for Mitt efforts in Florida as the deputy coalitions director in 2012.
A first-generation Colombian-American, Ashley was born and raised in Naples, Florida. She graduated from Florida State University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs concentrating in history as well as a minor in Spanish.
In her spare time, Ashley enjoys helping others in Central and South America through mission work led by her father’s ministry, Love and Legacy.
Ashley resides in Washington, D.C. where she enjoys exploring the area with her Golden Doodle, Banks.
Ashley Montenegro Alexander
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Special Advisor
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Linda C. Mathes
Linda is the Special Advisor for the Bipartisan Leadership Project (BLP) which equips public servants and a new generation of leaders with fundamental skills necessary to work collaboratively for the common good. She supports the BLP’s partnership with the Political Leadership Academy at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. She manages the community Working Group assisting Fairfax County Public Schools in creating the John Lewis leadership program to prepare students for public service and leadership roles. Linda also serves as Executive Mentor for the Global Good Fund and 2020/21 Board member and Treasurer for the International Women’s Forum-DC.
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Linda served as CEO of the American Red Cross in the National Capital Region until June 2020 when she wrapped up her distinguished career with the Red Cross where she served at the local, regional and national levels beginning in 1973. She has served on several boards and received numerous awards for her accomplishments in leadership development, team building, resource mobilization, board engagement, and strategic partnerships with the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
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Linda received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Vanderbilt University and her Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California. She is a graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy and Partners in Organizational Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Linda C. Mathes
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Intern
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Julianna Donahue
Julianna Donahue is a recent graduate of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. She currently serves as an intern for the Bipartisan Leadership Project. She also works as the Program Assistant for the BLP’s partner, the Political Leadership Academy at George Mason University. She is interested in political leadership, environmental justice, and local peacebuilding. During her time in undergrad, she served as a peer mentor for the Honors College and as a Resident Assistant. She is continuing on at The Carter School for her Masters degree.
Julianna DonahueJulianna Donahue, Intern
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About Bipartisan Leadership Project (BLP)
Proof That Bipartisanship Can Be Learned
The BLP is based on a one of its kind bipartisan training that combines how to win elections and how to serve in office. It is unusual to mix these two elements and to do so with people from different political parties in the same room. Plus, the mix of people are a diverse representation of society and in equal numbers of women/men, political views, mix of ages, urban, rural and an over sampling of people of color and under-represented. The diversity of participants who rarely, if ever, talk to each other, graduate with a new set of problem solving skills, a new ability and respect for listening to different opinions and a new set of friendships that produce wonderful cross partisan cooperation when they are in public office.
Proof of success is in the stories of bipartisan cooperation that abound from the more than 600 graduates of the Michigan Political Leadership Program.
65% of the graduates have become elected or appointed to high positions:
Secretary of State, 56 in State Government positions, 27 State Legislators-including Speaker and committee chairs, 97 Mayors and City Commissioners, 81 County Officials, 82 School Boards, 56 Township Officials, State Director of Mental Health, State Superintendent of Education, 9 University Board of Trustee, 4 Tribal Government Chairman, Various Commissions, Campaign Managers and Political Party Leaders, Heads of Local and National Public Policy Causes, Campaigns, and more.
Thank You for Interest in Bipartisanship and for Exploring This Website
While most of us are partisans and we want our political views and candidates to win, we intuitively understand that elected officials should work together toward a common good and they are not! Fighting over everything doesn’t produce good government or good policy. We believe our political system can be fixed when we reach a critical mass of leaders who understand the power of inclusion and collaboration. That is why our goal is to train at least 6,000 candidates every five years to govern in a bipartisan spirit.
Our democracy will be stronger when elected officials know how to get beyond win-lose arguments on every issue. A little know program in Michigan, the MPLP, has shown that even very partisan adults can learn skills and appreciation for working together between parties. That is why we want to replicate the MPLP in other states and nationally. We know it changes lives and enables government to work. The only training candidates are getting now is how to win. Where can people learn how to serve in a bipartisan spirit? Ask yourself, why are corporations spending billions to train leadership skills and team building. In government we spend nothing, and it shows.
The BLP Board has an ambitious game changing agenda. Reaching the goals is totally dependent on funding from serious minded citizens who understand the need for a substantive, on-going program to make our governmental bodies more effective. Giving campaign contributions to your favorite candidates and party are important. Contributing to this program will make them better candidates, more effective once they are elected and give us hope for the future.
Government will function best when leaders recognize we are an interdependent society and that we do better when we work together. If you agree with these goals, you have found a home to support your values for a better tomorrow. We invite you to support the Bipartisan Leadership Project. Contributions to the BLP may be tax deductible for individuals and corporations.
Quotes
”Elected officials do not have power, they hold power.”
JOHN DINGELL (July 8, 1926 – February 7, 2019)
LONGEST SERVING MEMBER OF CONGRESS
”In the long history of humankind, those who learn to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
Charles Darwin
”More than ever, our society needs to restore our high standards of civil discourse and applied ethics.”
William Kristol
Founder and Editor of The Weekly Standard
”Sandra Day O’Connor set the standard for bipartisanship by putting country above party and self-interest and worked collaboratively to solve problems.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice
The Bipartisan Leadership Project (BLP) will Launch State Programs
- The BLP Non-Profit 501(c)(3) has been formed to lead the expansion of bipartisan leadership programs in every state.
- The Goal: raise $350,000 for BLP to recruit additional major universities to sponsor state programs and guide formation and operation of the programs that will become self-sustaining state programs (50 states X $500,000 = $25 million over 7 years).
- BLP team will work with participating states at every step to fund and launch program and guide curriculum.
- The seven year goal: a bipartisan leadership program operating in every state.