About Us

In 2020, Flip the Vote raised $7 million for groups working to expand voter registration and mobilization in key swing states that handed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris a sweet victory and helped take back the U.S. Senate. We achieved this by holding 135 virtual house parties and creating a community of over 15,000 informed and committed supporters. 

Our recommended groups registered more than one million voters and engaged millions more, helping generate slim Democratic margins in places that mattered most, while also building lasting electoral strength and leadership in communities of color that have been sidelined for too long.

To build on Flip the Vote’s substantial growth and successes, we formalized our operations in 2022 by transitioning from an all-volunteer-led initiative to a nonprofit housed at Tides Advocacy, with Laura Pearl stepping in as Executive Director and the rest of the leadership team becoming an active volunteer Advisory Board.

Laura Pearl became Executive Director of Flip the Vote in early 2022 when the all-volunteer-run initiative formalized as a nonprofit organization. Laura was among the most active and effective volunteer leaders of Flip the Vote during the 2020 election cycle. When approached by other Flip the Vote volunteers to step into the new Executive Director role, she jumped at the opportunity to put her passion for electoral politics into practice full time. Previously, as a Consultant at Mercer, Laura provided strategic planning, benchmarking, and reporting for employee benefit plans. Laura graduated summa cum laude from Santa Clara University with degrees in Economics and Finance and a minor in Gender Studies, where she was chair of the women’s summit and involved in campus organizing.

Flip the Vote Leadership Team

Flip the Vote is fiscally sponsored by Tides Advocacy and overseen by an active volunteer Advisory Board that sets strategic direction and staffs all major Flip the Vote activities. 

Jacquie Anderson is an independent consultant working with nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and philanthropic foundations on research and evaluation, needs assessment, and strategy. Jacquie participated in Flip the Vote in 2018. Because of the success of that effort, she decided to take a more active role in Flip the Vote 2020, and in 2022 Jacquie became the Treasurer for the Advisory Board.

Elissa Gershon is a disability rights litigator who led healthcare litigation and policy work at Disability Rights California for more than 20 years.  She took a hiatus from practicing law to focus on the 2020 election, and she now works on voting rights for people with disabilities. She has been part of Flip the Vote since 2019 and is the Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board.

Maria Giudice is a design leader, leadership coach, author, and public speaker who specializes in building the next generation of creative leaders. Maria’s experience includes founding and growing the award-winning design firm Hot Studio and leading global design teams at Facebook and Autodesk. She has been an active member of the Flip the Vote Leadership Team since 2018.

Samantha Graff is a co-founder of Onside Partners,  an interdisciplinary consultancy helping foundation and nonprofit leaders wrangle big ideas into strategic action. She is also a lawyer with a background in the application of constitutional law to public health policy. Sam has been on the leadership team of Flip the Vote since its inception in 2018.

Kim Haveson is a social worker practicing in San Francisco and Oakland. She has been involved with Flip the Vote since 2018, fundraising, activating her network, and contributing to the work of the Leadership Team. Kim is determined to do all she can to participate in the reclaiming and repair of our democracy and to help in the fight for racial justice and economic equality.

John Ifcher is an economics professor who teaches economics of the public sector, with a focus on poverty and income inequality, and whose research focuses on behavioral economics.  In 2018, John Ifcher founded Flip the House—an all volunteer group that raised over $700,000 to help Democrats take control of the House—which has evolved into Flip the Vote. John currently resides as the Chair of the Advisory Board.

Daniela Matejkova is a Special Education teacher in Oakland, CA working towards a more inclusive and equitable education system for students of all backgrounds and abilities. Although born and raised in Prague, Czech Republic, Daniela feels a huge sense of duty to better our democracy for generations to come, which is why she spends all of her free time with the wonderful Flip the Vote team!

Kathy Simon coaches non-profit and educational leaders in empowered and empathic communication skills; she also works privately with couples and parents to support better communication at home. Kathy is the author and co-author of several books on teaching and school reform, including Moral Questions in the Classroom. Kathy has been a presenter with Flip the Vote since 2022 and joined the leadership team in 2023.