CTA’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kat Atwater (she/her) previously spearheaded technology and political initiatives at the DNC as Deputy CTO, BlueLabs as COO, & SEIU as the National Campaigns Operations Director and PAC Director. Kat brings a unique organizer’s viewpoint into data-driven program and technology solutions, and has managed teams large and small focused on data and technology innovations centered around progressive program impact.

Michael Fisher (he/him) is Community Tech Alliance’s CTO. During the 2020 cycle, he co-led Uptime2020, an initiative to scale engineering, reliability, and security support for critical progressive tech infrastructure ahead of election day. Before that, he was CTO for Senator Booker’s presidential campaign, and has managed software engineering teams at Casper, the DNC, and in 2016 he led the Site Reliability Engineering team for Hillary for America.

James joined the organization after over a decade of experience working in Software Development across various industries. James brings an enterprise level understanding of data management, process management and product management. He’s focused on efficiency and reproducibility for CTA’s product offerings.

Katie has spent nearly a decade in Data and Analytics leadership at a number of progressive organizations and deeply understands the data and infrastructure challenges across the ecosystem. Prior to CTA, Katie directed Hillary for America’s Wisconsin analytics team, founded and ran a state legislative-focused PAC, and built ACRONYM’s data & analytics department. Having run data for more than a dozen campaigns, nonprofits, PACs, and firms, Katie is well-versed in the breadth and depth of organizations’ needs and how CTA can help.

Ben has worked professionally in political organizing since 2016. His prior experiences include a tenure as the Field and Data Director for the South Dakota Democratic Party, and, most recently, working at the Democratic National Committee helping progressive campaigns and organizations effectively leverage data for their programs. If Ben isn’t talking or reading about politics, he enjoys golfing, fly fishing, and spending time with his family.

Since 2015, Cheska has developed and led programs across data, technology, and organizing for various progressive electoral campaigns and civil society organizations. Her experience includes Hillary for America, Sen. Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign, and Families Belong Together where she was the first hire to the organizing team and led coalition and grassroots strategy on capacity building for campaigns to reunite migrant families and end family separation.

Bianca was previously the Director of Data and Technology Strategy at The Movement Cooperative. Since 2013, she has empowered for-profit companies, electoral campaigns and non-profit organizations to strategically use data. She previously served as the Data and Analytics Strategist at Forward Together. After working on President Obama's re-election campaign as a Field Organizer in Tampa, Florida, Bianca continued immersing herself in data-driven campaigns and non-profit work. She was also the National Data Manager at Organizing for Action where she oversaw reporting, training and data for grassroots staff and volunteers.

Emily has been with CTA since its earliest days and helped shepherd it from “hello world” scripts, prototypes, and tech spikes into something actually, you know, real. In a past life, she had an enchanting yet unusual career path, moving from Psychology research in academia to UX research and analytics at MyFitnessPal and Expedia. In 2020 she joined the Biden Campaign as a Data Engineer, which was a pivotal experience that cemented her fate in the political tech world. In her spare time, Emily travels a lot and does generically outdoorsy things. Ask about her seagull impersonation.

Farhad was previously the Senior Data Manager at Leaders Igniting Transformation Action Fund, an advocacy organization dedicated to building political power for Black and Brown youth in Wisconsin. Farhad has worked with campaigns at the local, state, and federal level since 2015. Outside of work, you can find Farhad experimenting with a new Indian recipe or cooking technique, exploring the DC/Maryland/Virginia region, or immersing himself in a new (or super old) video game.

Huy hopped into CTA and political tech from the private tech sector, wanting to make a bigger impact in the world beyond just doing their civic duty. He’s been a jack-of-all-trades throughout his software engineering career and continues to want to learn and evolve in order to help CTA do as much good in our mission as we can. When he’s not late to meetings due to zoning in on code and memeing in Slack, Huy is usually disc golfing (or whatever physical hobby the wheel landed on that week such as tennis, archery, roller skating, bouldering, etc.) or gaming.

Jesus previously worked at Capital One, creating an enterprise data ingestion platform and various other tools that made data analysts’ lives easier. Outside of work, you can probably find Jesus out searching for some tacos or hanging out with his friends and family.

A librarian by training, kane (they/them) spends a lot of time thinking about the ways in which information is organized and accessed. After finishing library school–where they mostly researched activism, archives, and the biases of cataloging classification systems–kane found themself pulled deeper into politics. They have worked and volunteered for advocacy and electoral campaigns, and most recently worked at a national nonpartisan organization aimed at making the US voting experience easier. Off the clock kane enjoys time with books, plants, and human friends.

Kelsey is a Senior Software Engineer at Community Tech Alliance. She has previously worked in FinTech and startup environments, both of which drove her to find a company that could be technically challenging while also aligning with her values and promoting some kind of positive change in the world. When she’s not tackling data pipelines at CTA, you can usually find her hanging out with her animals (Tuck and Joey - dog and cat respectively), reading, trying out new restaurants, or trying to find some new way to make exercising fun.

Meghan (she/her) is the Operations Manager at CTA. Previously, she helped run the direct response team at Children’s National Hospital Foundation and spent the 2020 cycle on the mobilization team at the DNC. While new to the tech space, Meghan is fiercely organized and believes that a good spreadsheet can fix any problem – making working in operations the perfect fit! In her free time you can find her practicing yoga, trying out a new recipe, or hanging out with her cat.

As a Data Analyst at Community Tech Alliance, Rebecca (she/her) provides reporting and analysis support to CTA’s partners. Previously, she worked in the data department at Working America, AFL-CIO and got her political start as a fellow with the Oregon affiliate of the Alliance for Youth Action, Next Up while in college. When not using her technical skills to fight for social, racial and economic justice she can most often be found playing ultimate frisbee or reading at a local coffee shop.

Shoham was previously the Senior National Analytics Manager at America Votes, with a focus on building out and maintaining America Votes’ reporting platform for the 400+ coalition. Since 2017, Shoham has worked with progressive and public sector orgs to help them make their data accessible, understandable, and a core part of program and strategy. They previously served as a consultant at the Civic Consulting Alliance in Chicago, working primarily in the public safety space. Shoham is also a senior trainer for data visualization at Generation Data. In their spare time, they can be found exploring DC and playing with their cat Leo.

In her role as Solutions Manager, Tara is able to leverage a decade of experience in progressive political data at every level of the ballot. Tara started her career as an organizer for Planned Parenthood in Las Vegas, and found her way into the progressive data world in 2012. She was the data director of the Nevada State Democratic Party for the 2016 caucuses, and then led Nevada’s coordinated campaign data and analytics team for the 2016 cycle. From 2017 to 2021, Tara was the VP of Data and Analytics at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, building the organization’s internal data department from the ground up. Outside of work Tara enjoys cooking, eating, making candles, and spending time with her husband, new baby, and two cats.

The unofficial, official mascot of CTA! Once a month, the CTA leadership team picks one team member to receive their very own “prog” as a thank-you for all of their hard work. Prog is an integral part of the CTA team!