CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
anthony@ruralurbanbridge.org

Anthony Flaccavento is a farmer, author and rural development consultant from Abingdon, Virginia, in the heart of the Appalachian coalfields. His book, Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real World Experience for Transformative Change, has been used by practitioners, students and academics across the country. Anthony was the Democratic Candidate for Congress (VA-9) in 2018.

CO-FOUNDER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, AND BOARD MEMBER
erica@ruralurbanbridge.org

Erica Etelson is the author of Beyond Contempt: How Liberals Can Communicate Across the Great Divide. A former human rights attorney and progressive campaign veteran, Erica lives in rural northern California with her husband and puppy.

CO-FOUNDER, ACTING RESEARCH DIRECTOR, AND BOARD MEMBER
cody@ruralurbanbridge.org

Cody Lonning grew up farming hay and wheat outside the small town where he now teaches politics and history at Eastern Washington University. A former corporate lawyer, Cody has seen both sides of the rural-urban divide after living and working in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, and Boston.

BOARD MEMBER

Kal Munis, a political scientist at Utah Valley University, is a leading scholar on the urban-rural divide and former pollster for red state Democrats. He was part of the successful polling and strategic messaging effort that helped turn Georgia blue in 2020. Kal is a first-generation college graduate with family roots in ranching and mining. He leverages his deep Montana roots and connections to the rural west to develop and maintain a cutting-edge academic research agenda and a series of strategic political proposals aimed at courting rural voters on the basis of localized and progressive economic policies.

BOARD MEMBER

Princess Williams teaches political science at Washington University in St. Louis. Her scholarship focuses on behavior, geography, race and ethnic politics, and American political development. Dr. Williams's research agenda includes projects measuring sub-national identities in the U.S and examining their role in shaping national and local politics as well as how voters think about politics. Her current book project includes a novel cross-racial measurement of Southern identity, investigating its relationship with various political attitudes.

BOARD MEMBER

Tom Jacobson is the founder and principal at High Country Strategies, a consulting firm providing strategic, management, and public policy guidance to businesses, associations, and nonprofit organizations. He was the executive director of Rural Dynamics, Inc. for 20 years, providing consumers with financial counseling as well as other asset development programs. Tom also served in the Montana legislature, as first a Representative and then as a Senator, working on Finance and Claims, Tax, Natural Resources, and Fish and Game committees.

BOARD MEMBER

Bill is a lifelong Montanan, with over 50 years experience working on state and local political campaigns. He served 14 years as an elected official with the City of Great Falls, and is currently serving his second term as an elected member of the Great Falls School Board of Trustees. After practicing courtroom work for nearly 40 years, Bill now advises nonprofit organizations and supervises a low income legal assistance clinic. He has also taught college level courses in law, American Government, and comparative politics. Bill currently also serves on the board of directors of Big Sky 55+, a Montana non-profit promoting senior citizen rights, economic security, and programs for the common good.

COMMUNITY WORKS DIRECTOR meredith@ruralurbanbridge.org

Meredith describes herself as Appalachian Atlantan, having lived the past 40 years in rural southwest Virginia, her father’s homeplace of seven generations, after growing up in Georgia near her mother’s urban roots. The founding ED of two nonprofits – a regional group addressing poverty, racism, and gender inequality in Appalachian communities, and a local group cultivating health and wellness for kids - she also served as Adjunct Faculty for Appalachian Studies at Virginia Tech and Radford Universities, Field Director for the VA-9 2018 Congressional Campaign, and Chair of her local Democratic Committee.

COMMUNICATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT ASSISTANT
jacque@ruralurbanbridge.org

Jacque Von Kundra grew up in rural Appalachia and graduated from The College of William and Mary. She ran a farm to table restaurant in Meadowview, VA. She currently lives in Winston-Salem, NC with her husband and young son.

RESEARCHER
olivia@ruralurbanbridge.org

Olivia is a student and local hospitality “jack-of-all-trades.” She was born and raised on family farms in the southern Appalachian mountains. She graduated from Emory & Henry College in rural southwest Virginia.

Arlie has long taught sociology at U.C. Berkeley. Her most recent book is Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, and for the last four years she has been doing research in Appalachia.

Matt Morrison is the Executive Director of Working America, AFL-CIO. He is a leading political practitioner with experience working in over 500 elections throughout his career. Most recently, Working America has achieved a 76 percent win rate in the 87 competitive elections it has worked in since November 2016.

Cynthia Wallace is the Executive Director and co-founder of the New Rural Project. Cynthia was the 2020 Democratic Nominee for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District and is an appointed member of the NC State Banking Commission. She was born and raised in rural southeastern Georgia, where all of her grandparents were farmers. She has lived in Atlanta, Jacksonville and now Charlotte. She knows first hand the urban and rural life.

Chloe Maxmin, hailing from rural Maine, is currently 29 years old and a Maine State Senator. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate Minority Leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. She is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate. IG: @chloe.maxmin

Jane Kleeb is chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and President of the Bold Alliance, a network of land and water protectors. Jane is also the founder of Bold Nebraska, a grassroots coalition of farmers, landowners and tribal nations who worked together to defeat the Keystone XL pipeline.

Jennifer M. Silva is a sociologist at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. She is the author of We’re Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America.

Canyon Woodward is the co-author of Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It. He was born, raised, and homeschooled in the Appalachian Mountains of rural North Carolina and the North Cascades of Washington State. He was the campaign manager for Chloe Maxmin’s successful 2018 and 2020 campaigns.

Michael E. Shepherd, PhD. is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on how marginalized social groups affect and are affected by public policies, especially surrounding health care.

Heidi Binko is the co-founder and executive director of the Just Transition Fund, where she is responsible for the design and overall strategic direction of the organization. With more than 17 years of philanthropic experience on climate, coal, and energy issues, Heidi has worked with coal communities throughout the US and internationally in Australia.

Luke Mayville is Co-Founder and Director of Reclaim Idaho, a grassroots organization that spearheaded Idaho's 2018 ballot initiative to expand Medicaid coverage to over 100,000 Idahoans. Most recently, Reclaim Idaho won a landmark case in the Idaho Supreme Court that enshrined the ballot-initiative process as a fundamental right in the state of Idaho. Luke was listed by Idaho Business Review among the "Power 25" leaders in Idaho's healthcare sector and he received the 2019 Advocacy Award from the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians.

Helen Probst Mills recently co-founded the New Rural Project, a non-profit which focuses on making sure that the voices of rural young people and marginalized residents are heard. Helen was proud to be the 2018 and the 2020 Democratic Nominee for North Carolina’s 25th State Senate District. An attorney by background, Helen was recently reappointed to a second term on the Board of Trustees of the Sandhills Community College. Born and raised in New York City by a single mother, Helen believes that the pitting of rural vs. urban is a construct that serves neither community well.

Jefferson Cowie, a professor of history at Vanderbilt University, studies US working-class history and politics. His books include Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class and the Pulitzer-winning Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power.

Sarah Lloyd farms with her husband Nels Nelson and his family on the 450-cow Nelson dairy farm outside Wisconsin Dells. She serves in leadership in a number of organizations including; Wisconsin Farmers Union, Our Wisconsin Revolution and the Wormfarm Institute, including collaboration on the Rural-Urban Flow initiative. Sarah was a candidate for Congress (WI CD-6) in 2016. Sarah works off-farm for the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota on understanding and enacting agroecological transformation.

Paul Kendrick is the executive director of Rust Belt Rising, a non-profit which helps Democrats be the party of all working people by offering free training on connecting effectively with voters in the region, winning seats, and delivering change. With a focus on leaders and state and local Democratic parties in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, Rising has helped 63 campaigns win elected office while substantially increasing the vote share for other candidates running in challenging districts.

Kimber Lanning is the founder and CEO of Local First Arizona, an organization focused on creating a diverse and inclusive Arizona economy. LFA is leading the nation in implementing systems and policies to ensure a level playing field and increased access to capital for entrepreneurial endeavors and communities of all sizes. Lanning has also received numerous awards, including being named one of the “50 Most Influential Women in Arizona” (Arizona Business Magazine, 2011) and the Citizen Leader of the Year from the International Economic Development Council.

Sage Lawrence grew up raising livestock on a small farm in eastern Washington. He has worked on five campaigns as an organizer and campaign manager, including as a Regional Organizing Director for the PA Democrats in 2022. He is currently the Deputy Finance Director for the VA House Democrats and has a MPP in rural economic development from UC Berkeley. Sage is passionate about expanding progressive power by training, empowering, and electing the next generation of rural leaders.