We are grateful to the below leaders in this community for sharing their expertise from the stage at Advance Camp this year - we have an excellent lineup of speakers with a wealth of experience.
We are especially appreciative of everyone taking the time to speak on a weekend, on their personal time - thank you to all!
Our program is in formation and more will be added here as the date approaches!
Adam Baron
A native of Arkansas, Adam Baron has served as in advance and logistics roles for the Hillary 2016 and Biden 2020 campaigns, Director of Scheduling and Advance for Tim Kaine in 2018 and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff in 2024, along with Director of Protocol for USAID, and Director of Scheduling and Advance for Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff. He is currently the Director of Production at 50 Thirteen.
Amelia Berger
Amelia Berger was a press lead on the Biden for President campaign starting in early 2019 and then served as the Deputy Director of Media Relations for the Presidential Inaugural Committee in 2021. She subsequently served in the Biden-Harris White House as a full-time press advance lead. After the administration, Amelia now is a Director of Strategic Communications at FGS Global.
Kinsey Casey
Kinsey served on advance teams for six presidential campaigns and as an advance lead for the Department of Homeland Security. During the Obama Administration, she also served in the Presidential Personnel Office and in the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships at the State Department. She later served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Pittsburgh, and remains a proud Montanan.
Gab DeFrancheschi
Gab DeFranceschi served as an Obama-Biden White House Intern, Advance Associate and Senior Advance Coordinator. She also served the Biden-Harris campaign, The Obama Foundation, and the Biden-Harris White House before founding her own boutique event consulting practice, where she now serves as an Executive Producer to deliver non-profit, venture start-up and government adjacent client convenings. Her time as an Advancer instilled in her a core belief that each engagement is an opportunity to prioritize how we make people feel, thus building the brand, legacy and story that creates a ripple effect.
Meg DiMartino
Meg was the Director of Major Events & Crowd Advance on the Harris for President campaign, overseeing all of the campaign’s rallies. Prior to that, she was the Director of Presidential Advance on the Biden campaign and served as advance staff throughout the Biden Administration. After 2024, Meg founded an event consultancy, delivering events and strategic support to campaigns and non-profit organizations.
Travis Dredd
Travis Dredd has served as Trip Director to President Biden, Chief of Staff to the U.S. Ambassador to France, Deputy CEO of the 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions, and Director of Advance for John Kerry’s New Hampshire primary campaign.
Steve Feder
Steve Feder is the former CEO of CheckIn Tech and long served the New York City Council executing special events . He worked as the Lead at the US Capitol for the 2021 inauguration. During the Biden Administration he worked at the Dept. of Homeland Security holding dual positions as Chief of Protocol and Director of Scheduling and Advance and then went on to become the Chief of Staff at the Science and Technology Directorate. He is now a Senior Advisor to New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill.
Jaclyn Gelfond
Jaclyn Gelfond currently serves as Director of Operations for Governor JB Pritzker’s reelect. Previously, Jaclyn was Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Italy at the State Department. She also served as Director of Presidential Advance Operations at the White House, Deputy Director of Advance on the Biden for President campaign in 2020, and worked in the Office of the Vice President during the Obama Administration.
Laura Gross
Laura Gross is president of Scott Circle Communications, a public relations firm working with associations, non-profits, and advocacy organizations. She is a veteran of eight presidential campaigns and a frequent advance staffer for Secretary Hillary Clinton.
Shanan Guinn
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Maya Guthmann
Maya is a Biden White House alum who served in the Office of Scheduling and Advance. She later joined WME’s Harry Walker Agency, where she was Manager of Presidential Relations, working on speaking engagements for former presidents and First Ladies. She now serves as a Policy Engagement Manager at Google.
Greg Hale
Greg Hale served in senior roles for the Kerry-Edwards and Mike Bloomberg presidential campaigns, and was Trip Director in 2008 and Senior Advisor and Production Director in 2016 for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns. He also served a brief, but memorable, 87-day stint as Director of Presidential Production at the White House. He is a founding partner of Markham.
Liz Hart
Liz Hart founded Liz Hart Productions in 2012, where she consulted on major events, including Super Bowls, DNC Conventions and Olympic Games. She was previously the Director of Message Events for the Office of Vice President Biden and served as the Deputy Social Secretary at The White House.
Matt Harney
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Meghan Hays
Since leaving the White House, Meghan has founded a boutique consulting firm, advising corporations, political campaigns, and nonprofit organizations on strategic communications and public affairs. Previously, she served as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Message Planning in the Biden White House, following her role as Deputy Communications Director for the Biden for President campaign. Meghan also held senior communications positions at AIG and MGM Resorts International and previously served as Deputy Director of Communications in the Office of Vice President Joe Biden.
Alex Hornbrook
Alex Hornbrook is the Executive Director of the Democratic National Convention Committee. He manages planning efforts for the party’s 2028 nominating convention after leading the team responsible for planning and executing the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In the 2020 cycle, he served as the party’s Director of Debate Planning during the last open presidential primary. He was Director of Scheduling & Advance for Hillary for America, Director of Scheduling for the Office of Vice President Joe Biden and has advised a number of Democratic and progressive organizations, campaigns and initiatives.
Christina Iskandar
Christina is an advance alumnus of five presidential campaigns and has executed trips for both the Obama and Biden administrations. She now serves as a Trip Director for the Chair and CEO of the Gates Foundation.
Joyce Kazadi
Joyce Kazadi served as an Advance Lead for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and Director of Advance for Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign, becoming the first Black woman to lead a presidential advance operation. She previously held leadership roles at Axios and served in several senior roles in the Biden-Harris administration. Joyce also served as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Deputy Executive Director of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. She currently serves as Democratic Policy Lead at Coinbase, where she oversees the company’s engagement with Democratic policymakers.
Amanda Kules
Amanda Kules started her advance career on the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, and had various advance roles on the Warren 2020, Biden 2020, and Harris 2024 campaigns. She was also Director of Event Production at POLITICO, and served as the Director of Scheduling and Advance for Deb Haaland at the US Department of the Interior. She is now at GIFFORDS as the Director of Principals and Surrogates.
Doug Landry
Doug Landry has served in various roles on the advance staffs for the ‘08 - ‘24 campaigns, but truly peaked ten years ago as the Trip Director to VP Nominee (and literal Best Living American) Tim Kaine.
In 2022, he founded 50 Thirteen, an event production firm working with great campaigns and causes to bring big ideas to life. He also created Advance Camp and is endlessly grateful to everyone that’s been part of the effort to make all three editions happen. He wrote most of these bios, which is why this one has a touch more ~pizazz~.
Blake Levy
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Jean-Michel Picher
Jean-Michel Picher is the veteran of 6 presidential campaigns. He first focused on site advance for John Kerry in 2003-04 and as a lead for Obama 2007-08. He has since been a senior advisor and Director of Scheduling and Advance on the Bernie 2015/16 and 2019/20 campaigns respectively and served as an advance advisor for Biden for President 2024 and Harris for President 2024. He currently works as a senior consultant and producer at More Perfect Union Events.
David Plevan
David Plevan is an executive producer, production manager, and technical director with over 20 years of experience delivering complex, high-profile live events. He has served in senior production roles for national presidential campaigns, presidential inaugurations, and conventions since 2001 and is known for combining technical expertise with an owner-level approach to execution. Mr. Plevan is a founder and former owner of PM1, a live events production company he led for more than 20 years prior to his exit in 2025.
Abby Murphy
Abby Nassif Murphy has spent 30+ years making big political events happen. She’s worked in national advance and live event operations, run communications, served as a campaign manager, and been a senior advisor to union leaders, local leaders and in Congress. She held senior roles on both the Biden for President and Harris for President campaigns, serving as the managing irector of the department of scheduling and advance. These days she runs The LaRose Group, a strategic communications consulting business, and loves developing the new group of political operatives, including her sons who you’ll see out on the road and on the Hill.
Liz Reiter
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Val Sanders
Val Sanders started in Advance during the first Obama-Biden term, worked as Press Lead and Site during the re-elect, and then as Trip Lead for the Vice President in the second term. Afterwards, he was Director of Advance for the NY State Attorney General, Senior Advance Lead for Biden for President and Director of the 2021 Presidential Inaugural Parade. Since then, he served as Director of Travel Operations (Scheduling, Advance and Logistics) for the U.S. Department of Defense during the Biden administration and Director of Advance to the Mayor of New York.
Sophia Shapiro
Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sophia Shapiro currently serves as Senior Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff in the Mayor’s Office in Pittsburgh. Sophia has a background in campaigns, specializing in advance and production. She served as Director of Advance & Production for Governor Abigail Spanberger’s campaign and subsequent inauguration. Prior to that, Sophia worked on the Biden-Harris and Harris-Walz HQ Advance Team, leading the recruitment, onboarding, and training of the 2024 advancers. In addition to her HQ work, she spent time on the road as a site lead and production lead for events ranging from 50 to 100,000 attendees. Sophia is passionate about flag etiquette and bunting and will always correct you no matter how long you have worked together.
Annabelle Trowbridge
Annabelle Trowbridge currently manages the advance, events, and surrogates program for Governor Roy Cooper’s U.S. Senate campaign in North Carolina. Before that, she served as the Deputy Director of Advance and Production for Virginia Governor-Elect Abigail Spanberger. She began her career in advance and operations on Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential run.
Opal Vadhan
Opal Vadhan started on the National Advance team for Hillary for America, then served as Executive Assistant and Trip Director to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, during which time she collaborated on the New York Times bestseller The Book of Gutsy Women. She went on to serve as Personal Aide and later Senior Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, and was most recently a Pritzker Fellow and Practitioner in Residence at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. She is now the founder of Opal Office, LLC, a strategic advisory and consulting firm, and writes The Opal Office on Substack.
Maju Varghese
Maju Varghese is currently the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Democracy Security Project, a non-profit focused on providing safety and security resources to elected officials, advocacy organizations, organizers and others across American civil society. Earlier in his career, he was Deputy Assistant to President Biden and Director of the White House Military Office. He was the Executive Director of the 2021 Presidential Inauguration and was COO and Senior Advisor on the Biden for President campaign in 2020. In the Obama administration, he was Assistant to the President for Management and Administration and a Deputy Director of Advance.