Nola Western, President

Nola Western is the Executive Director of Electoral Finance and Corporate Administration at Elections British Columbia. She joined Elections BC in 1996 and is responsible for both the financial, human resource and administrative functions of the office and the administration of the campaign financing provisions of the Election Act and the Recall and Initiative Act.

Prior to joining Elections BC, Nola was the Manager, Financial Services for the Vancouver Island Region of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways and worked as an auditor for the Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia.

Nola graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1985 and is a Chartered Accountant.

Nola is currently a member of the Professional Development Review Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC (ICABC) and has served on several other ICABC committees.

Theresa M. Kirk, President-Elect

Theresa Kirk is the Executive Director of the West Virginia Ethics Commission. She has served in this position since February of 2009. Ms. Kirk joined the Commission in 2004 as its General Counsel.

Prior to joining the Ethics Commission, Ms. Kirk was a partner in the law firm of Pullin, Fowler, Flanagan, Brown & Poe, PLLC. She worked at the firm from 1995 to 2004. During her tenure at the law firm Ms. Kirk represented numerous State and local governmental entities in litigation. From 2002-2004 Ms. Kirk also served as legal counsel to the West Virginia House of Delegates, Committee on Banking and Insurance. In addition to her experience in the legislative branch, she has extensive experience in the State of West Virginia’s executive branch. This experience includes employment or internships in the following State Agencies: WV Governor’s Office, WV Division of Highways, WV Department of Health and Human Resources, WV Lottery Commission and WV Department of Agriculture.

Ms. Kirk is a native of West Virginia. She graduated from West Virginia University as a University Honors Scholar with a degree in International Studies. While at WVU Ms. Kirk was an elected member of student government. Ms. Kirk also interned at a Solicitor’s Office in London, U.K.

Ms. Kirk received her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Albert Lenge

Albert P. Lenge has served the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) since 1995 as its Deputy Director and Assistant General Counsel. Until 2005 Mr. Lenge managed fifty percent of the SEEC’s enforcement caseload involving both campaign financing and election administration cases. Since 2005, he has actively managed the implementation of the SEEC’s post-2005 campaign finance filing repository function, including internet-based electronic filing, and the implementation of its full public financing program for statewide and General Assembly elective offices.

Mr. Lenge previously served three Connecticut Secretaries of the State for over seven years, first as Director and Attorney of the Elections Division and later as the Secretary’s General Counsel. Responsibilities included giving legal advice concerning the election administration duties of the Secretary of the State, Town Clerks, and Registrars of Voters and polling place officials. Mr. Lenge also served the office of Connecticut’s Attorney General for almost two years, and another three-and-a-half years as counsel to Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission. He was in litigation in private practice for over seven years, with bar memberships that included the Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and District of Columbia bars.

Mr. Lenge is presently a member of the Editorial Board of Public Integrity Magazine, a journal of the Ethics Section of the American Society for Public Administration supported by COGEL. He presently serves as the SEEC’s Ethics Liaison to Connecticut’s Office of State Ethics. He has also served on COGEL’s Model Law Drafting and Publications Committees. He received his law degree from the University of Connecticut and his Bachelor of Arts from Boston College.

Rita Looney

Rita S. Looney has served as Chief Counsel for the Arkansas Ethics Commission since March of 2003. As counsel for the Commission, she provides legal services for the Commission with respect to its enforcement of Arkansas’s standards of conduct and disclosure laws concerning candidates for public office, state and local public officials, lobbyists and committees, and individuals involved with initiatives, referendums and other matters referred to the voters.

Prior to joining the Commission staff, Ms. Looney had previously served as a Commissioner (1995-1999) and Chairman (2000) of the Ethics Commission. During her tenure as a Commissioner, Ms. Looney served on the COGEL steering committee for one year, filling a steering committee vacancy in her last year of service on the Ethics Commission.

Ms. Looney graduated, cum laude, from Ouachita Baptist University in 1982 and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock in 1985. She has argued cases before the Arkansas Supreme Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association.

Amy Loprest

Amy M. Loprest was named Executive Director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board in September 2006. Ms. Loprest had served as the Board’s Assistant Executive Director since 2004, and before that held a number of key positions at the CFB, including Chief of the Candidate Services Unit and Deputy General Counsel. Ms. Loprest has been a speaker and participant at forums nationally as well as internationally on campaign finance issues and is the author of a report for IFES, an international nonprofit organization that supports the building of democratic societies, titled Transparent Public Funding in Nigeria.

Ms. Loprest received her B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and graduated cum laude from Fordham University School of Law where she was a Stein Public Interest Law Scholar and a member of the Fordham International Law Journal. Ms. Loprest is a member of the Order of the Coif, clerked for the Honorable Denise Cote, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and is an adjunct professor of Political Science at Fordham University.

Eliza Saunders

Eliza A. Saunders is the Director of Public Records and Open Public Meetings for the University of Washington system. Her staff works to assure that the University complies with the state’s Sunshine laws. The FOI compliance program includes all of the University of Washington’s campuses, centers, museums and overseas programs. The office also oversees compliance for the Washington National Primate Research Center and the University’s two hospitals including Harborview Medical Center, the only level 1 trauma and regional burn center serving Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Washington. Ms. Saunders oversees the training of over 26,000 faculty and staff.

Prior to joining the University of Washington, Ms. Saunders worked primarily in student affairs; first for the Registrar at Boston University and later as the Administrator of Admissions for Harvard Medical School. Outside of academia, Ms. Saunders worked for Putnam Mutual Funds.

Ms. Saunders holds a Master’s of Science degree from Boston University and a Bachelor’s from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Mark Renaud

Coming Soon.

Joe Stoltz

Coming Soon.