About Us
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Burns StriderTel: (703) 776-9234 Burns Strider, a native of Grenada County, Mississippi, served in an array of positions, prior to founding Eleison and The American Values Network, including Senior Advisor and Director of Faith Outreach to the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton and her campaign for President, Director of Policy for the U. S. House Democratic Caucus, Advisor to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) , Director of the U. S. House Democratic Faith Working Group and Rural Working Group and regional Communications Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Strider is one of the 12 most influential Democrats in the nation on faith and values politics and issues according to Religion News Service. In the mid-90’s he spent two years in Hong Kong as youth minister at International Baptist Church. Strider has worked on more than 100 campaigns, managing or general consulting 15 of them. He has developed communications plans used in over 150 congressional and statewide races as well as a teaching tool for the National Democratic Institute in their work with progressive political parties in foreign countries. He has been a commentator for National Public Radio and has taught and lectured at various universities and workshops around the nation including Princeton, Harvard, Trinity College, University of Virginia, Georgetown, Delta State University and Camp Wellstone. He is a contributing blogger on Huffington Post and Business Insider. Strider and his wife, Karen, live in Washington, DC. They raise two nearly perfect boys, Will (9) and Pete (7). Connect with Burns on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BStrider, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BurnsStrider or Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/burns-strider. |
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Eric SappTel: (703) 863-6403 Eric Sapp, a native of Durham, NC, was Senior Partner at Common Good Strategies (CGS) prior to founding Eleison. CGS received significant national attention following the ’06 cycle for its groundbreaking faith outreach and messaging work for the DSCC, Senators Casey and Brown, Governors Strickland, Granholm, and Sebelius, Rep. Shuler, and the Michigan, Kansas, and Oregon State Democratic Parties. CGS clients significantly out-performed Democrats nationally (normally by double-digits) with Protestants, evangelicals, Catholics, and weekly church attenders. Dr. John Green, Sr. Fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said about CGS’s work that “if Democrats learn a lesson from ’06 and are able to duplicate these efforts more widely…we could potentially see historic shifts in voting blocks that would dramatically change the relationship between faith and politics in this country.” Eric has been a regular speaker on faith and politics on television and radio shows, most often providing a Democratic perspective on conservative programs. Eric’s background also includes stints with Representative David Price (D-NC), where he handled faith and politics, budget, tax, and homeland security issues. Before that, he worked for Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. |