Deepak Bhargava is the executive director of nonprofit Center for Community Change. Under his three year tenure, the center has seen a significant increase in funding and for the first time in the organization’s 37-year history, has relocated its national headquarters to the historic U Street corridor from Georgetown. For nearly four decades, the Center for Community Change has helped thousands of urban and rural communities nationwide to organize for positive change by uniting low-income people across lines of race, ethnicity, geography and gender to equip them with the tools to change public policies and demand public attention for issues of social and economic justice. Prior to his appointment as the executive director, Bhargava served as the director of public policy for seven years at the Center for Community Change. In that capacity, he worked on housing, budget, tax, immigration, welfare, and other issues affecting low-income people.
He also directed the Center’s National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, a coalition of grassroots groups established in 2000 to give low-income people a voice in the reauthorization of the federal welfare law and other areas critical to poor people. Prior to joining the center, Bhargava was the legislative director at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), where he gained broad experience in community reinvestment and housing finance issues. Born in Mysore, India, Bhargava’s family immigrated to the United States when he was a child. He grew up in New York City and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University. Bhargava’s vision is to spark an enduring movement for social change and assure that the voice of the poor is an integral part of the national dialog.
Daniel Leeds chairs the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy organization. The Alliance works to transform high schools so that every child graduates prepared for postsecondary education and success in life. Dan also chairs the League of Education Voters, a political organization that focuses on building a state-based national education movement, as well as the League’s New York affiliate, NY EdPAC.
Leeds is also the President of Fulcrum Investments LLC, a private investment firm. Until the sale of CMP Media in1999, Leeds was President of International Publishing and a member of the Office of the President. CMP, a leading media company, publishes titles such as InformationWeek, Computer Reseller News and Electronic Engineering Times. The company was cited as “One of the Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune Magazine and Working Women Magazine.
Since moving to Washington in 1999, Leeds has been active in civic affairs, with a particular interest in education and public policy development. Dan is on the Board of the Teachers Institute of Washington, DC. He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the MIT Sloan School of Management, a member of the Brookings Institution’s Business Council and an Advisory Board member of the Brookings Institution’s Center for the United States and Europe. With his wife, Sunita, he co-chairs the Enfranchisement Foundation, which works with charities to develop programs that can help break the cycle of poverty and ignorance. He earned a Master’s Degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management as a Sloan Fellow and a BS in Engineering and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.
Sunita Leeds was born in India and immigrated to the US at the age of 7. Sunita met her husband, Dan, at Cornell University. She converted to Judaism and they were married in 1981. Sunita’s primary focus is raising their four children.
In addition, with Dan, she co-chairs The Enfranchisement Foundation, which focuses on breaking the cycles of poverty and intolerance in the United States as well as on women’s issues. Sunita is on the Boards of the Maret School, NY EdPAC, the League of Education Voters of America and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Jewish Democratic Council. She is also very active in Democratic Party affairs.
Sunita moved to Washington, D.C., from Paris, France, where she was president of the Parent Faculty Association at Marymount School and treasurer of Kehilat Gesher- the Anglo-French Jewish Congregation, which she helped found.
Prior to moving to France, Sunita headed a software development team at Bell Labs.
Sunita earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Southern California and a bachelor of arts from Cornell University in Math.
Reverend John Vaughn serves as the program director for The Twenty-First Century Foundation (21CF) based in Harlem, New York City, whose mission is to promote strategic Black philanthropy and to support social justice work within the Black community throughout the United States. Vaughn previously served as Executive Director at the Peace Development Fund in Amherst, Massachusetts. From 1996 to 2000, Vaughn was Minister for Education and Social Justice at the Riverside Church in New York City. In the 1980s, Vaughn served as an Action Assistant at Riverside, where he facilitated the re-structuring of and coordinated the Christian Social Action Committee, and as the Assistant Minister for a Methodist congregation in San Francisco.
Rev. Vaughn has also served as the Director for Community Development at the Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) in Boston, Massachusetts, providing community-based organizations with training and technical assistance in community revitalization strategies and organizational development. Prior to that, Vaughn served as the Executive Director of East Harlem Interfaith in New York City, a coalition of over forty congregations and religious organizations worked together on vital neighborhood social issues.
Additionally, he serves on several boards, including East Harlem Block Schools, New Jersey Affordable Housing Network, Community Building Initiative, and the Donald Jacobs Internship Partnership, where he is the founding chairperson. Vaughn remains on the National Ecumenical Consultation planning committee, National Council of Churches. Vaughn received his undergraduate degree from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts and his Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.
Laura Quinn, currently Chief Executive Officer of Catalist, is a founding partner of QRS Newmedia, Inc., which specializes in communication technology design and integration services. Founded in 1996, QRS clients have included the Democratic Presidential campaigns in 1996, 2000 and 2004; a wide of range of progressive political campaigns, organizations and non-profits; and other corporate and academic institutions. QRS’s technology renovation for the Democratic National Committee in 2003-04 included complete IT, telecom and media system overhauls, as well as construction of a national voter file and new internet marketing systems, that helped the DNC increase their donor base more than five-fold and to out-fundraise the Republican National Committee for the first time in history.
Prior to these endeavors, Ms. Quinn served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Vice President Gore, as Director of the Democratic Technology and Communications Committee for the Democratic Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate, and in a variety of senior Senate and campaign positions.
Deepak Bharghava | Dan Leeds | Sunita Leed | John Vaughn | Laura Quinn
Deepak Bhargava
Deepak Bhargava is the executive director of nonprofit Center for Community Change. Under his three year tenure, the center has seen a significant increase in funding and for the first time in the organization’s 37-year history, has relocated its national headquarters to the historic U Street corridor from Georgetown. For nearly four decades, the Center for Community Change has helped thousands of urban and rural communities nationwide to organize for positive change by uniting low-income people across lines of race, ethnicity, geography and gender to equip them with the tools to change public policies and demand public attention for issues of social and economic justice. Prior to his appointment as the executive director, Bhargava served as the director of public policy for seven years at the Center for Community Change. In that capacity, he worked on housing, budget, tax, immigration, welfare, and other issues affecting low-income people.
He also directed the Center’s National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, a coalition of grassroots groups established in 2000 to give low-income people a voice in the reauthorization of the federal welfare law and other areas critical to poor people. Prior to joining the center, Bhargava was the legislative director at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), where he gained broad experience in community reinvestment and housing finance issues. Born in Mysore, India, Bhargava’s family immigrated to the United States when he was a child. He grew up in New York City and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University. Bhargava’s vision is to spark an enduring movement for social change and assure that the voice of the poor is an integral part of the national dialog.
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Daniel Leeds
Daniel Leeds chairs the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy organization. The Alliance works to transform high schools so that every child graduates prepared for postsecondary education and success in life. Dan also chairs the League of Education Voters, a political organization that focuses on building a state-based national education movement, as well as the League’s New York affiliate, NY EdPAC.
Leeds is also the President of Fulcrum Investments LLC, a private investment firm. Until the sale of CMP Media in1999, Leeds was President of International Publishing and a member of the Office of the President. CMP, a leading media company, publishes titles such as InformationWeek, Computer Reseller News and Electronic Engineering Times. The company was cited as “One of the Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune Magazine and Working Women Magazine.
Since moving to Washington in 1999, Leeds has been active in civic affairs, with a particular interest in education and public policy development. Dan is on the Board of the Teachers Institute of Washington, DC. He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the MIT Sloan School of Management, a member of the Brookings Institution’s Business Council and an Advisory Board member of the Brookings Institution’s Center for the United States and Europe. With his wife, Sunita, he co-chairs the Enfranchisement Foundation, which works with charities to develop programs that can help break the cycle of poverty and ignorance. He earned a Master’s Degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management as a Sloan Fellow and a BS in Engineering and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.
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Sunita Leeds
Sunita Leeds was born in India and immigrated to the US at the age of 7. Sunita met her husband, Dan, at Cornell University. She converted to Judaism and they were married in 1981. Sunita’s primary focus is raising their four children.
In addition, with Dan, she co-chairs The Enfranchisement Foundation, which focuses on breaking the cycles of poverty and intolerance in the United States as well as on women’s issues. Sunita is on the Boards of the Maret School, NY EdPAC, the League of Education Voters of America and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Jewish Democratic Council. She is also very active in Democratic Party affairs.
Sunita moved to Washington, D.C., from Paris, France, where she was president of the Parent Faculty Association at Marymount School and treasurer of Kehilat Gesher- the Anglo-French Jewish Congregation, which she helped found.
Prior to moving to France, Sunita headed a software development team at Bell Labs.
Sunita earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Southern California and a bachelor of arts from Cornell University in Math.
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Reverend John Vaughn
Reverend John Vaughn serves as the program director for The Twenty-First Century Foundation (21CF) based in Harlem, New York City, whose mission is to promote strategic Black philanthropy and to support social justice work within the Black community throughout the United States. Vaughn previously served as Executive Director at the Peace Development Fund in Amherst, Massachusetts. From 1996 to 2000, Vaughn was Minister for Education and Social Justice at the Riverside Church in New York City. In the 1980s, Vaughn served as an Action Assistant at Riverside, where he facilitated the re-structuring of and coordinated the Christian Social Action Committee, and as the Assistant Minister for a Methodist congregation in San Francisco.
Rev. Vaughn has also served as the Director for Community Development at the Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) in Boston, Massachusetts, providing community-based organizations with training and technical assistance in community revitalization strategies and organizational development. Prior to that, Vaughn served as the Executive Director of East Harlem Interfaith in New York City, a coalition of over forty congregations and religious organizations worked together on vital neighborhood social issues.
Additionally, he serves on several boards, including East Harlem Block Schools, New Jersey Affordable Housing Network, Community Building Initiative, and the Donald Jacobs Internship Partnership, where he is the founding chairperson. Vaughn remains on the National Ecumenical Consultation planning committee, National Council of Churches. Vaughn received his undergraduate degree from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts and his Master of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.
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Laura Quinn
Laura Quinn, currently Chief Executive Officer of Catalist, is a founding partner of QRS Newmedia, Inc., which specializes in communication technology design and integration services. Founded in 1996, QRS clients have included the Democratic Presidential campaigns in 1996, 2000 and 2004; a wide of range of progressive political campaigns, organizations and non-profits; and other corporate and academic institutions. QRS’s technology renovation for the Democratic National Committee in 2003-04 included complete IT, telecom and media system overhauls, as well as construction of a national voter file and new internet marketing systems, that helped the DNC increase their donor base more than five-fold and to out-fundraise the Republican National Committee for the first time in history.
Prior to these endeavors, Ms. Quinn served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Vice President Gore, as Director of the Democratic Technology and Communications Committee for the Democratic Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate, and in a variety of senior Senate and campaign positions.
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