April Nicklaus is Education & Outreach Team Leader. She studied environmental policy at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and now works for a network of public interest nonprofit organizations. April has a robust history with grassroots organizing through her work on campus with the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG), a student-led nonpartisan advocacy group that organizes on issues ranging from democracy to environment to consumer protection. |
|
Herb Tarbous is a co-founder of VCNJ. He is a retired systems engineer with three decades of experience analyzing, designing, debugging, and documenting complex systems. He is a political activist focusing on electoral reform in New Jersey and is passionate about ending the toxic political polarization which plagues us and he is working hard to enable ranked-choice voting as a major step towards the goal of political diversity instead of political polarization. |
|
Renée Steinhagen is the Executive Team Lead. She has been the Executive Director of New Jersey Appleseed since its inception in 1998, a nonprofit state-based advocacy organization focused on health care, government and corporate accountability, election reform and environmental and community health issues. She welcomes the opportunity to work on a broad-based grassroots campaign, which involves numerous people with varied backgrounds and skills, all of whom are focused on achieving a systemic upgrade in our federal, state, and local elections. | |
Brian Varela is an Executive Officer at Voter Choice NJ. Brian stands at the forefront of democracy reform in New Jersey. A fervent advocate for ballot empowerment, Brian's activism is driven by a deep belief in the power of a purer democracy. His tireless efforts in mobilizing communities, leading campaigns, and spearheading initiatives reflect an unwavering commitment to transformative change. Brian's leadership not only inspires but actively galvanizes citizens towards greater democratic engagement. His visionary approach and relentless pursuit of progress mark Brian as a pivotal figure in the fight for a more equitable and representative voting system. | |
Jack Cunningham is the Central Functions Team Lead for VCNJ, which maintains our technology, crafts our communications and empowers our other teams with the resources/tools they need to succeed. A software engineer by trade, Jack is committed to solving problems with empathy and scalable solutions. Ranked-choice voting is a fix we can deploy today that would fix many of the structural problems that frustrate voters. | |
Veronica Akaezuwa leads Voter Choice NJ's Campaigns Team of volunteers who focus on legislative advocacy, grassroots organizing, and coalition building efforts towards the adoption and implementation of RCV. She has a bachelor’s degree in communication from Rutgers University and a master’s degree public administration with a specialization in economic and political development from Columbia University. In past work, she's held management roles in policy, research, and data analysis in private, public, and government sectors. |
Do you like this page?