District 30 Democratic Club Officers and Board of Directors
Officers
Lyn Farrow Collins, President
Lyn considers politics her hobby and has volunteered on campaigns at every level from City Council to President of the United States. She worked on her first campaign at age ten. Lyn served as Vice Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party in 2003 - 2004. She has attended Democratic National Conventions in 1996 on the Rules Committee, 2004 on the Platform Committee and in 2008 as an Alternate Delegate. She has held a number of other roles in Maryland state politics including serving on the Board of Directors for Young Democrats of Maryland. Locally Lyn worked on the 2008 and 2012 Obama Campaigns, Josh Cohen’s race for mayor in 2009 and Chris Trumbauer’s County Council campaign in 2010.
Currently she works as Project Manager for The Opportunity Collaborative, an initiative of Baltimore Metropolitan Council. The Collaborative is a 25-member consortium that will write a 20-year Regional Plan for Sustainable Development. Prior to accepting this position Lyn served as the Grants Coordinator for the City of Annapolis. In that role she managed the City’s Community Grants program and worked to ensure that all grants to the City were implemented effectively.
Throughout her career Lyn has held positions in the non-profit community and in the public sector related to communications, government relations, marketing and fundraising. She volunteers locally with a number of non-profit organizations, working with them on fundraising and strategic planning.
Lyn is a graduate of Widener University and holds a Master of Science in Business from Johns Hopkins University. Lyn lives in Annapolis’ Bay Highlands community with her husband, Al.
Sandy Stevenson, Vice President
Sandy has been a District 30 Democratic Club board member since the founding of the club in 2005. She has been a volunteer in two special elections in the City and for the Democratic candidate for Congress in District 1 in 2006. She also helped organize and worked on the Club's Poll Watching Project during the 2005 Annapolis city elections and most recently during the recent Maryland elections, working to elect Frank Kratovil in November, 2008.
She has been a resident of the Annapolis area since 2004, and the Baltimore-Washington area since the 1970's; she also lived in Atlanta for several years. While in Atlanta, she worked on two congressional campaigns challenging Newt Gingrich: for Ben Jones in 1994 and Michael Coles in 1996. After returning to the D.C. area, she volunteered on campaigns for Jim Moran and John Kerry.
Sandy is retired from 3M Company, where she was a sales and marketing consultant for several divisions to the federal government. Sandy says, “As a lifelong Democrat, I feel it is critical that we broaden and strengthen the party, beginning at the grass roots. I plan to keep working to keep a Democratic president in the White House and to increase the number of Democrats in the House and Senate.
Alexandra (Sasha) Miles, Secretary
Sasha is a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a 2006 graduate of Hood College in Frederick, Maryland (B.A., Political Science). During her time at Hood College, she was active in Hood College Democrats (Vice President and President), Model United Nations (Vice President and Treasurer), and Student Government Association (Senator and Finance Committee Member). She was also active in the Maryland Student Legislature (MSL), becoming the Hood College Delegation Chair during her sophomore year and Lieutenant Governor during her junior year. MSL is a statewide collegiate organization which simulates the Maryland General Assembly.
Sasha has also been involved in various political campaigns. Her first campaign experience in the state of Maryland was phone banking for Sue Hecht's campaign for the Maryland Senate. Sasha then went on to become involved in the John Kerry for President campaign, doing grassroots work in Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio. She also traveled to South Dakota to assist in GOTV efforts for Stephanie Herseth during the 2004 special election for South Dakota's congressional seat.
Sasha's involvement in Maryland politics deepened during the 2005 Legislative Session when she began working for Delegate Peter Franchot. She worked as his Legislative Aide through the 2006 Legislative Session and, subsequently, became the Deputy Finance Director for Franchot's successful campaign for Comptroller. Sasha was a member of Franchot's transition staff in the Comptroller's office, served for 10 months as the Comptroller's scheduler, and currently serves as Special Assistant to the Comptroller. In addition, Sasha served the Young Democrats of Maryland in several capacities: as Chair of the Young Democrats of Maryland Women's Caucus, Secretary for the Anne Arundel Young Democrats, and as a member of the Young Democrats of Maryland's Finance Committee and Bylaws Committee.
Victoria Garcia, Treasurer
Vikki has been a resident of Anne Arundel County for 7 years. She is a graduate from the University of Baltimore with a Masters in Public Administration. Currently, Vikki is an Assistant Property Manager for Transwestern Commercial Real Estate and was recently appointed to the City of Annapolis Board of Appeals. She has been an involved and active participant in the Democratic Party as an elected member of the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee, board member of the D30 club and has served as a Hispanic Outreach Coordinator on several campaigns.
Members
Maggie Balacki returned to Maryland in 2002 after spending 22 years in western New York. She returned for the weather, the politics and the great food.
Currently, Maggie works part time in Baltimore as a Nurse Practitioner and also accepts travel assignments as an NP. She is a retired Navy Nurse and stays active with the Washington Metropolitan Area Navy Nurse association. She lives (and travels) with her husband of 13 years, Craig Leffler. She has 2 children and 4 incredibly cute grandchildren!
Anne Klase is a graduate of Salisbury University, where she studied Political Science. As an undergraduate, she completed several internships including one in the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and in Salisbury University’s Government Relations Office. She was a Presidential Citizen Scholar in SU’s Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, a representative in the University's Student Government Association, Vice President of Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority and a member of its chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
She has volunteered on several political campaigns and has assisted in fundraising for various State and Federal candidates. She currently serves as Campaign Director for Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot.
Anne is a native of Prince George's County and a current resident of Annapolis. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends and attending Baltimore Ravens and Washington Capitals games.
Michelle LeFurge began her professional life as a political analyst, editor and foreign delegations director in Washington, DC. Michelle shifted from foreign policy activism to local activism with a move to Montana in 1986. Working with her partner and Montana-native husband, Dr. Dennis Winters, she developed community-led economic development programs for crisis communities and fought for workers’ jobs in the embattled natural resource industry as a grassroots coalition organizer. Returning to Washington after living overseas, Michelle and Dennis moved to Arnold in 2003.
Michelle completed her masters’ degree in management and community organizing at the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Social Work. In 2008, Michelle volunteered for Barack Obama as manager of the Annapolis Obama phone bank. Michelle joined Zina Pierre’s campaign for mayor of Annapolis in February 2009, serving as volunteer campaign manager in Ms. Pierre’s successful primary run for Mayor of Annapolis. When Josh Cohen moved into the general election as the Democratic nominee for Mayor, Michelle joined his successful campaign as community outreach director.
Michelle is currently Development/Special Projects Coordinator in the Mayor's Office.
Jesse Maury has been a member of the District 30 Democratic Club board since the Club's inception. In his professional life, he worked for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center as a mathematician; a developer of software for spacecraft, astronautics, data systems, and mathematical analysis; and as an information technology and software project manager for spacecraft including the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the constellation of satellites comprising the Earth Observing System (EOS), and briefly on the Hubble Space Telescope and the Space Station. He retired from government and worked for ten years at Omitron, Inc., a small aerospace technology company in Greenbelt, Maryland, on contracts with NASA, NOAA, and some private ventures; then followed this with a several-year stint at Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) working on Maryland State government contracts. His wife, Gail, works as an IT project manager for SAIC. The Maurys have two grown daughters, Laurel Maury, a freelance writer and Dr. Erinn Maury, a doctor.
Mike Miller was one of the founding organizers of the Anne Arundel County effort to elect Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Along with County Councilman Jamie Benoit, the leadership of Maryland for Obama, and a broad-based group of volunteers, Mike and his wife, Cheryl, were instrumental in the successful mobilization of Maryland as a stronghold for Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary season and the November general election. The Millers established the Anne Arundel County for Obama headquarters with a donation of space at a commercial building they own on Ritchie Highway in Severna Park, and they were both privileged to be members of the official Maryland delegation for Obama at the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver. Mike and Cheryl continue to actively support Democratic candidates at all levels of government.
Mike's business activities and professional career have spanned a broad range of interests centered on commercial real estate portfolio investment, corporate financial management and not-for-profit community service. Mike has a BA from Yale University and an MBA in Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Early in his career, he served as Business Manager of a small liberal arts college in Florida and as Director of Finance for Africare, an international development assistance agency. Ultimately, Mike served on the Board of Directors of Africare, and lived with his family in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1994 to 1996, working closely with the then-recently-elected government of Nelson Mandela. The Millers invest in value-added raw land development opportunities and hold improved commercial real estate for rental to non-residential tenants.
Mike was born and raised in Washington, DC, and has adopted Anne Arundel County, his wife's family home, as his own. The Millers have lived in the Wild Rose Shores community in Annapolis Neck since 2006.
Steve Harrison is a native Eastern Shoreman and 37-year resident of Annapolis. He has been married to his wife, Janice, also a club member, for 22 years.
Steve holds an MSW from Howard University and has been a clinical Social Worker for over 35 years, most recently working for Community Psychiatry at the University of Maryland Baltimore. He has been especially involved with addicts experiencing mental illness.
Steve is a lifelong Democrat who has been active in politics off and on since college. As he has cut back to part time work, he hopes to direct some of this time and energy to the District 30 club and political activity. Steve especially enjoys directly engaging voters while canvassing and has been active in a number of campaigns in the past few years.
Tricia Swanson lives in Annapolis with her dog, Bentley. Tricia currently works in the Maryland General Assembly for Senate President Mike Miller. Just last month, Tricia was elected to the Young Democrats of Maryland Executive Board as the Vice President of Programming. As President of the Anne Arundel County Young Democrats and Secretary of the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee, Tricia is extremely active in local, state and national politics. Previously, Tricia has worked in the offices of Delegate Ariana Kelly and Senators Edward Kasemeyer, and John C. Astle, of Montgomery, Howard and Anne Arundel counties respectively.
In addition to the above-mentioned organizations, Tricia served on the Obama for America (OFA) – Maryland Women for Obama steering committee. Tricia logged countless hours at phone banks for OFA in 2012. In 2010, Tricia served as the field director for Senator John C. Astle’s reelection campaign and worked as a volunteer on numerous other state and local races.