Advisory Board

Peter Salett is a Brooklyn based songwriter, composer and activist, who originally hails from Columbia, Maryland.
As a songwriter and composer, his music has been featured in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Wet Hot American Summer, Keeping the Faith, The Ten, Down in the Valley, and Role Models. He has released nine records on his own Dusty Shoes Music label, and performs live at venues throughout New York City.
In addition to a wide-ranging career in music and film, Peter is involved in political action and advocacy. He has co-produced a comedic video with Moveon.org and Funny Or Die which supported the idea of the public option in health care, and starred Will Farrell and Jon Hamm. Peter is on the Board of the OLP Foundation and is a graduate of Brown University.
Erin Frederick is a passionate executive in Arts & Media with a focus on Nonprofit management. Erin's work has always had a central focus in social action and advocacy. She was the National Development Director at Outward Bound USA after previously holding the position of Director of Events & Membership at The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan. Erin also worked at the Sundance Institute with the Board of Trustees and Founder & President Robert Redford. In these roles she was responsible for stewarding and cultivating an engaged and dynamic community surrounding each organization. Erin also worked in production at HBO. She began her career in New York City in nonprofit theater working alongside Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project on the acclaimed play and subsequent film The Laramie Project. She then moved to the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), a dynamic off-Broadway theater company in the East Village. Her Hometown is Latham, NY. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
2018 Team
Program Manager: Amy DiPrima Forste
Content Producer: Shannon Frederick Meneses
Media Relations: Pierette Imbriano
Social Media: Rachel Fleit
Interns: Graham Arms, Kalkidan Hough
Volunteer writers: Brooke Berman, Kate Moira Ryan, Tracey Scott Wilson, Melissa Walker
Volunteer Editors: Soren Bailey, Lukas Huffman, Eric Lorenz, Shannon Frederick Meneses
Energizers
Energizers are well known cultural leaders (artists, actors, athletes) who volunteer their time to participate in local politics and initiatives in their Hometown. Whether in person at a community event or online through heightened visibility on social media, the engagement of Energizers provides an expanded platform for local voices to be heard and inspires a more active, engaged, educated electorate.
Hometown: Lynchburg, VA
Connie Britton is an American actress, singer, and producer. Britton starred as Tami Taylor on the hit series Friday Night Lights, for which she received two Emmy nominations. She went on to star in the FX series American Horror Story, garnering her an Emmy nomination for her performance. Britton starred as country singer Rayna Jaymes in the acclaimed series Nashville for which she was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe. She can also be seen in SMILF in the Fox drama 9-1-1. Britton made her feature film debut in the independent film The Brothers McMullen. Britton grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, attended Dartmouth College, and later studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Other recent projects include such films as American Ultra and the TV series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. She resides in Los Angeles with her son.
Hometown: Greenville, SC
Danielle Brooks is an actress known for her role as Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. She studied drama at The Juilliard School graduating in 2011 and made her Broadway debut as Sofia in The Color Purple, the musical. Her performance earned her a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
In addition to her work on stage and screen, she can be seen performing comedy in New York City. Brooks was born in Augusta, Georgia, and grew up Greenville, South Carolina.
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Billy Crudup is a Tony award winning stage and screen actor. He is known for roles in many films including Almost Famous, Big Fish, and Spotlight.
He began his career in theatre and continues to have an extensive stage career on and off-Broadway, having been nominated for 4 Tony Awards for his performances in Arcadia, The Elephant Man, The Pillowman, and winning a Tony for his two-part performance in The Coast of Utopia. He spent his childhood in New York and Texas before moving to Florida, where he attended Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Crudup received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his MFA from the Graduate Acting Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He currently resides in New York City.
Hometown: Valrico, FL
Beth Dover can currently be seen on the Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award-winning series “Orange is the New Black” in the role of Linda Ferguson for Netflix. Dover also stars in the Comedy Central historical satire series “Another Period,” with a cast that includes Michael Ian Black, Christina Hendricks, and Jason Ritter, Dover recently reprised her role as Shari in Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.
Born in Chicago, Dover’s family was in the military and she moved every two years until she was 13 years old. She attended high school and college in Florida where she majored in theatre.
Dover is a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the HRC. She lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, actor Joe Lo Truglio, and their son.
Hometown: Evanston, IL
Joel de la Fuente is known for his roles as Dr. Johann Pryce in Hemlock Grove, Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido in The Man in the High Castle and recurring appearances on Law & Order: SVU.
De la Fuente was born in New Hartford, NY, to Filipino immigrant parents. He grew up in Evanston, Illinois. He earned his undergratuae degree from Brown University, and his MFA degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA
Jason George is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his work on Grey's Anatomy, Eve, Sunset Beach and Station 19. For over eight years he has starred on Grey’s Anatomy and was recently tapped for the new Shonda Rhimes firefighter series spinoff, Station 19.
In addition to his work with The Hometown Project, George is a long time member of SAG-AFTRA’s National Board as well as the chair of their Diversity Advisory Committee.
He and his family return to their hometowns regularly for holidays and family visits throughout the year.
Hometown: Santa Fe, NM and Brooklyn
Adrian Grenier is an American actor, producer, director, musician and environmentalist. He is best known for playing Vincent Chase in the HBO series Entourage. He has starred in the films Drive Me Crazyand The Devil Wears Prada.
He is a United Nations Environment Goodwill Ambassador for and also works as an advocate for the Lonely Whale Foundation. Grenier is a Board Member at React to Film, a non-profit that leverages the best documentary filmmaking to promote social responsibility.
Hometown: Triad area, NC
Emily V Gordon is a former therapist and current writer and producer best known for co-writing the Oscar nominated film The Big Sick. She has also written for TV, created and produced The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail for Comedy Central, and authored a book called Super You: Release Your Inner Superhero.
She was born and raised in the Triad area of North Carolina and is intensely passionate about the people that live there and southern food. She returns home often.
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, IA
Ron Livingston is an actor starring in notable films including Swingers, Office Space, Adaptation, and The Conjuring. Early on in his career he earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role of Captain Lewis Nixon in the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers. Livingston's television credits include Boardwalk Empire and Sex and the City. He is now a central character in the new ABC series, A Million Little Things. Livingston was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He earned his B.A. in Theatre Studies and English Literature at Yale. Livingston resides in Los Angeles, California with his spouse, actress Rosemarie DeWitt and their children.
Hometown: Grosse Pointe, MI
Lisa Locicero was born and raised in Detroit and Grosse Pointe Michigan and grew up on the beautiful waters of the Great Lakes.
She left home to pursue a career as an actress, and is best known for her roles as Ensign Miral Paris on Star Trek Voyager and her now decade long Emmy nominated run as Olivia Falconeri Quartermaine on ABC’s General Hospital.
Hometown: Margate, FL
Beloved character actor Joe Lo Truglio has played fan favorite ‘Detective Charles Boyle’ for six seasons on NBC’s (formerly FOX’s) Golden Globe Award Best Comedy Brooklyn NineNine.
Joe has also starred, for two seasons, on acclaimed Netflix comedy Wet Hot American Summer, as ‘Neil,’ a role he created as a member of legendary sketch comedy troupe The State. Additionally, Joe starred in the Comedy Central series Reno 911 and continues to recur on Bob’s Burgers (FOX) and Drunk History(Comedy Central).
Joe was raised in Margate, Florida and now works in Los Angeles with his wife, actor Beth Dover, and their son.
Hometowns: Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas & Illinois
Danielle Panabaker began acting as a teenager and came to prominence for her in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls .
Panabaker guest-starred as Dr. Caitlin Snow on The CW television series Arrow and has gone on to reprise the role of Caitlin Snow as a main character in The CW hit spin-off series The Flash. Panabaker was born in Georgia and spent several years of her childhood growing up in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Illinois.
Hometown: Toms River, NJ
Piper Perabo is a Golden Globe nominated actress. She is currently filming Netflix’s Turn Up Charley, opposite Idris Elba.
She made her Broadway debut in Neil LaBute’s controversial Tony nominated play Reasons to be Pretty. She has been seen in such films as The Prestige, Cheaper by the Dozen, Imagine Me & You, Looper, and Coyote Ugly. In addition to her work on stage and screen, Perabo is a Voice for the International Rescue Committee to raise awareness surrounding the refugee crisis and to help those displaced by conflict, religious persecution and political oppression around the globe. She is also on the Advisory Board for Vote Run Lead.
Perabo’s Hometown is Toms River, NJ. Presently, she resides in Los Angeles and New York City.
Hometown: Lutz, FL
J. R. Ramirez is a Cuban-American actor known for his role as Julio on Starz series Power and Oscar Arocho on Netflix series Jessica Jones. He is currently starring on the new hit series, NBC's Manifest
Ramirez was born in Matanzas, Cuba was raised in Lutz, Florida, north of Tampa.
Hometown: Bloomfield, MI
Elizabeth Reaser is a film, television, and stage actress. Her work includes The Twilight Saga, The Good Wife, and The Haunting of Hill House.
Reaser was born and raised in Bloomfield, Michigan. Reaser attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills and went on to attend the Juilliard School's Drama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Hometown: Easton, MD
Maggie Rogers is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and producer. Her songs "Alaska" and "Dog Years" have earned her critical aclaim. Her music has taken her around the world to more cities and sights than she ever ould have dreamed of. She orginially hails from Easton, Maryland, and spent much of her childhood in various small towns throughout Maine.
Hometown: Kenosha, WI
Mark Ruffalo is an environmental activist and actor known for his Oscar nominated performances in The Kids Are All Right, Foxcatcher and Spotlight. He also portrayed Bruce Banner/the Hulk in the movie The Avengers and its sequel.
Mark was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin and spent his teenage years in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ruffalo is widely known as an environmental activist, particularly focusing his efforts on combating fracking in New York state.
Hometown: Lexington, KY
Michael Shannon is award winning actor and musician, known for his roles in films like Man of Steel, Revolutionary Road and Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water. For several seasons he also played Nelson Van Alden in the HBO period drama series Boardwalk Empire. Following his passion for music, in 2002 Michael Shannon formed a band called Corporal, who he performs with regularly. Michael Shannon was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky.
Hometown: Shaker Heights, Ohio
Molly Shannon spent six seasons as a member of the repertory company on “Saturday Night Live,” primarily known for the eclectic characters she created, such as Mary Katherine Gallagher and Sally O’Malley. Her career has ranged from roles in a number of films, such as A Night at the Roxbury, Never Been Kissed, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, to her performance in the highly acclaimed drama Other People, which earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Molly can currently be seen in the popular HBO comedy, “Divorce,” opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church. Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Molly earned a BFA in drama from New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. She currently lives in California with her husband and two children.
Hometown: Shaker Heights, OH
David Wain is an American comedian, writer, actor, and director. He is most widely known for directing the feature films Role Models, Wanderlust and for both creating the Wet Hot American Summer franchise and directing the feature film Wet Hot American Summer, and the Netflix series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later. He is also known for his work on the sketch comedy series The State. Wain is a founding member of comedy group Stella, along with Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black. Wain was born and raised in Shaker Heights Ohio.
Hometown: Tucson, AZ
Kate Walsh is an American actress and businesswoman. Her roles include Dr. Addison Montgomery on the ABC television dramas Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, and Olivia Baker on the Netflix drama series 13 Reasons Why. Walsh grew up partly in San Jose, California and partly in Tucson, Arizona, later attending the University of Arizona, where she became involved in regional theater before spending time in Chicago and New York. Walsh is an environmental and political activist and is involved with several boards and advocacy campaigns nationwide.
Hometown: Chester County, PA
Silas Mitchell is an actor and activist. He has appeared in guest roles in the series 24, Numb3rs, My Name is Earland Prison Break. One of his most notable roles is that of mentally unstable recurring character James Hogan on Cold Case. In October 2011, Mitchell was cast as Monroe in the NBC TV series Grimm. He studied at Brown University and was born and raised in Chester County, PA.
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Kevin Allison is an actor, comedian and host of the podcast, RISK! He is a writer and actor, known for The State and The Ten .Kevn Allison was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio.