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Steering Committee

Lauren Rosenthal
Chair of Steering Committee
Co-Chair of Investment Strategy
Committee
About Lauren

Lauren Rosenthal

Lauren Rosenthal worked her first election in 1982. Campaigning for Harold Washington for Mayor of Chicago and doing poll watching on election day got her addicted to politics.

A New Trier West graduate, Lauren was awarded a BA in Economics and Art History from Northwestern University and. a JD from University of Illinois. Fresh out of school, she represented Mexican American voters in a Chicago aldermanic ward remap case and met her husband in federal court on a housing desegregation case. Their first date was to a political fundraiser!

Lauren has served on the boards of various not-for-profit organizations and volunteered for a variety of political campaigns over the last 40 years. As a young lawyer she co-chaired a women’s law committee at the Chicago Bar Association and was served President of a statewide coalition of pro-choice women’s organizations called the Illinois Women’s Agenda,

She is an ardent land conservationist currently serving as Vice President of the Board of the Driftless Area Land Conservancy in Southwest Wisconsin and Chairs the Land Conservation Committee. She previously Chaired and was a Commissioner of the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission (2007-2012) and served on the boards of the Illinois Environmental Council and FamilyFarmed (now Good Food Catalyst).

Since that early mayoral campaign Lauren has worked on many campaigns from the 2007-08 Obama presidential team to a state legislative race in rural Wisconsin.

She no longer practices law except as a volunteer, but works part time with partners investing in sustainable local food businesses. She also spends a lot of time at her home in Wisconsin hiking, biking and stewarding the land.

Lauren was a Founding Member of Invest to Elect in 2017 after Carol and Karen recruited her to join. She has been a member of the Investment Strategy Committee (formerly Research) since then and Co-chair since 2021. Lauren joined the Steering Committee in January of 2022, was Vice Chair in 2023 and looks forward to a fun and productive 2024!

Dania Leemputte
Past Chair of Steering Committee
Co-Chair of Fundraising Events
Committee
About Dania

Dania Leemputte

One of the original founders of Invest to Elect, Dania is finishing her second year as Chair of the Steering Committee. Dania will serve as Co-Chair of Fundraising Events, a position that she assumed primary responsibility for the past seven years coordinating with the many candidates and GOTV organizations. In addition to her political volunteer work at Invest to Elect, Dania served on the National Finance Council for the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign and the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign organizing events, raising funds, and doing out of state canvassing in Florida. She is an active member of The Joffrey Ballet's Women's Board, the Chicago History Museum Women's Guild Board and the Field Museum's Women's Board. She held numerous leadership positions in past board memberships at Northwestern University Settlement House Board of Governors, the Art Institute of Chicago Community Associates, The Josselyn Center, Winnetka Community House, Winnetka Public Schools Foundation, and Winnetka School District 36. Dania spent her professional career at First Chicago as Vice President in the International Banking Department and later the Financial Products Department working with Fortune 500 multinationals located in the Midwest. She received her Bachelor of Art degree, Political Science and Economics from Duke University, and her MBA, Marketing and Finance from Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

Maggie Hampton
Secretary,
Chair of Governance
 
About Maggie

Marguerite “Maggie” Hampton

Marguerite Hampton’s passion it to unite cultures and promote equality among all people. She believes that electing Democrats is one important pathway to reach that goal. She currently serves as the Secretary on ITE’s Steering Committee. She is also an active volunteer in several not-for-profit organizations including the Illinois Tenth Congressional District Democrats, where she previously served as Co-chair and received the organization’s Rosenblit Volunteer of the Year Award, and she serves on her Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority chapter’s Foundation board.

Professionally, Marguerite along with her husband, Walter, founded Emerging Venture Development, Inc., a twenty-year firm specializing in the financial and aviation industries. Core competencies include construction management (project controls, process improvement, capital program funding and capital funding oversight), invoice review processing, auditing, special projects, financial analysis and modeling, and concessions retail management.

Marguerite attended Northwestern University, majoring in Economics and received her Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Marguerite has worked for major corporations including Tribune Company, United Airlines, and CIGNA as well as small business firms serving in various positions including CFO, Vice President, and General Manager.

Andrea Bechtel
About Andrea

Andrea Bechtel

In 2017 Andrea became a founding member of Invest to Elect where she currently serves as Treasurer and on the Steering and Investment Strategy Committees. In addition to tracking several Senate and House races, she facilitated fundraising programs with Senator Mark Kelly, Representative Tim Ryan, and for Senator Tammy Baldwin. This involvement, leveraged with her Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee roles, has allowed her to meet and develop relationships with members of Congress and candidates over the past dozen years. She has represented the FSPAC at DCCC and DSCC conferences, Future Forward PAC events, as well as individual Member weekends such as Senator Jacky Rosen’s Las Vegas retreat and Rep. Ruben Gallego’s Puerto Rico retreat. She has also represented ITE at the 2023 and 2022 Electing Women’s Alliance Convening in Washington, DC.

Andrea completed her term as President of the bipartisan Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee in 2022 where she’s been a director since 2012. Previously she served as President-Elect, VP Political Affairs, Secretary, and Treasurer of this 65-member national board which has raised over $5 million since its inception 17 years ago. She also served on the Fraternity and Sorority Action Fund’s executive committee, a 501(c)(4) organization. The FSPAC and Action Fund exist to raise money to contribute to candidates for Federal office who support the fraternity and sorority experience. It is the largest PAC dedicated to higher education, focusing on freedom of association and assembly, affordable and safe collegiate housing, and anti-hazing efforts.

Her other national sorority volunteer experience included two terms on Chi Omega's Supreme Governing Council plus more than a dozen years on its National Panhellenic Delegation where she served in leadership positions, including support of 110 campus Panhellenic associations and all 180 Chi Omega collegiate chapters.

The skills she developed in 16 years of management consulting at Hewitt Associates, including leadership (people, client, and project) of complex, high-tech international teams of over 300 employees and revenues over $30 million, provide a well-rounded professional background. Her past service as Vice Chair of the Winnetka Caucus and Secretary of the New Trier Parent Association provides her insight into local politics and working with a diverse mix of volunteers, staff, and donors. Additionally, she serves on the Ravinia Women’s Board, where she co-chaired its 2023 Gala and was recently elected treasurer.
Andrea’s undergraduate business degree from the University of Wisconsin is in finance, investment, and banking. She and her husband, Rick, live in Glencoe and are parents to three young-adult sons.

Sara Knizhnik
About Sara

Sara Knizhnik

Sara Knizhnik holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. She served as a university-level, English-as-a-Second-Language Instructor at various universities in the Chicago area for 17 years before becoming a professional gun violence prevention (GVP) and criminal justice reform advocate. She has served in recent years as the Organizer of the Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Coalition and then as Director of Community Engagement for Newtown Action Alliance (NAA), a national gun violence prevention GVP organization founded in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy. She also served as the Director of Constituent Affairs for State Representative Bob Morgan (IL-58). Sara is currently Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative at the Lake County (IL) State’s Attorney’s Office and co-founder / CEO of SAFE Illinois, a non-profit advocacy organization focused on addressing the root causes of violence. In November 2022, she was elected to the Lake County Board and represents District 18, which includes Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, Long Grove and Lake Zurich. Sara was re-elected in 2024. Sara believes passionately in local government and in the power of grassroots activists to build a better America. Sara lives in Vernon Hills, Illinois with her husband and two children.

Molly Baskin
About Molly

Molly Baskin

Molly Baskin is a highly experienced corporate director, having served for over 35 years on Boards, including those of a publicly traded company, privately held businesses, and numerous not for profit organizations.  She has chaired several of these Boards and their committees.  She has broad experience in corporate governance, finance, investment analysis, and weathering severe market disruptions.

Ms. Baskin has been Managing Director of the Ansley Consulting Group, a retained executive search firm which concentrates on C-level executives for small to mid-sized businesses, since 1999.  Her previous professional experience is financial:  commercial and work-out banker for both corporate and real estate clients (Bank of Montreal and BMO Harris), corporate controller (Chambers Exploration, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company), and auditor (Ernst & Ernst).  She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Harvard Business School.  

She is an active member of Women Corporate Directors, the Wellesley College Business Leadership Council, and the President’s Council of the Harvard Business School Club of Chicago.  She previously chaired The Alumnae Board of the Women Students Association at Harvard Business School and, having termed off the Board, currently serves on the Emerita Board steering committee.  She previously served on the Boards of Directors of several of the national corporations within the Presbyterian Church [PC(USA)], the Harvard Business School Alumni Association, and several local not-for-profits.  She has chaired the ITE Governance Committee over the past year and has worked to help ITE become a sustainable organization for the foreseeable future.

Jamie Carmell
About Jamie

Jamie Carmell

Jamie has a B.A. in Economics from The University of Michigan and an MBA with concentrations in Marketing and Finance from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.  Jamie spent 30 years in banking and investment management including 14 years at Mesirow Advanced Strategies (MAS), a $13 billion hedge fund of funds firm in Chicago.  During her 14-year tenure, Jamie developed and managed MAS’s third-party distribution business and was responsible for marketing the firm’s services to institutional clients.  Following MAS, Jamie spent 5 years as Executive Director of Invest For Kids (IFK), a Chicago non-profit that hosts a 1,000+ investment conference annually in support of underserved Chicago children through young adults.  IFK focus is to provide smaller organizations ($1mm-$3mm) with transformative grants in the areas of health, education, afterschool programming and mentoring.

Wendi Williams
About Wendi

Wendi Williams

Lifelong Democrat and native Ohioan Wendi Williams “served” as liberal Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum in her high school government class, spurring a lifelong love of politics.

After graduating with an English and Art History degree from Miami University, she attended Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. She has worked for as a writer, editor, researcher and philanthropist at Tribune Company, Lerner Newspapers (a former local Chicago chain), Spy Magazine, Playboy Magazine, and America Online.

Since starting a family, Wendi served as leader of several volunteer boards serving local schools, social services, and arts organizations.

Her involvement on the local high school caucus led to her first political fracas, advocating for caucus-slated candidates opposing right-wing infiltrators. Several more fights ensued, one to preserve a caucus slate for local township trustees (as opposed to right-wingers who wanted to abolish township government altogether), another to preserve a day of high school student- and teacher-led seminars in lieu of Martin Luther King Day (it made national news and led to support from 1,000 parents at a giant school board meeting). Caucus candidates won; the seminar day continued.

Wendi was a founding member of Invest to Elect, serving on the Investment Strategy Committee and creating a weekly and, later, monthly, newsletter. She is excited to serve on the ITE Steering Committee and help chart a fresh path for the organization during a second Trump presidency.

Marilyn Garcia
About Marilyn

Marilyn Garcia

Marilyn Garcia holds a Master of Social Work and has worked as a Counselor and Geriatric social worker for the Cook County Public Guardian’ s Office. Over her 33 years of living in Winnetka, she has volunteered as a board member for the Counseling Center of the North Shore and the Winnetka Landmark Preservation Commission. Later, she then became a founding member of the American Cancer Society Women’s Leadership Board, which raised money for women’s health issues such as ovarian and breast cancer, and screening for prevention of colon cancer for the underserved populations of the city and suburbs.

Marilyn then became an advocate and joined the Cancer Action Network of the Cancer Society where she got her first taste at lobbying her Illinois Congress and Senators both in Springfield and Washington DC., to pass legislation and advance policy changes for all cancer patients and their families.

Currently, she has been volunteering at Building Peaceful Bridges (BPB) as a mentor for refugee families since 2021, and joined Osher IM AWARE—Integrative Medicine: Advising with Awareness and Education Council of Northwestern Hospital Board in 2023.

Being a lifelong democrat voter, Marilyn became a founding member of ITE in 2017. She served on the Membership Committee in 2022 onboarding new members. In 2023, she then became Membership Chair and sits on the Steering Committee.