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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
Treasurer
 
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.

Holly Kerr
Director of Operations
 
About Holly

Holly Kerr

Holly Kerr had a varied professional career in manufacturing, marketing and strategy that spanned large organizations (Litton and Honeywell) and numerous small ones.  Throughout and after her business career, Holly has been an Adjunct Faculty at several graduate institutions, most recently at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, and has been involved in philanthropic endeavors, from small theater companies to social service agencies.

Holly and her late husband started a foundation to support leadership for Hispanics living in Lake County, IL which she ran for 25 years.   At the same time, she became very involved with all aspects of immigration rights, eventually leading her to help bring a Lake County Health Clinic to Highland Park that primarily serves a Latino population.  She serves on the board of Fenix, a health clinic in Highwood whose patients are almost exclusively from Mexico.

Holly is very involved with the criminal justice work in Lake County that is part of the national program funded by the MacArthur Foundation.  Called the Safety and Justice Challenge, the goal of this work is to reduce jail populations while also reducing the racial disparity in those groups.  Because she is not a lawyer, Holly had to learn a great deal, which she describes as “exciting, and at the same time, frustrating work.  As is all social change.” 

Holly’s concern about justice began when she was a very young girl, fueled by a drive to help make the world more equitable.  Her interest in ITE is also about justice. She believes that our political system, when it chooses to value equity and justice, can bring about profound positive changes for not only our citizens, but for citizens in countries around the world whom we can assist.  Holly is thrilled to be an ITE member and the values it uses to choose our candidates.

Molly Baskin
Co-Chair of Fundraising Events
Committee
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
Co-Chair of Investment Strategy
Committee
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.

Marilyn Garcia
Chair of Membership
Committee
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.