Staff
Lisa Abbott
A KFTC organizer in eastern Kentucky for five years, Lisa became the Leadership Development Coordinator in 1997. She received a Master’s Degree in Public Policy with an emphasis in Leadership Development from the University of Maryland in 2001. Lisa returned to KFTC in 2002 as the Director of Organizing and Leadership Development. She coordinated KFTC's Empower Kentucky Initiative and currently is the Deputy Organizing Director for Just Transition.
E'Beth Adami
E'Beth has roots in western Kentucky, but lives in Louisville and works as the Development Associate from KFTC's Jefferson County office. She did her undergraduate studies in Political Science at the University of Kentucky before completing her Master's of Science in Social Work at the University of Louisville. In her free time, E'Beth enjoys cooking, too many podcasts, taking pictures of her two dogs, and exploring Kentucky's beautiful parks.
Morgan Brown
Morgan joined our staff in summer of 2009. She was born, raised, and still lives in Knox County, surrounded by her extended family. Morgan enjoys spending time with her husband and their two wonderful children. She works out of our London office.
Tayna Fogle
Tayna Fogle is a mother of two young men, a grandmother of eight, and a basketball player extraordinaire. In order to stand up for the issues that were important to her family, she had to bravely defend against harsh drug sentencing policies and learn to navigate bureaucratic mazes to regain her right to vote. Tayna has created Re-entry programs, trainings and ministries in many Kentucky counties. She has been a motivational speaker and community activist, Developer and past Instructor of “Steppin To A New Beat” and the Re-entry/Employment Specialist for Ex-Offenders. Tayna has empowered others for 11 years with the Kentuckians For The Commonwealth as she volunteered, worked on campaigns for the right to vote. She is a former felon that paid her debt to society. She was the captain of a SEC championship basketball team at the University of Kentucky in 1982. She is also a former drug abuser. She spent several years in prison. She believes that her story has inspired and motivated many citizens to take part in this movement of restoring an individual’s self esteem, dignity, and self respect.
Ashley Frasher
Ashley grew up in Salyersville, KY and moved to London in 1999 where she now lives with her partner Daniel and his two kids. She joined the KFTC staff in November 2016 as the Operations Associate and provides day-to-day operational support to the Operations Manager and Deputy Director. In her free time she enjoys reading, embroidering (poorly) and half-finishing DIY projects.
Joe Gallenstein
I have been blessed to work for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth in Northern Kentucky since 2010, and with the Scott County chapter since 2013. If you share our commitment to justice and a desire for a strong democracy then please join us at an upcoming KFTC event!
Lesley Garrett
Lesley grew up in Paducah and has a passion for social sustainability. Currently working on a Bachelor of Science Degree in Liberal Arts at Murray State, she hopes to meld academic theory with accessible action steps toward a fair democracy. Along with studying, Lesley has volunteered with nonprofits across Haiti, interned with the City of Paducah Planning department, and worked at McCracken County Public Library. In her free time, Lesley will usually be found adventuring with her golden-collie, Aria.
Alexandria Goldsmith
Alex is a recent graduate from Western Kentucky University with a degree in Sociology and Criminology. She has been learning about, and participating in community organizing for a couple of years now, and it is something that she is very, very passionate about. She is incredibly excited about this Organizer Apprenticeship and especially about being as involved with KFTC as possible and helping to build new, empowered leaders to assist in making our future happier, healthier and fair.
Jerry Hardt
Jerry is KFTC’s Communications Director. He has worked with KFTC for 30+ years in various roles, including balancing the scales editor, media coordinator and occasional financial manager! He lives in Magoffin County.
Laura Harper
Laura is a graduate of WKU and has been a member of KFTC for a year and a half. She served on the Steering Committee and Economic Justice Committee and is especially interested in housing issues. She feels that engaging the arts is a critical part of our organizing strategy. She lives in Bowling Green with her fiancée, dog, and two cats.
Michael Harrington
Michael lives in Madison County and works at KFTC’s Berea office. Michael started working with KFTC in 2017 as a Program Associate to provide support across KFTC’s program of work and organizational needs. He enjoys spending his free time reading outdoors!
Jessica Hays Lucas
Jessica has been on KFTC's Organizing Team since September 2006, working primarily with the Economic Justice Committee and the Leadership Development Committee. She grew up in south-central Kentucky, moved out of state for three long years, and got involved with KFTC in 2004 when she moved back to Kentucky. Jess lives in Lexington with her husband Shawn, their sons, and too many animals.
Angel Hill
Angel grew up in Corbin, KY and moved to Richmond in 2014. She graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in December with a degree in Sociology. During her time at EKU she minored in Appalachian Studies, which drove her passion to work back home in Southeastern Kentucky after graduating college. She is excited to have the opportunity to work in an area that she loves and cares about, and to continue working towards a just transition!
Amy Hogg
Amy joined KFTC’s staff team in 2008. As Development Director, she works to build grassroots power by building KFTC's membership. She's originally from Letcher County and now lives in Berea with her husband, Mike, and daughters Ellie and Claire. She’s inspired by the energy and commitment of KFTC members and hopes to be like them when she grows up. Her first book, a novel for children called Callie Rose, was published in 2012.
Beth Howard
Beth Howard grew up in Morgan County. She is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University with a Master’s in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Beth served for five years as a lead organizer with a grassroots organization in Daytona Beach, Florida called Fighting Against Injustice Toward Harmony (FAITH). She returned to Kentucky in 2011 and worked as a case manager facilitating classes in parenting, job coaching, and interpersonal skills for a multi-county program based in West Liberty and started organizing with KFTC in 2013. Beth is a student of yoga, she is rarely ever without a book, and lives in Lexington with her dog Sandy.
Erik Hungerbuhler
Erik is our Website Manager/E-Organizer. He grew up in Corbin and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. He was involved with KFTC in a number of different roles as a member before joining the staff and is excited about integrating the website and social media into our organizing strategy. He currently lives in Lexington with his wife and two daughters. He spends some of his free time geeking out on sci-fi, playing board games, and helping at his wife's yarn store, Rebelle. He is an accomplished knitter and always willing to teach others.
Alicia Hurle
Alicia is originally from Louisville and holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Louisville with a concentration in Non-Profit Management and a Graduate Certificate in Pan-African Studies. She has been with KFTC since January 2013, spending her first 4 years as the Jefferson County Community Organizer before transitioning into her current role in the spring of 2017. In her free time, Alicia is a volunteer leader with Outdoor Afro and enjoys outdoor activities, reading, and watching indie movies.
Becky Jones
Becky grew up in Louisville and is excited for the chance to join KFTC's staff as an Organizing Apprentice. They studied History and Political Science at Oberlin College and have spent time living in Philadelphia working as an outdoor educator. They spend their free time hiking, climbing, practicing Capoeira, and staying up late dreaming of communities built on love, mutual care, and resource sharing.
Molly Kaviar
Molly is excited to join the team as a community organizer in the Southern Kentucky region. She is a Louisville native and graduated from Western Kentucky University with a B.A. in Spanish and Anthropology. She enjoys camping, traveling, cooking and doing puzzles.
Burt Lauderdale
Burt is our Executive Director. He is a graduate of Auburn University and has been with KFTC since 1983. His responsibilities include leadership identification and development, campaign development, organizer training, strategy development and fundraising.
Carissa Lenfert
Carissa grew up in southern Indiana and joined the KFTC staff team in 2008. She has a bachelor's degree from Ball State University and a Master's degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. She previously worked as a grassroots organizer for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement where she focused on organizing family farmers and rural residents for economic and environmental justice. She lives in Louisville with her husband and two children. She enjoys spending time telling bad jokes, cooking, and playing with her family.
James Line
James Line grew up in the Louisville area and has lived in Bowling Green for the past four years. A graduate of Western Kentucky University with a degree in Political Science and minors in History and Journalism Writing, James has been active in the Southern Kentucky chapter of KFTC, focusing on issues such as housing justice, LGBT fairness, and voter empowerment, and in the summer of 2016, he interned with the ACLU of Kentucky. A fan of dogs, pasta, and Star Wars, James is thrilled to continue his work with KFTC as an Organizer Apprentice.
Jacob Mack-Boll
Jacob is an Organizing Apprentice working in eastern Kentucky, living in Knott County. His people are from Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he first became politicized and was introduced to organizing as a young person grappling with how to respond to the Iraq war. From there he could never quite go back, and has been grateful to learn from incredible groups working towards change for everything from jail expansion to LGBTQ issues in faith communities, from mountaintop removal to militarism, and wage theft to local foods. Jacob graduated from Eastern Mennonite University with a degree in Peacebuilding and Development. Jacob is thrilled to be joining the team at KFTC after several rewarding years spent working at the Hindman Settlement School.
Sharon Murphy
Sharon Murphy grew up in North Lexington. She received a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a minor in Philosophy from the University of Kentucky and received her Master of Public Policy, with a concentration in Social Policy, from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Sharon moved to Ohio where she became a Spring 2014 Fellow for Organizing for Action campaign on educating and enrolling people for the Affordable Care Act. After returning to Lexington in August 2014 she became a Voter Empowerment Organizer for KFTC. Sharon recently just completed two statewide programs, Emerge Kentucky and New Leaders Kentucky. She also is a tutor at Nerd Squad, a STEM outreach organization dedicated to inspiring the next great minds by bringing to life STEM activities.
Tyler Offerman
Tyler is KFTC’s Tax Justice Organizer and supports our state-wide work to create a fairer and more equitable tax code. He is the co-owner of Homeplace High Adventure, an outdoor adventure guiding company that teaches backcountry skills and guides groups into the wilderness of eastern Kentucky. He grew up a 3rd generation flatlanding Floridian, often found catching alligators in the Everglades before moving to Lexington in 2012 with his now wife Cara. He has organized around ending modern slavery with the Coalition for Immokalee Workers, getting young people involved in the electoral process with the Florida YES Coalition, and passing comprehensive energy transition legislation with the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition. He spends most of his free time playing in the Red River Gorge, planting fruit trees, and listening to podcasts.
Kevin Pentz
Kevin is the Canary Project organizer. After working as an organizing intern with KFTC in 1996, he moved west to work with an organizing group in Montana. He returned to KFTC as an organizer in 1999. He has a degree in Environmental Science from Saint Lawrence University.
Nikita Perumal
Nikita grew up in Louisville and is a KFTC Organizing Apprentice at the Lexington office. Nikita is a 2016 graduate of the Dual BA Program between Columbia University and Sciences Po, where she received degrees in Human Rights and Political Science. After five years away, Nikita has returned to Kentucky to work on the issues she feels most passionate about, in the place she calls home, with the organization that first sparked her interest in activism. In the past, Nikita has participated in the Humanity in Action John Lewis Fellowship for civil and human rights, organized with Columbia Divest for Climate Justice, and served as a summer organizer with the Responsible Endowments Coalition. Most recently, she completed a Fulbright research grant in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, where she studied community participation in responses to climate change.
Heather Roe Mahoney
Heather grew up on a farm in Lewis County, Kentucky and graduated from the University of Louisville more years ago than she'd like to admit. She came to KFTC in 2005 after working for seven years at Democracy Resource Center, first as project coordinator, then as co-director. She works closely with the Executive Director, helps with foundation fundraising, provides administrative oversight for KFTC, and staffs several of our leadership teams including the Steering Committee, Executive Committee, and Finance Committee. She lives in Lexington with her son, Kaden.
Jessie Skaggs
Jessie began with KFTC in 2013 and works as a Program Associate. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville with a degree in graphic design and worked in that field for four years. She also holds a Master's Degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University, with an emphasis on sustainable development. Jessie enjoys cooking, traveling, shopping for books, and she lives in Johnson County with her dog Marley.
Caitlin Sparks
Caitlin grew up in Burlington, Ky but currently lives in Dayton and works as a Communications Associate from KFTC's Northern Kentucky office. She is a graduate of Northern Kentucky University with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts.
DeBraun Thomas
DeBraun Thomas is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Lexington in 2008. After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 2012, he began working as an intern at Lexington's NPR station WUKY and was brought on staff in 2013. History and storytelling are big passions of his and he was able to do both in producing The Unghosting of Medgar Evers (2012) and a documentary on the March on Frankfort (2013) for WUKY. DeBraun does a weekly feature on local musicians in Lexington called Local Music Monday and is also the host of the Crunkadelic Funk Show which airs Saturdays at 9pm on WUKY. Speaking out on social issues is something he's felt is his duty as a person of color. In 2016 DeBraun founded the Take Back Cheapside Movement, a coalition of various organizing groups with the goal of removing confederate statues located at Cheapside, the site of a former slave market in Lexington. In addition to producing radio features and organizing, DeBraun also spends his time writing and performing music. He released his first album, All My Colors Are Blind, in 2015 and continues to perform regionally with his band. DeBraun is looking forward to working with KFTC and gathering more tools to use in the fight against oppression.
Meredith Wadlington
Meredith works as an organizer with the Central Kentucky Chapter of KFTC. She was born and raised in Memphis, but her Kentucky roots are in Bowling Green, where she became a KFTC member with the SOKY Chapter in 2008. A proud Hilltopper for life, Meredith studied English and Social Justice at Western Kentucky University. In 2016 she moved to Lexington and began producing the KFTC podcast "Power To The People" on Lexington Community Radio. She loves long distance running, thoughtful media, and togetherness. Check out the podcast here.
Sasha Zaring
Sasha was raised in Rockcastle County and that is where she spent most of her adult life as well. While always passionate about environmental concerns and economic justice, it wasn't until she moved to Berea with her children that she found herself in the position to volunteer with a local KFTC chapter. She quickly became active in the Madison County chapter and greatly valued the hard work of our members. Over the election cycle of 2014 she worked as a Voter Empowerment Organizer and then came onto staff full time in the summer of 2015 as the Madison County and Wilderness Trace Chapter Organizer. She is excited to serve on staff within this role and be of help to the amazing folks that make up the whole of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth!
KFTC Offices and Staff
MAIN OFFICE
P.O. Box 1450
London, Ky. 40743
606-878-2161
606-878-5714 (fax)
Staff
Burt Lauderdale, Executive Director
Morgan Brown, Operations Manager
Ashley Frasher, Operations Associate
Angel Hill, Organizer Apprentice
Jacob Mack-Boll, Organizer Apprentice
FIELD OFFICES
Berea
210 North Broadway #3
Berea, Ky. 40403
859-756-4027
Staff
Amy Hogg, Development Director, Phone Ext. 101
Sasha Zaring, Madison and Wilderness Trace Chapter Organizer
Kevin Pentz, Canary Project Organizer, 606-335-0764
Michael Harrington, Program Associate
Bowling Green
958 Collett Ave., Suite 500
Bowling Green, KY 42101
270-282-4553
Molly Kaviar, Southern Kentucky Organizer
Lesley Garrett, Organizer Apprentice
Alex Goldsmith, Organizer Apprentice
Laura Harper, Organizer Apprentice
James Line, Organizer Apprentice
Lexington
250 Plaza Drive, Suite 4
Lexington, Ky. 40503
859-276-0563
859-276-0774 (fax)
Staff
Heather Roe Mahoney, Deputy Director
Beth Howard, Deputy Organizing Director for Leadership Development
Jessica Hays Lucas, Organizing Co-Director
Erik Hungerbuhler, Website Manager/E-Organizer
Tyler Offerman, Tax Justice Organizer
Tayna Fogle, Organizing Apprentice
Sharon Murphy, Organizer Apprentice
DeBraun Thomas, Organizer Apprentice
Meredith Wadlington, Organizer Apprentice
Nikita Perumal, Organizer Apprentice
Louisville
735 Lampton St., Suite 202
Louisville, KY 40203
502-589-3188
Staff
E'Beth Adami, Development Associate
Carissa Lenfert, Organizing Co-Director
Alicia Hurle, Deputy Organizing Director for Democracy
Becky Jones, Organizer Apprentice
Northern Kentucky
306 Greenup Street
Covington, KY 41011
(859) 380-6103
Staff
Joe Gallenstein, Northern Kentucky Organizer
Caitlin Sparks, Communications Associate
Prestonsburg
152 North Lake Drive
P.O. Box 864
Prestonsburg, KY 41653
606-263-4982
Staff
Jessie Skaggs, Program Associate
Jerry Hardt, Communications Director, 502-614-6637
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