Jeff Merritt | Jessica Keating
Jeff S. Merritt, Director
Jeff S. Merritt serves as Director of the National Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending. He is also a Senior Advisor to New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
Jeff is an expert in the design and implementation of civic engagement and good government programs with more than a decade of on-the-ground leadership in the US and abroad. In 2005, Jeff founded Grassroots Initiative, a New York based nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that government and public service are accessible regardless of race, creed or economic status. As Executive Director of Grassroots Initiative, Jeff oversaw the launch of the nation’s first non-profit election consulting firm and organized the first entirely online public election in U.S. history as part of a 2009 contract with the New York City Department of Education.
Prior to founding Grassroots Initiative, Jeff served as Executive Director of the Center for Civic Responsibility from 2003-2005. At the Center for Civic Responsibility, he led efforts resulting in the adoption of new statewide and local-level pay-to-play reform legislation. Model legislation developed at the Center for Civic Responsibility has become a model for policies adopted in countless cities and states across the country. Jeff also oversaw the development of a statewide civics education curriculum for high school students and adults in New Jersey. In 1998-2001, Jeff also worked with the U.S. Department of State and USAID-funded democratization programs in Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and East Timor.
Jeff holds a Master's degree in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
Jessica Keating, Project Coordinator
Jessica Keating is the Project Coordinator for the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending.
Jessica is a recent graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a degree in Political Science. Her minor of Environmental Studies motivated her to focus her St. Mary’s Project on analyzing the efficacy of the Global Warming Solutions grassroots movement in America. While in school she interned for the Sheila Dixon Campaign in Baltimore, MD. Jessica also spent a semester interning with Chesapeake Climate Action Network as a student coordinator helping to organize a lobby day for high school and college students in Annapolis to promote Global Warming Solutions. Most recently she was part of the Fairfax Victory coordinated canvass in Fairfax County, VA.
