Six new national governing board members join Common Cause

Common Cause is pleased to announce six new members joining its National Governing Board, which serves as a policy-making body and provides broad oversight of the organization. The members of the board are chosen for three-year terms and meet in Washington, DC three times a year to discuss, determine and oversee policy matters and financial and organizational issues.

The new members are:

Leonard Baynes is director of the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John’s University, and a law professor at St. John’s University School of Law. He also has experience in the area of Federal Communications Commission regulation, media ownership and civil rights.

Julie A. Fernandes is the senior policy analyst/special counsel for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. LCCR is comprised of more than 180 national organizations working for social and economic justice.

Jack Taylor is the state chairman of Common Cause New Mexico. Semi-retired, he works part-time as comptroller at Direct Power and Water Corporation, a solar electric company. He lobbies for Common Cause New Mexico at the New Mexico State Legislature and has served on the State Governing Council.

Tova Wang is a Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation, which is dedicated to infusing the nation’s critical public policy debates with solid research and expert assessments. She is a nationally recognized authority on election reform, served on the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, and also writes extensively on civil liberties issues, including privacy rights and freedom of information.

Tracy Westen is vice-chairman and CEO of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization based in Los Angeles that helps implement innovative approaches to improving social problems and the processes of self-government. Westen had served on the board of the Common Cause Education Fund from its inception in 2000 through last May, when the board was dissolved.

The outgoing board members are: Fred Harris; Martha Phillips, Margery Bronster; Barbara Arnwine; Becky Avila and Virginia Taylor.