About Us

Sara Wolk is the Executive Director and a co-founder of the Equal Vote Coalition, a nonprofit fighting for true equality in the vote itself. With a background in sustainability, she boasts a diverse array of accomplishments from founding and managing farm-to-table farming programs to helping build the case for the first-ever international judicial precedent on the rights of nature in Ecuador’s Cloud Forest. In her day-to-day, Sara helps bring voting method reform to the real world by creating accessible educational content, speaking on national panels, and a coordinating volunteers around the world to support better voting. Sara co-authored a peer-reviewed analysis of voting method accuracy and strategy that has been published in the journal Constitutional Political Economy. When she’s not busy upgrading our political system, Sara competes in Thistle-class sailboat racing and loves playing music with friends.

Ruben Michael Montejano has been an advocate for voting reform since 2018 and helped start-up the STAR Voting California Chapter. Moreover, he focuses on conservation for natives plants in his local areas and is currently a student as well as a Behavior Interventionist. In his spare time, Ruben is probably hiking, planting, researching a variety of topics from plant conservation to voting reform, or relaxing with family and/or friends.

Andrea Denault is a political activist who’s worked across the country for more than ten years. In 2018, she ran a landmark campaign for electoral reform, organizing the first city in America to adopt Approval Voting. After leading the historic victory in Fargo, she went on to help usher in a second win in St. Louis, spearhead similar efforts in Denver, and continues to work with electoral reform advocates throughout the U.S.

Hailing from North Dakota, Andrea is a Turtle Mountain Anishinaabekwe who was active in the occupation at Standing Rock during opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. She’s a longtime advocate for the related intersecting issues and prioritizes economic justice, environmental policy, and antiracist work.

Andrea has led a wide variety of successful campaigns, from city council to the White House. She’s built broad coalitions for both political candidates and single-issue ballot initiatives, alike.  She has partnered with and volunteered for the ACLU, NAACP, AFL-CIO, DSA, LWV, and dozens of other advocacy groups.

As an Equal Vote Board Director, she’s lending her nonprofit leadership expertise and the lessons learned from previous campaigns. Her goal is to realize a democracy where all people believe there is a reason to vote and feel like the legitimate stakeholders they truly are.

Currently a political consultant, Andrea previously studied Journalism and Economics in Colorado, worked in marketing, and was a human rights lobbyist focused on LGBTQ, refugee, and Native American issues. She is a writer who enjoys cycling, comedy, armchair philosophy, and physics.

Dr. Alan Zundel was the campaign manager for the STAR Voting for Oregon 2024 campaign. Alan has an M.A. (Wayne State University, 1985) and a Ph.D. (University of Michigan, 1994) in political science, and he was a tenured political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was a leader in the successful initiative campaign to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Benton County, Oregon, in 2016. That same year, he ran for Oregon Secretary of State as the candidate of the Pacific Green Party. In 2017, at the invitation of Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, he chaired a Redistricting Reform Task Force. In 2018, he was a chief petitioner for the first initiative to adopt STAR Voting in Lane County, Oregon. The campaign succeeded in gathering enough signatures to get on the ballot and nearly won with 48% of voters in favor. Alan and his wife Marianne have lived in Eugene, OR since 2006. They have 2 adult children and two grandchildren in California.

Aram has been a passionate supporter of electoral & campaign finance reform since directing the Portland, Oregon chapter of Represent.Us 2015-2018. In that role, he was a part of a few successful campaigns for legislation including 26-184 in Multnomah county, and public matching for small donors in Portland. Professionally, he's worked in renewable energy & power systems since 2015, designing cloud platforms that make it easier to integrate renewable energy sources onto the grid. To unwind, Aram enjoys hiking, cooking, writing, boxing and cocktails.

Dr. Jameson Quinn's decades-long interest in advancing voting theory has driven him to many relevant accomplishments including completing a PhD in statistics from Harvard, scientific research such as his work on Voter Satisfaction Efficiency, co-organizing the British Columbia Symposium on Proportional Representation, and assisting in the design of the voting system now used to maintain the integrity of the Hugo Awards. Jameson has regularly made his household in Cambridge, Massachusetts a home for refugees.

As they were gearing up to run for US House of Representatives, Sass discovered voting method reform and quickly recognized it as “the most important first step we have to take to solve all of our other problems.” Sass’ deep dive began and their passion for voting reform ultimately led to them moving across the country multiple times to work for various voting method reform organizations like Equal Vote and now the Respect Voters Coalition. They focus relentlessly on voter empowerment and attribute much of their growth in the voting method reform space to the welcoming and inclusive culture nurtured at Equal Vote. Sass is eager to dabble in new and diverse escapades, with experience ranging from music writing, to political activism, to martial arts. If you ever find yourself in the St. Louis, MO area, be sure to ask Sass to go sing some karaoke with you!

In 2021, Arend quit his Software Engineering job to pursue Indie game development full-time, and his company, Star Garden Games, released Word Factori.

Around the same time, he discovered STAR Voting and has been passionate about voting reform ever since. Now, he co-leads the Software team, creates animations, and helps with a variety of other projects.

Arend can speak Dutch (the name "Arend" is Dutch for "Eagle"), and outside of work, he studies Korean and enjoys exploring Los Angeles with his wife and cat.

Nate is primarily a grassroots organizer based in Utah and has appeared in several media appearances and conferences to support alternative voting methods. He believes deeply in the power the people can have when they join together for a common cause. Nate holds a BS in Psychology with minors in Cognitive Science and Philosophy and is the founder of Utah Approves. In his work with Utah Approves, he has worked to gain the support of all 29 county clerks in the state for Approval Voting as the best alternative method, presented at legislative committee meetings, and worked to obtain signed letters from city councils showing interest in using Approval Voting. He enjoys spending his free time fire-performing and hiking.

Mike has been involved in the voting reform community since 2017 with his primary goal of ending extreme political polarization. He joined the Equal Vote Coalition as a volunteer in 2020 and has helped start the STAR Voting California chapter and various STAR Voting software development projects. Mike graduated from Georgia Tech in 2015 with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Mont Chris is a composer, music director, and performer who makes his home in Portland, Oregon. Soon after after getting involved with STAR Voting, he stepped up as chair of the STAR Voting Oregon Chapter and helped lead the STAR Voting Oregon Legislative Outreach Committee and Portland Charter Review outreach project. Mont Chris is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Musicians Union Local 99, which now uses STAR Voting for its internal elections. In addition to talking about voting methods and unions to city commissioners, state legislators, and cornered family members at Thanksgiving, Mont Chris has received numerous awards for music and theater including a 2011 Kennedy Center ACTF Meritorious Achievement Award, the 2011 Portland Music Award for Album of the Year, and the 2013 Portland Area Musical Theatre Award.

Jas graduated with a Masters in Political Management, is a board director for both STAR Voting Action and Equal Vote, is the owner of Awakenings Wellness Center in Portland, Oregon and was a past chair for the Oregon Public Bank Alliance. Jas has been an activist and community organizer for decades. He is a devoted father who enjoys hiking and camping in his spare time.

Rob Lanphier is a longtime student of consensus, both professionally and personally.  Over his career, he has guided many technology organizations to more effective open collaboration.  Working with the IETF and W3C, he was a key editor on important Internet multimedia standards like RTSP and SMIL, and helped tech company RealNetworks publish much of its source code as "Helix" under the GNU General Public License (GPL). At metaverse leader Linden Lab, he led the publication of the Second Life viewer source. He helped build the Wikimedia Foundation engineering organization, and shaped their software architecture strategy while building out hiring the teams responsible for quality releases, ensuring the security, stability, and performance of the site software. As a hobby, he has been moderating online conversations about electoral reform since 1995, and has been trying to help those conversations by providing clarity with tech and balancing extremes of opinions.

Duncan has long been interested in politics and civic engagement, which started with the history and social science classes he took in high school. He helped launch the STAR Voting Georgia chapter, where he served as the Volunteer Coordinator. He hosted tabling events at Middle Georgia State University, Macon-Bibb Parks & Recreation, and Open Streets Macon. Duncan clearly recognizes the value of outreach to varied, diverse groups. While he has spent considerable time communicating with politicians and journalists, he also educates marginalized and underserved communicates on the importance of electoral and voting method reeform.

Duncan now resides in Columbus, OH, continuing to advocate for STAR and electoral reform as a whole. He's working to create connections and alliances across the city and the state. Target organizations include Democratic Socialists of America, Libertarian Party, Forward Party, and Black Men Build.

Outside of STAR, Duncan works in IT as a network analyst. His hobbies include foreign languages, music, calisthenics, Halo, and Super Smash Bros. In addition to electoral reform, public transit and labor rights are top concerns for him.

Wendy first learned of STAR Voting several years ago when it appeared as a Lane County, OR ballot initiative. Taking a closer look, she decided it truly complemented her vision for how representative voting is supposed to be. To help promote STAR Voting and other better voting initiatives, she assists the Equal Vote Coalition and STAR Voting Action with its bookkeeping and other special projects.

Wendy is a lifelong community volunteer, having held leadership and member-at-large roles for a range of organizations. In Oregon, where she and her husband have lived since 2007, she has served as president and held other board positions for the Eugene-Lane AAUW (American Association of University Women) and was a campaign coordinator for a 2010 Oregonians for Water Parks and Wildlife Lane County campaign. In St. Louis, Missouri, she was 2004 Volunteer of the Year for the Carondelet (Missouri) YMCA, and presided over a 2,000-household neighborhood organization.

Professionally, Wendy retired in 2024 from a quarter-century career as a financial writer. In retirement, she’s been enjoying continued community service, spoiling her senior whippet hound, catching up on her reading list backlog, and increasing her experiments in the kitchen (to her husband’s delight).