Elana serves as Wellstone Action's Communications Director. Prior to joining Wellstone Action in 2004, Elana had extensive experience in organizing and advocacy for progressive issues from her work with the Center for Women Policy Studies in Washington, DC and as a college organizer at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
At Wellstone Action, Elana has managed communication and mobilization of our members and alumni, including coordination of two national issue campaigns and efforts to connect our 18,000 training alumni with the progressive movement. She is especially proud of her role in organizing grassroots support for the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equitable Treatment Act and the Violence Against Women Act. In addition, she has managed Wellstone Action's non-partisan voter mobilization efforts and serves as a Senior Trainer.
In her spare time, Elana has worked as Field Director and Campaign Manager on several local electoral campaigns and helps out at the new family business, a socially responsible bagel shop in Minneapolis called Common Roots Cafe.
POSTS BY ELANA WOLOWITZ
Originally posted over at the God's Politics blog by Jim Wallis and friends at Sojourners.
It was just a couple of months ago that the country was embroiled in
a debate about bailing out Wall Street. There was a national outcry
from Democrats and Republicans not ready to part with $700 billion with
little or…
Wellstone Action is renewing our commitment to leadership development in 2009. What's YOUR commitment?
For all races large and small, we believe there are four key elements to any successful campaign. Jeff Blodgett talks about what those are and how the Obama campaign effectively utilized them.
The number of winners in the 2008 election went up as you responded to our call for more victorious alums!
Wellstone Action is excited to announce our alumni winners in the 2008 elections.
Results are starting to come in on the Wellstone Action alumni who won elected office on Tuesday!
We are drinking coffee, tabulating results, and thinking about what it means to have a community organizer in the White House.
reposted from the great folks crunching numbers at FiveThirtyEight.com
The Wellstone Action crew here at the office are watching the reports roll in from our friends in the field.
Dig into election results as they happen - or look back at historical trends - with these maps from Google.
Bite-sized profiles of our alumni running for office this year! Next up is Marge Krupp, running for Congress in Wisconsin.
Check out this powerful video from the folks at 866-OUR-VOTE.
Next up is Kevin Killer, a 29 year old alum and trainer running for the South Dakota House.
Our bite-sized profiles of alumni running for office this year.
Check out our interactive map of alumni candidates running for office this election year!
Do words matter? Take a look at the words used by speakers at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
Comparing her experience to that of Obama's, Sarah Palin said "I
guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer - except that
you have actual responsibilities". So let me outline, for anyone who may be curious, the
responsibilities of a community organizer.
We'll train thousands of people to organize for an economy that invests in renewable energy and creates millions of green-collar jobs.
We surveyed our alums to find out how many were running for office this year. Even we were stunned at the response.
Take a peek into Camp Wellstone with this video from our Citizen Activist track.
The Wellstone Bill has been a long time coming, and now we're at the finish line.
The trivia contest is now closed, but we certainly enjoyed it. Hope you did as well!
Check out this must-read top ten list of tips to win elections this November.
What can we glean from a survey about the best way to communicate with Congress?
Yes, those of us engaged in the struggle for social justice do give up a lot of our precious time and energy to the cause, but Advanced Campaign Management School alum Erin Byrd has provided us with some inspiration to keep on fighting.
What questions do you have?
Al Gore tells me elections matter. Author David Sirota tells me that not to
believe the hype that candidates and elections are the same thing as a social
movement. In the thick of the
summer in a presidential year, what's an activist to do?
Our plan to train candidates and campaign workers in the states that will make a difference in '08
No post-mortem here, but one "historic" dimension to this primary season is worth noting - the record numbers
of new voters this year.
On the heels of its new same-day voter registration law, North Carolina turned out over 22,000 new voters in their May 6th primary.
This month, we are celebrating our fifth birthday here at Wellstone Action! As part of the celebration, we'll be posting visuals and other information to help tell the story of the impact we've had on the progressive movement in the last five years.
Can we organize and stem the tide of voter suppression?
Wellstone Action is excited about the launch of our new, feature-rich website. Beyond the bells and whistles, the truly great new asset is how the website will improve our ability to communicate with the broader progressive movement and create a forum to share ideas.
Holding Elected Officials Accountable to Our Issues
Being a Successful Citizen Lobbyist
Leadership Development
Get Out The Vote
Voter Registration
Neighborhood Voter Contact Program
Values-based messaging
Meaningful Constituent Contact!["What do we want? Clean air! When do we want it? Now!"](http://green.wellstone.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/thumbnail/sites/default/files/images/thumbnails/cwphilly.png ""What do we want? Clean air! When do we want it? Now!"")
Running a Doorknock Operation![It'll take more to move an agenda than just hit "send"](http://green.wellstone.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/thumbnail/sites/default/files/images/thumbnails/ccapitoltalk.jpg "It'll take more to move an agenda than just hit "send"")
Action Planning to Win on Issues
Voter Education