WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and its sister organization, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, announced the addition of three new senior staff members: Andrew Ansel, director of institutional giving; Tamara Elaine Chrisler, managing director of policy and government affairs; and Beth Lynk, Census Counts campaign director.
“We are excited to welcome Andrew, Tamara, and Beth to the team,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. “Their addition to the organizations will strengthen our fight in protecting civil and human rights for all.”
Andrew Ansel is the director of institutional giving. Ansel will work to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward private institutional funding for organizational priorities. Ansel was most recently at The Pew Charitable Trusts as a senior associate in Pew’s Philanthropic Partnerships department, where he secured external funds and foundation partnerships to support the work of the Pew Research Center, a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Before Pew, Ansel held fundraising positions for a variety of nonprofit organizations in Baltimore, MD, with progressively increasing roles and responsibilities, including time as the Manager of Institutional Giving for Planned Parenthood of Maryland, where he was responsible for growing the portfolio of foundation, government, and other institutional partners. Ansel has a B.S. in political science and economics from Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Tamara Elaine Chrisler is the managing director of policy and government affairs. Chrisler is responsible for the management and strategic direction of the policy department and advancing the advocacy agenda of the organization. Prior to joining The Leadership Conference, she was an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) consultant with Resolution Services, Inc., where she provided professional counseling, investigative, and adjudication services to the federal government on matters of employment discrimination. Before working in this consultant capacity, Chrisler spent eight years at the Congressional Office of Compliance, where she led the office’s efforts to advance workplace rights in the legislative branch, first as the office’s deputy executive director, and then as its executive director. From 1997-2005, she was an attorney advisor with the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, where she supervised and trained attorneys in trial preparation for EEO and unfair labor practice hearings and advised and trained high-level agency officials in preventing discrimination and harassment claims. Chrisler began her professional legal career as a criminal prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago, IL, where she prosecuted violent and habitual offenders and represented the people of the state of Illinois before the Illinois Appellate Court. Chrisler received her B.A. in French Literature, and her J.D., from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana.
Beth Lynk joins our census team as the new Census Counts campaign director. In her new role, Lynk is tasked with leading the Census Counts campaign to ensure that the upcoming 2020 census is fair and accurate. She is a strategist and communications expert in campaigns, crisis communications, and strategic planning with experience working in political, non-profit, and corporate environments. As associate director of federal communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, she directed Planned Parenthood’s communications around federal policy, congressional action, advocacy campaigns, and related litigation. She was instrumental in driving communications strategy and public narratives for major interdepartmental policy and electoral campaigns — including the successful campaign to defeat the repeal of the Affordable Care Act in 2017, as well as the “I Stand with Planned Parenthood” campaign defending against efforts to “defund” the organization. Prior to joining Planned Parenthood, Lynk worked at The Raben Group, a national public policy firm, directing aggressive and disciplined strategies for leading national non-profit organizations, foundations, and companies in the firm’s health, environment, faith, and justice practice groups. She has also served in the office of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. Prior to working in politics, she worked as a Market Strategist at Demand Media owning “business to business” (B2B) marketing strategy. Lynk is a graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.
The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for federal policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. The Education Fund’s campaigns empower and mobilize advocates around the country to push for progressive change in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the education and research arm of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. For more information on The Education Fund, visit http://leadershipconferenceedfund.org/.