National Advisory Council

Michael Matthews

President, Michael Matthews Consulting

National Advisory Council: 2024

Michael Matthews is the President of Michael Matthews Consulting, which has provided an array of grassroots organizing capabilities, keen political strategic advice, and results-oriented project management to clients including high-tech companies, unions, and nonprofit organizations. Matthews was previously Public Policy Director at Meta. Matthews has more than 30 years of campaign, political and grassroots organizing experience. He served as Political Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for the 2002 election cycle and...

Kori Kelley Meehan

Vice President; Global Head of Compliance, Epic Games

National Advisory Council: 2024

Kori Kelley Meehan (‘01) is Vice President, Global Head of Compliance at Epic Games. Prior to working at Epic, Kori worked at Google for nearly 12 years where she led a team responsible for compliance assurance across Privacy, Security, Consumer Protection, Content, and Competition. She was the founding Director of Google’s Privacy Compliance team, and she previously served as Senior Privacy Counsel at Google. Kori is a 2019 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow.

Prior to working in-house, Kori worked as a litigation associate at...

Katie Merrill

Partner, BaughmanMerrill

National Advisory Council: 2014

Katie Merrill is one of California’s most successful female and LGBT campaign managers and statewide consultants. She is a partner in the nationally-recognized political consulting, direct mail, and media firm, BaughmanMerrill, which is based in San Francisco.

Over the course of her career, Katie has advised and run over a dozen statewide initiative and candidate campaigns in California. Most recently, she helped Eleni Kounalakis and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra become the first elected woman Lt. Governor and Latino Attorney General...

Matt Middlebrook

Policy Lead, Real Estate Strategy & Government Affairs, Airbnb

National Advisory Council: 2019

Matt Middlebrook leads Policy for Airbnb’s Real Estate team overseeing government affairs and policy work in the company’s newly launched efforts to partner with multi-family building owners to make hosting more accessible for hosts nationwide. Middlebrook previously led the company’s government affairs efforts for the western US.

Before joining Airbnb, Middlebrook was Executive Vice President for Development for Caruso, one of the largest privately held real estate development...

Laiza Negrete

Vice President of Political Affairs, California Association of REALTORS

National Advisory Council: 2014

Laiza Negrete currently serves as the PAC Director with the California Association of REALTORS® handling the political resources for one of the top trade associations in the state. Before joining CRE-PAC, Laiza worked for the New York State Assembly and the Council of State Governments, Western Office. Laiza has been selected for CalNewsroom's list of the "Capitol's 100 Best & Brightest" (...

Chris Patterson

State Government Relations, Pacific Gas & Electric

Christopher M. Patterson was appointed Vice President, State and Local Government Relations by Pacific Gas and Electric Company in May 2021.

In his role, Patterson is responsible for PG&E’s legislative agenda and leading advocacy efforts in the state’s capital. He is also responsible for local government affairs, policy and advocacy relating to key state regulatory agencies, including the California Energy Commission, State Lands Commission, Department of Water Resources, and California Air Resources Board.

Patterson joined...

Heather Podesta

Founder and CEO, Invariant

National Advisory Council: 2011

Heather Podesta guides a bipartisan team as the founder and CEO of Invariant. Now in its fourteenth year, Invariant is considered one of the nation’s top government relations firms. Known for her political savvy, substantive policy chops, and commonsense approach, Heather translates Washington for business and business for Washington. Her work is highlighted in many major media outlets, with profiles in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, which quotes a senior Senator remarking that, “Heather is invariably the most knowledgeable person in...

Jon Ross

Partner, KP Public Affairs

National Advisory Council: 2016

Jon Ross is a partner at KP Public Affairs. He joined the firm in 1996. He is a registered lobbyist and lawyer. He has specific expertise in financial services law and regulation, and has played a leading role in managing the financial services industry's response to a number of critical issues, including legislative efforts to regulate financial privacy, credit card marketing and outsourcing. Mr. Ross has also lobbied on a host of issues important to small businesses, including state wage and hour laws and regulations, workers compensation reform,...

Varsha Sarveshwar

Class of 2020
2020 Percy Undergraduate Grant
National Advisory Council

Varsha Sarveshwar is a Rhodes Scholar studying public policy at the University of Oxford. Previously, she worked as an assistant deputy cabinet sceretary in the Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Her first year in the Governor’s Office was supported by UC Berkeley’s John Gardner Public Service Fellowship. Varsha graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a B.A. in political science. She received the 2020 Political Science Departmental Citation, the Travers...

Alan Unger

National Advisory Council

National Advisory Council: 2016

Alan Unger has over 40 years of experience working with public and private sector organizations – both domestic and international – managing projects and providing strategic planning and guidance in the areas of public policy, marketing and communications. He worked with a number of California public affairs and governmental organizations including the Canadian Foreign Ministry’s San Francisco Consulate, managing the political-economic, media, and academic relations activities for six western states. For four years, he directed internationally...