Election Center Board of Directors

Kathleen Hale, JD, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Election Center. She retired as professor emerita of political science from Auburn University, where she directed the graduate program in election administration. Her research examined how intergovernmental relationships improve the capacity of public programs, and she is the author of the award-winning How Information Matters: Networks and Public Policy Innovation (Georgetown University Press 2011). Her research and teaching have been recognized by national academic and professional audiences, and she has appeared in podcasts produced by The Economist, NPR, Canadian Broadcast Company, and the National Leadership Conference, among others. Her most recent book, How We Vote: Innovations in American Elections (Georgetown University Press 2020, with Dr. Mitchell Brown), examines the ways that different conditions foster and constrain innovation in the election administration environment. Along with Dr. Mitchell Brown and Dr. Bridgett King, she has fostered applied research projects published by Palgrave. Dr. Hale serves on the advisory board of the MIT Election and Data Sciences Lab and is a faculty fellow for the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University. She is also the editor of the Elections, Voting, and Technology book series for Palgrave Macmillan Press. Before joining the Auburn faculty, Dr. Hale advised national, state, and local nonprofit organizations on building capacity for program design, training, technical assistance, evaluation, and governance in their relationships with intergovernmental programs at all levels of government. Beginning in 2011, she directed Auburn University faculty in their partnership with the Election Center to professionalize the field including the CERA program, research projects, and publications with and for election administrators and system stakeholders.

Tammy Patrick, CERA, is the Chief Program Officer at the Election Center, the National Association of Election Officials. Tammy Patrick has been working in the election administration space since 2003--most recently as the Senior Advisor to the Elections Program at Democracy Fund. Focusing on modern elections, Tammy works to foster a voter-centric elections system and support election officials across the country. In 2013 she was selected by President Obama to serve as a commissioner on the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, which led to a position at the Bipartisan Policy Center to further the work of the PCEA. Prior to that, she was the Federal Compliance Officer for Maricopa County Elections Department for eleven years.

She has testified on election administration policies multiple times in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, and numerous state legislatures on behalf of members of both parties. She has been an active member of the Election Center's Legislative and Postal committees, representing the organization to the United States Postal Service's Mailers Technical Advisory Committee for over a decade. She elevates the election official perspective in the media and by serving as a member of numerous boards of advisors and steering committees.

She received her CERA certification in 2007 from Auburn University and the Election Center and was honored to be inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2022. She has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Policy since 2016.

Derek Bowens joined the Durham County Board of Elections in June of 2017 as the Director of Elections. Previously, Mr. Bowens was the Director of Elections in New Hanover County, North Carolina and has served in elections since 2012 in various capacities. He has a bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Certificate in Project Management from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He is also a North Carolina Certified Elections Administrator and is a nationally certified elections administrator through the Election Center. Throughout his career, Mr. Bowens has been nationally recognized by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), CompTIA, and the National Association of Counties (NaCo) for innovation in election administration. He has participated in or overseen multiple elections, which includes 3 presidential elections.

Mitchell Brown, Ph.D., is the Curtis O. Liles III Professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University and is a founding editor of the Journal of Election Administration Research & Practice. Her work as a researcher, evaluator, trainer and consultant focuses on applied projects around the country centering on election administration and community-based problem solving. She is the author of numerous books, research articles, and reports. Recent titles include How We Vote: Innovations in American Elections (with Kathleen Hale, Georgetown University Press) and the Elgar Publishing handbooks Teaching Undergraduate Political Methodology and Teaching Graduate Political Methodology (both with Shane Nordyke and Cameron Thies). From 2015-2018 she served as the Director of Auburn University PhD Program in Public Administration and Public Policy and currently co-directs the Election Administration Initiative with Kathleen Hale. She also serves as curricular faculty for the National Association of Election Officials and is a member of their board of directors. From 2016-2022 she served as the Science of Teaching & Learning section editor for the Journal of Political Science Education.

Brown is the recipient of the Meredith College 2023 Career Achievement Award; 2023 Distinguished Service Award from the Political Science Education Section of the American Political Science Association; the 2021 Glenn Howze Academic Freedom Award; 2016 & 2013 SGA Outstanding Faculty Awards for the College of Liberal Arts; the 2009 Distinguished Diversity Researcher Award through the Research Initiative for the Study of Diversity under the Office of the Vice President for Research at Auburn University; an Outstanding Service Award in 1998 from the Center for Mental Health Services (SAMHSA, NIH, DHHS) for her work developing a housing fidelity instrument; among others. Brown holds and has held board and leadership positions at the university, in state government, and in non-profit organizations.

Shauna Dozier, CERA, is the Director of the Clayton County, GA Board of Elections and Registration (March 2016-Present). Previously, Shauna served as Registration Chief in the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, as the Assistant Supervisor of Elections for the Rockdale County Board of Elections and Voter Registration, and as the Voter Education Coordinator in the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State. She serves as a Short-Term Elections Observer for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in April 2015 during the Early Presidential Election in Kazakhstan. Ms. Dozier holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from North Carolina Central University.

Heider Garcia is the Elections Administrator for Dallas County, TX, where he oversees planning and execution of an annual budget of USD 15M, serving 1.4 million voters and running almost 450 polling places every year. Prior to that, Heider was a Senior Election Subject Matter Expert for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. He also served as the Election Administrator in Tarrant County, Texas, for over five (5) years. In 2023 the Texas House of Representatives passed Resolution 1608 Honoring Heider Garcia for his service as Tarrant County elections administrator. During his time in Tarrant County, Heider was elected to the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Elections Administrators (TAEA). Before working in the public sector, Heider worked in the private sector developing election technology and deploying it around the world. In that role, he was responsible for designing election technology, customizing it to ensure compliance with local legislation and successful deployment and execution of the final products. Heider holds a BS in Computer Engineering, is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP)® and a CERA Graduate from the Election Center.

Susan Gill, CERA, was elected to the office of Citrus County Supervisor of Elections in 1996 and retired at the end of 2020. Ms. Gill is a past president of the Florida Supervisor of Elections Association. She has served as the Chair of the Rules and Legislative Committees and as the co-chair of the FSASE Vote Center Task Force. Ms. Gill has served on the State of Florida Help American Vote Act (HAVA) Planning Committee and the Election Assistance Commission workgroup to create the Vote by Mail/Absentee Ballot Election Management Guidelines in 2007. She was a Florida State Certified Supervisor of Elections, a Master Florida Certified Election Professional (MFCEP) and is a graduate of the National Election Center’s Certified Election and Registration Administrator (CERA) program.

Dean Logan is the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for Los Angeles County, California -- the nation's largest, most diverse local election jurisdiction serving more than 5.6 million registered voters. He has served in the position since 2008. In addition to election administration, his office records real property documents; maintains vital records; performs civil marriage ceremonies; and processes business filings serving an estimated 3,500 customers daily.

Mr. Logan holds degrees in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University and a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. He is a past-President and Board Member of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO), a member of the Board of Directors for the Election Center (National Association of Election Officials), serves on the advisory board of the Election Official Legal Defense Network (EOLDN), and the Board of Advisors for the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

Mr. Logan sits on Advisory Boards for the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Auburn University's Graduate Certificate in Election Administration, University of California Riverside's Design Thinking Executive Program, and the California State University, Northridge Master of Public Administration Program where he teaches courses on Organizational Leadership, Public Sector Management, Strategic Management, and Intergovernmental Relations.

Mr. Logan was recognized in 2017 with the Electoral Ergonomy Award by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (iCPS) and in 2021 received the "Change Maker" award from the County of Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission. He has been an international election observer and commentator in Morocco, the Republic of Georgia, the Republic of Albania, Argentina, Mexico, and Armenia.

Alice Miller, Esq., served as the Executive Director of the DC Board of Elections (DC BOE) from 1996-2008. In June of 2008, Ms. Miller was selected to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of the United States Assistance Commission (EAC). Ms. Miller oversaw the day-to-day operations at the EAC in all program areas and served as the EAC's Acting Executive Director for three years (May 2012-October 2015). In 2015 Ms. Miller returned to the DC BOE and was again appointed as the Executive Director in 2016, responsible for all of the agency's administrative and fiscal operations. In August of 2021 Ms. Miller stepped down as the Executive Director but remained at the agency where she currently serves as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Executive Director. Ms. Miller has also served as the General Counsel for the DC BOE, responsible for representing the Board in all court proceedings on matters related to the election process. She was the president of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) from 2002-2003. She served on two of the EAC's external advisory boards, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), which assists the EAC in developing the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), and the Standards Board. Before the creation of the EAC, Ms. Miller served on the Election Administration Advisory Panel for the Federal Election Commission.

Steve Moreno, CERA, has been an Election Center Board member since 2012. He is a thirty-eight-year Weld County resident who worked for Weld County Government for 37 years. Steve served as Weld County Commissioner for two terms. Before being elected as Commissioner, Steve was sworn in as the 28th Weld County Clerk and Recorder, in which he served three terms from 2003-2014. He also served as Chief Deputy and Deputy Clerk for the Weld County Clerk and Recorder's office. Before coming to Weld County, Steve served as Deputy Clerk for Otero County, Colorado. Steve is also currently serving on the United Way Board of Directors for Weld County.

Wesley Wilcox, CERA is the Supervisor of Elections for Marion County, Florida. He was first elected on November 6, 2012 and re-elected in 2016 and 2020 without opposition. He was originally hired in 2001 as the Systems Administrator and promoted to Assistant Supervisor, a position he held for seven years, before being elected. He possesses over 33 years of experience in the Elections profession, is a nationally Certified Elections/Registration Administrator (CERA), a Master Florida Certified Elections Professional (MFCEP), and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

Highlights during his tenure: Implemented a new Voter Registration system in 2001 and was a member of the technical team for the successful 2006 implementation of the state-wide voter registration system. In 2007, he conducted a full county-wide implementation of Electronic Poll Books, one of the first jurisdictions in the State of Florida. In 2008, he fully built and implemented an Early Voting Ballot on Demand system. In 2017, he assisted with the design, implementation, and launch of Florida's Online Voter Registration system. In recognition of his contributions, he was inducted into the Election Center Hall of Fame in 2023.

Wesley is a dedicated member and Past-President of the Florida Supervisors of Elections (FSE) association representing Florida's 67 Election Supervisors. He served in all Executive Officer positions and has also served as a Board Member, Instructor, and technical liaison for the Florida Voter Registration System (FVRS) and Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV).

Wesley currently serves as Chair of the Elections Infrastructure Center for Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC). He was selected to serve on the Local Leadership Council of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) as well as the Advisory Board of the Election Official Legal Defense Network (EOLDN).

Tom Wilkey is a founding member of the Election Center. He began his career in elections in 1969 at the Erie County ( Buffalo,New York) Board of Elections. He joined the New York State Board of Elections in 1979 serving as the board's Director of Communications and Voter Education. He served in that position until 1985 when he was appointed to the position of Director of Election Operations responsible for the oversight of New York's 62 county election offices. In 1992 Mr. Wilkey was appointed Executive Director of the New York Board of Elections and served until 2003. After the creation of the US Election Assistance Commission, Mr. Wilkey was appointed as the first permanent Executive Director of the Commission and served until 2012. He served as a both a member and participant in numerous national committees involved in developing the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act. Mr. Wilkey served as President of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) and is a proud Life Member of the New York State Election Commissioners Association.