Ted is an author, researcher, and political strategist. He is co-author of Break Through and "The Death of Environmentalism." Over the last twenty years, Ted has run major campaigns and initiatives for a variety of environmental and progressive political causes including the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, and Clean Water Action. He served as Executive Director of the Headwaters Sanctuary Project, the Campaign Director for Share the Water, a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen, farmers, and urban water agencies advocating reform of federal water policies in California, and as a partner and political strategist with Next Generation and Evans/McDonough strategy and research firms. Ted holds a B.A. in history from the University of California, Berkeley. He and Michael Shellenberger were recently named Time magazine's "Heroes of the Environment 2008"

Michael Shellenberger is the co-founder of American Environics, a consulting firm that uses social values surveys, cognitive linguistics, and political psychology to help foundations and nonprofits develop breakthrough social change initiatives. In 2003, Michael co-founded the Apollo Alliance and the call for a new Apollo Project, which has since become one of President-elect Barack Obama's top domestic priorities. Research findings and strategic initiatives on health care, the economy, and the environment have been picked up by members of Congress since 2005. Michael and American Environics have also worked for Robert Wood Johnson on privacy, for Nathan Cummings Foundation on climate change and energy, for AARP on health, for Ford Foundation on voting rights, for Earthjustice, and dozens of other foundations and organizations. Michael is the co-author with Ted Nordhaus of the seminal essay "The Death of Environmentalism," and Break Through (Houghton Mifflin, 2007). Michael has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Salon, Harvard Law and Policy Review, Democracy Journal, and Glamour Magazine. In 2008, Time Magazine named Michael a "Heroes of the Environment" for his writings on energy and climate change.

Jeff is a strategist and researcher who most recently served as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth. Prior to his service in the House, he served as Research Director to Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. Jeff has worked on a variety of state and federal campaigns in roles ranging from fundraising to field. In 2006, he served as an advisor to the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families' successful effort to overturn that state's restrictive ban on almost all abortions. He has worked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator Tim Johnson's successful reelection bid in 2002, and is the Board Chair of the Center for Progressive Leadership. Jeff is a past recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship for Public Service, and a graduate of the University of South Dakota and the Georgetown University Law Center. He lives and works in Washington, D.C.

John is well versed in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Prior to joining American Environics, John worked at Peter D. Hart Research Associates where he designed and managed projects for a diverse set of non-profit, government, labor, political, and corporate clients. During his tenure at Hart, John did extensive communications research for the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program, presenting those findings at the 2006 International Conference on Global Health. John received his doctorate in Political Science from American University, where he taught a course on research design and methodology for seven years. His dissertation focused on corruption in Congress, a project for which he conducted in-depth interviews with over 40 current and former Members of Congress as well as scores of other ethics experts. John began his focus on corruption in Slovenia in 1996-1997 while researching that country's democratic transition. Upon returning to the U.S., he worked at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and has continued his focus on corruption at Transparency International and Global Integrity. A native Californian, John received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. He received his doctorate in Political Science from American University.

Pamela specializes in analyzing cognitive frames and narratives and discovering within them opportunities for understanding how people think and reason about issues and how they act in the world. With Ph.D.s in cognitive linguistics and history, Pamela brings a rich understanding of the relationship between language, reason, beliefs, and action in a historical and cross-cultural context to analysis of materials, focus group methodology and analysis, and framing. She specializes in political discourse, policy discourse, media and persuasion; nationalism and other political and social symbolic and conceptual systems; and stereotypes, categorization, narrative, and the use of metaphor and analogy. Pamela has taught linguistics and cognitive science at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked with the Rockridge Institute, the FrameWorks Institute, the Berkeley Media Studies Group, the Indian Health Service, and organizations funded by the Aspen Institute, among others. At American Environics she has worked on environmental issues, health care, retirement security, tax and fiscal policy, immigration, Katrina, reproductive rights, and other issues. Relevant monographs include "The Semantics of an Impeachment: Meanings and Models in a Political Conflict," in the anthology Language and Ideology (Stockholm, 1999), and "Competition, Cooperation, and Interconnection: 'Metaphor Families' and Social Systems" in a forthcoming anthology (Berlin and New York, in press).

Jenn Bernstein specializes in quantitative and qualitative human research techniques and analysis. She is well versed in a variety of multivariate analytical techniques, including principal components analysis, discriminant factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, multidimensional scaling, and clustering techniques. She is also a trained focus group facilitator. Jenn's theoretical expertise is in environmental attitudes and values. Her Master's thesis used content analysis to look at the prevalence of nature imagery in print advertising, and conducted surveys that correlated reactions to that imagery with respondents' environmental values. Jenn received her B.S. from The Evergreen State College and her M.A. in Geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara.