Progress Michigan Board of Directors
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Ray Plowden, Chair
Ray works as Michigan State Director of America Votes and is former director of Service Employee International Union’s state committee. Ray, a Michigan native, also served as Michigan Campaign Director for former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt’s presidential bid. In addition, he was U.S. Rep. John Conyers chief of staff for nearly 10 years.
Ray is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and Wayne State
University Law School in Detroit. He serves as chair of the Michigan
Citizen Action Education Fund.
Amy Chapman
Amy is currently the CEO of Information Staffing Services, Inc. (ISSI), a not for profit company that provides data, targeting a political services to national and state-based 527’s, C4s and C3s throughout the country. In the 2008 General Election, Amy was the state director for the Michigan for Obama campaign. Amy has extensive experience managing all levels of Democratic campaigns, including the Michigan Coordinated Campaign for Clinton/Gore in 1996 and for Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm in 2002.
From 2002 until leading Grassroots Democrats, Amy served as Midwest Political Director for the Service Employees International Union, led the DNC’s state legislative redistricting project in 2001, and served as the Political Campaign Director for the AFL-CIO from 1997-2001.
Alicia Skillman
Alicia J. Skillman is the Executive Director of the Triangle Foundation, a statewide civil rights organization that is Michigan’s leading grassroots organizing and advocacy group for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. She is the co-founder of PFLAG Family Reunion of Detroit, an organization that reaches out to parents and families of LGBTQ people, especially African-American families. Alicia was the first President and Board Chairperson of S.P.I.C.E. (Sistahs Providing Intelligence, Creativity, and Empowerment). Skillman is an Advisory Board Member to the LGBTQ Liaison to Office of the Mayor of Detroit and is the former Director of the Fair Housing Center of Legal Aid & Defender Association where she monitored and enforced fair housing laws in Oakland and Macomb Counties. Skillman began her legal career as an Associate Attorney with VanOphem & VanOphem, PC, a firm specializing in intellectual property law.
?Alicia acquired her Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School; B.S. in Business Administration from Florida A&M University (Cum Laude); and an Associate of Industrial Engineering from Purdue University (Summa Cum Laude). Alicia is a member of the American Inns of Court; Wolverine Bar Association; and Third New Hope Baptist Church.
