The Team
Partners
Eric Adelstein
Partner
For Eric, politics was a family calling. After his future NFL career was dashed by the realization that he had everything but the skill, size, speed and talent to make it, he turned to his second passion inherited from his grandparents. His grandfather, a civic leader in 1960’s West Virginia, campaigned with Bobby Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. His grandmother, an Auschwitz survivor, insisted her grandchildren read TIME Magazine every week and use their opportunities to contribute to “our country that is truly free.”
Prior to starting the firm, Eric spent eleven years managing Democratic campaigns. At the age of 27, he served as State Director for the 1992 Clinton/Gore Campaign in Illinois, the first successful Democratic Presidential Campaign in Illinois since 1964.
Eric has appeared on WLS Radio’s Political Shootout, the nationally syndicated program Beyond the Beltway, the Nationally Syndicated WGN Steve Cochran Show and MSNBC.
He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago School of Law and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College. He was selected a Greater Chicago Leadership Fellow in 1993 and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Erikson Institute and the Advisory Board of Facing History and Ourselves.
Ann Liston
Partner
Ann Liston is a leading national media consultant who became interested in politics as an idealistic college student for three very important reasons; Beer. Boys. And pizza. (Not necessarily in that order.)
But in the 1992 election, as a precinct captain for the 43rd Ward in Chicago, Ann saw the decisive power that elections can have upon a changing nation – and upon a young woman looking to make a contribution in the world.
Since then, she’s been hooked. Hooked and dedicated to working to make our country’s elective bodies look more like the make-up of America.
To date, Ann has over twenty years of experience managing and consulting on competitive campaigns – from a well-heeled ward office to serving as a senior member of the media team on President Obama’s re-election, and everything in-between.
Her work in national politics includes serving in senior positions at EMILY’s List, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), The National Democratic Convention – Los Angeles, and the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Ann is professionally and personally committed to helping women and girls reach positions of power and leadership. She serves on the board of Girls in the Game and she is a board member of A Council for a Livable World.
Alison LeFevre
Partner
Alison leads the creative and production teams at A|L Media. She manages ideas, people, projects, budgets, timelines and handles it all with a lot of coffee and a bit of wizardry. Alison started in television news as a reporter and anchor before going behind the camera to write and produce shows for national cable networks including The History Channel, CNBC, and National Geographic. Since being at A|L she’s produced award-winning ads for top tier races and assembled a talented team that continues to raise the bar in producing high quality content for A|L clients. A University of Kansas grad, Ali’s an avid Jayhawk fan. She likes a day on the slopes or a day at the beach, and loves spending time with her husband and daughter.
Andy Meyer
Partner
In 2020, Andy led the paid digital program for Senator Warnock’s campaign along with more than twenty other successful races. He also was the lead media strategist for the only Democratic House candidate to flip a Republican-held seat.
Andy has advised labor unions, Fortune 1000 companies, EMILY’s List, House Majority PAC, and Senate Majority PAC in addition to non-profits such as Autism Speaks and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel, worked illegally as a bartender in one of London’s hottest clubs, and managed to graduate from Colorado College. Andy is a fifth-generation Chicagoan who now lives in a small town in New England with his wife, two daughters, and a rascally dog named Ernie.
Josh Wolf
Partner
Josh got bit by the campaign bug at a young age, when he managed local races in his hometown while on summer break in college. He went on to serve as Campaign Manager on some of the nation’s most competitive campaigns. At AL Media, Wolf has directed the media efforts for top tier Congressional, Gubernatorial, and US Senate races across the country. Obsessed with the art and science of campaign budgets, Josh is also Co-Founder/CEO of Warchest, a campaign budget application used by progressive campaigns and causes across the country. Fluent in Spanish and a lifelong tortured Orioles fan, Josh helped produce the critically acclaimed documentary “Pelotero: Ballplayer.” When he’s not on a shoot, you can find Josh perfecting his homemade sourdough.
Staff
Joe Berg
Senior Online Editor
Joseph’s experience incorporates both production and post-production. He’s been a part of the AL Crew for the 2014 & 2016 political cycles and has assisted in finishing hundreds of spots for some of the biggest races in the country. He works as our head Online Editor; influencing the layout and visual outlook of our spots. Joseph graduated from DePaul University with a degree in Digital Cinema.
Mark Bergman
Principal
Mark joins AL Media after two decades in politics and campaigns. Mark recently was senior advisor to Governor Ralph Northam after helping him secure a surprise landslide victory in 2017. Mark also was Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Dan Malloy, after serving as chief spokesman for his re-election campaign. When not working, Mark is watching his beloved New York Mets fail to make the playoffs, jogging and spending time with his wife and two children.
April Check
Senior Editor
Christina Chin
Senior Motion Graphics Designer
After graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Christina embarked on a journey to create and accent narratives with the art of motion design. Starting out animating explainer videos and creating product advertisements, Christina found the best stories to tell were ones that move and inspire – and where better to accomplish this goal than at A|L Media. She lives in Chicago with her loving cat, Lawrence, and runs on too many cups of coffee.
Andrew Congdon
Creative Director
It all started in the Nutmeg State. Connecticut. A love for Model U.N. and a tolerance for long car rides led to college in D.C. and afternoons spent at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings. An opportunity to use that love of debate to both entertain and inform evolved into a career in Los Angeles working at award-winning production companies and progressive political ad firms. That continues with the team at AL. Andrew is based in Atlanta where he resides with his wife Hesley and their flat faced cats, Artemis and Irene.
Evan Degnan
Senior Vice President
Evan is savvy digital strategist who brings a decade of experience building digital programs for nearly every level of campaign – from the state house to the U.S. Senate, including leading Senator Reverend Warnock’s digital team during the 2020 cycle. A North Carolina native, he now lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and cat.
Alec Eskind
Digital Strategist
Alec has gained experience in all aspects of digital media in his career, now in his second cycle as a digital lead at A|L. He began his career on Sen. Jon Tester’s successful re-election campaign in Montana and enjoyed helping turn online engagement into offline action while serving as a digital associate. He has since worked on digital campaigns for candidates and organizations up and down the ballot in competitive terrain, finding innovative ways to persuade and mobilize the spectrum of political constituencies.
Alec is originally from Nashville, TN, graduated from Tulane University, and currently resides in New York City.
Natalia Estrada
Senior Editor
Natalia (Nat) is a born and raised Chicagoan with years of editing experience which includes work with Univision Noticias, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Steve Harvey Talk Show and numerous documentary television shows like Gangland, American Greed, and entertainment TV specials.
Nat first joined A|L Media for the election cycle in 2014, and kept coming back because she really likes working with such passionate producers, and motion graphic designers that together, every election cycle, help make a difference in the political pendulum.
Nat lives in Chicago with her husband Brian. They like to travel and spend time with family and friends.
Jordan Fox
Linear Manager
Jordan began his political career organizing from a small farm in southern Ohio for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. From there he has worked on various statewide, congressional and local campaigns helping wherever he’s been needed. Jordan has completed two cycles as a media buyer working on clients that include US senate, congressional and state house candidates as well as unions and environmental organizations. When not working, Jordan can be found playing with his dogs, Rosa and Zivah.
Rosy Gonzalez Speers
Principal
Rosy Gonzalez Speers is a long-time political operative and strategist who has worked on democratic campaigns across the country. Notably, she was Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Finance and Political Director and helped manage his political committee. Rosy has been working in democratic politics for nearly 15 years. She is a Principal at AL Media and has operated as a general consultant for a decade, building and executing strategic plans for campaigns, corporations, and non-profits.
Whether it’s managing multi-million dollar media budgets for the Florida Democratic Party to managing the national surrogacy of Massachusetts’ first Black governor to managing crucial ad campaigns for an underdog Black Congresswoman from Illinois, Rosy has used her skills of organization to deftly navigate systems that oftentimes resist change. But she’s used to fighting for and winning a seat at the table.
Raised in the Bronx to working-class Dominican parents, she moved in middle school to tiny Somersworth, New Hampshire, and was raised with her two sisters by their single mother. It was there she got her first real taste of maneuvering within different cultures, and the two different Americas. She also got her first taste of politics, winning a write-in campaign for class president.
Rosy is a first-generation American from the Dominican Republic. She graduated from Simmons College in Boston and attended the Arabic Language Institute in Cairo, Egypt. Rosy lives between Boston and Miami with her husband Chris, little boys Mateo and Lucas, and their dog Enzo.
John Griffin
Executive Assistant
John became interested in politics from a young age by watching “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” with his older brother. He got started working in politics a little later- while cold calling for the DCCC as a summer job in college. He has since worked or volunteered in multiple state and local races, as an intern, organizer, fundraiser and field director. He graduated from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in 2023. John lives in the greater Boston area and can be found reading, watching the Celtics or wandering around Boston with friends. He still watches the Daily Show with his brother.
Kourtney Hall
Deputy Competitive Director
Kourtney’s interest in politics began in college while covering the 2020 presidential election as a journalism student. She has a degree in Professional Media from the University of Central Oklahoma. She joined the A|L team during the 2020 cycle as a Competitive Analyst and returned as a Sr. Competitive Analyst in 2022. In her free time she loves to attend concerts, read books, and hunt down the best chicken wings in Oklahoma City.
Sandra Hosseini
Competitive Director
Sandra leads the linear and digital competitive operation at A|L Media. Previously she served on the Executive Team for the Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership Training Academy helping train and elect pro-choice Democratic women. As Executive Vice President she lead the Illinois Young Democrats and continues to work to advance diversity and inclusion in Chicago based tech companies as the co-chair of P33’s The ’33 Council. Sandra grew up in Oklahoma City after immigrating to America from Iran at the age of 6. She holds degrees in Political Science and Women’s Studies from the University of Oklahoma.
Tevin Jones
Senior Account Executive
Tevin is a DMV native and a proud graduate of Morehouse College and the London School of Economics. Pre-pandemic (or what can be described as his past life), Tevin was a media professional at CNN and BET, crunching numbers and producing content for their expanding digital presence.
In 2020, he decided to follow his passion for politics, joining his first U.S. Senate race in Louisiana and later going on to serve as the Digital Communications Director for Tim Ryan’s Senate race in 2022. When he’s not helping elect great candidates up and down the ballot, he’s scouring social media for a new recipe to try or checking out the latest true crime docu-series.
Patrick Kennedy
Chief Financial Officer
Patrick brings a hands-on business approach and an impressive track record of financial and operational management to AL Media. In his position here as Chief Financial Officer, Patrick is instrumental in linking finance, technology and operations to streamline business processes and execute complex financial company initiatives. As a financial leader, Patrick’s focus is on strengthening the agency’s infrastructure and strategic capabilities to maximize performance, efficiency and cost-savings that will benefit our clientele. For nearly 20 years, Patrick has honed his financial expertise in the areas of Public Accounting, Financial Derivative Markets, Corporate Finance, Government and Non-Profits. Patrick currently holds an MBA with a focus in Advanced Accounting and is certified in Forensic Examination. In addition to these professional achievements, Patrick is also a classically trained French Chef and a die-hard Chicago Blackhawks fan.
Scott Kennedy
Director of Amplify
Scott Kennedy is a veteran of Illinois statewide campaigns, having worked on two Governor and two US Senate races, and is often cited as an expert on Illinois political matters. As a Senior Account Executive, he helps manage some of our complex-needs clients. As a hobby Scott built a web-based system that has become a go-to resource for Illinois campaign data and he is leveraging that experience to build information management tools for our firm and our clients.
Noah Kim
Senior Vice President
Noah began his political career by driving in President Obama’s motorcade, and promptly thought he had ended that career when he smashed up the car he was driving. He has not driven in any more motorcades, but he has since managed, organized, and fundraised on competitive races at the state and federal levels. Before joining A|L, Noah worked on the DCCC’s Independent Expenditure to help net 40 Democratic House seats in 2018. He enjoys any opportunity for experimentation and innovation in how we communicate, coaching emerging leaders and staffers, and treating most interactions with strangers as mini-focus groups (to the dismay of plane and bus seatmates, barbers, and Lyft drivers everywhere).
Miles King
Managing Director
Miles took the reins of our media-buying operation in 2014, tracking spending and managing hundreds of television and radio programs in competitive races and advocacy campaigns across the country. Miles has been a lead media buying consultant for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee IE, American Bridge, Fair Fight, and Women Vote along with dozens of high profile hard side campaigns. His past experience includes working as senior staff for an Assistant Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives.
Maggie McDermott
HR & Financial Operations Manager
A proud Chicagoland native, Maggie studied at Saint Louis University but was eager to return home to the Windy City to pursue a career in political media. Maggie first joined team A|L in 2018 and has been honing her skills in the finance and HR department ever since. She is proud to work alongside this team of talented, passionate individuals. In her free time, Maggie enjoys reading the news and then going to yoga class to lower her blood pressure.
Jasmine McDonald
Senior Producer
Jasmine is originally from California, but currently calls New Orleans home. She brings an all hands on deck mentality to any project and isn’t afraid to jump in wherever help is needed. Coming from a TV production background, a few of her credits include HGTV, Animal Planet, and OWN.
Greg Pinelo
Principal
Greg is a veteran of the Biden-Harris media team in 2020, Obama for America in 2008 and 2012 and dozens more campaigns in between during his three-decade career in Democratic politics. He’s also spearheaded major public education and advocacy efforts for leading non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, labor unions and coalitions. Greg graduated from Oberlin College, where he majored in history and political science and lettered in varsity basketball. He adequately plays lead guitar in grunge and classic rock cover bands.
Jacob Plotnick
Senior Account Executive
Politics has allowed Jacob to see the country by working in 10 different states and DC. He has filled a variety of roles from intern to campaign manager on campaigns at the local, congressional, and statewide levels. He also helped advise candidates and campaign staff while working at the DCCC during the 2018 election when Democrats took back the House. When he’s not working, Jacob can be found at the nearest pick up ultimate (frisbee) game.
Mark Pogue
Senior Competitive Analyst
Mark Pogue is a Senior Competitive Analyst returning to A|L for his second consecutive cycle with the firm. Drawn to political work because of his love for the environment and desire to make an impact, Mark has put his political science degree from Boston University to good use since
graduating in 2020. When not hard at work, Mark enjoys backcountry snowboarding in the winter, fly fishing in the summer, and bad movies year-round.
Jonathan Reed
Art Director
Born with a strong Midwestern work ethic, and raised on Southern charm, Jonathan moved to Chicago to attend film school at Columbia College. It was at Columbia that Jonathan discovered his gift for creative design, his love of short form narratives and his haunted cardboard box. Since becoming a full time freelancer, Jonathan has made friends at studios across the city but none as warm as those at AL. Sharing insightful stories through engaging visuals is a trademark of AL and is a tradition that he is proud to carry on. Jonathan lives in the city with a loving dog “Buffy” and a vengeful stunt-goldfish named “Fredrick II”. An internationally published poet, he has a love for strong coffee, notebooks and his mother.
Matt Shope
Online Editor
Matt got his start working on small iMovie projects in the 6th grade on his mother’s MacBook. From there, his love of movies and entertainment was fostered through viewings of older classics. It was in high school when he first thought that he may be able to pursue post-production for a living. As the primary editor for most of his school projects, he discovered he had a talent for telling stories and creating content. He attended Columbia College Chicago where he received his BA in Cinema Art & Science plus a minor in Creative Advertising. Working at A|L Media has given him a better understanding of his role, and has given him a plethora of experience that he wouldn’t trade for anything.
Allison Smith
Associate Account Executive
Allison’s interest in politics began as a kid growing up in Tennessee. She headed north to Dartmouth College where she studied Government and Public Policy and rowed for the Dartmouth Women’s Rowing team. She loved what she learned in the classroom, and her time as an intern in Congresswoman Kuster’s office solidified her interest in politics. During her free time, you can find Allison lifting weights at the gym, trying a new pasta recipe, or meeting up with friends in NYC.
Megan Smith
Vice President
Megan began her political career in California, working on multiple Red-to-Blue Congressional races. Before joining A|L Megan worked on Katie Porter’s 2018 campaign, helping to elect her to Congress, and then became Congresswoman Porter’s deputy chief of staff. Following her work on the Hill, she left to manage Congresswoman Haley Stevens’ frontline reelection campaign. Megan holds a degree in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. When not on zoom calls Megan enjoys podcasts, craft beer and binge watching the Great British Baking Show.
Liz Utrup
Managing Director
Liz told herself she would never work in politics. Until she volunteered on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and quickly realized she does believe in hope and change. Needless to say, she’s largely worked in politics ever since. Tl;dr: Liz has been a campaign operative (2008 Obama Campaign); a press operative and Communications Director in federal and local government, respectively (U.S. Department of Education > Chicago Public Schools); a policy and messaging strategist (Kennedy for Illinois); and is now a media-firm maven (SP Media/Lightfoot for Chicago Mayor 2019 > AL Media). She loves to travel, speaks French, and spends an inordinate amount of time watching puppy videos on social media.
Justin Washington
Media Planner
At an early age, Justin realized that politics was his calling because he understood more unites us than divides us. Justin joined our Competitive team in 2018 where he tracks millions in competitor and allied spending, execute media plans, and develop good rapport with media and political officials to gain information for competitive races across the country. While at Western Illinois University where he received his Master’s in Public Administration/Public Policy, Justin worked and volunteered on numerous campaigns and nonprofit organizations. In his spare time, you will catch Justin in the nearest gym playing basketball or watching any sports team except the Cubs!