Garrett Arwa has over 15 years of successful experience working on campaigns and with cause-based organizations. He most recently served as the interim executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. He led the NDRC’s post-redistricting pivot to support pro-democracy candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, expanding its work into protecting election administration and preparing the organization for the fall U.S. Supreme Court term with two consequential redistricting cases before the court. Garrett has served in previous leadership roles at the For Our Future PAC and For Our Future Action Fund (FOF), NextGen Climate, and the Michigan Democratic Party.
Outside of the office, Garrett is an avid cook, will dance just about anywhere (especially department stores), can be found walking while listening to an audiobook, and loves to go on adventures with his wife Emily and their pug Franklin.
Seth Litt is a strategist, communicator and doer who has spent 20 years bringing people together to build capacity and develop strategy to solve complex challenges. Equally skilled at media relations, brand-building, activating coalitions, and digital engagement, Seth employs every tool at his disposal to help his clients – from innovative national nonprofits to leading technology companies – expand their imagination of what is possible and then achieve their goals. Seth is also a seasoned nonprofit executive whose work has strengthened public education and empowered disenfranchised communities. He has organized marginalized families in Los Angeles to secure historic policy victories increasing access to high quality schools. He co-founded an organization that raised and distributed funds to over 4,000 families during the height of the pandemic. Seth founded a public high school in the South Bronx for young people who deserve a fair shot at happiness and success after being impacted by the criminal legal system.
Seth and his wife Lucy live in Washington DC with their two Australian Shepherds, Zeus and Lefty.
Katherine Provins provides administrative support on a wide variety of projects for Bryson Gillette, including project management, client relations, finance, operations, and event planning.
Katherine is a Chicago native now living in Los Angeles. Outside of the office, you will find her at the dog park, hiking with her Boxer puppy, or spending time with her daughter.
Anna Wood manages Bryson Gillette’s internal operations and is thrilled to be part of the firm’s strategic growth. Anna wears many hats at Bryson Gillette, and is passionate about building smart, efficient processes that increase her colleagues’ impact. Prior to joining Bryson Gillette, Anna worked as the strategic operations manager at Los Angeles’ Central City Association. She also led organizing teams for youth voter mobilization and issue advocacy efforts as regional organizing manager at New Era Colorado.
Outside of work you can find Anna exploring LA with her husband, packing the car for a weekend trip, or cuddling with her cats at home, tea or cocktail in hand.
Jess Taylor provides strategic operations and human resources support to help scale team impact. She has served both political campaigns and public affairs clients through a variety of duties, including project management, media tracking, a variety of writing duties, and an array of production responsibilities. Prior to joining Bryson Gillette, Jess managed organizing teams and special projects for statewide and national political campaigns, including Senator Elizabeth Warren’s senate re-election campaign and presidential bid, and the Democratic ticket in New Hampshire in 2020.
Jess lives in Atlanta with her partner, Anna, where they’re aiming to try all of the delicious food, dance to lots of live music, and immerse themselves in the city’s legacy of activism.
Risa Sunakawa has quickly developed a specialty in tech reform, handling project management and a variety of writing projects for nonprofit and private sector clients working to transform social media and the digital landscape for the common good. She was part of the team that helped secure groundbreaking California legislation implementing landmark online safety regulations for children. She also helped elect a first-time member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. Prior to joining Bryson Gillette, Risa worked with multiple nonprofits to increase voter registration and civic engagement in Utah, including one focusing on the AAPI community. She also created a web platform that helped Missourians safely and easily request absentee ballots during the 2020 election season.
Risa is a Yankees fan, but will root for the Angels for Ohtani. In her free time, she likes pretending like she knows about wine.
One of the most accomplished political operatives in the country, Rebecca Pearcey works on local, state, and national political campaigns at Bryson Gillette. In 2022, she led the paid media strategy to elect Pennsylvania’s first African American Congresswoman, Summer Lee, and advised more than 20 candidates throughout the cycle. Prior to joining Bryson Gillette, Rebecca served as political director and senior advisor for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign, where she led a flood-all-zones strategy and oversaw staff teams in all 57 states and territories. Her work for Sen. Warren included overseeing ballot access operation, delegate recruitment and operations, advising on external communications strategy, surrogate and principal scheduling, and briefing the candidate on a daily basis. In 2018, as director of the national independent expenditure campaign for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, Rebecca played a crucial role in flipping over 400 legislative seats and eight chambers. During her 20-year career, she has steered hundreds of campaigns across the country, including running a U.S. Senate race in Ohio and a gubernatorial race in Indiana. Outside of her career, Rebecca is committed to mentoring and training diverse young talent in strategic campaign management through the Blue Leadership Collaborative. Her dedication to fostering fresh talent has earned her numerous accolades, including being named a Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service in 2021. A native of Oregon, Rebecca is now based in Washington DC.
If Rebecca hasn’t missed her flight, she is probably tweeting about how close she’s calling it and offering travel tips on Twitter.
Jacqueline Lee Rivera has more than a decade of experience developing and managing award-winning campaigns for feature films, global nonprofit organizations, and Fortune 100 companies tackling some of the most pressing issues of our time. Most recently, she led a rebrand for the country’s largest and oldest direct scholarship provider to Native students, that increased the organization’s average annual media impressions, and she led the national launch of an unprecedented coalition of farmers, food companies and environmental advocates championing climate-friendly agriculture practices. Previously, she served as an impact producer leading social impact campaigns for feature films and television such as Academy Award-winner American Factory; NAACP Image Awards Best Documentary winner John Lewis: Good Trouble; and the acclaimed docuseries America To Me. Jacqueline also has experience leading international humanitarian and disaster relief communications during the Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Nepal Earthquake of 2015 and developing cause marketing campaigns in partnership with Microsoft YouthSpark and Gucci’s Chime For Change.
Jacqueline is passionate about the power of storytelling to open hearts and minds and can be found watching the latest films, sampling new restaurants, and attending concerts across Los Angeles.
With a knack for making strategic connections between people, programs, and resources, Raúl Hernández builds capacity in teams and institutions to maximize impact. A former educator with nearly 20 years of experience in education reform and talent development, Raúl oversees all things human resources at Bryson Gillette. He has expertise in designing and delivering learning experiences that resonate with audiences. Prior to joining Bryson Gillette, Raúl led alumni and corps member work for Teach For America Los Angeles for over 10 years. He supported a network of over 3,600 leaders across a variety of industries in Southern California through program partnerships, facilitating leadership development, talent matching, and ongoing engagement. Previously, Raúl spent eight years as a public school classroom teacher in Baltimore and Boston.
Raul lives with his wife, Rohini, and their two little girls. You can find him spending time with his family, going on walks with their dogs, or on the course trying to become a scratch golfer.
The head of Bryson Gillette’s public affairs department, Shira Fine creates audacious, award-winning communication campaigns for high-impact, high-profile organizations and individuals working to change the world. She helps brands tell their stories and creates paths to success for impactful progressive causes. A creative thinker who is fluent in comprehensive communications strategy, digital engagement, media relations, branding and messaging, Shira designs bespoke campaigns to achieve clients’ goals. Her proudest achievements include advising the social impact campaign for Netflix’s Oscar-nominated, ceiling-shattering documentary Crip Camp; elevating the media profile of the largest homeless services and advocacy organization in California; and teaching lawmakers about the benefits of regenerative agriculture.
On the weekends, she can be found hiking in Griffith Park, wandering on the beach or discovering new playgrounds with her husband and two sons.
A British designer who’s hopped the pond and is obsessed by clever, considered, beautiful typography, created digitally or by hand, Paul Bean gently pushes each project as far as it can go, to live up to its potential. His expertise is in stripping away the nonessentials to make the communication as powerful as possible. Paul was trained in branding and print design at Kingston University, London, where he won a D&AD New Blood Award before joining the prestigious product design agency SeymourPowell, where he trained under Richard Seymour. While running Delivery of Thought, a small design studio, Paul worked with a wide variety of clients from The Prince’s Trust, Unilever, Freedom From Torture, Puma and Adidas (not at the same time!). Since then, he has been busy designing branding, websites, digital and print ads, policy reports, and a wide range of collateral for all types of clients, from political candidates and advocacy organizations to Fortune 100 corporations and education institutions.
Paul and his wife, Becky, have lived in both New York City and Seattle, and are now settled in Santa Barbara with their beautiful daughter, Poppy.
Kasey Poulin leads the firm’s paid media and production work. From video production, ad buying all the way to direct mail, Kasey helps to shepherd our political and public affairs clients through the process of creating compelling paid media content from beginning to end. Previously, she was national travel manager for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign and before that served on Warren’s successful U.S. Senate re-election campaign. Kasey began her career as a field organizer for Jay González’s gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts.
Kasey and her wife Annie live in Worcester, Massachusetts, where they enjoy getting involved in local political races.
A skillful writer, bilingual media expert, paid media strategist, crisis advisor, and campaign manager, Marcos Rodriguez Maciel does it all in service of a truly diverse spectrum of clients. Marcos’ advocacy campaign for a survivor of abuse by a church leader yielded sweeping coverage, from NPR to the Associated Press to the L.A. Times. He has designed communications and digital engagement strategies for top tech companies and drafted speeches for leaders of some of the country’s largest governmental organizations. Marcos’ op-eds have appeared in top publications like the Washington Post and USA Today. He has also guided candidates through highly competitive races, from statewide to Congress to school board, designing comprehensive paid media plans, executing complex mail plans, and developing Spanish and bilingual ads. From helping elect Congressmember Josh Harder to turning out Spanish-speaking voters in Arizona during the 2020 election to re-electing L.A. Unified Board President Kelly Gonez, Marcos leverages polling, research, and creativity to help candidates win.
Outside of work, Marcos loves to travel and often spends his weekends outside of Los Angeles. He also enjoys trying new restaurants and knows the best spots in L.A.
Bill Burton is a renowned political and communications strategist who has worked as a senior adviser to some of the nation’s most influential political leaders, corporations, advocacy organizations, and nonprofits. After serving as national press secretary for then-Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Bill became a senior adviser and deputy press secretary during President Obama’s first term in the White House. For over two decades, he has shepherded hundreds of candidates in races across the country, while also driving national communications campaigns on the biggest issues of our time, from climate change and education reform to voting rights and racial justice. A natural communicator who simplifies complicated ideas and designs strategies that break through the noise, Bill empowers leaders and organizations large and small to communicate with authenticity and build lasting relationships with their audiences.
Since 2015, Bill has made Santa Barbara his home with his wife Kelly Ward Burton and three kids, Oscar, Emma, and Miles. Bill loves playing guitar and teaching his son to play basketball.
Bryson Gillette is always looking for diverse and interesting people to join the team.
Our team is constantly evolving to keep up with the needs of a fast-moving world. If you’re interested in working with us, please share your resume and tell us a bit about yourself, including why you’re interested in a career in strategic communications.