Think Progress

Think Progress is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The Center for American Progress Action Fund is a nonpartisan organization. Through this blog, CAPAF seeks to provide a forum that advances progressive ideas and policies.

ThinkProgress was voted “Best Liberal Blog” in the 2006 Weblog Awards and chosen as an Official Honoree in the 2009 Webby awards. It was also named best blog of 2008 by The Sidney Hillman Foundation, receiving an award for journalism excellence. In 2009, ThinkProgress was named a “Gold Award Winner” by the International Academy of Visual Arts.

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Editor

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor-in-Chief of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report. He holds a B.A. degree in Government from Harvard University and a J.D. degree from the Georgetown Law Center. Faiz has previously worked as a Research Associate for the Democratic National Committee, as a Legislative Aide to Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and as a communications aide in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Faiz is co-author of Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform. He also authored a chapter entitled “Blogging the election” in The Change We Need: What Britain Can Learn from Obama’s Victory. His writings have been published in the Jerusalem Post, Florida Today, and Salon. Faiz has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and CNBC television, among other places, and has been a guest on many radio shows. (E-mail Faiz HERE.)

Staff

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Managing Editor for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress. Amanda also served as the Center’s Special Assistant for Strategic Planning. Her past positions have been with the Office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, the Office of the New York State Attorney General, the 2004 presidential campaign of Senator Joseph Lieberman, and the Office of the Inspector General in the Office of Personnel Management. She graduated from Colgate University. Her writing has been published in The New York Times and Politico, and on the websites of Salon, The Daily Beast, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Guardian’s Comment is Free, The American Prospect, and In These Times. She has appeared as a guest on various television and radio shows, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, BBC, Fox News, Fox Business Network, Voice of America, The Young Turks, and Al Jazeera, among others. (E-mail Amanda HERE.)

Matt Corley is Assistant Editor for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Ithaca College. Prior to joining the center, he was a research intern for TPM Media and a blogger for Wiretap Magazine. While at Ithaca College, he edited the News and Views section of Buzzsaw Haircut, Campus Progress’ 2006 “Publication of the Year.” Matt hails from Newton, Massachusetts.

Benjamin J. Armbruster is Assistant Editor for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Ben grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Ohio University and a master’s degree in international relations from King’s College London. Ben previously served as a national security research assistant at the Center for American Progress and has also held research positions at Media Matters for America; the Henry L. Stimson Center; and the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre in London. His work has been published in online and print outlets as well as various international security journals.

Zaid Jilani is a Reporter/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Zaid grew up in Kennesaw, GA, and holds a B.A. in International Affairs with a minor in Arabic from the University of Georgia. Prior to joining ThinkProgress, Zaid interned for Just Foreign Policy and was a weekly columnist at The Red & Black, the University of Georgia’s official student newspaper. He is a co-founder of Stand Up Magazine, a co-editor at the Georgia-based blog Georgia Liberal and on staff at BasedonBooks, the first website ever dedicated to movie reviews of book adaptations.

Alex Seitz-Wald is a Reporter/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Alex grew up in California and holds a B.A. in international relations from Brown University. Prior to joining ThinkProgress, Alex interned at the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS and at the National Journal’s Hotline, where he covered key senate and gubernatorial races. Alex also co-founded and edited the Olive & Arrow, a blog on foreign affairs for and by young progressives. At Brown, he contributed to several publications and served on student government.

Lee Fang is a Researcher for Progressive Media and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Lee is a lifelong resident of Prince George’s County, Maryland, and holds a B.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, Lee interned with ThinkProgress and worked as a researcher for Progressive Accountability. In college, Lee held internships with Media Matters for America, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and Westin Rinehart.

Victor Zapanta is a Researcher for Progressive Media and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Victor holds a B.A. in Technocultural Studies at the University of California at Davis. Prior to joining the center, he was a New Media Producer for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in Florida, and a war room researcher for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Victor has produced numerous viral web videos with over a million views that have earned coverage on national media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, NBC Nightly News, and The Drudge Report.

The Wonk Room

Matthew Duss is a National Security Researcher/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Matthew holds a master’s degree in Middle East Studies from the University of Washington. Prior to joining the center, he was a research intern for the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a blogger for The American Prospect. Matthew grew up in Nyack, New York.

Brad Johnson is a Climate Researcher/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Brad holds a bachelor’s degree in math and physics from Amherst College and master’s degree in geosciences from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. He is the co-author of Technomanifestos and the founder of HillHeat.com. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a developer for Saatchi & Saatchi, Lextranet, and the Democratic National Committee. Brad grew up in Boston, Massachusetts.

Igor Volsky is a Health Care Researcher/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Igor is co-author of Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform. Prior to joining the Center, Igor blogged at BodyPolitik.org and interned with ThinkProgress, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), and the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College. Igor grew up in Russia, Israel, and New Jersey. Igor has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, Fox Business, and CNBC television, and has been a guest on many radio shows.

Pat Garofalo is an Economics Researcher/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Pat graduated in 2008 from Brandeis University with a bachelor’s degree in history. He was the editor-in-chief of The Brandeis Hoot, Brandeis’ community newspaper, and worked for the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life. Pat’s work has also appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, the Washington Examiner and at New Deal 2.0, and he has been a guest on many radio shows.

Andrea Nill is an Immigration Researcher/Blogger for ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Andrea holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Political Science with a concentration in Latin American Studies and Law and Society. Prior to joining the center, Andrea was a Communications Associate at the Immigration Policy Center where she founded the blog, Immigration Impact. Andrea was also a Communications Specialist at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), specializing in bilingual public relations. Andrea was born in Guatemala and grew-up in upstate New York.

Max Bergmann is a Policy Analyst and Nonproliferation Blogger at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He is also a non-resident fellow at the National Security Network (NSN). From 2007 to 2009, Max was the Deputy Policy Director at NSN, where he worked under Rand Beers. Prior to joining NSN, Max was a Research Associate for National Security at the Center for American Progress from 2004 to 2007. Max has been published by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New Republic, The American Prospect, World Politics Review Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Times, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. While at the Center for American Progress, Max co-authored the reports: Restoring American Military Power: Toward a New Progressive Defense Strategy; How to Redeploy: Implementing a Responsible Drawdown of U.S. Forces from Iraq; Marine Corps Equipment After Iraq; and Beyond the Call of Duty: A Comprehensive Review of the Overuse of the U.S. Army in Iraq. Max received his MA in Comparative Politics with a concentration on Ethnic Conflict Regulation and the European Union from the London School of Economics. He is from Gainesville, Florida, and received his BA from Bates College.

Yglesias blog

Matthew Yglesias is a Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Harvard University. His first book, Heads in the Sand, was published in May 2008 by Wiley. Matt has previously worked as an Associate Editor at The Atlantic, a Staff Writer at The American Prospect, and an Associate Editor at Talking Points Memo. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian, Slate, The Washington Monthly, and other publications. Matthew has appeared on Fox News and MSNBC, and been a guest on many radio shows.

Interns

DJ Carella, Davidson College, ‘09: DJ received a bachelor’s degree in English from Davidson College in North Carolina. He is a native of central Florida.

Nick McClellan, Missouri School of Journalism, ‘10: Nick received both English and journalism bachelor’s degrees at the University of Georgia in 2005. He then worked as a copy editor and multimedia reporter at the Visalia Times-Delta, a newspaper in Visalia, Calif. In 2008, he began graduate school at the Missouri School of Journalism. Since enrolling here, he has worked as a web designer for Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. and served last summer as a reporting fellow for News21, a national journalism initiative funded by the Carnegie-Knight foundations.

Photos of Amanda and Faiz by: Scott Rex Ely
Other photos by: Lauren Ferguson