Center for Political Accountability

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CPA Staff

Bruce F. Freed

Bruce F. Freed is President and a founder of the Center for Political Accountability. In addition to heading the Center, he is a member of the advisory board of the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Mr. Freed brings over 30 years of experience in politics, strategic public affairs and journalism. As the business and politics columnist from 1998 to 2003 for The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, he was the first to explore the implications of the absence of transparency and accountability in corporate soft money giving. Mr. Freed also commented on business and politics on Public Radio International's Marketplace.

He spent a decade on Capitol Hill as chief investigator for the Senate Banking Committee, staff director of a House subcommittee, and a senior aide to two members of the House leadership. Mr. Freed began his career as a journalist with the Baltimore Sun Papers, Congressional Quarterly and Wall Street Journal.

Karl Sandstrom

Karl Sandstrom is the Center's counsel. In addition to being Of Counsel in the political law practice of Perkins Coie, he is an adjunct professor at American University's Washington College of Law and is a member of the advisory board of the Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Previously, Mr. Sandstrom was a member of the Federal Election Commission from 1998 to 2002 where he also served as vice chair and was staff director of the U.S. House of Representatives elections subcommittee.

Michael P. Novelli

Michael P. Novelli is the Center's chief financial officer. He has been the chief executive officer of a Washington based non-profit, the chief financial officer of two other Washington-based organizations and served in senior executive positions of four cabinet offices in two presidential administrations.

Maureen O'Brien

Maureen O'Brien is research director of the Center for Political Accountability. Prior to joining the CPA in August 2007, she was an analyst for the Investor Responsibility Research Center and a senior research analyst at Institutional Shareholder Services.

Aaron Stanley

Aaron Stanley is the Center's staff associate. He holds a BA in Social Sciences from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. Prior to joining the Center in January 2009, Mr. Stanley worked as a consultant at the Government Accountability Project.

Sharon Samber

Sharon Samber is a writer and editor for the Center. She has worked for newspapers, magazines, and newsletters, and managed daily content of a Web site. Ms. Samber was a Washington correspondent at a wire service where she covered Congress and the White House and her stories appeared in more than 100 community newspapers and Web sites. As a freelance writer and editor she has written op-eds and edited educational curricula.