Elise Helgesen is a Democracy Fellow specializing in legal issues. She is originally from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Elise graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2008 with a major in Government. This past May 2011, Elise earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law. Elise is admitted to practice law to the Virginia State Bar.

At the University of Florida, Elise was Executive Articles Editor of the Journal of Law and Public Policy. Elise founded the UF chapter of the ACLU, and took part in the Gator TeamChild Juvenile Law Clinic and the Restoration of Civil Rights Project, among other activities.

Before coming to FairVote, Elise interned for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, working on voting rights issues. She also interned for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Lindsey Needham joined FairVote in September 2011 as a Democracy Fellow. She primarily focuses her efforts on number-crunching and data-driven analysis.

Lindsey graduated in 2011 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied Political Science and Philosophy. Before coming to FairVote, she worked as a research assistant for the UNC Sociology Department to study the spatial-temporal dynamics of social and political movements. She also worked for the Political Science Department to examine the use of the death penalty in North Carolina, primarily examining the evolution of the judicial process. In addition to those jobs, Lindsey spent a summer interning for Project Vote Smart.

On the side, Lindsey has become a seasoned crisis line advocate at domestic violence agencies. She also blogs and assists in grassroots organizing for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

Sheahan Virgin, Democracy Fellow
svirgin@fairvote.org 

Sheahan is currently a Democracy Fellow, initially having joined FairVote in August 2011 as a research intern. The majority of his work is on the "Super Districts" project, a series of state-by-state reports that illustrates both the inadequacies of current winner-take-all, single member U.S. House elections and the benefits of a transition to a multi-member, proportional voting rule. Additionally, Sheahan focuses on revamping and improving the Learning Democracy school curriculum, producing new materials for use in classrooms that will explore some of FairVote's key reform proposals. A graduate of the University of Chicago (M.A. - 2010, Social Sciences) and Grinnell College (B.A. - 2008, Political Science), Sheahan's interests include the presidency, campaigns and elections, third parties, the 'science' behind voter cognition, and 'art' of effective political messaging. He is an avid tennis player and likes dogs.