An experienced organizer, advocate and communicator, Rashad has mobilized people to engage and reform their educational and political institutions.

Rashad currently directs the communications and media advocacy for the Right to Vote Campaign, a national collaboration of eight major civil rights organizations dedicated to ending felony disfranchisement. In that role, Rashad oversees media outreach, writes opinion pieces, develops strategy, builds coalitions, trains spokespeople and creates messages. At just 25 years old, Rashad is one of the youngest national communications leaders.

Starting August 1st 2004 and running for ten weeks, Rashad will be appearing in the Showtime Political Reality Series American Candidate. Rashad will be participating as the campaign manager for Malia Lazu. The show will attempt to infuse pop culture and politics in a way that gets ordinary Americans especially young people interested in the political process.

Prior to joining Right to Vote, he served as National Field Director with the Center for Voting and Democracy. In that role he testified in front of Charter Review commissions, appeared on radio and television programs, organized "Train the Trainer" regional workshops and events, spoke at national and regional conferences, developed strategies for organizers and advocates and built coalitions. He was a frequent media source for electoral reform, civil rights and youth issues, and has been quoted in newspapers and other publications nationwide, including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Miami Herald, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. His opinion pieces and articles have appeared on numerous Internet media sites as well as print publications such as The Los Angeles Times.

A graduate of Marymount University in Arlington, VA, Rashad was a Politics major with a minor in History and Communications. He served as President of Marymount's student body for two years running, using that position to build strong multi-racial coalitions that shaped University policy.

He is also a graduate of the acclaimed Spin Project Media academy in Petaluma, CA. He currently sits on the board of directors for the Center for Voting and Democracy and the Democracy Action Project.

Rashad can be reached at: [email protected]