Officers

Sarah Flynn (Annapolis Neck), President

Warren Hamel (Broadneck), Vice President

Lois Kelberman (City of Annapolis), Secretary

Jesse Maury (Annapolis Neck),  Treasurer

Board of Directors

Sasha Miles (City of Annapolis)

Tony Evans (City of Annapolis)

Lee Finney (City of Annapolis)

Mark Shenton (Annapolis Neck)

Sandy Stevenson (Broadneck)

Ralph R. Thomas, Sr. (Broadneck)

Buz Winchester (South County)

Sarah Flynn (Annapolis Neck), President

Sarah was first elected President of the District 30 Democratic Club in May 2005, after taking the leadership role in its founding earlier that year.  As a volunteer in the Kerry/Edwards campaign in 2004, she saw the need for an organization that would help keep local Democrats informed and energized to elect Democrats at all levels.  In December 2006 she was elected Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Democratic Party by the State Central Committee.

Sarah has lived on the Annapolis Neck peninsula, just outside City limits, since 1994. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1950, she grew up in Connecticut and lived in Boston most of her adult life before moving to Annapolis. She lives with her husband, David Prosten, whose Annapolis-based company, Union Communication Services, is a publisher of labor education materials.

In her professional life, Sarah is a developmental editor of books for the general reader, working on a freelance basis with writers in the US and abroad since leaving Houghton Mifflin Company in 1988. She is co-author, with Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer, of Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s to the 1980s, a companion volume to the documentary series Eyes on the Prize. Among the dozens of authors she has worked with are Jimmy Breslin (Table Money), Pat Conroy (The Prince of Tides), Leon Dash (Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America), William Echikson (Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution), Orlando Patterson (The Ordeal of Integration and Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries), Katherine M. Skiba (Sister in the Band of Brothers: Embedded with the 101st Airborne in Iraq), and Thomas Sugrue (Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Equality in the North, forthcoming from Random House). She was the editor of the report of President Clinton’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (1995).

Warren Hamel (Broadneck), Vice-President

Warren Hamel has been an active and committed Democrat since his early teens, and has been involved in local, congressional and presidential campaigns in New Jersey, New York and Maryland, including Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County. Most recently, Warren chaired the campaign committee for John Sarbanes' successful campaign for Congress in 2006, and continues in that capacity in this election cycle. In 2005, he took a leadership role along with several other District 30 Club members in organizing pollwatchers for Democratic candidates for the Annapolis City municipal elections. Warren has served as Vice President of the District 30 Democratic Club since its formation in 2005, and he worked on the Steering Committee to set up the club by drafting by-laws and shepherding them to adoption.

Warren lives with his wife, Anne, and their three children (all Democrats--so far) in Arnold, two blocks from his parents' house, where he grew up. He is an attorney practicing at Venable LLP in Baltimore; his primary practice areas are white collar criminal defense, environmental law and media law. Prior to joining Venable, Warren was a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney's Office in Baltimore for 12 years, specializing in environmental criminal enforcement.

Lois Kelberman (City of Annapolis), Secretary

Lois was born a Democrat and wished she had her father’s Adlai Stevenson lapel pin of a shoe with a hole in the bottom to remind her that it takes humbleness and a lot of leg work to be a good Democrat. She became dedicated to civil service in Junior High when she listened to her new President John F. Kennedy say that we must participate in our own government—and she did.

Her first job after Gettysburg College was with the District of Columbia Government's Department of Corrections, writing and monitoring grants to improve the programs in the District's prison system. From there she came to Annapolis and worked for 5 sessions (when Steny Hoyer was President of the Senate) for the Department of Fiscal Services, analyzing the Governor's Corrections and Economic Development budgets for the fiscal committees of the General Assembly. Then she became a professional volunteer, serving on various boards and holding every PTA position as her children, Joshua and Dina, grew up.

Since 1996 Lois has worked for the Anne Arundel County Public Library System as a reference librarian. She has worked at the West County Area Library in Odenton and currently is at the Annapolis Public Library on West Street.  Her husband of thirty years, Dale, is a white-collar criminal defense lawyer with Miles and Stockbridge, LLC in Baltimore. Lois and Dale have lived in Anne Arundel County since 1973—in Annapolis, Severna Park, and back to Murray Hill, Annapolis, today. Their kids, also Democrats, live in Baltimore.

Jesse L. Maury (Annapolis Neck), Treasurer

Jesse has been a member of the District 30 Democratic Club board, and the treasurer, since the Club's inception.  In his professional life, he worked for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center as a mathematician; a developer of software for spacecraft, astronautics, data systems, and mathematical analysis; and as an information technology and software project manager for spacecraft including the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the constellation of satellites comprising the Earth Observing System (EOS), and briefly on the Hubble Space Telescope and the Space Station. He retired from government and worked for ten years at Omitron, Inc., a small aerospace technology company in Greenbelt, Maryland, on contracts with NASA, NOAA, and some private ventures; then followed this with a several-year stint at Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) working on Maryland State government contracts. His wife, Gail, works as an IT project manager for SAIC. The Maurys have two grown daughters, Laurel Maury, a freelance writer in New York, and Dr. Erinn Maury, a doctor practicing in Baltimore.

Board of Directors

Tony Evans (City of Annapolis)

Tony Evans is a longtime Democratic activist who has lived in the City for more than thirty years and worked in Annapolis since 1961.  A former newspaperman (with UPI and the Baltimore News-American), he retired in 2003 after thirty years of service with the Maryland Department of Agriculture. One of his proudest achievements of his years at the MDA is the development of four farmers’ markets in Anne Arundel County.  He and his wife, Penny Evans, a former member of the Annapolis Democratic Central Committee, have been married for more than forty years and raised two children. Tony was elected to represent Ward 1 on the Annapolis Democratic Central Committee in September 2005, and he is ADCC treasurer as well an alternate (for Anne Sieling) on the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee (AACDCC).

Lee Finney (City of Annapolis)

Lee has been on the D30 Board for two years and is the club’s representative to the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee, where she serves on the Strategic Planning Committee.  Lee is the vice president and chair of the Public Safety Task Force for the Eastport Civic Association.  She has been actively involved in several local Democratic campaigns since her arrival in Annapolis two and a half years ago, including managing Ross Arnett’s successful run for Ward 8 Alderman. She also works as a volunteer researcher for Wider Opportunities for Women in D.C.

Born in Baltimore, Lee is a lifelong Democrat who moved to Annapolis from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005 following her retirement as a labor relations consultant representing public employers in the Bay Area.  Previously a child welfare social worker for many years, Lee was a local leader in labor’s efforts to achieve pay equity for women and minorities during the 1980’s and worked on a number of local political campaigns during that period.  She served several years as the chair of the Contra Costa County Advisory Committee on the Status of Women as well as on nonprofit boards and received several awards for her efforts on behalf of working women.   Less publicly political during her years as a consultant to public agencies, she was a member of the Wellstone Democratic Club in Berkeley, CA and served as an Election Protection volunteer in Arizona in 2004.

Sasha Miles (City of Annapolis)

A resident of Annapolis and a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Sasha Miles is a 2006 graduate of Hood College in Frederick, MD (B.A., Political Science).  During her time at Hood College, she was active in Hood College Democrats (Vice President and President), Model United Nations (Vice President and Treasurer), and Student Government Association (Senator and Finance Committee Member).  She was also active in the Maryland Student Legislature (MSL), becoming the Hood College Delegation Chair during her sophomore year and Lieutenant Governor during her junior year. MSL is a statewide collegiate organization which simulates the Maryland General Assembly.

Sasha has also been involved in various political campaigns.  Her first campaign experience in the state of Maryland was phone banking for Sue Hecht’s campaign for the Maryland Senate.  Sasha then went on to become involved in the John Kerry for President campaign, doing grassroots work in Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio.  She also traveled to South Dakota to assist in GOTV efforts for Stephanie Herseth during the 2004 special election for South Dakota’s congressional seat.

Sasha’s involvement in Maryland politics deepened during the 2005 Legislative Session when she completed an internship for Delegate Peter Franchot.  She then worked as his Legislative Aide through the 2006 Legislative Session and, subsequently, became the Deputy Finance Director for Franchot’s successful campaign for Comptroller.  Sasha was a member of Franchot’s transition staff in the Comptroller’s office, served for 10 months as the Comptroller’s scheduler, and currently serves as Special Assistant to the Comptroller.  Sasha is also involved with the Maryland Young Democrats Women’s Caucus and currently serves as the Secretary for the Anne Arundel Young Democrats.

Mark Shenton (Annapolis Neck)

Mark is a lifelong Democratic activist. As a teenager he campaigned for a little-known Congressman running for the U.S. Senate named Paul Sarbanes. He has participated in numerous presidential, state and local campaigns ever since. He has been an active District 30 Democratic Club board member since the Club's inception, and is a former member of the Anne Arundel Democratic Central Committee.

Mark now serves as the Maryland Democratic Party’s Voter File Manager, a position provided by the Democratic National Committee’s 50 State Partnership Program championed by DNC Chair Howard Dean.

Mark has lived in Anne Arundel County most of his life and currently resides near Annapolis.  He has a B.S. in Business Management from Columbia Union College and graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University.  Mark is the proud father of two sons and a daughter and has two grandsons.

Sandy Stevenson (Broadneck)

Sandy Stevenson has been a District 30 Democratic Club board member since the founding of the club in 2005.  She has been a volunteer in two special elections in the City and for the Democratic candidate for Congress in District 1 in 2006.  She also helped organize and worked on the Club’s Poll Watching Project during the 2005 Annapolis city elections and most recently during the 2008 Maryland primary.  She plans to concentrate on organizing precincts for the very important November 2008 election. 

She has been a resident of the Annapolis area since 2004, and the Baltimore-Washington area since the 1970's and also lived in Atlanta for several years.  While in Atlanta, she worked on two congressional campaigns challenging Newt Gingrich: for Ben Jones in 1994 and Michael Coles in 1996.   After returning to the D.C. area, she volunteered on campaigns for Jim Moran and John Kerry.

            Sandy is retired from 3M Company, where she was a sales and marketing consultant for several divisions to the federal government.

            Sandy says,  “As a lifelong Democrat, I feel it is critical that we broaden and strengthen the party, beginning at the grassroots.  The damage done by the Bush administration and the Republicans can only be reversed by putting a Democratic president in the White House and increasing the number of Democrats in the House and Senate.  GOTV for November should be the #1 priority in 2008 for the District 30 Dems.”

Ralph R. Thomas, Sr. (Broadneck)

Ralph has been a member of the District 30 Democratic Club's board since 2006. He has also served as an alternate member from District 30 on the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee. His academic background includes a B.A. in Business Administration and a Masters in Business Management. He retired from Anne Arundel County government in 1999 and is currently employed at Service Coordination, Inc., where he serves as an advocate for individuals with disabilities to ensure that they receive residential or vocational services funded by DDA. In recegnition of his work, he received a 2007 People First Award from the Arc of the Central Chesapeake Region.

Ralph is a third-generation life member of Asbury Broadneck United Methodist Church, where he serves as Chairman of Church & Society; Assistant Church Treasurer, and a member of the Usher Board. His other memberships include: NAACP Political Action Committee, R.E.S.P.E.C.T., Chairman of Political Committee; Rising Sun Lodge #46, Chairman, Scholarship Committee; Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity – Chairman, Nominating Committee; AACEF Credit Union, Secretary and Board of Directors; and Secretary of the Brownswood Improvement Association.

Buz Winchester (South County)

Buz Winchester was born in Annapolis and, with the exception of his years in college and graduate school, has been a lifelong resident of District 30.  In 2006, Buz directed the successful campaign to re-elect Speaker Mike Busch to the Maryland House of Delegates, and he joined the board of the District 30 Democratic Club later that year. 

After receiving his MA from the University of Rhode Island, Buz taught at Southern High School for three years.  He then began his career as an association executive, with most of his work focused on legislative relations.  His employers have included the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Common Cause (National), Historic Annapolis, the Anne Arundel Trade Council, the Maryland Legal Services Corporation, and, from 1987 to 2003, the Maryland State Bar Association.   His volunteer activities have included serving on the boards of the Maryland Affordable Housing Trust, the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, and the West River Improvement Association, as well as coaching youth soccer and lacrosse teams.  He continues to serve on the board of the Maryland Affordable Housing Trust as its vice chairman, and in 2007 was appointed by Governor Martin O’Malley to be the chairman of the newly formed Maryland Green Building Council.

Since Buz retired in 2003, he has written fiction as well as traveled extensively in Europe, South America, Asia and Mexico. He resides in Galesville with his wife, Mary Tod Winchester, the Vice President of Administration and Fleet and Facilities for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.  They have two married sons who live in Florida and California respectively and celebrated the birth of their first grandchild (a girl) in the spring of 2007.