Staff Bios

Michael Lux, President and CEO

Mike Lux is the co-founder and CEO of Progressive Strategies. Since starting the company, Mike has launched a number of important projects, including American Family Voices, an issue advocacy group working on pocketbook issues for American families; and the Progressive Donor Network, which works to coordinate a network of individual donors, issue advocacy groups, and top flight political consultants and strategists.

Mike's recent projects have garnered a considerable amount of media coverage in The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, National Journal, The New Republic and Miami Herald, and have provoked numerous attacks by Rush Limbaugh and other right wing media figures, as well as an "expose" by William Buckley's National Review Magazine.

In addition to those projects, Mike serves on the boards of several important organizations, including the Arca Foundation. In addition to serving on the board, Mike was also a co-founder of Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, Progressive Majority, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, and Women's Voices/Women Vote. He also played a role in helping launch the Center for American Progress and Air America.

In the late 1990's, Mike was Senior Vice President for Political Action at People For the American Way (PFAW), and the PFAW Foundation. He oversaw lobbying and legal advocacy, field operations, state and regional offices, voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. He helped launch the PFAW PAC and the PFAW Voters Alliance in 1997. He was also responsible for coalition building with other organizations and interest groups.

Before joining People For the American Way, from January 1993 to mid-1995, Mike served as Special Assistant to President Clinton for Public Liaison in the White House, where his role on health care and budget issues involved working closely with a wide range of constituency groups including labor, seniors, churches, disability groups, businesses, health care providers, trial lawyers, consumer groups and farm groups. He organized the first clergy breakfast, the first state opinion leader's days, and the first bill signing ceremony of the Clinton presidency. Lux served in the 1992 campaign war room, the 1993 budget war room and the 1994 health care war room (being one of only two people to serve in all three); and was the person who organized the coalition to fight the school lunch cuts the Republicans were pushing in 1995, the first issue they were soundly defeated on after taking control of Congress.

Prior to his service at the White House, Mike served as Constituency Director on both the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and the presidential transition team. In the 1988 cycle, Mike was a member of the senior staff for the Biden and Simon presidential campaigns. In the 1984 cycle, he played a major volunteer role in the Iowa Mondale campaign.

With a diverse breadth of experience, Mike has an extensive background in the consulting, labor and consumer advocacy worlds. He was a partner and cofounder of the Chicago-based political consulting firm, The Strategy Group; served as Executive Vice President, PAC director and chief lobbyist for the Iowa AFL-CIO in the early 1990s; and worked as Executive Director of the Iowa Citizen Action Network.

In July of 2007, Mike Lux launched OpenLeft.com with prominent bloggers Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers. OpenLeft.com is a news, analysis and action website dedicated toward building a progressive governing majority in America. OpenLeft.com connects establishment progressive groups with outsider activists in conversations and a variety of projects to build a progressive governing majority and furthering progressive policy.

Mike Lux is a proud native of Lincoln, Nebraska, where most of his family still lives. Mike is married to Barbara Laur.

Carla Ohringer Engle, Chief Operation Officer

Carla Ohringer Engle serves as Chief Operation Officer for Progressive Strategies. Carla has worked in Democratic politics for over a decade - from the Hill to the Florida recount, there is not a political environment her background does not cover. Through her myriad of experiences in and out of the political arena, she has amassed a strong network of political operatives, activists and donors. Some highlights of her experiences include serving as director of the Progressive Donor Network, as part of the Renaissance Weekend team, and as part of Democratic National Committee's finance team during the 2000 election as the director of the Federal Victory Fund and as a Regional Finance Director - working in and overseeing activities in a number of key states.  Throughout the 1990's she served in various leadership roles for a number of Democratic U.S. House and Senate campaigns.

Carla is recently married and lives with her husband in the D.C area. She holds a B.S. in public relations from University of Florida. Go Gators!

Peter Slutsky, Communications Director

Peter Slutsky serves as Communications Director for Progressive Strategies. He spends much of his day writing, editing and pitching the press on the pressing political issues of the day. When Peter is not in the office, you might see him riding around our nation's capital on his 1980's style bicycle, while simultaneously talking and emailing on his Blackberry. Peter has worked in Democratic politics since the 2002 cycle, where he started as a political flak for the Shannon O'Brien gubernatorial campaign in beautiful Massachusetts. Upon graduating from Northeastern University, he packed up his car and drove to Iowa, where he served on the staff of the John Kerry for President Campaign. After barnstorming the country, securing victories for Sen. Kerry in the post-Iowa primaries, Peter served as a regional field director in Portland, Oregon during the 2004 general election.

In 2006, Peter, along with his twin brother, Matthew launched DoubleSpeak, an online progressive radio show and podcast. During the 2006 mid-term election cycle, Peter, Matthew and DoubleSpeak producer, Joshua Skaroff toured the country in a minivan, hitting over 25 battleground states and interviewing over 50 politicians, activists and Democratic Party leaders.

Adam Bink, Online Strategy Manager

Adam Bink serves as Online Strategy Manager for Progressive Strategies. He works on online communications and social networking strategies including blog outreach and using Facebook, MySpace and other tools for political organizing. Adam also coordinates research, drafting/editing memos, travel and scheduling for firm President Mike Lux.

Prior to joining Progressive Strategies, Adam produced reports on women elected to local governments and coordinated event logistics while working at the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership at the University of Rochester. Adam has also interned with the committee staff of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and at campaign finance and public affairs firms. He has been active in organizing for GLBT rights, electing Democrats and other progressive causes since leading his first canvassing trip to Cleveland, OH during the 2004 election cycle.

Adam holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rochester and is currently pursuing a Master's in Political Management at George Washington University. He hails from Buffalo, N.Y. and, yes, he actually enjoys the record amounts of snow that get his family on CNN now and then. In his free time, you can find him cooking up a storm, playing ultimate frisbee and football around town, and chilling at quirky lefty independent coffee shops.

Fall 2007 Intern

Josh Phillips

PROGRESSIVE STRATEGIES TEAM - 2007