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.

In August 2008, the Campaign for Community Change announced it was receiving a grant from Atlantic Philanthropies to hire Lux as a senior fellow. In this position, he will provide expert analysis and strategic support to the Campaign for Community Change as well as fellow progressive organizations. He will also be constructing strategic essays, election analysis, and blog posts, as well as helping progressive entities conduct long-range strategic thinking.

In November of 2008, Mike was named to the Obama-Biden Transition Team. In that role, he served as an advisor to the Public Liaison on dealings with the progressive community and has helped shape the office of Public Liaison based on his past experience working on the Clinton-Gore Transition, as well as in the White House.

On January 14, 2009, Lux released his first book, The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be. Lux's book was published by Wiley Publishing.  

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 Operations 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!

Adam Bink is the Online Strategy Manager for Progressive Strategies. He specializes in online communications and social networking strategies including new media outreach and using internet tools for creative action. Adam also coordinates research, travel and schedule 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 LGBT rights, electing Democrats and other progressive causes since leading his first canvassing trip to Cleveland, OH during the 2004 election cycle.

While at Progressive Strategies, Adam coordinated the research, editing, fact-checking, and publishing process for The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be by Mike Lux. He also managed the 60-event, 29-city national book tour and traveled extensively to promote the book with Mike.

Adam has also managed design, technical work and advertising at the influential progressive blog OpenLeft.com since its founding in July 2007. Earlier this year he began blogging at OpenLeft, principally about progressive and LGBT movement strategy and infrastructure. He provided on-the-ground coverage from the No On 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign to protect the state's marriage equality law, and wrote extensively about movement strategy questions around the National Equality March.

Adam holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rochester and an M.A. in Political Management from the George Washington University. He hails from Buffalo, N.Y. and, yes, actually enjoys the record-setting snowfalls featured on cable news. In his free time, he enjoys cooking, playing ultimate frisbee around town, and relaxing at quirky lefty independent coffee shops.

Please direct press requests to Adam via (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the word "PRESS" in the subject line or by calling 202-628-7771.