Michelle Mulkey
Vice President
Michelle Mulkey has provided strategy, communications support and publicity on a range of public-interest issues, including progressive politics, voting rights, labor, public and children's health, education reform and environmental protection. She leads Fenton's California labor practice, working with such clients as the California State Pipe Trades Council, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Sheet Metal Workers and California Unions for Reliable Energy. She also leads Fenton's work with Christian, evangelical and interfaith groups that fight to protect the environment. Her media outreach on behalf of the "What Would Jesus Drive?" and Detroit Project campaigns helped make fuel economy a hot-button issue, and she has placed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., MoveOn.org representatives, and other clients on The Today Show, The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball and CNN's American Morning, among other programs. She is currently serving as a key staffer on education reform issues in California for the Hewlett Foundation.
In August 2005, Mulkey was the on-the-ground communications director for Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, Texas, as the Gold Star mom camped outside President Bush's ranch demanding answers about the war in Iraq. Mulkey's responsibilities included handling the White House press corps and developing a strategy to keep Sheehan's story in the news. As the lead strategist for Texans for Truth, the advocacy group that provided a Democratic answer to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 election, Mulkey helped expose President Bush's missing year of service during the Vietnam War. During the 2004 election, she also worked on voter turnout and voting rights protection for MoveOn PAC, Common Cause, the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation and People for the American Way. Earlier, she provided research and strategy for the Polly Klaas Foundation's legislative agenda to protect kids from family abduction.