Advisory Committee

Bennett joined VR Systems in 2014 and serves as the company’s financial officer. Prior, he served in project management roles for 16 years with the State of Florida, where he focused his work on implementing, managing, and maintaining compliance for multimillion-dollar projects. Bennett graduated from Florida State University College of Engineering with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering with a concentration in operations and holds an MBA with a concentration in finance. He is also a graduate of the Auburn University/Election Center certified election registration administration program and is a certified project manager.

Chardae Caine joined the League of Kansas Municipalities in June 2017 as a research associate with a focus on intergovernmental relations and local governments and legislative issues, including municipal election, taxation, and utility policies. In addition, she works with the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Forge (Topeka’s Young Talent organization), and the WYCA Advocacy committee to increase voter education and participation efforts throughout the Topeka area. She received her MPA from Auburn University with a certificate in election administration.

Bill Cowles supervises Florida’s fifth-largest county elections office. He served on the Federal Elections Assistance Commission Board of Advisors from 2007- 2011, and as past president of both the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections and the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials, and Treasurers. He holds a degree in public administration from the University of Central Florida and serves on the UCF Public Administration Advisory Board. He joined Orange County following 13 years with the Central Florida Council of Boy Scouts of America. Cowles is a CERA graduate and serves in numerous community and church leadership positions.

Joe Gloria, CERA, is the Chief Executive Officer for Operations at the Election Center, the National Association of Election Officials. Prior to his current role, he has been a lifetime public servant in the area of elections that includes, voter registration, voting machine repair and programming, pollworker training, administration, and supervision. Joe Gloria was appointed Registrar of Voters for Clark County in 2013 following more than 13 years in the Elections Department. Gloria work with the Election Department includes managing logistics, scheduling and staff. Mr. Gloria has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix.

Clay Helms is the State Election Director for Alabama under Secretary of State John H. Merrill. In this role, Helms administers all state election activities and provides guidance to Alabama’s 67 counties. A graduate of Auburn University, Helms previously served as the state’s Supervisor of Voter Registration where he trained, counseled, and evaluated Alabama’s 202 county registrars. Helms serves on the Board of Advisors for Auburn University’s Graduate Certificate in Election Administration.

Dean Logan is the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for Los Angeles County, California -- the nation’s largest, most diverse local election jurisdiction serving more than 5.6 million registered voters. He has served in the position since 2008. Mr. Logan holds degrees in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University and a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. He is a past-President and Board Member of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, a member of the Board of Directors for the Election Center (National Association of Election Officials), serves on the advisory board of the Election Official Legal Defense Network, and the Board of Advisors for the US Election Assistance Commission .

McReynolds has administered elections in Denver for over 12 years and has worked in public policy and administration for over 16 years. Under her leadership, Denver has been recognized by the Election Center, National Association of Counties, and International Centre for Parliamentary Studies for numerous innovations. She currently serves on the MIT Election and Data Science Lab Advisory Committee and the Council of State Government’s Overseas Voting Initiative’s Technology Committee. McReynolds is CERA-certified and holds a master of science in comparative politics from the London School of Economics.

Alice Miller, Esq., is the Executive Director of the District of Columbia Board of Elections. Prior to returning to the Board of Elections, Miller served as the COO for the US Election Assistance Commission a position she assumed in June 2008. Prior to her tenure at the EAC, she served as the General Counsel and Executive Director of the DC BOE. She was also president of the National Association of State Election Directors. She served on two of the EAC’s external advisory boards: the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, which assists the EAC in developing the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, and the Standards Board. 

Praetz runs elections in Cook County, Illinois. He is responsible for the overall management of one of the largest election jurisdictions in the country. Each year his team serves 1.5 million voters, facilitates democracy for thousands of candidates, and trains and supports thousands more volunteers. Praetz has focused the department on measuring for success. Data is used to ensure that voters, candidates, and pollworkers are being served successfully, and government is doing business purposefully. He is a graduate of the Auburn University/Election Center certified election registration administration program.

Tonya Rice was appointed Director of Elections by Cook County Clerk Karen A. Yarbrough. Rice leads operations for one of the largest election jurisdictions in the country. Rice began her career in elections in 2005 as a political science graduate student at the University of Michigan, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, specializing in public opinion on voting technology and post-election audits. Rice holds a JD from Northwestern University School of Law, and a BA from Northwestern University. She is a graduate of the Auburn University/Election Center certified election registration administration program.

Tsujii is the director of elections for the Forsyth County Board of Elections in North Carolina. He serves on the advisory committee for the Center for Technology and Civic Life and was involved with the ElectionTools.org project. His office was recently recognized by the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information Analysis for the implementation of a polling place wait time tracking application in the 2016 general election. He is a graduate of the Auburn University/Election Center certified election registration administration program.

Roest is the training and communications manager for the Michigan Bureau of Elections. She has worked in election administration for over 18 years, with the first 12 years being at the local level for the City of Kalamazoo. Roest obtained her CERA certification in 2005 and has served on the Election Center’s Task Force on Training and Education and the Task Force on the Future of Elections.

Shelbie Wallace began work as the Madison County Elections Administrator in Huntsville, Alabama, in early 2019. She attended Auburn University where she received a master’s degree in public administration with a graduate certificate in elections administration. While attending Auburn, Wallace worked with election officials around the country through her work as the Election Center Fellow. She was a Graduate Fellow at Auburn University, where she assisted with the Auburn Symposium in Election Administration and other election administration
research projects.

Wil Wesley has committed over 18 years to evolving in the election industry. With more than 27 years of experience as a seasoned team lead and senior manager, he now serves as a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) member through the Project Management Institute (PMI). Wesley was certified in 2016 as a Certified Election Registration Vendor (CERV) through the Election Center. He maintains a flexible, positive outlook and is responsive and adaptive to change, qualities which have served as the foundation for his exemplary reputation for procurement, negotiation of contracts, customer service and exceeding customer expectations.

Wilkey is a founding member of the Election Center and joined the Erie County Board of Elections in Buffalo, New York. He joined the New York State Board of Elections in 1979 serving as director of communications and voter education. He is responsible for the oversight of New York’s 62 county election offices. Wilkey has served as executive director of the New York Board of Elections, and as both a member and participant in numerous national committees involved in developing the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act. Wilkey served as president of the National Association of State Election Directors, and is a proud life member of the New York State Election Commissioners Association.