http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/aurilio Anna Aurilio is the Federal Legislative Director for U.S. PIRG, responsible for policy development, research and advocacy on energy issues and anti-environmental subsidies. She has testified numerous times before House and Senate Science, Energy and Appropriations committees. Ms. Aurilio received a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986 and a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. Prior to receiving her Master's degree, Ms. Aurilio was a Staff Scientist with the National Environmental Law Center, and the PIRGs' National Litigation Project for three years. http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/aurilio Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:51:11 -0500 http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/baxandall Mr. Baxandall oversees policy and strategy development for state PIRGs’ tax and budget campaigns throughout the U.S., including campaigns for public transit. He comes to the PIRGs from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government where he assisted in directing the Taubman Center for State and Local Government as well as the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. In that capacity he assisted the city of Somerville, Massachusetts with performance management and best-practice budgeting, as well as served as a technical advisor for the Massachusetts’ Metropolitan Mayors’ Coalition report on reforming local aid, which was credited for helping to restore local aid funding within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Before coming to the Kennedy School, Baxandall worked for the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, editing their flagship publication, Regional Review. He also taught political economy for several years at Harvard’s undergraduate honors program in Social Studies, where he won six teaching awards. In 1990-91, he taught economics and organizational behavior at the University of Budapest. In Hungary, Baxandall also worked with an American campaign consulting firm to observe focus groups, formulate survey questions, and prepare national strategy for a major political party in Parliament. He has authored or co-authored several reports, academic journal articles, or magazine features on a variety of issues in political economy. These include, "Finding Solutions to Fund Transit: Combining Accountability And New Resources For World Class Public Transportation"and "Sunshine for California: Shining Light On Corporate Tax Secrecy For Healthier State Budgets, Investments and Markets, as well as "Betting on the Future: The Economic Impact of Legalized Gambling," "Cross-Sector Collaboration in Massachusetts," "Local Service, Local Aid, Common Challenges," "Three Worlds of Working Time: The Partisan and Welfare Politics of Work-Hours in OECD Countries," "Spending #1, Performance #37: How the U.S. Ranks Internationally Using World Health Organization Data," "Good Capital, Bad Capital: Dangers and Development in Digital Diasporas," and a book from Ashgate Press, Constructing Unemployment. Education: Ph.D., Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000, B.A., Economics and College of Social Studies, Wesleyan University, 1989 http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/baxandall Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:01:43 -0500 http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/mierzwinski Ed Mierzwinski has been a consumer advocate in the Washington, D.C.-based federal lobbying office of the National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups (U.S. PIRG) since 1989. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan consumer, environmental and good government watchdog groups with over 500,000 members around the United States. He often testifies before both Congress and state legislatures and has authored or co-authored numerous major reports on a wide range of consumer issues including cable television rates, telecommunications reform, banking, financial services and identity theft and product safety issues including toy and playground safety. He often speaks before conferences and associations, especially against the growing threat of federal preemption of stronger state consumer and health and safety laws. He comments on these and a variety of other important consumer issues in his blog: www.uspirg.org/html/consumer. Mr. Mierzwinski is often quoted in the national press, has been a guest on numerous shows including NBC Today, ABC Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, CNN Crossfire and NPR Talk of the Nation, and has been profiled in the New York Times. He is a 2003 recipient of Privacy International’s “Brandeis Award” for privacy protection efforts and a 2006 recipient of the Consumer Federation of America’s “Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award.” He is a founding member of the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue and represents U.S. PIRG on the TACD Steering Committee. He edited the 1993 edition of AARP's "Your Credit," a guidebook focused on the credit needs of older women. From 1993-95, he served on the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. He is a past member of the boards of two large consumer-owned cooperative businesses, Northeast Co-ops, a food wholesaler, and the University of Connecticut Bookstore Co-op. From 1981 through 1988, he was Executive Director of Connecticut PIRG, where he helped pass the nation’s first new car lemon law. Mr. Mierzwinski is a gradudate of the University of Connecticut (BA, MS). http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/mierzwinski Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:02:16 -0500 http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/swarthout Luke Swarthout works in Washington, D.C. on higher education access and affordability issues on behalf of college students across the country. He develops policy, lobbies and writes on federal student aid issues, student loan policy and federal higher education policy. Mr. Swarthout is the author of several reports on student debt and federal aid including Paying Back, Not Giving Back: Student Debt’s Negative Impact on Public Service Career Opportunities. He has been widely quoted as an advocate for students and an expert on student aid policy in newspapers across the country including The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, and USA Today. Before coming onto staff with the PIRGs, Mr. Swarthout spent four years working with MASSPIRG as a student at Amherst College. He worked on state and federal energy policy, wilderness issues and youth voting. In addition, Mr. Swarthout served for two years as the chair of the MASSPIRG student board of directors, one year as the chair of the National Student Forum, vice-chair of the U.S. PIRG Board of Directors, and as a member of the advisory board to the New Voters Project. Education: B.A., Amherst College, 2004. http://www.texpirg.org/about-us/staff/staff/swarthout Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:02:47 -0500