Susannah Wellford Shakow, Esq. – President and Chair of the Board

Over the past nine years, Susannah Shakow has founded two organizations designed to raise the political voice of young women in America.

In spring 2007, Ms. Shakow founded Running Start to inspire young women and girls to political leadership. Running Start furthers the work begun by the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (WUFPAC), which Susannah cofounded in 1999 and led for the first five years. WUFPAC is a national women’s group dedicated to electing young women to political office. A nonpartisan organization, WUFPAC is the only political action committee in the United States devoted to helping young women of all parties run for elected office.

Ms. Shakow speaks frequently to colleges, law schools, political groups, trade associations and nonprofits about the importance of involving more young women in politics. She has also lectured about politics to many international groups, including women from Kuwait, Southeast Asia, Korea, Bahrain and Russia. She was invited to Kuwait by the Kuwaiti government in spring 2006 to meet Kuwait’s first women candidates and to advise them on their campaigns, and in the summer of 2009 the State Department sent her to the Maldives and Sri Lanka to meet with women and youth leaders in those countries.

After receiving her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1998, she worked for several years at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, lobbying for state and local governments, foreign governments, corporate entities and trade associations before Congress and the Executive Branch.

Prior to law school, Ms. Shakow worked for Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Task Force in the Clinton White House. As a member of the Health Care War Room staff, she planned and executed grass-roots health care events for the President and First Lady and coordinated speaking events for Congressional Members and White House staff on health care reform issues. She is also a former Legislative Assistant for Senator Wyche Fowler from Georgia.

Ms. Shakow is a 1990 graduate of Davidson College. She and her husband John (an attorney at King & Spalding LLP) live in Washington, DC and have twin nine year old sons, Ben and James.

Jessica N. Grounds – Executive Director

Jessica Grounds helped found Running Start in 2007 and now serves as the Executive Director of the organization.  Her expertise is developing campaign and message strategy for women candidates.  In her various roles she has helped the campaigns of hundreds of women seeking elected office.

Previous to working full-time with Running Start, Jessica was the President of Women Under Forty Political Action Committee (WUFPAC) and currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for WUFPAC.  At the end of 2009, she left her position as Vice President of Stones’ Phones, a Democratic campaign strategy firm, where she consulted Democratic candidates and organizations throughout the country.  In 2009 she launched Solid Grounds Strategy, a consulting firm devoted to assisting female candidates who have never run for office before.   In 2010, she co-founded the Women’s Campaign Consortium with two other female consultants to offer strategic campaign consulting for women candidates across the U.S.

Before consulting candidates, Jessica worked on multiple campaigns including California Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, Congresswoman Lois Capps, and Congressional candidate Francine Busby. In 2007 & 2008, she was the Training Lead for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign for the Iowa Caucuses.

Jessica holds a graduate certificate in Women, Policy and Political Leadership from the Women & Politics Institute at American University. She has published research on gender differences in leadership style within Congress and has completed research on new trends in campaign messaging for women candidates.  Jessica is a contributing author for Sage Publications 2008 edition of Campaigns, Elections & Electoral Behavior. She is currently pursuing an Executive Master’s in Leadership at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Jessica has lectured on campaign communications at Johns Hopkins University, American University and Yale Law School. She has conducted candidate and political trainings for Women’s Campaign Forum, the Women & Politics Institute, National Association of Women Business Owners, PLEN, National Council of Women’s Organizations, Women’s Congressional Staff Association, the Women’s Campaign School at Yale, Human Rights Campaign, Women’s Information Network, National Democratic Institute and the State Department.

Jessica was recently elected to the Board of Directors for the National Council of Women’s Organizations and serves on the Leadership Council for the Impact Center, an organization dedicated to building young leaders in the public sphere.

In 2009, Jessica was named a Rising Star in Politics magazine.  In 2010, she was the winner of Women’s Information Network’s (WIN) political and campaign work award at their annual Young Women of Achievement Awards.  Jessica grew up in San Diego, California, and graduated from Pepperdine University.  She has lived in Washington, DC, since 2003.

Allison Dunatchik – Program Director

Allison Dunatchik became Program Director of Running Start in November of 2010.  She joined Running Start in May 2010 as Program Associate after completing her B.A. in Political Science at American University.  Prior to joining Running Start full-time she served as a dedicated Running Start Intern beginning in September 2009.

A native (and devout) Oregonian, Allison moved to Washington, D.C. in August 2006 to become immersed in the political hub of the country.  At American University, she became involved with the Women & Politics Institute, where she developed a passion for studying and promoting women in politics.  In May 2010, Allison received her Women, Policy and Political Leadership Certificate from the Women in Politics Institute and, she also completed her senior thesis conducting survey research on gender differences in levels of political ambition among college students.