Advisory Board
Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh
Nebraska State Senate
Senator Machaela Cavanaugh represents Legislative District 6, Omaha, in the Nebraska Legislature. She serves on the Health and Human Services Committee, Transportation and Telecommunications Committee and the Performance Audit Committee. She made history in 2019 as the first lawmaker to breastfeed her baby on the floor of the Nebraska Unicameral. Her policy agenda includes funding and services for developmentally disabled individuals and families, enhancements to childcare and child welfare and the advancement of family leave policies. Senator Cavanaugh led the effort to investigate and end the privatization of child welfare in the Eastern service area. Much work remains to be done with regard to child welfare and Senator Cavanaugh is continuing to push for improvements.
Senator Cavanaugh, an Omaha native with nearly 20 years’ experience in community engagement and public affairs, worked at the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska. She previously served as the Director of Development for Opera Omaha and the American Province of the Servants of Mary. Her interest in policy was heightened during her time as Staff Assistant for U.S. Senator Ben Nelson in Washington D.C.
A graduate of Marian High School, Machaela obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota and her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Senator Cavanaugh is instrumental in the Women Who Run organization that recruits and supports women candidates. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Inclusive Communities and is a member of the Preschool Advisory Committee at Morning Star Preschool. Cavanaugh resides in the Peony Park Neighborhood with her husband Nick Brotzel and their children, Della, Harriet, and Barrett. Cavanaugh is the daughter of Kate and John Cavanaugh, the fourth of their eight children. Her dad, John, served as a U.S. Congressman for Nebraska’s Second Congressional District from 1977 – 80 and as a State Senator prior to that.
Joe Coletti
North Carolina House Oversight Staff Director
Everybody has answers, recommendations, and solutions for state legislators to turn into policy. Joe Coletti leads the team that helps House Republicans ask the right questions and define the real problems. Joe has helped North Carolina and other states cut taxes by reining in spending since 2005. He led Gov. Pat McCrory’s government efficiency and reform initiative. In his current oversight role, Joe has led investigations into Covid spending, hurricane recovery, and other government functions.
Ken Cooley
Former California State Assemblyman
Ken Cooley was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2012 after 10 years as a founding Councilmember and two-term mayor (2005 and 2010) of Rancho Cordova, a job center city of 82,000 immediately east of California’s capitol city.
In the five years after his city’s 2003 founding, Ken was active in the League of California Cities, which is California’s municipal league, and by 2008 had become its statewide 1st Vice President.
During his Assembly career, Ken distinguished himself as a collaborative leader.
Ken’s 10 years of Assembly service included 6 years in the leadership roles of Chair for both the Assembly Rules Committee and the Joint Rules Committee of the Senate and the Assembly. He was their longest-serving chair in 3 decades. Ken also served 10 years on California’s Seismic Safety Commission and, nationally, in the National Council of Insurance Legislators. At NCOIL his state lawmaker peers from around the US tapped him as NCOIL President in 2022. Throughout his NCOIL tenure, Ken was a strong proponent of oversight as the “superpower” of the People’s branch of government.
Ken’s career gave him a unique institutional perspective because as an in-house staff attorney, he ran first the Assembly, and then later the Senate, insurance committees first before and then after the imposition of term limits. In those roles he developed and managed oversight investigations and public hearings, including the formality in rare instances of using the legislature’s subpoena power to obtain needed attendance and testimony. This history enabled Ken to see how term limits hindered aggressive legislative oversight on the public’s behalf. Accordingly, as a first term lawmaker in 2013-14, Ken instigated – in partnership with senior staff – the writing and publication of a Legislative Oversight Handbook for the California Assembly. It has helped reinvigorate legislative oversight by Members and the standing committees of the California Assembly.
In addition to his Rules Committee duties, during his five terms Ken served as Chair of the Select Committee on Foster Care and during his decade in the Assembly served as a member of its Committees on Governmental Organization, on Insurance, on Public Employment and Retirement, and on the Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission.
Ken and his wife Sydney have been married for 48 years and have lived in Rancho Cordova since 1977. Ken is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (B.A., 1977), the University of Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law (J.D.,1984), and an attorney with a public policy specialty. Ken was admitted to the California State Bar in 1984.
Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin
Oregon State Senate
Sara Gelser was sworn into the Oregon House in 2005, and was elected to the Oregon State Senate in 2014. She is Chair of the Senate Human Services Committee and also serves on the Judiciary Committee, the Education Committee, the Mental Health Committee and the Joint Transportation Committee. Prior to joining the Senate, she chaired the House Education Committee for 6 years and served as the National Education Policy Chair for the Council of State Governments. In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Sara to the National Council on Disability. The nomination was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the US Senate.
Sara’s legislative accomplishments include strengthening Oregon’s rape statute, the creation of a charitable pharmacy program, expansion of Oregon’s mandatory child abuse reporting law, the establishment of statewide standards for modified and extended diplomas, strengthening protections for seniors and people with disabilities who are victims of abuse and neglect, strong anti-tobacco initiatives, establishing transparent child welfare fatality reviews known as CIRTs and reducing barriers for access to medical and support services for children with disabilities. In 2007, Sara spearheaded Karly’s Law which improves child abuse investigations across the state. She is currently leading Oregon’s workgroup to implement the national Family First Prevention Services Act. Sara also played a key role in making Oregon one of the very first states in the nation to achieve recognition for full rape kit reform by the Joyful Heart Foundation.
Sara served on the Corvallis School Board from 2001 until 2006. She is past president of The Arc of Benton County, was named Corvallis Junior First Citizen by the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce in 2004, and was a National Council on State Legislators Child Welfare Fellow. Sara was featured as one of Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” Silence Breakers in 2017, was honored by the Portland City Club with the Oregon Courage Award in 2019, received the Oregon Center for Women’s Leadership Transforming Policy Award in 2018, and was given the Voice for Justice Award by the National Crime Victim Law Institute in 2017.
Before serving in the Legislature, Sara was the Children with Disabilities and Family Support Coordinator for the Oregon Department of Human Services. She also worked as an instructor at Linn-Benton Community College and as a regional coordinator for the Oregon Parent Training and Information Center, where she provided training to parents, educators and administrators about special education law and practice.
Sara earned her BA in history and education from Earlham College and an MAIS degree from Oregon State University. She was a Council on State Governments Henry Toll Fellow, a Marshall Memorial Fellow, and a participant in an American Council of Young Political Leaders international exchange program facilitated by the US Department of State.
Sara lives in Corvallis with her partner, Dr. Michael Blouin, and is the proud mother of five children.
Dan Johnson
Mayor of Lewiston, Idaho
Mayor Johnson is the first Mayor elected by the citizens of the City of Lewiston since 1964. He was elected on November 2, 2021, when the citizens of Lewiston also voted to change the form of the City’s government from a Council-Manager plan to a Mayor-Council plan.
Johnson has been a proud resident of Lewiston since 2001. Many know him for his role in the Idaho State Legislature; having served District 6, which includes Nez Perce and Lewis Counties, from 2011 until appointing a substitute to serve the remainder of his term effective January 2022. During his time in the Senate, Johnson took part in several working committees, including serving as the Chair of the Local Government and Taxation Committee; serving as the Co-chair of the Interim Committee on Urban Renewal; serving as the Vice-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and serving as a member of the Idaho Bond Bank Authority.
Johnson believes that Lewiston has the potential to become a top-performing City in the great state of Idaho. His main priorities include lowering the tax burden, limiting budget growth, and taking the cost out of doing business.
Sen. Ed McBroom
Michigan State Senate
State Sen. Ed McBroom serves the people of the 38th Senate District in the Upper Peninsula and is Senate Republicans’ Caucus Dean.
McBroom serves on the Oversight Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Elections and Ethics Committees.
McBroom is a fourth-generation dairy farmer, and operates his family’s 100-year-old farm, which in addition to raising Holsteins, also grows corn, wheat, and hay. He previously served a full three terms in the state House of Representatives from 2011 to 2016.
He is active in the community, serving on the U.P. State Fair Authority, as dairy superintendent of the Dickinson County Fair, and director of the Norway City Band. He also directs music at the First Baptist Church of Norway.
McBroom holds bachelor’s degrees in music education and social studies secondary education from Northern Michigan University.
Ed and his wife Sarah have five children and they reside in Waucedah.
Kade Minchey
Utah Legislative Auditor General
Kade Minchey is the Utah Legislative Auditor General and director of the Office of the Legislative Auditor General. He has been with the office for 22 years, and in 2018 was appointed by the Speaker, President, and both bodies of the Utah Legislature to be the Auditor General. Kade has degrees from Utah State University and University of Utah. Kade has worked on a broad range of performance audits in his career that include favoritism and nepotism within the Department of Corrections; fraud, waste, and abuse in the state’s Medicaid program, and regulatory and tax concerns on radioactive waste within the Department of Environmental Quality. Kade has a passion for auditing and firmly believes it is one of the most important functions that any entity performs.
John Sylvia
Director, Performance Evaluation & Research Division
West Virginia Office of the Legislative Auditor
John Sylvia is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and a master’s degree in economics from Indiana University. John has conducted legislative research and performance auditing for the state Legislatures of Indiana and West Virginia for the past 36 years. Eight of those years were in Indiana where he worked as a budget and tax analyst. As a budget and tax analyst, John assisted several state agencies in developing their budgets, assisted in the revenue forecasting of Indiana’s general fund revenues and other dedicated state revenues, conducted tax analysis and fiscal notes on major state tax and budgetary issues, and conducted performance audits of state agencies. His work in tax analysis contributed to major policy changes in the state of Indiana. He is currently the director of the Performance Evaluation and Research Division within the West Virginia Office of the Legislative Auditor where he has been employed for the past 28 years. John has overseen an extensive number of performance audits of state agencies and legislative research projects for West Virginia’s Legislature. Many of his division’s performance audits and legislative research have led to positive administrative and legislative changes, cost savings, and facilitated effective state policy decision-making for West Virginia.
Lydia York
Delaware State Auditor
Delaware State Auditor Lydia E. York began her term of office on January 3, 2023 as the first African-American woman elected to an executive office in Delaware history.
Lydia was born in Southern Pines, North Carolina, but relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her parents when she was six years old. Lydia attended Pittsburgh Public Schools and graduated from Peabody High School where she studied piano and cello, participated in All-City Orchestra, lettered in swimming, volleyball, and basketball.
Lydia majored in accounting at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and graduated Magna cum Laude in addition to serving as student government representative, Senior Class President, and becoming a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, a membership she proudly represents to this day.
After graduating from FAMU, Lydia returned to Pittsburgh and started her career in public accounting with Coopers & Lybrand (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and became a certified public accountant. She later worked at American Hardware Supply Co. (TruServe) as an accounting supervisor.
Lydia continued her education and attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania earning an MBA with a concentration in Finance. She spent ten years working on complex financial products at Mellon Bank, N.A., Westinghouse Credit Corporation and Duquesne Light Company. After moving to Delaware, Lydia attended Temple University Beasley School of Law. Upon graduation, Lydia clerked for the Honorable Phillip Lewis Paley, J.S.C. in the Middlesex Vicinage of New Jersey. At the conclusion of her clerkship, she completed an LL.M. in Taxation.
Auditor York brings her considerable professional and academic experience in accounting, finance, and the legal profession to her role as the Delaware State Auditor. As Auditor of Accounts, York looks forward to fulfilling her office’s critical role in completing Delaware’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the Uniform Guidance Single Audit, serving on the Board of Pardons, and completing other critical mandates and workloads outlined in Delaware Code and the Delaware Constitution. The Delaware State Auditor’s office works to ensure simplicity, accuracy, efficiency, and economy in the State of Delaware.
