Our Team
Our team brings experience from multiple industries and leading organizations. Together, we develop and implement innovations that meet the political moment.
Leadership
Alicia Rockmore
Prior to co-founding Zinc Collective, Alicia had a successful career as a marketer and an entrepreneur where she founded companies designed to identify and fill unmet needs, including Spark Actions, a progressive millennial engagement platform, and Buttoned Up, a company dedicated to helping busy women get sanely organized. Alicia was also a senior CPG marketer in the US and Europe at Unilever and General Mills where she was named an Ad Age Top 100 Marketer and had her work featured in national publications including The New York Times, Fast Company, and The Wall Street Journal.
Alicia currently serves as a Democratic National Committee (DNC) At-Large Member and is a member of the DNC Budget and Finance Committee. She is also the donor advisor to LinkedIn Co-Founder Allen Blue and serves on the board of Defending Digital Campaigns.
Alicia lives in Los Angeles, CA, with her husband, Adam. They have one daughter, Lucy.
Alicia Rockmore
Co-Founder and CEO
Sarah Kleinman
Sarah Kleinman is the President of Zinc Collective, a Democratic organization focused on recruiting, developing, and retaining diverse talent and transforming the Party to enable larger and more persistent Democratic majorities.
Prior to joining Zinc Collective in 2025, Sarah spent nearly two decades leading large-scale strategy work in mission-driven organizations across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, she was the Chief Strategy Officer at International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she helped guide the $1.6B global humanitarian NGO through complex operational, strategic, and crisis-response challenges. Prior to that, Sarah spent more than a decade at McKinsey & Company, where she was a Partner advising senior leaders on strategy.
Sarah also served as the Deputy Chief Program Officer and Director of Strategy at the Obama Foundation, where she led the development of the Foundation’s first strategic plan and worked directly with President and Mrs. Obama to design and scale programs and to grow the organization in its startup days.
A Rhodes Scholar, Sarah holds a PhD in International Relations from Oxford and both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford. Sarah lives outside of Washington, DC in Silver Spring, MD, with her husband Mike and two kids, Lana and Maksym.
President
Santiago Martinez
Executive Director, Arena
Natalie Scavuzzo
Deputy Executive Director, DigiDems Electoral
Shahin Motia
Deputy Executive Director, DigiDems Security
Laura Warbelow
Chief of Staff, Zinc Collective
Kelly Sawyers
Senior Vice President, Growth & Engagement
April Hepburn
April Hepburn, SPHR SHRM-CP, serves as the Director of People and Culture at Zinc Collective. In this role, she oversees strategic guidance and leadership across all facets of people operations.
With a career spanning more than twenty years, April has solidified her standing as a respected authority in human capital management and organizational development. Beyond her role as a former adjunct professor, April is renowned for her prowess as a skilled trainer and public speaker, having conducted workshops for diverse audiences.
As a forward-thinking HR practitioner, April demonstrates a profound understanding of the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of the modern workplace. She has successfully steered people operations in a range of industries, including technology, government, hospitality, retail, and nonprofit sectors, lending her expertise to both established corporations and emerging startups.
April's academic achievements include a Bachelor's degree in Organizational Management, a Master's in Adult Education, and an MBA in International Business. Additionally, she holds two Professional HR certifications, showcasing her commitment to excellence in the field.
April Hepburn
Vice President, People & Culture
Hannah Robinson-Armour
Prior to joining Zinc Collective, Hannah worked at New Era Colorado where she served as Operations Director. While at New Era she bottom-lined budget, compliance, and human resources for the 501(c)(3)- and (c)(4)-affiliated organizations for three election cycles that saw sweeping success in both their electoral and legislative programs. She continues to be a big supporter of the Colorado progressive nonprofits.
Hannah holds a BA in history and chemistry from the University of Colorado and an MBA from the same university. She lives in Denver, CO with her husband and three children—two human and one canine.
Hannah Robinson-Armour
Vice President, Finance & Operations
Abby Cohen
Chief of Staff, Office of the CEO
Allen Blue
Allen Blue is the Chairman of Zinc Collective and a co-founder of LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, and currently serves as Vice President of Product Management, where he directs overall product strategy. His areas of focus include Equity Products, Climate Products, and LinkedIn’s Economic Graph, working with governments and institutions in the United States and worldwide to share economic data and improve education and workforce policy.
Allen is also engaged in policy advocacy around economic opportunity, the future of work, and climate change. He’s been featured at Chatham House, the Aspen Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations, where he’s collaborated with advocates and issue experts on some of the world’s most pressing problems.
Allen chairs the board of the Hope Street Group, a non-profit that brings economic opportunity to Americans through a combination of policy and practice, and sits on several other non-profit boards. Additionally, Allen is on the board of Defending Digital Campaigns and was a seed investor for the Democratic Data Exchange. Previously, Allen served as a member of the US Commerce Department’s Data Advisory Council under President Barack Obama.
Allen Blue
Co-Founder and Chairman
More About Our Program Teams
Advisors
Mike Smith
President, House Majority PAC
Former Senior Advisor, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Robby Mook
Former Campaign Manager, Hillary for America
Judith Hazlewood
Former Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
Matt Hodges
Tech & Data Strategist
Lauren Baer
Former Executive Director and Managing Partner, Arena
Democratic Strategist
Principal, The New Media Firm
Karen Defilippi
Head of Campaigns & Creative Services, Berlin Rosen
Libby DeLana
Co-Founder, Mechanica
Raghu Devaguptapu
Managing Partner, Left Hook
Gabrielle Quintana Greenfield
Vice President, The Messina Group
Lucinda Guinn
Partner, Ralston Lapp Guinn Media
Democratic Strategist
Betsy Hoover
Managing Partner, Higher Ground Labs
Shannon Hunt-Scott
President & Co-Founder, The Scott Foundation
President and CEO, Defending Digital Campaigns
Founder and CEO, Beelinning Strategies
Shaniqua McClendon
Vice President, Political Strategy, Crooked Media
David Omenn
Head of Education Talent, Bezos Academy
Founder & Principal, Framework Consulting
Partner, Bryson Gillette
Timothy Persico
Principal, GPS Impact; Former Executive Director DCCC
President, Propper Daley
Partner, Elias Law Group
President, Saratoga Strategies
Head of Data, Shopify; Former CTO, DNC
