The Executive Committee is the governing body of Fair Budget Coalition and is responsible for organizational policy, direction, financial oversight and fundraising.
Chelsea Foster
Chelsea’s involvement in Fair Budget Coalition began when she worked on issues of Food Access and Equity in her role as DC Regional Manager at the Capital Area Food Bank. While she has transitioned to a new role at ACT–IAC, Manager of Professional Development, she continued her work with FBC to address systemic racism and inequity through the budget and stay connected to local issues impacting her community. Chelsea brings 10+ years of nonprofit management experience to her work on the Executive Committee.
Mandla Deskins
Stephanie Krongos
Stephanie is a Staff Accountant at Jobs With Justice, a leading workers’ rights organization. She is more of a newcomer to Washington, DC, having relocated from her home of Hawaii. With over ten years of Finance and Accounting experience in the private sector, Stephanie’s move into non-profit work was intentional, to align with her values to prioritize people most impacted by economic and social inequity. In addition to the work she does with JWJ, Stephanie is also active with a number of national and local organizations with a key focus on poverty and injustice, including those that advocate for Reproductive Justice and Disability Rights. She has a BA in Political Science from Humboldt State University.
ERIN PALMER
Erin received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, with majors in Politics, Philosophy & Economics and Spanish (with distinction). She received a Masters from American University School of International Service in 2007 and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law in 2007.
Erin was a law clerk at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals from 2008-2009; a litigation associate at Clifford Chance US LLP until 2014, where she focused heavily on pro bono matters including winning asylum for an individual fleeing state violence due to their political beliefs, representing a child with disabilities at a local school to ensure they received their needed educational supports, and filing briefs with the United States Supreme Court on the science regarding youth brain development to end the use of life without parole sentences for youth offenders; and Supervising Attorney of a human rights litigation law clinic at American University Washington College of Law until 2014.
Most recently, Erin served as an ethics lawyer for the federal judiciary, where she specialized in workplace accountability. Since 2018, she has also served as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, a neighborhood-level elected position.
Erika Taylor
Michael Mitchell
Michael is Senior Director and Counselor, Equity and Inclusion at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He leads the organization’s efforts to advance racial equity and inclusion in its policy analysis, internal operations and work with external partners. Mitchell previously served as a Senior Policy Analyst with the Center’s State Fiscal Policy team, focusing on state higher education policy. Michael also served as Program Director for the State Policy Fellowship Program — a two-year Fellowship opportunity for recent recipients of Master’s degrees designed to increase the diversity of voices weighing in on critical state budget and tax policy issues. Michael is a fierce advocate for public services—particularly public transportation and libraries. You can often find him downtown on a public bus reading a library book.
Kush Kharod
Kush started organizing in high school when he worked with fellow students to kneel with Colin Kaepernick during football games to protest against police brutality. Since then, Kush has focused organizing their community on passing stronger renter protections in the DMV area, climate reforms, and legislation granting voting rights to all DC residents, regardless of immigration status. Kush has organized with some incredible people to make this possible and is grateful to support Fair Budget’s mission to give DC the future it deserves.
Over the last few years, Kush has been part of some incredible fights in DC as a community organizer, ranging from rent stabilization to decriminalize street vending to enfranchising over 85,000 non-citizens across the city who previously did not have the right to vote. As someone young who centers relationships and collective liberation in their work, Kush carries the perspective of someone who is actively doing the work while building long-term strategy to make sure we are not only preventing the fires of today, but making sure we accomplish our dreams for tomorrow. His organizing experience, as well as building organizations, being a president of a board, and working within the philanthropic landscape, gives him the skills needed to help continue moving Fair Budget to organize a future for DC with true racial and economic justice.
Cortney Sanders
Cortney is a proud Houston native. Born three generations from slavery, she is a Black southern identifying woman with roots of a working family. She is passionate about racial equity and the rights of all people. She is committed to dismantling racist ideas and promoting anti-racist ideas, policies and practices to ensure more opportunities for people of color— specifically black people who were set to fail at the very beginning.
