DASS Leadership

Jena Marie Griswold is Colorado’s 39th Secretary of State, and began her term on January 8, 2019. She is the youngest elected Secretary of State in the United States. Griswold grew up in a working-class family in rural Colorado and was the first person in her family to attend a four-year college and then law school. She knows first-hand how important it is for every vote to count and for every Coloradan’s voice to be heard, no matter their background or income. She will protect our right to vote, fight secret political spending, improve transparency, and stand up to those who try to bend the rules or break the law.

Griswold has practiced international anti-corruption law and worked as a voter protection attorney, where she made sure Coloradans were able to participate in our democracy. She served as the Director of the Governor of Colorado’s DC Office, advocating on behalf of Colorado in D.C. During that time, Griswold was instrumental in bringing back hundreds of millions of relief dollars to help the Colorado communities hit by the 2013 flood. Before her election to Colorado Secretary of State, Griswold ran her own small business, a legal practice in Louisville.

Griswold holds a B.A. in Politics and Spanish Literature from Whitman College and a J.D from University of Pennsylvania Law School. Griswold is fluent in Spanish and a graduate of Estes Park High School in Estes Park, Colorado. In 2006, Griswold was awarded the Watson Fellowship, and in 2009, the Penn Law International Human Rights Fellowship. Griswold lives in Louisville, Colorado.

Steve Simon is Minnesota’s 22nd Secretary of State. He was sworn into office on January 5, 2015, and as Minnesota’s chief elections administrator pledged in his inaugural address to “work with anyone, of any political affiliation, from any part of our state” to protect, defend, and strengthen the right to vote in Minnesota.

As Secretary of State, he partners with township, city, and county officials to organize elections on behalf of Minnesota’s nearly four million eligible voters, and to ensure that the election system is fair.

Simon also oversees a wide range of services for Minnesota businesses and administers the “Safe at Home” address confidentiality program for people whose personal safety is at risk, often due to physical abuse or threats.

His goals as Minnesota’s Secretary of State are straightforward: expand access to voting, remove barriers to voting, make business services as streamlined as possible, strengthen protections for victims of domestic violence and, most importantly, be a Secretary of State for all Minnesotans.

Before being elected Minnesota’s Secretary of State, Simon served in the Minnesota House of Representatives for ten years representing the communities of St. Louis Park and Hopkins.

Simon spent much of his time in the state legislature immersed in elections issues, including serving as the chair of the House Elections Committee in 2013 and 2014. He played a lead role in many of the election reforms that Minnesota has embraced over the last several years, including no-excuse absentee voting, online voter registration, and easier access to voting for Minnesotans overseas, including those in the military.

Simon also served as Assistant Attorney General of Minnesota and worked as a lawyer in private practice for several years.

Simon grew up in St. Louis Park and Hopkins. He graduated with a B.A in Political Science from Tufts University in Massachusetts in 1992, and earned a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1996. Simon and his wife Leia live in Hopkins with their two children, Hannah and Noah, and  rescue dog, Hugo.

As a former Marine, father of three daughters, an attorney, and an elections administrator — Adrian has spent his whole career fighting for justice and democracy, and is continuing that mission as Arizona’s 21st Secretary of State. Adrian is a proud Arizona native who has spent a lifetime fighting for justice and defending our democracy. He served on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1992 to 1996, and was nominated for a meritorious commission. 

After graduating from law school, Adrian spent his career advocating for justice and fighting for those who are disadvantaged — first as a prosecutor with the Denver District Attorney and then at the Maricopa County Attorney’s office. He later led the International Prosecution Unit at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. He practiced law for 15 years before running for office in 2016 when he was elected Maricopa County Recorder. As Recorder, Adrian revolutionized the election system by ensuring that every eligible Arizonan had the access they needed to vote. Adrian enhanced ballot tracking technology and increased process transparency, winning recognition and awards from election organizations across the country.

In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 crisis and amidst violent protests, Maricopa County saw record voter turnout, as well as record numbers of new voters registered for both parties. Adrian later testified before Congress to inform them of threats facing election officials — including those that he faced from protestors outside their office in 2020.  

As Secretary of State, Adrian is committed to preserving integrity in our elections, increasing transparency in the Secretary of State’s office, making voting easier for registered voters, and ensuring that Arizona’s business community has a partner in the Secretary’s office.

Shirley Nash Weber, Ph.D. was nominated to serve as California Secretary of State by Governor Gavin Newsom on December 22, 2020 and sworn into office on January 29, 2021. She is California’s first Black Secretary of State and only the fifth African American to serve as a state constitutional officer in California’s 170-year history.  

Weber was born to sharecroppers in Hope, Arkansas during the segregationist Jim Crow era. Her father, who left Arkansas after being threatened by a lynch mob, did not have the opportunity to vote until he was in his 30s. Her grandfather never voted as custom and law in the South, before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, systemically suppressed voting by Blacks. Although her family moved to California when Weber was three years old, it was her family’s experience in the Jim Crow South that has driven her activism and legislative work. She has fought to secure and expand civil rights for all Californians, including restoring voting rights for individuals who have completed their prison term. 

Weber attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she received her BA, MA and PhD by the age of 26. Prior to receiving her doctorate, she became a professor at San Diego State University (SDSU) at the age of 23. She also taught at California State University at Los Angeles (CSULA) and Los Angeles City College before coming to SDSU. She retired from the Department of Africana Studies after 40 years as a faculty member and serving several terms as department chair. 

Before her appointment, Secretary Weber served four terms as an Assembly Member representing California’s 79th Assembly District, which includes parts of the City of San Diego as well as several cities and communities in the San Diego region.  Weber also served as a member and chair of the San Diego Unified School District and has twice served as a California Elector, including chairing the California College of Presidential Electors on December 14, 2020. 

During her tenure in the Assembly, Weber chaired the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee, Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Public Safety, and Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health. Weber was the first African American to serve as the chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. She also served as a member of the Standing Committees on Education, Higher Education, Elections, Budget, Banking and Finance. 

In addition, Weber chaired the Select Committee on Campus Climate, which was created to examine and mitigate hate crimes on California’s college and university campuses. The committee also explored student hunger, sexual assaults, homelessness, and freedom of expression. She formerly created and chaired the Select Committee on Higher Education in San Diego County, which explored the need for an additional higher education facility in San Diego and ways to improve the quality, affordability and equal access of higher education in the region.   

From 2019 – 2020, she served as chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), which consists of the state’s African American legislators and has the goal of promoting equal opportunity for California’s African American community. Weber broke records during her tenure by garnering extraordinary support for CLBC’s efforts and its projects. 

Weber’s genuine passion and tireless quest for equality and fairness in all sectors of life have resulted in her pursuit of reforms in education and criminal justice. Her equity-oriented legislation includes: school finance and accountability, classroom safety, ethnic studies, early learners, attendance and dropout rates, quality instruction, law enforcements’ use-of-force and body camera practices, reparations, the CalGangs’ database, Affirmative Action, inclusive jury selection and instruction, predatory lending, resources for exonerees, restorative justice, racial profiling, among others. Weber has also pursued public policy changes related to health, senior citizens, veterans and military families.

Secretary Weber is a mother of two adult children, three grandchildren and was married for 29 years to the late Honorable Daniel Weber.  She is number six in a family of eight children. Her Parents, David and Mildred Nash, are deceased. Her hobbies are reading and traveling.  

Gregg M. Amore is Rhode Island’s thirtieth Secretary of State and a proud lifelong Rhode Islander. Under his leadership, the Rhode Island Department of State is focused on strengthening our democracy through secure elections, as well as launching innovative civic education and engagement programming.

Sec. Amore is a former public high school teacher, having taught Advanced Placement United States History and United States Civics and Government courses at East Providence High School for over twenty-seven years. In 2008, Amore was recognized as the Rhode Island History Teacher of the Year by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and he was honored by the Rhode Island School Superintendents’ Association with the 2021 Paul Crowley Award for his commitment to public education. Gregg enjoyed a rewarding high school and college coaching career in both hockey and baseball, then took over as East Providence’s Athletic Administrator in 2017. He is credited with significantly expanding East Providence’s Unified Sports/Special Olympics programs during his tenure.

Prior to his election to Secretary of State in 2022, Gregg spent 10 years in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. During his time in the House, he has served as a Deputy Majority Leader, chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, chairman of the House Finance Subcommittee on Education and second vice chair of the House Committee on Education. He has also served as a member of the House Committee on Finance, House Committee on Municipal Government, and the House Committee on Innovation, Internet and Technology. He is widely credited with advancing the House of Representatives’ education agenda, which included key education reform legislation related to curriculum and site based management.

In 2021, then-Representative Amore cosponsored the law which requires students to demonstrate proficiency in civics education before high school graduation, earning him recognition from the League of Women Voters, who awarded him their Civic Engagement Award. In 2021 and 2022, Gregg called for the passage of the Let RI Vote Act – a bill that would expand access to the ballot by giving people options for casting their ballot in a way that works for them. These provisions increased voter participation with 2020 setting a record for voter turnout when voters safely and securely used proven methods of casting a ballot. The Let RI Vote Act passed in 2022.

Gregg is married to his high school sweetheart, Lee. Together they have two (now adult) daughters, Tess and Megan. Amore graduated from East Providence High School in 1984 before continuing his education at Providence College, where he played as a member of the Friars baseball team and earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1988. In 2010, he earned a master’s degree in public policy from New England College.