Leslie Graves (nonprofit executive)

Leslie B. Graves formerly known as Leslie Key and also known as Leslie Graves Key is the founder and president of the Lucy Burns Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that publishes Ballotpedia and Judgepedia.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Education

Graves has a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland. She did graduate work in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

She co-authored "Is indeterminism the source of the statistical character of evolutionary theory?" in the Philosophy of Science and wrote "Transgressive traditions and art definitions" for the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.^[7][8]

Career

In 1976, Graves collected signatures to qualify the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate, Ed Clark, for a spot on the ballot. She later served as Wisconsin chair of the Libertarian Party, and as the party's national finance chair.^[9] Graves has also worked as a homemaker, in community theater, and in Catholic ministry.^[10]

Lucy Burns Institute

In December 2006, Graves founded the Lucy Burns Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that publishes Ballotpedia and Judgepedia. In 2012, Graves authored a guidebook titled Local Ballot Initiatives: How citizens change laws with clipboards, conversations, and campaigns.^[2][11]

Graves' political analysis has been included in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg News, Campaigns and Elections, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.^{[3][4][5][12][13]}

Judgepedia

Judgepedia was originally launched in 2007 by the Chicago-based nonprofit of her spouse, Sam Adams Alliance. Graves was “busy at that time with WikIFOIA,”^[14] she did not think she could take on a project the size of Judgepedia.^[14] Graves stayed involved in the project as a volunteer and then a consultant.^[14] In March 2009, when the founding editor of the Judgepedia project left the Sam Adams Alliance, a staff member from Graves’ group stepped in as editor,^[14] which led to the decision to cede sponsorship to the Lucy Burns Institute in July.^[14]

Personal

Graves is married to investor and political activist Eric O'Keefe. They have several children. She had a daughter with her first husband, a fellow St. John's student.^[15]

Olympic rower Carie Graves is one of her three sisters. In 1998, all four Graves sisters competed in team rowing at the Nike World Games under the name "Team Four Sisters."^[16]

References