Nicole Garner
Finance Director
Nicole Garner joined the Black Men Vote team in 2022 with two decades of financial management experience supporting non-profit organizations in the DC metropolitan area. In her current role as Director of Finance, she manages the day-to-day operations of the accounting department; provides direct assistance with onboarding leadership, support staff, and field teams; and ensures financial transparency across all organizations. Additionally, Nicole has a vast knowledge of monitoring, overseeing, and reporting on grant funds and fundraising campaign donations. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Finance and Accounting, Nicole is a member of various professional organizations, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the National Association of Tax Professionals.
Nicholaus Outen
Program Director
Nicholaus Outen is a seasoned political consultant and operative born and raised in Columbia, SC. Outen graduated from Clemson University with. B.S. in Information Systems Management. Outen has experience designing, planning, and executing local, state, and national political campaigns, ballot issue measures, and voter registration. For the past 5 years, Outen’s work has been specifically geared toward educating, mobilizing, and engaging African Americans in the Southeast region of the U.S. to increase voter participation. During his time at Black Men Vote, he has served as the National Phone Banking Director for the Black Vaccination project where he ran the phone operations that worked on educating and encouraging underserved populations to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination. From this, Outen became the data director and then the program director overseeing voter outreach efforts in Pennsylvania and Georgia for low-propensity African American men and women in the 2022 Midterm election.
Thomas Pietrzyk
Lead Data Advisor
Thomas Pietrzyk has worked in the progressive data space for nine years. He has done analytics and targeting work for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the New Georgia Project, the Sierra Club, Bernie Sanders for President (2016), and several other electoral and organizing campaigns, from local to national. He specializes in conveying analytics findings and patterns to non-technical partners, voter and district targeting, data visualization, and creating data-driven outreach and organizing strategies.Thomas studied at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Economics, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree shortly before going into political data work. He spends as much of his free time as possible with his cat, River.
Ashley McBride
Senior Advisor
Ashley is a managing director of Amare Public Affairs. She comes to Amare with 20 years of experience in winning Democratic and progressive political and issue-based campaigns. Alongside senior roles including serving as political director and Interim Executive Director for the Georgia Democratic Party, McBride led a $25 Million independent expenditure focused on field and communications in Pennsylvania in 2018 and 2020. Their efforts contributed to the wins of Democratic Governor Tom Wolf and Senator Bob Casey as well as four women to the Congressional delegation and delivering the battleground state for Biden in 2020.
Rob Young
Creative Development & Marketing Director
Robert Young, a Brooklyn native, is a long-standing member of Black Men Vote (BMV) and has been leading the organization’s marketing, branding, and external partnerships since 2020. Leveraging his 27 years of experience in the entertainment and marketing industry, Young has successfully aligned BMV with notable celebrities, athletes, and influencers. His visionary leadership has resulted in groundbreaking initiatives, such as the impactful 2021 national Black Vax program, which educated Black Men about the importance of COVID-19 vaccines. This program’s success led to a significant partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Young’s commitment to addressing the multifaceted challenges faced by Black Men also led to the creation of Black Men Engaged (BME), a subsidiary of BMV. With his expertise and dedication, Robert Young continues to profoundly impact the advancement of Black Men’s rights and representation.