Sean Themea
Interim President

A recovering Democrat, Sean discovered YAL during his senior year of college. He quickly earned the title of New York State Chair, and doubled the size of New York’s YAL campus presence. After serving as Midwest Regional Director, Sean focused in on taking YAL’s fundraising to the next level, helping grow the organization from $3 million to nearly $13 million in just 3 years. Sean is a graduate of Ithaca College, where he sang with a nationally-touring a capella group.

Emma Meshell
Spokesperson

Daniel Taylor
Vice President of Campus

Daniel Taylor discovered YAL in 2016. After founding his chapter at Taylor University, he was brought in as a State Chair where he built a network of 32 chapters in Indiana and hosted dozens of speaker events in a single semester.

After his time in Indiana, he was brought in as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, showing the largest regional growth in all of 2018.

As the National Campus Director at Young Americans for Liberty, he has lead his team to place over 400 campaign staff through Operation Win at the Door, and has lead his team to train over 3,000 students at YAL National events.

Barrett Young
Director of Grassroots

Barrett Young is the Director of Grassroots at Young Americans for Liberty, the fastest growing youth Liberty organization whose mission is to identify, educate, train, and mobilize the next generation of conservative activists to make Liberty Win. In 2015, Barrett was named “The Next Great Communicator” by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation for making the case for principled restraint in foreign policy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. In his time outside of YAL, Barrett serves as a field consultant for Liberty-minded campaigns, having mobilized over hundreds students to get off the couch and on the campaign trail. Between his YAL affiliated and personal projects, Barrett has designed over 100 pieces of campaign literature and been a part of over 150 campaigns, independent expenditures, and advocacy programs across the country.

Kristin Tate
Analyst

Reed Cooley
Vice President of Communications

A lifelong writer, Mississippi native, and alumnus of Baylor University, Reed Cooley (like many others within YAL) began his involvement in the liberty movement while in college. After graduating in August 2017, Reed knew that he wanted to spend his life using his passions for writing and oratory to promote the ideals of liberty and limited government.

Kathryn Brackbill
Director of Operations

Kathryn currently serves as YAL’s Director of Operations where she creates, organizes and runs all of the organizations events. Kathryn has been involved with Young Americans for Liberty since 2014 when she started her chapter at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. She later became a Pennsylvania State Chair and helped grow the network in the Keystone State. Kathryn also has prior experience in the national office. Kathryn interned twice for Young Americans for Liberty; once as an intern in 2015 and then again in 2016 as a Development Executive. During her time in 2016 she helped organize and run that year’s National Convention. When Kathryn is not busy standing for liberty she enjoys; spending time with her husband and son, trying out new recipes, playing board games, and being in the great outdoors.

Ted Patterson
Director of Policy

Ted Patterson got involved in the liberty movement in 2008 in his home state of Maryland. He narrowly lost a race for State House in 2010, but instead was elected to his local GOP Central Committee. Ted graduated from University of Delaware with a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and ran grassroots liberty activist training at the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership until 2017. In addition to running for office, Ted has also worked on the inside as a Legislative Aide in the Maryland House of Delegates and over the past two years has operated his own marketing company. Ted now serves as Director of Policy with Young Americans for Liberty to help mentor and develop America’s next generation of liberty legislators.

Brandon Borke
Director of Strategic Partnerships

Brandon serves as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Young Americans for Liberty. He is a native of northeast Michigan. He graduated in 2015 from Northwood University with a bachelors in International Business Administration. Soon thereafter, Brandon found his calling in politics. He began with Rand Paul’s presidential campaign on Iowa making calls, canvassing campuses, and attending the Iowa caucuses on behalf of Dr. Paul. He then served as the Youth Director for Rod Blum in Iowa. Since then he has been directing field programs and managing campaigns across the country in South Carolina, New Hampshire, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maine on races ranging from State House to U.S. Senate. Brandon hopes to continue the work in tirelessly fighting for liberty at the national office of Young Americans for Liberty.

Alexander Staudt
Major Gifts Officer

Alex served as YAL’s Director of Free Speech for three years, where he trained thousands of students to challenge university bias against the 1st Amendment. Now, he strategizes with YAL’s top investors on the best ways to Make Liberty Win. Alex has a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Iowa. As a true Iowan through and through, Alex enjoys hunting for vinyls, cheering for the Hawkeyes, and the outdoors.

JP Kirby
Director of Free Speech

Jeff Lyons
Development Associate

After serving over eight years across two enlistments in the United States Navy, Jeff decided to return to college and chart a new course to serve his country and defend the Constitution. Jeff went on to get two Associates Degrees in Theatre and History/Government from Bunker Hill, while spending his free time working on pro-liberty campaigns and causes across the country, including serving as Campaign Manager for the Boston Globe Endorsed candidate Daniel Fishman for Auditor of Massachusetts.  After graduation, Jeff joined the National Staff in June of 2019 as an intern and was immediately hired as an Associate at the end of the internship.  Outside of the office, Jeff loves travelling, running obstacle course races, live music, playing guitar and singing karaoke, but most of all he enjoys standing like a rock in defense of Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, and the United States Constitution.

Tony Guajardo
Midwest + Northern Regional Director

Stuart Hench
Data Director

Stuart started his journey with YAL in 2017 where he served as Chapter President at Virginia Tech and Virginia State Chair. He began working on Operation Win at the Door campaigns in early 2018, and quickly stepped into a leadership position as Election Director. Stuart now serves in the national office as the Data Director.

Matthew Pillers
Coastal + Great Plains Regional Director

Matthew Pillers is a native of California, a lifelong advocate for liberty. Matthew’s involvement with Young Americans for Liberty began in 2018 after returning to Allan Hancock College in pursuit of a new career path. At Allen Hancock, he built his college’s YAL Chapter to make it one of the largest in the California Community College system, in the process challenging the campus’s free speech policies. Matthew has since worked with YAL’s award-winning campaign program, Operation Win at the Door, and with several other Liberty-minded campaigns. Before taking his current role as Regional Director of Coastal and Great Plains, Matthew was the Deputy Regional Director for West Coast campus operations.

Ryan Jacoby
Mid-Atlantic Regional Director

Ryan is currently the Mid-Atlantic & Appalachian Regional Director with Young Americans for Liberty. He founded the Franklin & Marshall College YAL chapter in Lancaster, Pennsylvania during the fall of his sophomore year. He built his home chapter from scratch into a 50-member chapter at a school with only 2,000 students. Ryan has come through the YAL pipeline to find a home in the YAL National HQ. After building his home chapter, he turned his attention to helping other Pennsylvania students bring liberty to their campuses in his role as a Pennsylvania State Chair. He served as a Pennsylvania State Chair for almost two years and then, after graduating from F&M, he stepped up to become the YAL Mid-Atlantic Regional & Appalachian Regional Director to help students in those regions develop into incredible leaders within the liberty movement. When Ryan is not fighting for liberty he enjoys eating Texas BBQ, exploring Texas, and rooting for the Yankees.

Daniel Stuart
Hazlitt Action Director

Daniel has been a long time fan of the liberty movement. During his first month at Illinois State University he helped to start up the Young Americans for Liberty chapter and oversaw it’s growth and development. In March Daniel became the Illinois State Chair and took his leadership to the next level with YAL. He oversaw the growth of the liberty movement in Illinois and worked to grow his network and foster good relationships with his chapter presidents. He has since left Illinois State University and is now helping grow the Northern Regional network.

Bailey McKee
Graphic Designer

Bailey serves as the Graphic Designer for Young Americans for Liberty. Her experience ranges widely to include political campaigns, podcast branding, YouTube campaigns, merchandise advertising, social media content and so much more. She is a content creator in charge of creating all the physical and digital assets needed for a successful marketing campaign. She has been making exciting political content since 2016 and moved in-house in 2020 to join YAL’s fight for liberty full-time.

Haley Gray
Great Plains Deputy Regional Director

Haley is originally from central Maine, starting out at her University of Maine at Orono chapter. After becoming a Recruitment Director for the state, deployed on her first Operation Win at the Door campaign in New Hampshire. Haley then spent 5 months at the YAL national office interning for our development department. Since then, she has been a Deputy Election Director in the 2020 primaries and general elections. Haley now works as the Great Plains Deputy Regional Director.

Ian Escalante
Coastal Deputy Regional Director

Ian is Deputy Regional Director for the Coastal Region. He is a Florida native and has been in the liberty movement since the beginning of High School. His YAL tenure began in the summer of 2020 when he was brought on as the Florida State Chair. Ian’s goal is to fight hard on college campuses and get liberty-minded students organized on campus and plugged into OWD campaigns. Ian is very passionate about gun rights, a noninterventionist foreign policy, ending the surveillance state, and criminal justice reform. During the time when he is not actively fighting tyrants, Ian enjoys powerlifting, traveling and hanging out with friends.

Michael Anderson
Hazlitt Action Director

Michael Anderson kickstarted Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Houston in 2016. He and his YAL chapter were essential players in the passing of body camera policy reform in Harris County. After becoming a Texas State Chair with YAL in February of 2017, his efforts on free speech and dedication to ending the war on drugs gained significant local media attention, such as becoming a contributor at The Isiah Factor on FOX 26 and Ken Webster Jr’s Pursuit of Happiness Radio on KPRC 950.  After graduating from the University of Houston, he became a national leader in YAL’s ‘Operation Win at the Door’ program where he has been traveling  across the country and helping to elect Liberty Legislators.

Chelsea Marrie
Mid-Atlantic Deputy Regional Director

Chelsea Marrie is the Mid-Atlantic Deputy Regional Director. She graduated from Youngstown State University with a duel degree in Political Science/Pre Law and History. She loves Liberty, Constitutional Law, and Rand Paul. She began her journey in the liberty movement as a student Door Knocker with Operation Win at the Door in 2018, and joined YAL full-time in 2020 to join the fight to Make Liberty Win.

To support the YAL team as we work to accomplish our mission of electing 250 liberty state legislators, click the button below.