Open Illinois.org

John Tillman, CEO
jtillman@illinoispolicy.org

John Tillman serves as CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute. A successful entrepreneur, John has built and led organizations in the arenas of political activism, retailing, e-commerce, and internet access. His years of experience in the business world have given him firsthand knowledge of the power of free markets and the importance of accountable government.

John previously served as president and COO of the Sam Adams Alliance and Foundation during their start-up phase. Prior to his time with Sam Adams, he served as president and director of Americans for Limited Government, where he helped ALG grow from a single, part-time employee in May of 2004 to a staff of approximately 25 that had a significant impact on political activity in 13 states in 2006. An experienced speaker on the principles of liberty and the role of government in our society, John has appeared in media outlets ranging from Fox News to National Public Radio, and is a regular guest on top Chicago radio shows.

John has been involved with a number of civic organizations, including serving in the voluntary capacity of village president in his community. He is a former vice president of the Board of Directors at the Neighborhood Boys & Girls Club in Chicago. John and his wife, Julie, live in the north suburbs of Chicago, where they are raising their 10-year-old daughter, Lauren.

Kristina Rasmussen, Executive Vice President
krasmussen@illinoispolicy.org

Kristina Rasmussen serves as the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Policy Institute, where she directs the Institute’s operations, policy research, and legislative outreach. Kristina came to the Institute from the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), where she amplified the pro-taxpayer message by serving as Director of Government Affairs. In addition to her extensive tax and budget advocacy, Kristina worked on telecommunications, transportation, and state transparency issues. She also expanded NTU’s involvement with initiative and referendum measures and launched a grant program for start-up state and local taxpayer organizations.

Kristina’s opinion pieces have been featured in the Washington Post, Forbes Magazine, National Review Online, Investor’s Business Daily, and The Hill, among others. Her television appearances include CNN, CSPAN, Fox Business News, and Al Jazeera English, and she has been a guest on numerous radio shows.

Kristina completed her Master’s degree in Political Management at George Washington University, where she was named a Bryce Harlow Foundation Scholar. Kristina graduated summa cum laude from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College with a B.A. in Political Science. Click here to view policy reports, articles, and other work by Kristina Rasmussen.

Heather Wilhelm, Vice President of Marketing and Communications
hwilhelm@illinoispolicy.org

Heather Wilhelm, the Institute’s vice president of marketing and communications, comes from a background in marketing, public relations, corporate communications, online news, web development, magazine editing, and print journalism.

Heather’s written commentary has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, RealClearPolitics.com, the Washington Examiner, and the National Review Online. In 2005, she received a Phillips Foundation Fellowship for her written work promoting constitutional principles, a democratic society, and a vibrant free enterprise system.

Heather currently sits on the board of governors for Opportunity International, a Chicago-based microfinance group providing small business loans to impoverished entrepreneurs around the world. She holds an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with a B.A. in English and Political Science from Northwestern University. Click here to view policy reports, articles, and other work by Heather Wilhelm.

John M. O’Hara, Vice President of External Relations
johara@illinoispolicy.org

John M. O’Hara is vice president of external relations at the Illinois Policy Institute. Before joining the Institute, John worked as the assistant director of communications at The Heartland Institute. Previously, he served as a political appointee under U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. Prior to that, John was a Collegiate Network journalism fellow at The American Spectator. He has been active in political campaigns at the state and federal level, including one presidential campaign.

John is the author of A New American Tea Party, a book chronicling the history and principles of the tea party movement, and a contributor to BigGovernment.com and The Daily Caller. He has appeared as a commentator on a number of local and national radio and television programs including The Dennis Miller Show, Mancow, The G. Gordon Liddy Show, The Savage Nation, Milt Rosenberg’s Extension 720, Fox News Channel’s Your World with Neil Cavuto, America’s Newsroom, Strategy Room, and Fox & Friends, Fox Business Network’s Happy Hour and Cavuto, as well as MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews.

John graduated from Kenyon College with a B.A. in Philosophy and a concentration in the Integrated Program in Humane Studies. He studied ancient philosophy and ethics at King’s College, University of London and he was managing editor of The Kenyon Observer.

Collin Hitt, Director of Education Policy
collin@illinoispolicy.org

As director of education policy, Collin Hitt manages all education policy research and advocacy for the Illinois Policy Institute. The Institute produces leading research on charter schools, school choice, service privatization and school funding in Illinois.

Collin’s work has earned coverage from national and state media outlets, such as the Illinois Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Education Week and The Christian Science Monitor, and the nationally syndicated radio segment Family News In Focus. His written commentaries have appeared in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, the State Journal Register, the Peoria Journal Star, and the Chicago Sun Times.

Collin has also served as a visiting fellow at the Maine Heritage Policy Center and a research consultant to Americans for Prosperity of Illinois. His is an alumnus of the Institute for Human Studies, as well as a graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. While at SIU he earned his B.A. in philosophy and political science and later served as a research assistant at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. He has taught school in rural France, and has served on the board of directors of the Springfield Area Arts Council. Collin is a native of Springfield, Illinois, where he currently resides.

Kate Campaigne Piercy, Director of Government Reform
kpiercy@illinoispolicy.org

Kate Campaigne Piercy, Director of Government Reform, joined the Illinois Policy Institute in April of 2008. Previously, she worked for the Heartland Institute as a legislative specialist for health care and welfare reform.

Prior to returning to her home state of Illinois in 2007, Kate worked as a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., where she worked with the late Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Kate concentrated on foreign policy and defense while helping complete the Ambassador’s final book, Making War to Keep Peace (Spring 2007). While in D.C., she also worked as a research assistant for Mrs. Lynne Cheney, focusing on education policy while researching for Mrs. Cheney’s children’s books on American history. Previously, she worked in development for the Federalist Society.

Kate graduated cum laude from Georgetown University in 2003 where she majored in Classics and received a minor in English. Click here to view policy reports, articles, and other work by Kate Campaigne Piercy.

Brian Costin, Director of Outreach
bcostin@illinoispolicy.org

Brian Costin, Director of Outreach, joined the Illinois Policy Institute in January of 2010. Previously, he worked for the Heartland Institute as assistant director of government relations. Brian has been active in the Institute’s Liberty Leaders project, which he now leads, and founded the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition, where he won the 2010 Government Watchdog Award from the Sam Adams Alliance for his work exposing government waste & fraud in his hometown of Schaumburg.

Brian graduated with distinction from North Park University where he received a Master in Management of Nonprofit Administration. While attending North Park University, Brian worked for UPS in operations management and business development. As an undergraduate at Illinois State University, Brian completed a Bachelors of Science degree, double majoring in Economics and Politics & Governance.

Brian’s work has earned coverage from national and state media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, and Chicago Tonight. He is a regular guest on the nationally syndicated television show First Business and the Mornings with Ray Hanania radio show. Click here to view policy reports, articles, and other work by Brian Costin.

Katie Truesdell, Manager of External Relations
katie@illinoispolicy.org

Katie Truesdell, Manager of External Relations, came to the Illinois Policy Institute with a background in print journalism, communications, and development within the pro-liberty political arena. At the Institute, she works in partnership with CEO John Tillman to execute all event and fundraising operations.

In April 2009, she was awarded a Phillips Foundation fellowship grant to complete an independent journalism project. Katie graduated cum laude from Hillsdale College in 2006 where she majored in American Studies and was selected to be a member of the Herbert H. Dow II Program in American Journalism. As a participant of this program, she worked for her college newspaper during her four-year tenure and served as Editor in Chief during her senior year.

Michael Demkovich, Marketing and Communications Associate
michael@illinoispolicy.org

Michael Demkovich joined the Institute in August of 2009. Originally from the Chicagoland area, Michael spent the year prior to joining the Institute in Washington, DC, as a participant in the 2008-2009 Koch Associate Program. Through the program, he worked at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation as a Communications Associate and briefly stayed on after the program to work on Americans for Prosperity’s health care initiative. Michael previously held internships with the Sam Adams Alliance and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

Michael graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in advertising.

Amanda Griffin-Johnson, Public Policy Analyst
amanda@illinoispolicy.org

Originally from Alaska, Amanda came to Illinois to study economics at the University of Chicago. Reading Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom inspired her to become more active in promoting free markets. In 2008, Amanda was an intern with the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York. She also founded Students for a Free Society, the only free-market student group at the University of Chicago. After serving as an intern for the fall quarter of 2009, Amanda joined the Illinois Policy Institute as a full-time staff member in December. Her interests include health care policy, tax reform, and transparency.

Amanda graduated with general honors from the University of Chicago in 2009 with a B.A. in economics.

Jerry Agar, Multimedia Fellow
jerry@illinoispolicy.org

Acclaimed talk radio host Jerry Agar joins the Illinois Policy Institute while continuing to work as a weekend talk host for the Chicago radio station WGN AM 720. Jerry, who writes for TownHall.com as well as his radio shows, will be blogging and podcasting on the daily issues facing Illinois and beyond.

Previously, Jerry hosted shows on major talk radio stations such as WLS in Chicago, WABC in New York and KMBZ in Kansas City. Originally from a town of 800 people in Manitoba, Canada, Jerry came to the United States when nobody was talking about adopting Canada’s style of medical coverage. His American radio career started in the Chicago suburbs of Geneva/St. Charles at WFXW. He claims that it is not his fault that the station went off the air and never came back on.

After traveling America as an itinerant morning show host on music stations he started in talk radio in 2000 at WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina. While there he won Radio and Records Magazine’s “Rising Talk Star of 2004.” In 2006 he was nominated for Talk Host of the Year. To read Jerry’s latest commentary, click here.