Governors

Eva M. Pusateri
​President

President and Founder of Expert Communications and Training, Inc., Eva M. Pusateri serves as a national campaign consultant, trainer and public affairs expert.  For over three decades, Eva has successfully helped elect candidates to office at all levels of government providing General Strategic Consulting and Communications Consulting to include Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Website and Online advertising as well as media relations.  A master at creating winning targeted campaign strategies, grassroots neighbor-to-neighbor campaigns and both paid and earned messaging for her clients, Eva started her career in politics as a campaign manager.  She is recognized for always being one step ahead of the opposition and for winning decisive victories for her clients. 
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Eva now focuses a good majority of her strategic knowledge and her grassroots campaign expertise in lecture halls where she provides industry leading training on every aspect of political campaigns, including leadership training.  Eva has trained nationally and internationally, with a strong concentration on electing women to office.  Impressed with both her political campaign successes and the integral leadership roles she played in important victories across the country early in her career, Campaigns and Elections' named Eva one of "74 Women Who Are Changing American Politics" and "A Rising Star". Eva also served on the Board of the Christine Todd Whitman Excellence in Public Service Series and has trained at both the New Jersey and Illinois programs.  

Laura Kotelman
​Treasurer

Laura Kotelman has a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from Lake Forest College where she was the College Republicans' chapter president for two terms. After a year with the Illinois State Senate Republican staff, she attended the University of Illinois College of Law where she was elected to the University Senate.

After law school, Laura worked for Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan in policy and program development and went on to represent more than 1,000 insurance companies as senior counsel and regional government affairs manager at a major insurance trade association. She then spent a decade with one of the world’s premier law firms working in business development. She directly supported the global insurance and financial services practice and led a team of four business development professionals in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Laura joined Governor Rauner’s Administration in January 2016 serving as Chief of Staff for two state agencies. In April 2019, she joined a major Chicago law firm as Chief of Staff to the Chair.  Laura serves on the board of the Chicago Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy. She is a former leader of the Chicago Young Republicans, which received multiple national awards during her tenure.

Sarah RIddell
​Secretary

Jillian BernaS

Sarah Riddell (Alumna ’07) is an attorney who advises domestic and foreign exchanges, derivatives clearing organizations, and other financial institutions on a broad range of regulatory matters, including U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) registration and compliance. Sarah advises clients on evolving areas of the law, including the legal frameworks applicable to cryptocurrencies, Blockchain and cybersecurity. She also worked at the CFTC as a policy attorney, working on Dodd-Frank-related rulemakings and examinations of derivatives clearing organizations, including those designated as systemically important.
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Prior to attending law school, Sarah worked on Capitol Hill for Representative Mario Diaz Balart (FL) and Senator Wayne Allard (CO). She credits her work on Capitol Hill to her experience as a Lincoln Series Fellow.

Jillian Bernas is an elected official and active in local government in her hometown. She is a former educator who earned her BA in Spanish and Secondary Education from Saint Mary’s College and her MEd from the University of Notre Dame and learned the best way to learn something is to do it. She hopes to share with other women the lessons she learned working on various campaigns and as a candidate herself.
As a teacher, Jillian taught both middle school Spanish and English in the United States and abroad. Interested in transitioning her career to policy work, she returned to graduate school for an AM/MPP from the University of Chicago/University of Chile and had been working in international relations until accepting a job closer to home with the recent arrival of her daughter. She currently drives the external affairs strategy for a local company.  
Jillian serves her community as a Trustee on the Schaumburg Township District Library Board, Chair of the Township of Schaumburg Mental Health Committee, a volunteer ESL teacher at her church in Schaumburg and as a member of her local Rotary Club. She lives in Schaumburg with her husband Angel and daughter Patricia. 

Abby Walsh
Membership Chair

Abby Walsh (Alumna ‘10) is the Legislative Liaison & Member Engagement Coordinator for the Health Care Council of Illinois (HCCI).  HCCI is the leading voice for skilled nursing facilities throughout the State of Illinois.  Abby is responsible for lobbying the legislature and oversees grassroots efforts by owners and employees of more than 300 facilities on Illinois campaigns.  

​Prior to joining HCCI, Abby was an Associate with Michael Best Strategies, one of the nation’s fastest-growing B2B consulting firms specializing in lobbying; government relations; public affairs; crisis management; shared value strategies; political partnership development; and community/stakeholder engagement strategies. Additionally, Abby served as a staff member under Governor Bruce Rauner from his inauguration through 2017. She held positions of Deputy Director of Legislation for the Illinois Department of Human Services, followed by Director of Legislation for the Illinois Lottery.  Prior to these positions, Abby spent nearly a decade working in the Illinois State Legislature. She rose to the position of Chief of Staff to now Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady from 2009-2015. During that time, she served as Senator Brady’s lead policy advisor and strategist.

Additionally, Abby has been involved in campaigns at every level of Illinois politics including statewide, legislative, and local campaigns.   Abby is an alumna of Illinois State University. She has participated in The Lincoln Series, Leadership Illinois, and is currently an Ambassador of Hope Institute for Children and Families. 

katie justak
communications chair

Katie Justak (Alumna ‘09) has always had a passion for politics.  Since age seven, she volunteered regularly for local Republican campaigns, beginning in Will County where she was raised and most recently in Cook County where she lives presently. Katie’s professional background is in public relations. She started her career in consumer marketing at GolinHarris, then in healthcare at Edelman, both in Chicago. She went on to utilize her public relations talents as program manager of education at the American Academy of Periodontology, successfully working as a liaison between dental educators, students, dental associations and the Academy.
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Now, Katie is a full-time mother of four and works part-time for The Lincoln Series as the Communications and Program Manager. She actively volunteers at her children’s schools and her church. Katie also enjoys serving her community of La Grange. In 2013 she was appointed to the La Grange 2020 Task Force by the village president, where she served as vice chair. This task force researched, drafted and provided recommendations on the direction the Village Board of Trustees should consider in an effort to meet several goals for the Village by 2020.  Additionally, she has served as chair and vice chair of the Citizens’ Council of La Grange and most recently served as governor on The Lincoln Series Board.

 

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