Jessica Olson

Managing Partner, Field Operations

Jessica began community organizing back when she was in college and took a role as the Volunteer Coordinator for the FL-AIM Support Group. In the two decades since, she has worked on issues ranging from Indigenous rights to marriage equality. Currently, she is an organizer with Solidarity Sundays in Logan Square, Chicago.

Jessica is also very passionate about data analytics and finance.  She has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management with specializations in data analytics, operations management, and finance.  She has a particular soft spot for economics, particularly how certain barriers to entry make it difficult for people to have their voices heard.

Over the last several years, Jessica has used her skills to volunteer on several local campaigns. She’s knocked doors, made phone calls, and texted banked. She’s passed petitions and done petition review. During the 2019 municipal elections, she was the Field Director for a Chicago aldermanic candidate. That experience made her realize that several of the field-related barriers of entry into politics for non-incumbent candidates could be overcome with modern technology. This includes replacing the manual process of petition review with a web-app that can do the same thing quicker and better. It also includes helping campaigns work smarter with their field staff, from helping prioritize which neighborhoods would be best to knock for signatures, and where campaigns can find community events in their district to collect signatures at.

You can reach Jessica at info@erehwonatlas.com.

Grant Anderson

Managing Partner, Technology

Grant Anderson has a Bachelor in Computer Engineering from Northwestern University and a Master of Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology. He has over 20 years of experience in software engineering in defense, automation, and energy. He is the principal architect and developer of the Petition Atlas database and backend API and its associated tools. You can reach Grant at tech@erehwonatlas.com.

Nathan Yawn

Principal Programmer

Nathan Yawn has a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from Northwestern University and a Master of Computer Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He has twenty years’ programming experience across multiple industries including consumer electronics, gaming, and finance. He is the main architect of our expanded tools and manages the site front end.

Tom Mayer

Server Architect

Tom is a U.S. veteran – he first learned how to use communications equipment while in the Marines. 15 years later, he is now an expert in servers. He makes sure that the engines hosting Erehwon Atlas hum along without any difficulties.

Liz Homsy

Outside Legal Counsel

Elizabeth Homsy is the outside counsel that Erehwon Atlas works with. What does that mean? Since she’s a lawyer, she maintains her own shingle and business. But she is a great litigator, and she’s spent the last several years learning the ins and outs Illinois election law. That’s why she is the lawyer we are happy to recommend to anyone who needs one for their campaign. Liz has been active in her community as an activist for decades, and once she got her law degree, she focused on civil rights. She works with the Westside Justice Center, and has bonded out her fair share of activists arrested in direct actions. Currently, she is one of the attorneys on the Gang Database case filed against the city of Chicago.

Sheryl Spence

GIS Consultant

Sheryl Spence is also a veteran and a former teacher in the Chicago Public School system, where she taught AP Human Geography for 14 years. Sheryl is now a GIS consultant focused on bringing together human geography knowledge, GIS expertise, and analysis skills to the social justice world. Ms. Spence focuses on using spatial mapping patterns to begin the discussions of social equality. She has partnered with Erehwon Atlas to create visual dashboards for campaigns that map resources, education levels, and other essential statistics along with voter data.