Christine Stineman

Christine Stineman has fifteen years experience working on grassroots mobilization, public affairs and public relations strategy and execution. She is a founder of Tribe Effect LLC, a public affairs, public relations, social media and online strategy consulting firm maximizing social media tools, building online movements and social networks for issue advocacy, marketing brands and products, membership growth and overall online brand development. Christine serves and as the Social Media Director and Social Network Manager for the Pickens Plan and is responsible for developing the organization plan, building and managing a national grassroots team to promote American energy independence in all 50 states and U.S. Territories via the Pickens Plan social network and social media presence. Christine also managed a traditional public affairs team that was responsible for organizing on-the-ground activities on behalf of the Pickens Plan in key targeted states.

Before her work with Tribe Effect, Christine co-founded a successful public relations and public affairs agency where she served as Chief Operating Officer managing a 14-member team and directed a number of accounts including the Bill Gates Foundation initiative, ‘Strong American Schools', the American Medical Association ‘Voice for the Uninsured' multi-state campaign, Walmart public relations, and a number of other campaigns in the automotive, pharmaceutical, energy, technology and telecommunications industries. The firm served as agency of record for Walmart and Ford Motor Companies in the Midwest.

Christine also led the Iowa effort for The ONE Campaign's ‘ONE Vote '08' effort. Iowa was one of only a handful of early states where ONE Vote '08 developed a full scale campaign. Christine hired and managed a campaign staff of 10 and developed and implemented the Iowa caucus strategy. The ONE Vote '08 campaign received The Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine “2008 Commitment to Development Ideas in Action Award”. Christine has managed public affairs campaigns in 25 states from coast to coast and U.S. Territories and has led a number of regional and national campaigns. For the 7 years prior Christine owned and operated a grassroots issue advocacy consultancy where she implemented field programs for fortune 500 companies, national public affairs firms and public relations firms, and large trade associations in several states. She also managed regional and national public affairs field teams for several issue advocacy campaigns.

Christine is a member of the Des Moines AM Rotary where she serves on the Public Relations Committee, Greater Des Moines Partnership, West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, and Young Variety Club. She also volunteers her time to Autism Speaks, the Hy-Vee Triathlon Charity Event, as a Rescue Angel for the autism organization Generation Rescue and volunteers at her church and children's schools. She resides with her husband and two children in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Strategic Partner

Heather Lauer

Heather Lauer has an extensive background in issue advocacy and grassroots organization. Since July 2008, she has been responsible for overseeing the online strategy of the Pickens Plan, a campaign to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil through the use of alternative energy. The Pickens Plan has been widely recognized for its groundbreaking use of social media tools to organize and activate 1.5 million supporters.

Previously, Heather was a Partner at DCI Group LLC, a strategic public affairs and global issues management firm based in Washington, DC. During her 12 years with DCI, Heather worked on a variety of domestic and international issue campaigns for trade associations and Fortune 50 companies in the areas of telecommunications, energy, technology, health care, and homeland security. While at DCI, she was also the Publisher of TCSDaily.com, an online journal of public policy news, commentary and analysis focused on free-market issues in the United States and Europe.

Heather has worked on several political campaigns at the national and state levels. In 2004, she directed the political floor operation at the Republican National Convention. She also managed voter contact programs for New York Governor George Pataki's successful re-election campaign in 2002. Her first campaign experience was working in the War Room of Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996. Heather holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business Administration from Georgetown University. In June 2005, Heather Lauer launched the blog, BaconUnwrapped.com, a website dedicated to “The Best Meat Ever” – bacon. In May 2009, she published a book called Bacon: A Love Story (HarperCollins, May 2009).