Mark Meckler, President Mark is one of the nation’s most effective grassroots activists. After he co-founded and was the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, he founded Citizens for Self-Governance to revolutionize American government. Founded in February 2012, this grassroots initiative expands and directs the ever- growing, bipartisan self-governance movement. Mark appears regularly on wide variety of television outlets, including MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He is the co-author of “Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution,” and writes regularly on Breitbart, the American Spectator, and SelfGovern.com. He also is an attorney who specializes in internet privacy law. After many years in California, Mark and his wife live in Texas where they share their love of the outdoors, mountain-biking, soccer and horses. They have two adult children. Eric O’Keefe, Board of Directors Member Eric O’Keefe has a twenty-five year history as an active strategist, board member and donor with organizations working to advance individual liberty, promote citizen engagement and restore constitutional governance. O’Keefe helped found U.S. Term Limits in 1991 and, and in recent years, co-founded the Campaign for Primary Accountability, the Health Care Compact Alliance, and Citizens for Self-Governance. O’Keefe is also a founding board member of the Center for Competitive Politics and Citizens in Charge Foundation. O’Keefe’s book on the corruption of Congress, Who Rules America, won praise from the late freedom advocate Milton Friedman. O’Keefe also serves on the board of directors of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, which has been active defending Gov. Walker’s agenda during legislative campaigns, recall campaigns, and legislative races. When he is not engaged in political activities, O’Keefe is a private investor based in rural Wisconsin, where he and his wife raised three children. Pam Wohlschlegel, National Director of Grassroots Raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Pam received her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado in Electrical Engineering. After graduation, Pam worked in environmental monitoring and in the power industry. She later earned her MS in Business Administration and spent three years working on her doctorate in Finance and Statistics, both at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Pamela left graduate school to accept a position at Hewlett-Packard in Product Marketing and Development. After more than two decades in high tech, she retired in 2006 from Agilent Technologies and moved to Florida with her husband. Pam had planned to spend her retirement volunteering at her church and enjoying leisure activities. However, in December 2009, she attended her first Tea Party event where Lt. Col. Allen West was introduced as a new candidate for Congress. Since then, she has been passionate about the potential for the Tea Party movement and soon thereafter began building Tea Party groups in Palm Beach County. Using her management and organizational development skills, Pam co-founded the Palm Beach County Tea Party serving as the group’s Executive Director. She later became the State Coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, a national Tea Party organization where she worked until December 2012. Pam sees her move to Citizens for Self-Governance as taking a step toward being better able to help grassroots organizations, to be better organized in the fight to return our country to its founding principles not only in Florida, but all over the US. When not working, Pam chairs the Women About Youth Ministry that she co-founded at her church. Real downtime is spent playing tennis and bridge, reading, sailing and doting over her grandchildren. Michael Ruthenberg, National Coordinator Mike is a Southern California native who spent half of his adult life as a Democrat. He worked at both University of San Diego (USD) and San Diego State University (UCSD) for a combined 13 years while awakening as a Conservative. His formal involvement in political causes began when he was the Training Coordinator for Tea Party Patriots. His first career position was with USD, where he founded and directed a program that provides wilderness outdoor travel and leadership opportunities to university students. After developing this program, he revived a similar program at the UCSD. Mike was a founding board member of the Association for Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) where he was involved in creating standards for human-powered outdoor recreation for colleges and universities, as well as Military Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) programs. He later became a board member of ORCA, the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of America, now known as the Outdoor Industry Association. Mike has been self-employed since leaving the Outdoor Recreation Industry. He has two businesses and has developed cutting edge training programs on the World Wide Web, including co-founding a web-based training company. Mike is a father of three boys, coaches youth sports, is a Boy Scout Leader, and spends time cycling with his wife. He participates in many outdoor sports. Mike has a B.A. in Journalism from San Diego State University (SDSU).
