Our Purpose

Maureen Pikarski is the Chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Ethnic Council. Previously, she served as Vice Chair of the Council and Chair of its Women’s Committee. The Council brings together leaders representing Democratic networks across diverse ethnic, faith, and demographic backgrounds. Ms. Pikarski has extensive experience in public service, including roles in President Bill Clinton’s White House Office of Public Liaison and as a member of Vice President Al Gore’s National Performance Review Committee. She also served as national Co-Chair of Polish Americans for Clinton/Gore and Gore/Lieberman and began her political career working with Congressman Dan Rostenkowski on the House Ways and Means Committee. Additionally, she was appointed to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 21st Century Leadership Council. An accomplished attorney, Ms. Pikarski is a partner at Gordon and Pikarski and has served in the Illinois State Bar Association’s General Assembly. She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College (B.A.), Villanova University (M.A.), and the Catholic University of America (J.D.). Ms. Pikarski resides in northwest Chicago with her husband, Kris Murphy, and their children.

James Zogby co-founded the Arab American Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community, in 1985 and continues to serve as its president. He is Director of Zogby Research Services, a firm that has conducted groundbreaking surveys across the Middle East. In September 2013, President Obama appointed Dr. Zogby to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He was reappointed to a second term in 2015 and concluded his service in May 2017. He was twice elected Vice Chair. Dr. Zogby is featured frequently on national and international media as an expert on Middle East affairs. Since 1992, Zogby has also written a weekly column on U.S. politics for the major newspapers of the Arab world. The column, “Washington Watch,” is currently published in 12 countries. In 2010, Dr. Zogby published the highly-acclaimed book, Arab Voices. His 2013 e-books “Looking at Iran: The Rise and Fall of Iran in Arab Public Opinion” and “20 Years After Oslo '' are drawn from his extensive polling across the Middle East with Zogby Research Services. His most recent book is, "The Tumultuous Decade: Arab, Turkish, and Iranian Public Opinion - 2019-2019" analyzes the fascinating transformations taking place across the Middle East region following the US withdrawal from Iraq and the Arab Spring. Dr. Zogby has also been personally active in U.S. politics for many years; in 1984 and 1988 he served as Deputy Campaign manager and Senior Advisor to the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign. In 1988, he led the first ever debate on Palestinian statehood at that year’s Democratic convention in Atlanta, GA. In 2000, 2008, and 2016, he served as an advisor to the Gore, Obama, and Sanders presidential campaigns. For the past 3 decades, Dr. Zogby has served in leadership roles in the Democratic National Committee. He currently serves as Chair of the DNC Ethnic Council, an umbrella organization of Democratic Party leaders of European and Mediterranean descent. He served on the DNC’s Executive Committee from 2000 to 2017 and for more than a decade as Co-Chair of the party’s Resolutions Committee. In 1975, Dr. Zogby received his doctorate from Temple University’s Department of Religion, where he studied under the Islamic scholar Dr. Ismail al-Faruqi. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University in 1976 and is the recipient of a number of honorary doctorate degrees.