Registration Nation is led by a diverse team of career activists and political operatives with extensive experience launching and managing distributed campaigns, and passionate young organizing professionals who exemplify the desire for civic engagement in their generation.
Our coalition will draw from a broad base of grassroots organizations that know their communities best and are deeply engaged at the local and state levels, many with which we have existing relationships.
Founder and President of Registration Nation focusing on voter registration and engagement of young people, people of color and other marginalized communities. Andi is also a Founding Partner of Mosaic Communications. She has extensive experience in grassroots campaigns and media, most recently serving as Political and Strategic Campaigns Director and a Founding Board member of March On/Future Coalition. At March On, Andi led a team that ran voter outreach and voter mobilization programs in the 2017, 2018 and 2020 election cycles. She spearheaded numerous initiatives aimed at increasing voter registration, engagement and turnout, including campaigns that rallied young voters and voters of color to participate at record levels in the 2020 general election as well as the Georgia Senate runoffs. In response to the assault on voting rights, Andi was the lead for March On For Voting Rights where tens of thousands of people in nearly 100 cities and towns across America came together to march, protest and rally—in person and virtually—for the passage of federal voting rights legislation. In addition, she was instrumental in the formation of coalitions, uniting disparate groups around a common mission. Andi also served as Executive Director of River Road, an organization focused on voter registration and turnout in Alabama.
Andi was a founding partner of two direct mail communications firms – Whistle Stop Communications and Pringle Communications Group. Clients included Dean For America, NEA, Emily’s List, NAACP National Voter Fund, Maryland State Democratic Party as well as congressional and state level candidates. She has served as Senior Political Advisor for Gov. Bill Richardson, Governor Mark Warner’s Forward Together PAC and as Deputy Campaign Manager for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. As Communications Director for the NAACP National Voter Fund, she participated in one of the most successful voter mobilization efforts, pulling over 1 million African-American voters to the polls.
As a Communications Associate with George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, she was involved OSF’s US Programs criminal justice reform efforts. Andi was chief administrator of Hiriam Management, a Philadelphia-based music management firm and record label where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the company’s music magazine, Strictly Hip Hop Magazine.
Cirilo R. Manego III, J.D., above all, is a humble servant to his community that has poured into him countless and invaluable life lessons. These lessons have served as his moral compass, informing and directing his steps to becoming the person he is today. As an activist and community organizer, Cirilo believes engaging, educating, and activating communities of color – especially the youth, to participate in this country’s democracy is critical to achieving liberation and freedom. He is a champion and staunch advocate for economic justice in the form of carving out spaces for small minority business owners to acquire projects that will grow their businesses.
For the past two years, Cirilo has been determined to broaden the reach of his activism. In 2017, he went on two nationwide bus tours to save the Affordable Care Act so that millions of Americans can remain insured. In the same year, he organized and trained over 150 volunteers to participate in the Tax March in Washington, D.C., with 40 of those volunteers coming from Hampton University. After being on the road organizing with health advocates from around the country, Cirilo identified a significant part of the population missing from the equation: Millennials and Generation-X. Accordingly, he put together a plan that would sprout health care fellows on select campuses, including his alma mater Florida A&M University and Howard University.
More recently for the March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C., Cirilo was given an opportunity to organize black and brown high school students located in America’s urban cities. After making some calls and cranking out emails to educators, the result ended up being hundreds of black and brown high school students being bused and flown to D.C. to fight against gun violence with their white peers. It was a heartening moment for him because much of the activism on the issue of gun violence over the last two decades has been led by black and brown high school and college students.
Before coming to Washington, D.C. to finish his last semester of law school on the Hill, serving as an extern in the House Committee on Homeland Security, Cirilo and 2 others founded an organization called Progress Mississippi, which sought to activate the black voting population – through voter registration drives – on the West and North sides of Jackson. He is thrilled to report that Progress Mississippi is alive and well with its recent business clothing drive to help get the homeless population interview ready and back to work. After graduating from law school, he hopped on a one-way flight back to D.C. for a fellowship with the National Urban League to serve as a Public Policy and Legal Analyst Fellow.
Through it all, Cirilo has kept himself busy by building on his consultant firm titled The Manego Group and My Dream Chose Me. His firm operates as a political strategy consulting firm that takes an intersectional approach when working in the current progressive space on issue-based and electoral-based campaigns, adding capacity on digital, communications, and organizing fronts. He is an avid reader on race, politics, and law; political junkie; recovering athlete; lover of all things ramen; coffee and whiskey aficionado; has read every James Baldwin novel but one; and a mentor to many. Last but definitely not least, Cirilo is a proud native of New Orleans, LA, alumnus of Florida A&M University, a brother to five siblings, uncle to 12 niece and nephews, and a son to Vicki Manego and the late Cirilo “Coach” Manego Jr.
Follow him on Instagram @cirilomanego3 and on Twitter @cmanego to keep in touch and follow the work he is doing.
Sophia A. Nelson is a community engager and political strategist. Sophia graduated from Bethune Cookman University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in political Science and a minor in Sociology. She soon went on to study Criminological Theory from the University of Alabama and ABD from Walden University with a concentration in Public Administration and Policy with an emphasis on Homeland Security.
Early in her career, Sophia worked in the world of non-profits. Sophia is currently a highly sought after and respected political consultant who has advised and directed strategy for elected officials, campaigns, and candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. In 2008 Sophia fulfilled her passion of helping to elect the first African American to become President. By leading the organizing efforts in Florida. Most recently, Sophia served as State Director of Florida from March On and the Caribbean American Constituency Director for Organizing Together 2020 in Florida where she helped build a state-wide partnership coalition within the state. Previously, she served as Political Field Director for Gillum for Governor during his triumphant primary win as Democratic nominee for governor of Florida in 2018.
Sophia is president of S.A.Nelson & Associates utilizing her extensive experience in establishing and maintaining strategic partnerships in the private, philanthropic, and public sectors. Sophia is a proud first generation Jamaican American living in Florida.
Sophia’s experiences and expertise in community, politics, and business has made her well-known strategies. Sophia defines herself as a “person with purpose” ready to do what is right for her community and country.
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