Democrats Abroad UK - Policy Action Networks

About Us

We are all members of Democrats Abroad in the United Kingdom. We initiated this project because of our interest in building opportunities for the DAUK community to debate policy. The DAUK Executive oversees our activities.

The PAN coordinator is Elaine Capizzi;  email her with your questions, ideas and for more information about how to get involved.

Environment and Energy Security PAN moderating team: email the team

Peter Durante: 'expert member'

Quinn McKew: expert member

Elaine Capizzi: 'user representative' - we need a replacement. Interested?  Contact us.

Elaine Emling: 'user representative' (ex officio)

Our interests and backgrounds:

Elaine Capizzi is a long-term London resident and has had a varied career ranging from heading and teaching on an American Studies program to a current focus on research and evaluation of the widening participation of adults in education and training, including e-learning. Her primary interest is US foreign policy.

Peter Durante has a professional background in energy and the environment, commodities trading (including oil and emissions), supply chain management, PR and marketing. His educational and research background includes work on history and international affairs as well as law and finance. He is a London resident.

Quinn  McKew keeps a toe in both the not-for-profit and for profit world. She currently provides management consultancy services with  the largest non-profit consultancy in the UK  and has consulted with Fortune 500 companies to design and implement organisation-wide sustainability programmes since moving to London. Previously, she worked as the director of national conservation campaigns for organizations in the United States.  Her policy expertise lies in the fields of water policy, renewable energy, public lands and mining.

Elaine Emling has a professional background in urban and regional planning and their impacts on the environment. She supports the role of education and the political process in effecting change. She has been resident in London for ten years.

Economics PAN moderating team:

Deirdre Shay Kamlani  - expert member

Carol Moore  - expert member

Deirdre Shay Kamlani is a 22-year veteran of JP Morgan, where she held increasingly senior positions in investment banking, loan syndications, institutional asset management and credit risk policy in New York, London and Hong Kong. In 2008, she was awarded a PhD from the London School of Economics, where she focused her research on global financial crises and the evolution of bargaining regimes between governments and private sector actors. Her work was intended to inform policymakers seeking to optimize the crisis resolution process and reduce the often heavy costs borne by investors, debtors and taxpayers. Dr Kamlani was actively involved in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign as a member of Obama for America’s International Finance Committee. She lives in London and is currently working on a book entitled Debtor States vs. Private Creditors.

Website design and development team:

Julie Berk has worked in IT for over 25 years using a range of hardware and software for a number of different organizations and volunteered with Democrats Abroad UK maintaining their membership database for the last 8 years. She is now looking after our Drupal system. Email her with any technical queries about the site.

Eric Lee has been a writer of books and news articles for many years and is active in helping organizations to build their websites. He is the founding editor of the 'Labour Start' website and for nearly forty years has been a political activist.

Brett McHargue is a software developer. He is originally from Texas but is now living in London. He is a longtime Democrat.