Voter Engagement - Local Policy Lab

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Join the Local Policy Lab for a virtual session with the Texas Municipal Clerks Association focused on practical strategies for strengthening nonpartisan voter outreach and civic engagement. They will introduce their new Texas Municipal Outreach & Voter Engagement (MOVE) Resource Guide, which provides municipalities with scalable strategies, ready-to-use tools, and templates for keeping residents informed and engaged throughout the election cycle. Participants will also learn about Local Policy Lab’s work with municipalities across the Greater Houston area, including opportunities for tailored technical and financial support, as well as additional resources and programming available to local governments across Texas.

Trainers: 

Raven Douglas is a civic engagement and public affairs leader with more than a decade of experience developing programs that strengthen civic participation and connect communities with government. She currently supports the Local Policy Lab’s Greater Houston Voter Engagement Initiative, where she partners with municipalities and other local institutions to develop practical, nonpartisan strategies to increase voter awareness and participation.
Throughout her career, Raven has led civic engagement, coalition building, and community outreach efforts at the local, state, and national levels, including work with the Texas Future Project, the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, and MOVE Texas. Her work focuses on helping institutions build sustainable civic infrastructure and creating accessible opportunities for residents to engage in the decisions that shape their communities.

Laura Wood is Vice President of Democracy at the Local Policy Lab and Director of Local Democracy Strategy at the National Civic League. She leads work focused on strengthening local democratic institutions, voter engagement, and election preparedness. From 2022–2023, Laura was a Leadership in Government Fellow with the Open Society Foundations, where she partnered with cities across the country on democracy and civic engagement initiatives — work that ultimately led her to the Local Policy Lab. She has also advised The States Project on state-level strategies to ensure safe and secure elections. Laura is an attorney who spent thirteen years in New York state and city government. She served as New York City’s Chief Democracy Officer, leading Democracy NYC, a mayoral initiative to increase civic participation. In 2021, she led a citywide public education campaign preparing voters for the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting, reaching an estimated 90 percent of New Yorkers. Earlier in her career, she served as Chief Counsel to the New York State Senate and as senior advisor and special counsel to the New York State Attorney General. She began her legal career as a litigator at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and clerked for federal judges Rebecca Pallmeyer and Julio M. Fuentes.