The National Consumers League, a progressive consumer advocacy organization, seeks staff members who have a strong commitment to public interest work. NCL is a national membership organization that protects and promotes social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad on issues including telemarketing and Internet fraud, food and drug safety, and fair labor standards.

To apply for any of our available positions, please submit cover letter, resume, and a writing sample to NCL, 1701 K Street, N.W., Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20006, fax: 202-835-0747, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
No phone calls please.

Job Openings
Communications Associate (full-time)

Deputy Director of Development (full-time)

Internships
Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud Intern Full or Part Time
Child Labor Policy Intern Full or Part Time
Communications Intern Full or Part Time
LifeSmarts Intern Full or Part Time
Health Policy Intern Part Time

Each year, the National Consumers League honors outstanding individuals whose hard work and dedication has resulted in improving the lives of consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. NCL offers two awards: the Trumpeter Award and the Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award.

The Trumpeter Award
The trumpet is not a quiet instrument.  It is used to sound warnings, to mark celebrations, and to announce the presence of special people.

For more than 30 years, the Trumpeter Award has recognized leaders who are not afraid to speak out for social justice and for the rights of consumers. NCL Trumpeter Award recipients are honored for their commitment to raising the voices of consumers and workers to ensure they are heard.

2010 Trumpeter Award Recipient: "Compensation Czar" Kenneth Feinberg

Kenneth Feinberg has been described as “America's Solomon,” serving multiple Presidents and Congresses in taking on the very difficult task of distributing compensation funds to those who've lost loved ones or their livelihood. As one commentator noted about Feinberg, “He's still the plainspoken son of a tire salesman and a bookkeeper, and he seems to truly empathize with the families whose financial future he is deciding.” In trying times, from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund to the tragic Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, where he administered the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund for victims’ families, Feinberg has unfailingly gained the trust of the beneficiaries he has been called upon to serve. He has consistently demonstrated concern, patience, and a willingness to listen and learn from victims. Feinberg currently serves as the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation and as administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Unit. Feinberg is one of the nation’s leading experts on alternative dispute resolution and has had a distinguished teaching career as Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, University of Pennsylvania Law School, New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia Law School, and Columbia Law School. He was named the National Law Journal’s 2004 “Lawyer of the Year.” The National Consumers League is honored to give our 2010 Trumpeter Award to this exemplary American.

Past Recipients:

2009
Steve Kroft
Hilda Solis

2008
Richard Blumenthal
Barbara Ehrenreich

2007
Linda Golodner

2006
Paul Sarbanes
Herb Weisbaum

2005   
Jane Bryant Quinn
Deborah Kaplan

2004   
Morton Bahr
Judy Feder

2003   
Senator Jon Corzine
Congressman Tom Lantos

2002   
Senator Carl Levin
Michelle Singletary

2001   
Linda Chavez-Thompson
Senator Paul Wellstone

2000   
Joan Z. (Jodie) Bernstein
Congressman David E. Bonior
Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher

1999   
Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman
“Frontline”

1998   
Myrlie Evers-Williams
Broad Meadows Middle School, Quincy, MA

1997   
Liz Claiborne, Inc.
Carol Tucker Foreman

1996   
Secretary of Labor Robert Reich

1995   
Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III
New York City District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau
Chairman Kailash Satyarthi, South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude
Special Recognition:  Meredith M. Layer, former Senior Vice President for Public Responsibility, American Express Company

1994   
FDA Commissioner David Kessler
Bert Seidman

1993   
Senator Tom Harkin
Delores Huerta

1992   
Senator Jay Rockefeller
Charlayne Hunter-Gault

1991   
Dr. Arnold Relman
Jack Blum

1990   
Congressman Don Pease
Lynn Williams
Special Recognition: Bonnie Guiton

1989   
Susan King
Congressman George Miller

1988   
Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder
Congressman Peter Rodino
Special Recognition:  Susanne Zwemer

1987   
Arthur Flemming
Marion Wright Edelman

1986   
Congressman Gus Hawkins
Senator Charles Mathias

1985   
Betty Furness
Sarah Newman
Congressman Henry Waxman
Qazi Shaukat Fareed

1984   
Douglas Fraser

1983   
Ig Falk
Special Recognition:  Jane Brody, Penny Wise Budoff, Rose Kushner, Fitzhugh Mullan, Natalie Spingarn

1982   
Senator Claude Pepper

1981   
Esther Peterson

1980   
Lady Bird Johnson (posthumously for President Johnson)
Averell Harriman

1979   
Jacob Clayman
Robert Nathan

1978   
Senator Harrison Williams
Caroline Ware

1977   
Senator Warren Magnuson
Evelyn Dubrow

1976   
Senator Philip A. Hart
Congresswoman Leonor K. Sullivan
Maida Springer Kemp

1975   
Senator Alan Cranston
Senator Charles Percy
Special Recognition:  Clara Beyer, Edith Sloan, Virginia Knauer, Bess Myerson

1973   
Senator Edward Kennedy

The Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award
Named for NCL’s first general secretary and Progressive Era pioneer, Florence Kelley, the consumer leadership award is given to individuals, who in the spirit of NCL’s early leader, at a grass-roots level, have willingly given of their time, passion, and energy to important causes that may not be popular. Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award recipients are honored for their commitment to social justice for consumers and workers, their vision, their activism, and their dedication.

In the spirit of NCL’s first general secretary and Progressive Era pioneer Florence Kelley, the Consumer Leadership Award is given to individuals, who at the grassroots level willingly give of their time, passion, and energy to important causes that may not be popular. The Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award recipients are honored for their commitment to social justice for consumers and workers, and for their vision, activism, and dedication.

Past Recipients –
2006    Pastor Herrera, Jr.
2005    James B. Leonard, Claire White
2004    Brandolyn Clanton Pinkston
2003    Mary Gardiner Jones, Jane Delgado
2002    Florence Rice
2001    Ken McEldowney
2000    Jack Blum
1999    Evelyn Dubrow
1998    Rosella Bannister
1997    Esther Shapiro
1996    Ruth Jordan
1995    Erma Angevine

Sally Greenberg
Executive Director, National Consumers League

Sally Greenberg joined the National Consumers League as Executive Director on October 1, 2007. The League’s focus is on five key priority areas: fraud, child labor, LifeSmarts, health care, especially the safe use of medications and medication adherence, and food safety and nutrition. Sally has testified numerous times before Congress on consumer protection issues, including on product safety, fraud, excessive fees on car rentals, consumer rip-offs in calling cards and in support of protections for farmworker children. Sally is our primary spokesperson on a variety of issues.

Sally came to NCL from Consumers Union (CU), where she worked from 1997-2007 on product liability and food safety issues, along with auto and product safety. Previously, Sally worked at the U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Claims Settlement Commission and prior to that, she spent a decade serving as the Eastern States Civil Rights Counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, based in Boston.

Sally was president of the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts and the Women’s Bar Foundation, and served on several gubernatorial commissions in Massachusetts. She served as co-president of the Alice Deal Middle School PTA in Washington DC from 2007-9 and on the board of Cap City Little League. Currently Sally continues to serve on the board of directors of the Alliance for Justice, and HALT, an organization whose mission is the protection of the rights of consumers in their interactions with lawyers and the legal system. Since 1994, Sally has also served on the board of directors of Trillium Asset Management, the oldest and largest investment management firm dedicated to socially responsible investing.

Larry Bostian
Vice President, Development

Larry Bostian came to NCL in October 1995 after serving for four years in development at Public Citizen. Larry works closely with the executive director, board, and staff to oversee all aspects of fundraising, including identifying new funding sources, cultivating strong relationships with funders, developing proposals and appeals as needed, and thinking strategically about the organization and its programs.

In addition to his development work at Public Citizen, Larry has nearly 30 years of nonprofit management and fundraising experience, including stints at Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee, the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies, and George Mason University’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Resolution in Fairfax, VA.

Larry is a 1973 graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and he is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington.

Courtney Brein
Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

Courtney Brein joined the National Consumers League in August 2009.  She works on a variety of food safety, nutrition, and alcohol-related issues, ranging from truth in food advertising to binge drinking reduction on college campuses.  Courtney represents NCL in the Make Our Food Safe Coalition, a group of organizations working to pass legislation that would improve the food safety system in the United States, and on the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA), which advocates national policies and programs to promote healthy eating and physical activity.

Courtney came to the League from the Division of Health Policy at the New York Academy of Medicine, where she focused on disease prevention and health promotion.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Princeton University.  As a Princeton student, she conducted award-winning, independent research on the experience of overweight American children and the medicalization of the obesity epidemic in the contemporary United States.

John Breyault
Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

John joined the National Consumers League in September 2008. John’s focus at NCL is on advocating for stronger consumer protections before Congress and federal agencies on issues related to telecommunications, fraud, technology, and other consumer concerns. In addition, John manages NCL’s Fraud Center and coordinates the Alliance Against Fraud coalition. John is also Research Director for the Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC), a project of NCL. In his role with TRAC, John advocates on behalf of residential consumers of wireline, wireless, VoIP, and other IP-enabled communications services.

Prior to coming to NCL, John spent five years as director of research at Amplify Public Affairs, where he helped launch the firm’s Web 2.0-based public affairs practice and focused on producing actionable public policy research. Earlier in his career, John worked at Sprint in its International Carrier Services Division and at the American Center for Polish Culture in Washington, DC.

John was a member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee from 2005 to 2007 and served on the Board of the Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless. He is a graduate of George Mason University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in International Relations.


Rebecca Burkholder
Vice President of Health Policy

Rebecca Burkholder, who joined the National Consumers League in 2001, is Vice President of Health Policy, coordinating the League’s work on various health care issues, including safe use of medication, patient safety, doctor-patient communication, and direct-to-consumer advertising. She is responsible for research on these issues producing consumer information and advocating for system changes. She also coordinates the SOS Rx Coalition, a broad-based coalition dedicated to improving outpatient medication safety. As Vice President of Health Policy, Rebecca regularly testifies before U.S. government agencies on consumer health issues and speaks at conferences across North America. Rebecca serves on the board of governors, National Patient Safety Foundation.

Before joining the League, Rebecca worked as a health care attorney for the law firm of Reed Smith Shaw and McClay in Washington, DC. At Reed Smith, she counseled a variety of clients on a wide range of health care issues. Rebecca graduated with high honors from Georgetown Law Center, and she is a member of the Washington, DC bar.

Lisa Hertzberg
LifeSmarts Program Director

Since July 2000, Lisa Hertzberg has directed the national LifeSmarts program, NCL’s fast, fun consumer education competition for teens and tweens. Lisa’s primary responsibilities include operating the national LifeSmarts program, strategizing growth, implementing new partnerships and program components, assisting state coordinators, developing educational materials, managing the online competition, and conducting the online and national competitions. Under Lisa’s direction, the program, formerly only available to high school students, has expanded into middle school classrooms across the country, serving a wider audience of student participants and coaches.

Before joining the National Consumers League, Lisa worked for 13 years for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, where she created and conducted consumer education programs and outreach efforts. In 1995 she launched the Minnesota state LifeSmarts program. Within several years the Minnesota program was the largest in the country involving students at more than 120 schools in 1999-2000.

Lisa is a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where she studied communications and political science.


Mimi Johnson
Director, Health Policy

Mimi came to the National Consumers League in August 2008. She is a member of the Health Policy team, where she works on issues ranging from medication safety and adherence to the role of consumers in health reform. Mimi also represents the League at health-related meetings with U.S. government agencies, consumer, labor, and health organizations, and coalitions.

Mimi came to the League from the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, a cross-campus collaborative housed at Georgetown University’s Law Center. She began her career in policy as an intern in Senator Feingold’s Washington office. Mimi has since worked for Washington-based health and environmental non-profit organizations and with the Press and Cultural Affairs staff at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in DC.

Mimi earned a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and a master’s degree in health policy from Oslo University College in Norway, where she studied pediatric preventive care in the United States and Norway.


Terry Kush
Senior Director, Operations and Finance

Terry Kush joined the National Consumers League in January 2009. At NCL, Terry is charged with overseeing operations and finances, strategic planning and organizational development, grants management, board relations, and works with the LifeSmarts Program. Terry works closely with the executive director and senior management to transition the League into its second century of advocacy. In so doing, she lends her marketing background to reviewing NCL briefings, publications, and marketing materials.

Before joining the League, Terry served as an operations and project director for both domestic and international organizations. Terry has more than 15 years experience working for organizations seeking to affect change through youth development and international affairs. She is a strong advocate of financial literacy and has received training to work with teens on this very issue. Terry has taken her commitment to “development through education” around the world using her operations and administrative expertise to implement and manage programs in the U.K., the Caribbean, West Africa and the United States.

Terry received her bachelor’s in business administration with a marketing focus from Howard University, and her master’s in international service from American University, where she studied international development, education, and public policy.

Reid Maki
Director, Social Responsibility and Fair Labor Standards
Coordinator, Child Labor Coalition

Reid Maki joined the National Consumers League in March 2008. In his work at NCL, Reid coordinates the activities of the Child Labor Coalition, striving to minimize abusive child labor and to protect the health, safety, and well-being of child workers in the United States and abroad. Reid is a proponent of corporate social responsibility, including fair labor standards for American workers.

Prior to joining NCL, Reid worked for 12 years at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) where he directed the Children in the Fields campaign, a joint effort launched by AFOP, NCL, and the International Initiative to End Child Labor. Their goal was to end the legal loopholes in child labor law that permit child agricultural wage laborers to work longer hours and to work at younger ages than children working in other industries. Reid was an active member of the Child Labor Coalition between 1994 and 2006.

Reid worked for both daily and weekly newspapers as a reporter earlier in his career. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in American History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Stanford University, respectively.


Carol McKay
Vice President, Communications

Carol McKay joined the staff of the National Consumers League as Assistant Director of Communications in September 2000. At NCL, Carol works closely with policy staff, the executive director, and the development team to oversee all aspects of marketing and communications for the organization. Carol manages print and online publications, media relations, and consumer public education campaigns on a variety of issues, ranging from health to fraud to child labor. Carol coordinates public relations for NCL’s programs including LifeSmarts, NCL’s work in fraud prevention and education, and child labor. Her department also serves the internal communications needs of the organization. In addition to her communications role at NCL, Carol works closely with development and senior staff on fundraising strategy and proposal writing.

Carol was promoted to director of communications and later Vice President of communications in 2003 and 2004. Prior to her work at NCL, she worked as a reporter in newsrooms in California and Montana. Carol earned a bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science and a minor in English literature at the University of California, Los Angeles.

James Perry
Consumer Services Coordinator
NCL’s Fraud Center

James Perry is a veteran staffer at NCL’s Fraud Center. Since January 2000, he’s been counseling consumers on a variety of scams ranging from telemarketing- to Internet-based issues. James began at the National Fraud Information Center/Internet Fraud Watch programs (now NCL’s Fraud Center) as a fraud counselor, speaking with thousands of consumers each year about cases of suspected and confirmed fraud. James was later promoted to supervise the staff of NCL’s Fraud Center, and he regularly speaks about his experiences counseling fraud victims to the media and nonprofit and law enforcement agencies.

As Consumer Services Coordinator, James monitors complaints submitted to NCL via the complaint form at www.fraud.org and serves as a representative on the Consumer Federation of America’s Fake Checks Working Group. At NCL, James works with law enforcement agencies to transmit consumer fraud complaints to more than 200 agencies in the United States and Canada.

Theresa Smith
Office Manager

Theresa joined the staff at the National Consumers League in 1992, working at NCL’s National Fraud Information Center as a consumer counselor. At the Fraud Center, Theresa counseled fraud victims, their family members, and educators, on a multitude of emerging telemarketing scams including sweepstakes and lottery fraud, phone cramming and slamming, and newly emerging Internet scams. Theresa was promoted to supervise Fraud Center staff, while continuing to help consumers avoid and recover from telemarketing and Internet scams.

Theresa later took the position of NCL Office Manager, where she is tasked with a wide range of responsibilities and oversees the day-to-day operations of NCL’s Washington, DC office. In Theresa’s current role at NCL, she assists with supporting staff, the NCL board of directors, and event planning and coordinating.
Theresa graduated from Western Senior High School in Washington, DC and earned an Associates Degree in Business Administration from Washington Technical Institute. She attended Federal City College (now the University of the District of Columbia), where she studied Psychology and Sociology.  


Brandi Williams
LifeSmarts Program Assistant

In January 2009, Brandi Williams joined NCL’s staff to assist with NCL’s LifeSmarts program, a national educational consumer competition promoting literacy for teens in the areas of personal finance, health and safety, technology, the environment and consumer rights and responsibilities. Brandi supports the LifeSmarts program director in the program’s daily operations and assists in coordinating the program’s annual national event.

Previously, Brandi gave a year of service as an AmeriCorps member at Anixter Center, an organization in Illinois that works to enhance the lives of individuals living with developmental disabilities. There, she coordinated an adult literacy program and taught courses in reading, writing, math, and life skills. Brandi began her career in literacy by organizing political activities on her college campus and has since been involved in advocacy and community organizing projects in Oregon and Illinois, as well as at a DC-based international human rights advocacy group.

Brandi earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from DePaul University in Chicago, where she studied community development strategies for underrepresented cultural groups in the United Kingdom.