The Raben Group

With over a decade of experience in campaign strategy,  grassroots advocacy, and lobbying, Damara Catlett brings a thoughtful, innovative, and thorough approach to her role as principal. In her role at The Raben Group, Damara manages a diverse portfolio of clients comprised of tech companies, traditional civil rights groups, and documentary films, including Airbnb, Discovery Channel, the African American Mayors Association, Google, Kartemquin Films, and The Black Church Center for Justice & Equality.

Damara’s work ranges from developing and executing an issue advocacy campaign, to lobbying to fundraising to corporate diversity work.  She has worked with Airbnb since the nascent years of the company to develop its strategy around domestic lobbying, strategic communications, and partner engagement. She helped manage efforts for the Second Chance on Shoot First campaign, which brought national awareness to Stand Your Ground laws following the shooting of Trayvon Martin. In 2012, Damara led a multi-state civic engagement campaign focused on voter registration and engagement, efforts for the National Urban League; the campaign brought together key stakeholders with state organizers, and in the end, reached over 350,000 African American voters.

Prior to joining Raben, Damara worked as a client strategies manager at Winning Connections, where she managed voter contact campaigns for dozens of nonprofits, political party organizations, and candidates including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Casa de Maryland, Planned Parenthood of Montana, and the League of Conservation Voters in Wisconsin. She also led the firm’s ballot initiative research and outreach, providing grassroots strategy, and working with voter file data. In 2008, Damara joined the Obama for America campaign in Pennsylvania as a canvassing supervisor. She got her start in politics working with then-State Representative Dwight Evans in Philadelphia.

Damara holds a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies and History from Franklin & Marshall College and was a 2012 New Leaders Council Institute fellow. She is a native of Philadelphia, Penn.