Directors and Staff
Stephen Erickson is the Executive Director and Founder of CenterMovement.org. He has a background in American History including completion of course requirements for a Doctorate at the College of William and Mary in 1993. Erickson went on to participate in the Term Limits movement. He is the author “James Madison’s Case for Term Limits” (Policy Review, 1990) and “The Entrenching of Incumbency: Re-elections in the US House of Representatives, 1790-1994,” (Cato Journal, Winter 1995). Erickson has worked as a teacher, in small business, and real estate. He enjoys local theater, where he has been an actor and a playwright. Stephen Erickson is married, the proud father of two boys, and cherishes life in his native New England. Read here about Stephen Erickson’s personal perspective after one year of CenterMovement.org.
Rick Bayan is Director of Web Relations and Marketing. A former editor, staff writer, advertising copywriter and copy chief, he’s the author of the perennially popular advertising thesaurus Words That Sell. He’s also the author of The Cynic’s Dictionary and webmaster of The Cynic’s Sanctuary, but that’s another story.
Convinced that centrists were an endangered species in our polarized political environment, Rick founded The New Moderate in 2007. He believes that his fellow moderates need to become more passionate and assertive, unafraid to support radical action when the nation tips dangerously to the right or left. He enjoys using his gently cynical humor to razz the apostles of greed, special interests, political correctness and ideological extremism.
Born and raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rick graduated with honors from Rutgers College with a degree in history. Finding himself virtually unemployable, he picked up a master’s in journalism from the University of Illinois. Rick lives with his young son in a converted 110-year-old livery stable in Philadelphia.
C. Kozak brings over 10 years of executive leadership experience in the managed care and software technology marketplaces to the CenterMovement.org Board. Formally trained as a behavioral health professional his management and operational skills quickly propelled him into the world of managed behavioral healthcare. Shortly thereafter he was serving as a subject matter expert and business analyst to develop one of the first software applications for that market. He continued to use these skills to cut administrative costs and improve efficiencies through the use of technology. Those who know him well consider him to be a “Jack of all Trades” as he has successfully navigated the waters of many different professions.
Christian A. Seeber is a Principal and Co-Founder of Genius Switch Studio in Dover, NH. He specializes in User Experience Design and Website Development. Genius Switch is a website design and development firm whose core vertical is the non-profit industry. They have become an integral part of some fantastic stories. To name a few The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Matthew McConaughey’s J.K.Livin; Foundation, Pablove.org, and many other just causes. Christian is neither on the left, nor on the right, nor in the middle. He refuses to draw a box around his ideals, and keep them confined to someone else’s classification. His view of centrism is not about being a moderate, rather than completely abandoning the polarizing and distracting concept of “left” and “right”.
“By drawing a divide and forcing people to stand on one side or the other is simply absurd. And it has gone far enough. We need to stop playing that game, and start practicing mindfulness and respect.”