2019-2020

Executive Board

Samantha Steiner
President
Samantha is a fourth-year Public Health and Political Science major from West Palm Beach, Florida. She previously served as the Public Health Caucus Chair and Programs Director for UFCD, and is very excited to serve as the chapter President this year. Samantha is currently working as a Policy Research Fellow for the Gainesville City Commission, and hopes to attend law school after graduation and pursue a career in health care policy. In her spare time, she can be found working at Southwest Rec, cooking up a vegetarian meal, or spending quality time with her leopard gecko.
Christina Pugliese
VICE PRESident
Christina is a third-year Telecommunications major with a minor in Women's Studies from West Palm Beach, Florida. She previously served as the Women's Caucus Chair and the Director of Outreach for UFCD. She also serves as the Director of Communications for the Florida College Democrats. When she's not in Disney, she's protesting, writing, traveling, taking pictures, and/or teaching her cats to play Minecraft. Her dream job is working for an international NGO that helps women and children.
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Franchesca Linares
Political Director
Franchesca is a fourth year Environmental Science major from Broward County, Florida. Last semester she served as Environmental Caucus Chair for UFCD. Outside of the club, Franchesca works as a volunteer educator for the Florida Springs Institute as well as a research assistant in the department of Environmental Engineering. She hopes to get a masters in Environmental Science and work as an educator in the future. In her spare time she loves hiking, gardening, and watching sports
(GO GATORS!)
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Eric Marsh
Treasurer
Eric is a third-year student from Weston, Florida. He is an economics major also pursuing a minor in Portuguese. He is returning this year for his second term as the chapter’s treasurer. His involvement in UFCD began in his first year during which he served as the Labor Caucus co-chair. In addition to economics, he enjoys learning about the culture and politics of countries around the world, particularly in Latin America and Western Europe. Issues of foreign policy are of particular importance to him, as are economic policy and business regulation. Following graduation, he hopes to become an economic consultant before attending graduate school. When he's not managing the club's finances, he enjoys reading about twentieth century history and watching historical miniseries on Netflix.
Izabella Pino
Marketing Director
Izabella is a second-year student from Washington, DC. She is an exploratory major but is interested in politics, marketing, and business. Izabella recently served as Women's Caucus Co-Chair and is currently FCD's Social Media Coordinator. She is very excited to serve as UFCD's very first Marketing Director and is looking forward to this election year. Izabella can always be found on campus with an iced coffee in one hand and a chicken sandwich in the other. She spends most of her time either in the library or tabling and loves to meet new people. Izabella hopes to increase UFCD's social media presence and encourage others to join the dems family. 
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Trey Hemond
public Relations
Trey is a fourth-year student from Palm Harbor, Florida pursuing a major in Political Science and a minor in Mass Communication Studies. He previously served as chair of UFCD’s Foreign Policy special topics caucus and is honored to serve as UFCD’s inaugural Public Relations Director. Outside the club he enjoys playing the piano, competing on the university’s table tennis team, and can often be seen getting around campus on his longboard. He hopes to advance UFCD’s outreach and public image on and off campus during his term as PR Director.





 
Sophia Polisar​​​
Programs Director
 ​Sophia is a rising junior from Arlington, VA. She is a Political Science major with a minor in Spanish. On her spare time Sophia can he found working out, catching up on Netflix, and fostering her new dog! Sophia really enjoys talking about gender inequality and is super social and talkative. She is also crazy obsessed with coffee and a fashion enthusiast! After completing her undergraduate degree Sophia hopes to attend law school and learn more about civil justice, immigration, and nonprofit law. 
Jackie Vanegas
Secretary
Jackie is a second year Political Science and History major with a minor in mass communications. She previously served as the co-chair of the Latinx caucus in UFCD and is honored to be this years Secretary for UFCD. Outside of the club, she loves to play intramural sports, watch (too many) movies , and obsessively drink coffee. Her future goals are to continue to advocate for immigrants and minorities rights as well as go to law school to practice immigration or medical law.