Leslie Graves is the founder and president of

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...

, a nonprofit online political encyclopedia.

Education

Graves has a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland. She did graduate work in philosophy at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. She co-authored "Is indeterminism the source of the statistical character of evolutionary theory?" in the ''

Philosophy of Science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

'' and wrote "Transgressive traditions and art definitions" for the ''

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of aesthetics and art criticism. It was published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Society for Aesthetics American Soci ...

''.

Early career

In 1980, Graves collected signatures to qualify the

Libertarian Party Libertarian Party may refer to: *Libertarian Party (Argentina) * Liberal Libertarian Party * Libertarian Party of Australia * Libertarian Party of Canada ** British Columbia Libertarian Party **Libertarian Party of Manitoba (now Freedom Party of Ma ...

's presidential candidate,

Ed Clark Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election. Background C ...

, for a spot on the ballot. She later served as Wisconsin chair of the Libertarian Party, and as the party's national finance chair.

Ballotpedia

In December 2006, Graves founded the Lucy Burns Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that publishes

. In 2012, Graves authored a guidebook titled ''Local Ballot Initiatives: How citizens change laws with clipboards, conversations, and campaigns.'' Graves' political analysis has been included in the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'',

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

, ''

Campaigns and Elections ''Campaigns & Elections'' is a trade magazine covering political campaigns, focused on tools, tactics, and techniques of the political consulting profession. The magazine was founded by Stanley Foster Reed in 1980. It is headquartered in Arlin ...

,'' and the ''

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the G ...

''. Judgepedia was originally launched in 2007 by the Chicago-based nonprofit of her spouse,

Sam Adams Alliance Sam Adams Alliance (SAM) was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 2006 and disbanded in 2012. The president was Eric O'Keefe. SAM launched three wiki-style websites: Judgepedia, Ballotpedia, and Su ...

. Graves was "busy at that time with WikIFOIA," she did not think she could take on a project the size of Judgepedia. Graves stayed involved in the project as a volunteer and then a consultant. In March 2009, when the founding editor of the Judgepedia project left the Sam Adams Alliance, a staff member from Graves' group stepped in as editor, which led to the decision to cede sponsorship to the Lucy Burns Institute in July.

Personal life

Graves is married to political activist Eric O'Keefe. Olympic rower

Carie Graves Carie Brand Graves (June 17, 1953 – December 19, 2021) was an American rower and collegiate rowing coach. Competing in the women's eights, she won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics and a bronze in 1976. She was also in the crew that in 1975 w ...

is one of her three sisters. In 1998, all four Graves sisters competed in team rowing at the Nike World Games under the name "Team Four Sisters."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graves, Leslie Living people University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) alumni Wisconsin Libertarians Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 1950s births