Iowa PIRG Staff

Gary Kalman directs Iowa PIRG’s federal legislative office in Washington, D.C. From 2005 through 2007 he led the legislative advocacy for Iowa PIRG’s Democracy Program where he specialized in campaign finance, government accountability and election reform. During that time, he was a leading voice in the successful effort to pass landmark reform of the Congressional ethics and lobbying laws. In 2009, Mr. Kalman was a founding member of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of more than 250 state and local organizations that, in the wake of the economic crisis, led the effort to reform our nation’s financial sector. He is the author of several reports on money and politics. He has testified on numerous occasions before Congress and he and his work have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Fox News, MSNBC and elsewhere.

Prior to joining Iowa PIRG, Mr. Kalman worked with a team of producers to develop the nationally syndicated NPR program, Justice Talking. In a partnership with the New York Times, NPR and the University of Pennsylvania, he led the development and design of Justice Learning, an award-winning Internet-based civics program recognized at the 2006 Webby Awards. He is a co-editor of The U.S. Constitution: What is Says, What it Means (Oxford University Press). A graduate of Clark University, Mr. Kalman has also served as a political campaign and organizational consultant and as an instructor at LaSalle University where he lectured on nonprofit advocacy and development.