Lori Roman, CEO
Lori Roman is the Chairman & CEO of the American Constitutional Rights Union. Her diverse career encompasses the realms of business, non-profit, government and academia.
For over a decade, Ms. Roman served as president of the Salt Institute, a global industry trade association. She is also the former Executive Director of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a public policy organization of legislators. In the administration of President George W. Bush, she served as the Deputy Director of the White House Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the Director of School Choice at the U.S. Department of Education.
Ms. Roman began her career in management at General Motors and spent six years as an adjunct professor teaching business and ethics while raising her children. She has also assisted many businesses and non-profits as a consultant.
An accomplished speaker and writer, Ms. Roman has been featured in many major media outlets. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Administration.
Mike Mears, Senior Director of Strategic Engagement
Mike Mears comes to ACRU after 10 plus years at the Republican National Committee, where he served as the liaison to conservative groups and the faith community. in 2023 Mike was asked to fill the role of Chief of Staff to the Co-Chairman of the RNC.
Mike has labored in the conservative movement for close to 30 years, with stops including the National Right to Work Committee, the Leadership Institute, Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America PAC, and Family Research Council Action. Mike has also shoehorned opportunities to manage two conservative Congressional campaigns and start his own consulting business, Mordecai Strategies which assisted Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin campaign to engage the faith community.
Mike started his work life by starting his own cleaning service, Dirty Business Janitorial at the age of 19. His first foray into politics was when CAOSHA threatened to regulate home based business like Mikes out of existence and Mike started attending meetings to stop them. Mr. Mears caught the political engagement bug then and has never looked back. Mike’s passion is inspiring Americans to engage their local, state and federal government to develop a conservative and sensible voice in their community.
Married to Steffani since 1990, Mr. Mears has lived in the Northern Virginia area since 1997.
Laura Williams, Training Coordinator
Center for Vulnerable Voters
Laura Williams graduated from St. Ambrose University with a degree in Occupational Therapy, focusing on geriatric care for the past 25 years. Her passion for the elderly led her to the Center for Vulnerable Voters when posed with a voting-related question while working in a long-term care community. She joined the Center for Vulnerable Voters as their National Training Coordinator in March 2023 and works part-time providing Occupational Therapy services to Assisted Living Communities in Iowa. She and her husband have adult twin boys.
Tom McHale, Director of Public Policy and Digital Media
Tom McHale is the Director of Public Policy and Digital Media for American Constitutional Rights Union and ACRU Action Fund.
Tom McHale is an author and Editor of American Handgunner magazine. He’s published seven books to date, most of which focus on Second Amendment-related topics. His most recent book, The Practical Guide to the United States Constitution, provides an entertaining, factually accurate “owner’s manual” for citizens of the United States of America.
Tom spent 25 years working in the technology industry as a marketing executive and strategic alliances director. He understands not only the opportunities but the potential dangers, pitfalls, and threats to privacy and freedom. Tom also understands the challenges faced by the heart of the American economy — small business. He’s intimately familiar with the struggles entrepreneurs face dealing with not only the challenges of growing a business and meeting a payroll but counterproductive and often burdensome government regulations.
Tom is a graduate of Emory University with a major in Economics and a minor in Computer Science. He completed his Master’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of North Florida with a concentration in Finance and Marketing.
Lt. Col. Allen West, Executive Director
Lt. Col. Allen West (ret.) is a constitutional conservative, combat veteran, and former member of the U.S. Congress.
Lt. Col. West is the third of four generations of military servicemen in his family. During his 22-year career in the U.S. Army, Lieutenant Colonel West served in several combat zones and received many honors, including a Bronze Star, three Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, one with valor device, and a Valorous Unit Award. In 1993, he was named the US Army ROTC Instructor of the Year. He is also a former commissioned officer in the Texas State Guard.
In November 2010, West was elected to the United States Congress, representing Florida’s 22nd District. As a member of the 112th Congress, he sat on the Small Business and Armed Services Committees.
West is the former Executive Director of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, Texas, and a former Director of the Booker T. Washington Initiative (BTWI) for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In July of 2020, Mr. West was elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas by an overwhelming majority of State delegates.
Lt. Col. West is an avid distance runner, a Master SCUBA diver, and in his spare time, he enjoys cheering his beloved Tennessee Volunteers. He is a legacy life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a life member of the American Legion, a life member of the Association of the United States Army, the Society of the First Infantry Division, the 4th Infantry Division, and 101st Airborne Division. He is Patriot Life Member (Benefactor) of the National Rifle Association and Life Member (Benefactor) of the Texas State Rifle Association. West is an inductee into the University of Tennessee Army ROTC Hall of Fame.
Lt. Col. West is the author of three books: Guardian of the Republic: An American Ronin’s Journey to Family, Faith and Freedom; Hold Texas, Hold the Nation: Victory or Death; and We Can Overcome: An American Black Conservative Manifesto.
He is married to Dr. Angela Graham-West, a financial adviser, and they have two daughters, Aubrey, a Board-certified Physician Assistant, and Austen, a nursing assistant. He is also the proud grandfather of grandson, Jaxton.
Jack Park, Senior Legal Advisor
- US Army JAG Corps
- Chair of the Alabama State Bar’s Military Law Section
- Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies at the Heritage Foundation
Jack Park is the Senior Legal Advisor for the American Constitutional Rights Union. Since the beginning of 2019, he has been in private practice in Gainesville, GA. There, Jack specializes in appellate and amicus work for ACRU, The Buckeye Institute, the Southeastern Legal Foundation, and others, as well as doing civil and constitutional litigation.
Jack served in the US Army JAG Corps on both active duty and in the Reserves. He represented the Government in appeals from court-martial convictions while on active duty and helped with instruction in criminal trial advocacy and other subjects at the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School while in the Reserves. Jack also served as Chair of the Alabama State Bar’s Military Law Section for several years and helped organize the Section’s annual Military Law Symposium, which was held for the 30th time in 2019. He is presently a volunteer with the Georgia State Defense Force.
After his release from active duty in 1985, Jack worked for the Birmingham, AL, law firm now known as Bradley. During his time there, concentrated his work on government contract and construction law cases. In 1995, he began working for the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. There, defended the State, its agencies, and officials when they were sued in voting rights, redistricting, and election law cases, institutional reform litigation, employment discrimination, and construction matters. For 22 months from 2007 to 2009, Jack worked as Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community. He worked with the Inspector General and the office’s auditors, investigators, and support personnel to monitor the Corporation’s activities, report to Congress when appropriate, and assist in audits and investigations of the activities of the Corporation’s grantees. Jack then worked as a Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies at the Heritage Foundation. He assisted the other attorneys in the Center, including its Chairman, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, working on the Center’s Supreme Court, overcriminalization, civil rights, and civil justice projects. From May 2011 until the end of December 2018, Jack served as of counsel for the Atlanta law firm of Strickland Brockington Lewis. He served as a deputy attorney general for the State of Alabama to assist it in its work on and litigation involving the 2010 round of redistricting and worked on redistricting matters for the State of Georgia and Gwinnett County.
Jack is also widely published. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1977 with a B.A. in History and received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1980.