Mike Panetta is an award winning public affairs campaign strategist who specializes in using the Internet and social media for creative issue advocacy and grassroots activism.From January 2007 through January 2013 Mike served as the U.S. “Shadow” Representative for the District of Columbia, a city-wide position he was elected to 3 times. Mike continues to be a leading voice in the fight for District of Columbia statehood, budget autonomy, and voting representation in the U.S. Congress.Before becoming a Founding Partner at Beekeeper Group, Mike was Vice President for Public Affairs and Emerging Media at Grassroots Enterprise where he managed a number of the firm’s non-profit, trade association, and political clients and led its embrace of new technology for political, marketing and advocacy purposes. His work has been recognized with top honors from the American Association of Political Consultants, the Public Affairs Council, and George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.Mike also has experience working with government agencies in helping them utilize technology to better serve their stakeholders. Working as a Deputy Task Leader for Internet Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as a contractor with Advanced Technology Systems, Mike maintained the agency’s flagship site, www.hud.gov and provided advice and counsel for many of HUD’s other Internet projects. Mike also worked with a number of regional HUD field offices on best practices regarding local government web sites and trained HUD staff on technical issues.Mike graduated from American University’s School of Public Affairs in 1993 with a B.A. in Political Science, and earned an M.A. in Political Science from the same university in 1994 with a concentration in American Politics.Specialties: grassroots advocacy, public affairs, public relations, internet strategy, social media outreach, and 80's trivia