Lead Organizer Tom Rinehart joined the organization in September 2002 as a staff organizer, and became the Lead Organizer in January 2004.  Before joining MACG, Rinehart was the Lead Organizer of another broad-based organization called the Rhode Island Organizing Project from 1999 to 2002, where he increased the number of member institutions and won local support for increases in funding for affordable housing and after school programs. Rinehart also served as an organizer with the Service Employees International Union in Providence, RI, (1998-99) and as an educator with the Independent Farmworkers’ Organization of Jalisco, Mexico (1997-98). A native of Spokane, WA, he is an honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame (1995) and has worked in Portland, OR as an advocate and teacher for the homeless and mentally ill. In 1997 he achieved a certificate of fluency in Spanish from the El Puente Spanish Language School of Chiapas, Mexico.