THOMAS C. PATTERSON, MD
Chairman of the Board
Dr. Patterson is the Chairman of the Board of Compact for America Educational Foundation. He is also a retired emergency room physician who led a 60+ physician practice serving emergency departments in the greater Phoenix area. It was during this time that he served as the President of the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He received his BA from Yale University and his MD from University of Nebraska. Throughout his medical career, Tom was also involved in Arizona state politics and community organizations. He served in the Arizona State Senate from 1989-1996, during which he was the Senate Minority Leader from 1991-1992 and then Majority Leader from 1993-1996. From 1999 to 2014, Tom was a member of the board of directors of the Goldwater Institute, and chaired the board from 2001 to 2014. He has also chaired the Arizona Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. His community and civic activities, include the Americans for Tax Reform, Goodwill of Arizona, Arizona School Choice Trust, and Hospice of the Valley. He is a political columnist for the East Valley Tribune and a blog page contributor to the Arizona Independent Newspaper.
JENNIFER BRAGAW
Director of Development
Navy SEAL Foundation
Navy SEAL Foundation Director of Development Jennifer Bragaw will be joining us at "A Republic We WILL Keep" as a co-host. In addition to serving as a security analyst in the private sector, Jennifer Bragaw previously served as a Signature Reduction Project Officer SME (Subject Matter Expertise) with Naval Special Warfare, Flag Officer Support with U.S. Special Operations Command, and C4 System Program Manager with the U.S. Airforce.
NICK DRANIAS, JD
President & Executive Director
Nick Dranias currently serves as the President and Executive Director in the Office of the President of the Foundation. Nick also serves as Policy Advisor and Research Fellow with the Heartland Institute and an expert with the Federalist Society, as well as an Advisory Council member for Our America Initiative. He previously served as General Counsel, Steering Committee Member, Policy Development Director, and Constitutional Policy Director for the Goldwater Institute, where he held the Clarence J. and Katherine P. Duncan Chair for Constitutional Government and directed the Joseph and Dorothy Donnelly Moller Center for Constitutional Government. Dranias led the Goldwater Institute’s successful challenge to Arizona’s system of government campaign financing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dranias also serves as a constitutional scholar, authoring scholarly articles dealing with a wide spectrum of issues in constitutional and regulatory policy. His articles have been published by leading law reviews, bar journals and think tanks across the country. Dranias’ latest significant works are In Defense of Private Civic Engagement (Heartland Institute) and Introducing "Article V 2.0:" The Compact for a Balanced Budget (Heartland Institute/ Federalist Society). Nick previously was an attorney with the Institute for Justice for three years and an attorney in private practice in Chicago for eight years. At the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he earned his JD, Nick served on the Loyola University Chicago Law Review, competed on Loyola’s National Labor Law Moot Court Team, and received various academic awards. He graduated cum laude from Boston University with a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy.
HAROLD R. (“CHIP”) DeMOSS, III, CPA, CGMA
Vice Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Foundation
DeMoss holds professional certifications as a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant, and is a long-time member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a FINRA registered investment banker and is affiliated with Tanglewood Capital Partners, LLC, a Houston-based investment banking firm specializing in linking growing businesses in the energy-sector with debt and equity investors. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and holds a master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Chip began his career in the audit assurance and business consulting segments in the Houston office of the firm now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). PWC is now the world’s largest professional services firm and the largest of the “Big Four” accountancy firms. While at PWC, Chip specialized in clients associated with the real estate and energy sectors. Chip left PWC after five years to assume the controllership position for a master-plan community land developer in Central Florida. After obtaining his MS degree in Real Estate Development from MIT, Chip spent the next 15 years working for land development firms in California and Texas, where he developed a reputation for planning and executing complex multi-year and multi-phase real estate master-planned developments. He was involved in project management on a daily basis including working with city planners, development attorneys and city council members dealing with planning and zoning issues; state legislators and legislative attorneys in developing project-specific and state-wide land use regulations; state, federal and local community interest groups who either supported or opposed the planned development; and architects, engineers and consultants involved in project design, construction and marketing. In his work as an investment banker, he has performed extensive investment, cash-flow and valuation analysis and prepared and made numerous presentations to both clients and investors.
JEFF UTSCH
Executive VP of Development
Jeff is Executive Vice President of Development and Treasurer of the Foundation and a founding member of the States United Balanced Budget Initiative Arizona – a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting the Compact for America. He has 18 years’ experience training U.S. military personnel and currently serves as an Instructor to the Navy SEALs / Naval Special Warfare community where he teaches specialized tactical swimming to Navy SEALs and support personnel. Jeff is a self-taught constitutional scholar and historian with a keen interest in the founding of this wonderful country. He started a monthly constitution study group nine years ago that continues to this day. He currently can be heard as one of the constitutional experts for the weekly constitution segment of the James T. Harris Show on 104.1 The Truth FM radio in Tucson.
