Peter Robins-Brown
Executive Director
Peter has been the executive director of Louisiana Progress since 2021, and has spent nearly a decade working in Louisiana politics and organizing. Over that time, he has served as a campaign manager, lobbyist, community organizer, and communications consultant.
Since joining Louisiana Progress, Peter has led our work to pass numerous state and local laws, establish and grow our College Fellows program, and build and deepen partnerships across the advocacy and political landscape, including with the Louisiana AFL-CIO and its affiliates. Before joining our team, he worked for the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, Step Up Louisiana, and the Unanimous Jury Coalition.
Peter lives in New Orleans and enjoys spending his free time with his wife, Veronique, their daughter, Eliza, and their dog, Fiona.
Merrilee Montgomery
Policy & Data Analyst
Merrilee Montgomery first joined Louisiana Progress as a College Fellow in 2021 after she was inspired by the efforts and accomplishments of the advocacy community. She joined the Louisiana Progress staff in 2024 after graduating from Tulane University with a degree in international relations, homeland security, and computer science.
Merrilee also has three years of experience in emergency recovery and response in both administrative and operational settings, has worked in research at the intersection of computer science and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and served as an intern with the Orleans Public Defenders.
With a passion for democratizing data by improving data literacy and access, Merrilee believes that companies and organizations of all sizes and missions should have access to high-quality analysis. It’s a passion she brings to her role as the Policy & Data Analyst for Louisiana Progress, where she strives to provide data-driven solutions for real problems facing Louisiana’s residents.
Merrilee spends her free time playing piano, working out, and volunteering as an EMT in New Orleans, where she currently lives.
LaToya Johnson, LMSW
Campaign Strategist
LaToya Johnson, LMSW, is deeply committed to weaving together her diverse skills to drive meaningful change in Louisiana. Her journey has taken her through roles as a nonprofit executive director, human resources and administrative agent, anti-racist labor organizer, and clinical and forensic social worker. This unique blend of experiences fuels her work as a strategist and movement builder, dedicated to uplifting marginalized communities through strategic organizing, policy advocacy, and social justice initiatives.
With more than 13 years of dedicated service in the nonprofit and public sectors, Toya brings to bear a wealth of expertise in management, fundraising, community and labor organizing, program development, political education, and local and state policy development and advocacy.
Campaign Strategist
Dr. Angelle Bradford Rosenberg (Gelle) was born and raised in Baton Rouge. Upon returning to Louisiana after earning her bachelor’s degree at the Ohio State University, she settled back into Southeast Louisiana living. A volunteer at heart, Angelle is a formally trained cardiovascular physiologist and medical scientist with a PhD from the Tulane School of Medicine.
Named Emerging Changemaker of the Year in 2022 for the Sierra Club, Angelle has served on the Sierra Club Delta Chapter's executive committee for more than eight years, and has led the Transit Equity Team through legislative sessions, campaign development, and the first Louisiana Transit and Planning Summit. She also helped revive the chapter’s political committee, supported volunteers, and built out their youth organizing initiative by advising HBCU students through their education, community care, and environmental awakening with the Sierra Student Coalition at Southern University.
Along with her work with the Sierra Club, Angelle has also been a lead organizer with the Louisiana chapter of Moms Demand Action, volunteered and lobbied with Louisiana Progress, and played a lead role in partnerships with community groups and universities.
Our Staff
Angelle Bradford Rosenberg
Communication Strategist
Hailing from New Orleans, Francis Dylan Waguespack (he/they) worked for Louisiana Progress previously (2013-2016) to expand legal protections for homeless people, including protections from eviction for domestic abuse survivors, expanded eligibility for child care assistance for homeless families, and in-state tuition and campus housing for currently and formerly homeless and foster youth in postsecondary education.
They serve as the lived-experience representative on the Board of Directors of Louisiana Balance of State Continuum of Care and previously served as representative on the Louisiana Interagency Council on Homelessness. Nationally, he co-chaired the 2020 Housing Saves Lives campaign to defeat HUD’s discriminatory anti-trans shelter rule.
Dylan also led media relations and digital strategy components for the 2017 Louisiana Justice Reinvestment effort, the 2018 Non-unanimous Juries Coalition, and opposition to anti-trans bills in 2021.
Dylan is also an accomplished writer and oil painter. Their poetry manuscript Tooth Gaps in the Archives, explores memory, identity, and ecological change in Louisiana’s landscapes. Bringing together a strategist’s vision and a poet’s love of words, Dylan’s passion for justice continues to help shape Louisiana Progress’s mission to build a future where all Louisianans have access to the basic human rights of self-determination and self-expression.
Dylan Waguespack
Campaign Strategist
Vanessa is a dynamic leader, collaborator, attorney, and strategist with a proven ability to launch and facilitate local, state, and independent initiatives. She has halted dozens of state bills and local policies harmful to marginalized communities and reproductive rights while proactively ending juvenile life without parole and winning marriage equality in Nevada.
Vanessa has co-founded and led multiple coalitions alongside impacted communities including the Louisiana Stop Solitary Coalition, Louisiana New Endings & Opportunities Coalition, and the Nevada Teen Health & Safety Coalition. She also co-created an organization with immigrant survivors of intimate partner abuse to strengthen understanding about power and control.
Vanessa launched the Workplace Justice Project at Loyola Law and Employment Law Program at Pro Bono Project to provide legal services to low-wage and immigrant workers. She recovered $2.5M+ in unpaid wages, steered litigation to support restaurant worker organizing, and obtained the first U-Visas signed by a federal judge in the country.
She has served as Executive Director for Justice & Accountability Center of Louisiana, Interim ED for a Gulf South climate justice nonprofit, and President of her union (1652-M King County).
