Our Leadership
The Florida Keys Democrats Leadership are dedicated volunteers living in Monroe County to fight for Democratic candidates and legislation.
Bert Sise
CHAIR
I am a lifelong Democrat, raised by union member parents in the 50’s/60’s. I spent 30 years in the transportation industry here in the Keys and when I retired, I decided retirement was too boring. I work part-time in accounting, another skill I acquired along the way at Fla Keys Community College. I served as Treasurer of the Democrat party for the last 4 years and have been a precinct captain for the last 5 years. I live in Key West, having moved here in 1978.
chair@keysdems.com
Sebastian Rivera
VICE CHAIR
I was born in Medellin, Colombia and moved to the US in 1996. I was raised in Miami and graduated from Robert Morgan High School in 2006. I attended the University of West Florida and graduated in 2011 with a bachelor’s in biology. I became a naturalized citizen in 2007 while in college where my fraternity brothers would help me study for the test I joined the Peace Corps in 2012 and served as an Environment and Food Security Volunteer in Togo, West Africa until 2014. Upon my return to the states, I started my master’s in social work and moved to Key Largo in 2015. I have worked with different social work organizations in the Florida Keys and currently work in Behavioral Health Management/Administration. For fun, I enjoy doing CrossFit and attends the Bluewater Church. I strongly believe in social equity and love to advocate for the “least of these”.
vicechair@keysdems.com
Bill Estes
SECRETARY
I took early retirement from New York Telephone Co. in 1998 and moved to Key West. I spent the next 15 years as a PADI Master Scuba Instructor and Licensed Boat Captain. I’m now pretty much fully retired, working some part-time jobs, but putting energy into volunteer work in this great community. I’ve been a Democrat since I was 14 years old and handed out flyers for Democratic candidates in Albany, NY. As a Union Steward I maintained my party ties, working to get people elected that strongly supported working men and women. It’s always been Democrats that seemed to be looking out for the working and middle class so I backed them. Being brought up to believe everyone was equal, I also found support for that ideal within the Democratic Party. While Full Equality hasn’t yet been reached, it’s Democrats that are the ones that will keep fighting for that goal.
Vicki Reeves
TREASURER
Lifelong democrat and reproductive health advocate. I worked as a medical office supervisor, registered nurse, and HIV counselor for Planned Parenthood in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I have worked for local and top of the ticket candidates on political campaigns since 2004. My medical office bookkeeping skills and love of solving numerical puzzles serve me well in my position as treasurer for the Florida Keys Democrats.
Debra Walker
STATE COMMITTEE WOMAN
Debra Walker is State Committeewoman for Monroe County. She is a lifelong Democrat originally from Danville, Illinois. With her husband, Marshall, she moved to Key Largo one week before Hurricane Andrew (1992). They have two grown children and two grandchildren.
Walker has been involved in local politics since shortly after her arrival in the Keys. She served four terms (1994–2010) as an elected member of the Monroe County School Board, where she advocated for strong math, science, arts, and second language education. She also coordinated a 2000–2001 school nurse campaign, sending coconuts to legislators that read “We’re going nuts without nurses in our schools.” A subsequent county-wide referendum served to fund the nurse-in-every-school program, which continues to the present day. An ardent advocate for science and evolution education, Walker also served on Florida’s 2007–2008 Science Standards Revision Committee which brought state science standards from 0 to 16 mentions of “evolution” in the K-12 curriculum.
In addition to politics, Walker is a Registered Professional Archaeologist, specializing in the ancient Maya. Having earned a Ph.D. (1990) at Southern Methodist University, she taught in Texas and Minnesota as well as locally at Florida International University. In addition, she has undertaken research in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. Her current projects include ceramic consulting at Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico, and Aventura, Corozal, Belize. Walker is also courtesy curator of material excavated from Cerros, Belize, now housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville. She is editor of two recent volumes, Perspectives on the Ancient Maya of Chetumal Bay (2016), and Pre-Mamom Pottery Variation and the Preclassic Origins of the Lowland Maya (2023).
Dakin Weekley
STATE COMMITTEE MAN
Born and raised in Key West, Florida, I have spent most of my life in the Keys. I completed my BA in political economy at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. My first experience in politics was during the 2008 summer as a Field Organizer in charge of eight counties across southwest Washington for Governor Chris Gregoire’s re-election campaign. I then spent a legislative session as a policy intern with State Senator Eric Oemig and the last thing I worked on before leaving Washington was Denny Heck’s Congressional campaign in 2010. This fueled my interest in and understanding of politics, leading me back home to the Keys where I have been able to channel my experience into being a part of the Democratic Party since 2011. As Chair of the Henry Woods Memorial Democratic Club I organized a Democratic Candidate’s Speaker Series over the spring and summer leading up to the 2012 elections. I have also contributed to the local community in a myriad of ways, including serving as a member of the Key West Sustainability Advisory Board, being the Treasurer of the Florida Keys chapter of the ACLU, helping my family to run the oldest local-business in Key West, Fausto’s Food Palace, and pioneering Key West in Solidarity.
Sandy Haas
FUNDRAISING/EVENTS CHAIR
After 60 plus years of dealing with winters in Cincinnati and other northern locations, I happily re-located to Big Pine Key in 2015, after “trying out” the Keys for several years on vacation. My partner Gary and I feel so fortunate to enjoy the climate, the oceans and the beauty that surrounds us; I am committed to do what I can to help protect it for my children and soon- to- arrive grandchild. I have been a life-long Democrat and was pleased to be part of the initiative that helped deliver Ohio twice in President Obama’s elections. I am a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and The Ohio State University. I spent over 25 years in a fundraising career with three different organizations, ending with being the Major Gifts Director for the Arthritis Foundation, covering OH, KY, MI, WV and western PA. A favorite area was planning and executing events, an area that gave me the opportunity to host Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; Al Jarreau; Susan Stamburg of NPR; Rory Kennedy and Carrol Spinney…the man inside Big Bird!!
Laurie Swanson
OFFICER – MIDDLE KEYS PRECINCTS LEADER
George Bush made me a Democrat and the current president made me a protester! Having spent a great portion of my adult life as an expat in Saudi Arabia, I was out of touch with politics in the United States. We could only vote in presidential elections. A somewhat redacted Time Magazine along with the 5-minute noontime AP radio broadcast were our main sources of news. On shortwave we could sometimes tune in the BBC, but Radio Moscow, in special English, had much less interference.
I grew up in a small, all white town in Western PA where my father was the Republican mayor. I grew up rooting for Ike and Nixon, but Kennedy and my mother, who was always a closet democrat, demonstrated to me that Democrats were more in line with my core beliefs.
Republicans today are not the party of my father or the people. They are bent on taking this country down and obliterating our democracy in favor of an autocracy and fascism. We have become a country of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation where wealth is power. It is time for me to stand up against the Republicans and all they stand for.
Growing up a girl and wanting to play sports, I was relegated to the ballet lesson. I had to move to Saudi Arabia to learn to play softball! As a kid I volunteered on a dairy farm in northern NY and swam across the St Lawrence River to Canada without a passport and spent idyllic weeks at Lake Erie bathing alongside reams of dead fish that had succumbed to the unregulated chemicals pumped into the lake in the 50’s. I articulated at William and Mary. I remember writing a college essay on segregation with almost no first hand knowledge. In college, I witnessed segregation first hand in Virginia but did nothing.
I’ve lived in the Keys since 2007 first setting foot here in 1969. I still recall my first ride down the Keys—the intense beauty of the ocean vistas is vividly etched in my mind. It is time to stand up for my beliefs. Last Thursday, I volunteered to be the Middle Keys Democrat Co-Chairman. Dems stand for my beliefs: public education is the key to the US future; universal health care is the basic plank in any way forward for this nation; major changes in the criminal and social justice systems are mandatory for our country to back out of its racism; a green new deal will address climate issues, but we need a grassroots groundswell to overcome the denier momentum; big money needs to be erased from our government and politics; voter suppression and gerrymandering need to be stopped; gun registration and regulation without NRA calling the shots is a no brainer; white supremacists need to be stopped; lying politicians should be prosecuted; the internet needs to be regulated; an immigration system similar to Canada’s needs to be made the law of the land.
Helen Dodderidge
WEB STRATEGY
Although Helen is based out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she’s a longtime visitor and was once a brief resident of Big Pine Key. She is also the daughter of Phil Dodderidge, Keys Dems Vice Chair. As a seasoned marketer, she developed the new keysdems.com to better serve the needs of the Monroe Country Democratic Party and blue voters.
After 10 years in New York City and numerous brand and campaign launches, Helen set off on a solo trip around the world. Two years and over 40 countries later, Helen decided to start the rest of her adventures from the base of the Teton mountain range. She has nearly 20 years of hands-on, strategy-driven account management and creative development skills to build, launch, and grow brands across all media with a focus on digital and production. Helen is currently an Account Director for New Thought Digital Agency and is also the Communications Director at Turner Fine Art in Jackson Hole, WY.
