Maryland PIRG Staff

Dan Herb is a Campus Organizer for Maryland PIRG (MaryPIRG) at the University of Maryland College Park. As a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Herb worked with California PIRG (CALPIRG) as the Chapter Chair at UCSB and the Vice Chair of CALPIRG's statewide student board. He worked with the New Voter's Project in 2010 to help register over 7,800 youth voters at UCSB, the most in any college community in California, and also activated the youth movement against Proposition 23 gathering over 5,000 'pledges to vote no' from students on campus. He also worked closely with state and federal organizations to continue the fight for the Cal Grant in California, helping low income students stay in school. Herb graduated in 2011 with a degree in Political Science and Economics.

As a campus organizer, Herb runs the internship program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Over 40 students have enrolled in our internship course, gaining grassroots experience outside the classroom and make a difference on public interest issues in their community. *The chapter's main focuses so far have been around the issues of poverty, sustainability, and civic engagement. MaryPIRG students hosted the Resolve to Fight Poverty conference where 100 students from across the country came together with policy experts in the field to discuss ways to help fight poverty in their local communities. The chapter has collected 1,400 surveys from students on campus to demonstrate 94% interest in seeing more accessibility to reusable water bottle refilling stations. Finally, MaryPIRG students collected over 750 new voter registrations this Fall, doubling the number of new registered voters compared to 2009.