Our Team
Benjamin D. Singer CEO | St. Louis
Benjamin D. Singer, the CEO of Show Me Integrity, has worked with Republican, Democratic, and independent reformers since 2012 on local, state, and federal advocacy campaigns to create a more effective, ethical government of, by, and for the people. He has worked on ethics, campaign finance, redistricting, and electoral reforms with leaders across the political spectrum including Sen. John Danforth, Sen. Rob Schaaf, and Tishaura Jones. His work has been featured in TV, radio, and newspaper outlets across the nation.
In 2021 Show Me Integrity won the American Civic Collaboration Award, which celebrates partnerships that strengthen America, for the organization’s work on a project that brought together an unlikely duo: Republican former Governor Matt Blunt and Democratic former Secretary of State Jason Kander, two military veterans who fought to defend democracy and then came home to administer it as secretaries of state.
In 2016 Benjamin was the National Campaign Director for a bipartisan PAC to elect reformers, co-founded by Republican strategist Mark McKinnon and Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. Benjamin came back home to Missouri in 2018 to serve as the Communications Director for Clean Missouri, which won a statewide ballot initiative with 62% of the vote and majorities in all 34 state senate districts. In 2020 he helped lead the St. Louis Approves campaign, which won with 68% to make St. Louis City elections nonpartisan, forcing candidates to win a true majority of the vote—not just one neighborhood, political party, or skin color.
In 2022, Show Me Integrity passed another ballot measure, Proposition R for Reform, to decrease conflicts of interest in St. Louis City government. It was the first citizen initiative to modernize the City Charter in over 80 years.
To save St. Louisans the question, Benjamin is a graduate of Parkway Central, and attended Northwestern University as a National Merit Scholar. When not reforming government, Benjamin is a leader in the Jewish community and enjoys performing, including in six shows at the Muny when he was younger. He is also an award-winning filmmaker. If you are wondering how he accomplished all of this by the age of twelve, his looks can be deceiving, because he is actually 36.
Andrew Brain Finance Committee | Kansas City
Andrew graduated Tulane University with a Bachelor’s in Science Management, majoring in finance and legal studies. In addition to starting Brain Group, Andrew is a general partner at Marvel Properties, a Kansas City based private multifamily real estate fund. Marvel Properties has been a pioneer of higher end multifamily product in the Kansas City area, dedicated to giving our tenants the best experience possible. As a result, we opened Kansas City’s first smart apartment building last summer in partnership with Homebase.
Andrew boasts an extensive network of friends, colleagues, and partners who all share his passion to revitalize and build upon Kansas City's historic legacy. This work has earned Andrew "Top Connector 2017" as recognition for his efforts in creating relationships amongst Kansas City business leaders.
LaShana Lewis Board Chair, Show Me Integrity Education Fund | St. Louis
LaShana Lewis is a technologist working in the diversity space with over 20 years of experience. She is currently CEO of L. M. Lewis Consulting, a company which aims to make employers more diverse through recruitment, hiring, and retention best practices. She recently served as Director of the St. Louis Equity in Entrepreneurship Collective, an organization focused on building systems of race and gender equity for St. Louis' early-stage, entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Prior to founding her company, Lewis was an apprentice with LaunchCode, which led to full-time employment at Mastercard where she held positions leading worldwide infrastructure migrations and disaster recovery efforts in the Windows server engineer team, and performed computer program authorization checks for leading financial institutions across the globe as a software engineer.
Lewis lends her I.T. knowledge as a technical consultant and is currently serving as Director of I.T. for Givable, a microdonation platform. She also serves as a role model for diversity in technology, and has met with President Barack Obama's administration as part of the nationwide TechHire Initiative, which encourages employers to hire and train people with non-traditional tech backgrounds.
Benny Fong, ED.D. Secretary | Bolivar
Benny grew up in Oakland, California after his family emigrated from Hong Kong at an early age. He graduated from California State University, Eastbay, and began his career as a math teacher. Benny also served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve to utilize the Montgomery GI Bill to fund his undergraduate studies.
He worked in an international school in China for many years before returning to the U.S. in 2017. During his time overseas, he traveled to many Southeast Asian countries with his wife. After earning his doctorate in Educational Leadership, he now works as an Assistant Professor at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. His expertise lies in educational research and supporting Missouri principals and superintendents with their dissertation journey.
Deb Burgess Board Chair | Springfield
Deb is a former educator and retired obstetrics nurse based in the Springfield, Missouri, area. A business owner with a love of travel and helping others, Deb wants to find ways to use her power for good.
Her favorite quote is from Hillel the Elder: “If not me, who? If not now, when?”
Rudy Nickens Governance Member | St. Louis
Rudy is an executive coach, facilitator, educator, entrepreneur and thought leader with expertise in cultural diversity, business management and community development. For over two decades, Nickens has consulted, educated and trained hundreds of local, national and international organizations in workforce diversity, leadership development, cultural competence and conflict resolution. He specializes in efforts to eliminate the effects of internalized racism and sexism and violence against women.
Prior to joining Evolution Rudy was the Director for Equal Opportunity and Diversity for the Missouri Department of Transportation which has a budget of over $2.6 billion and more than 6,000 employees. In the wake of the death of Michael Brown, Jr in 2014 , the governor of Missouri asked for Rudy to work with the Ferguson Commission whose mission was to conduct a “thorough, wide-ranging and unflinching study of the social and economic conditions that impede progress, equality and safety in the St. Louis region.”
Rudy also served as Executive Director of The St. Louis Black Repertory Company and Vice President of St. Louis 2004, a civic organization created to act as a catalyst for community development. Beyond his organizational leadership roles, Rudy owned and operated The Sunshine Inn for years which in addition to having great food was an institution that proved a place and resources for all kinds of community activity from art to politics to community organizing.
Rudy earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. A Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow, he received the Ethics Project’s Inaugural Ambassador Andrew Young Award for outstanding leadership and the Robert Bradley Award for distinguished service.
Amy Cordes Development Chair | Town & Country
After moving to St. Louis from her small hometown in Central Illinois, Amy discovered her skills for community engagement, and educational and medical advocacy. While serving on the Friends Board of St. Louis Children’s Hospital, she led the Advocacy and Hospital Service Committee, serving as the Legislative Liaison between the Board and the hospital’s Director of Government Relations. Here, Amy developed a skill for advocacy and understanding of policy, and the impact an individual can have in the legislative process.
Through all of these experiences, Amy learned to work with people from different backgrounds to create change, and this path has brought her to Show Me Integrity. She is committed to identifying commonality, bringing people together, and working toward those common goals to bring cross-partisan reform to our political system.
Nimrod T. Chapel, Jr., Esq. Vice Chair | Jefferson City
Nimrod Chapel, Jr. is an experienced trial attorney with over a decade of practice ranging from work in law firms to state government and covering a wide range of legal issues. Nimrod is an active member of the Missouri Bar, currently serving on the Board of Governors for the Western District. He also serves on the boards of and is involved with numerous community not-for-profit groups, civic and professional organizations. He is the President of the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP and served as Treasurer of the Clean Missouri Campaign.
Rod is active in his community and believes strongly in community service. Currently, he serves as President of the Jefferson City, MO, NAACP as a member of The Board of Governors for The Missouri Bar and he is on a number of other boards including the Missouri Kid’s First, YMCA, Crimestoppers, Boy Scouts of America, St. Mary’s Hospital in Jefferson City, United Way and Rotary.
Cyril Loum Treasurer, Show Me Integrity and Show Me Integrity Education Fund | St. Louis County
Cyril Loum is the Assistant Director of Venture Development at Skandalaris Center at Washington University in St. Louis and an Adjunct Professor at St. Louis University. He also serves on the St. Louis City Board of Health and Hospitals and the board of Lutheran Foundation St. Louis. Previously Cyril served as Executive Director of Caring Ministries, Inc. (CMI), which serves low-income families, immigrants, and refugees in achieving self-sufficiency and sustainable housing in St. Louis. He has a degree in Political Science and Communication from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and an M.A. in Legal Studies from Webster University. Cyril is a certified paralegal and interned in the office of former Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay. He was born in Gambia and moved to America when he was seven years old.
Adeyemo Sodipo Member | St. Louis
Adeyemo attended the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business of Saint Louis University and earned an MBA in finance in 1983. He worked for A. G. Edwards & Sons. He quickly realized the limitation of advancement for minorities in the financial industry. While processing admission into the PhD. at Wharton School of Business, he saw a business opportunity in the printing industry and was one of the first people to take advantage of the desktop publishing enhanced by Apple. He established printing shops near St. Louis University, University of Missouri in St. Louis and Washington University in St. Louis. He was the first person of African-American to be a Union Printer in the State of Missouri. He was also a joint venture partner with Smarte Carte at Lambert International Airport and has been involved in other business ventures. He has been on several boards and he is also on the Board of Trustees of Chaminade College Preparatory School. He is also a lifetime member of The National Black MBA Association, Inc.
We’re always on the lookout for new board members for both our Show Me Integrity and Show Me Integrity Education Fund Boards. You can apply here.