Dan Kully

KULLY HALL co-founder and partner, Dan Kully is a communications specialist and award-winning media consultant with over fifteen years of experience advising high profile candidate and issue campaigns in over 30 states.

Dan led the media teams that helped elect Senator Jon Tester (D-MT); Congressmen Walt Minnick (D-ID), Jim Himes (D-CT), Kurt Schrader (D-OR); Mayor Ralph Becker of Salt Lake City, and helped elect Governor Bill Ritter (D-CO). He has also advised numerous ballot measure campaigns, from helping pass crucial transportation initiatives, defeat efforts to privatize liquor stores, defeat anti-tax measures, and pass crucial education funding in nearly every Western State.

Dan’s work is known for its authenticity. He strives to capture the true voice and values of his clients in order to best strike an emotional chord with voters. For instance, his breakthrough television ad from 2006 “Creating a Buzz” is widely regarded as one of the most successful in American political history precisely for its creative validation of Jon Tester and his prairie populism.

Dan also served in Senator Bob Kerrey’s Washington, D.C. office and worked on his 1992 Presidential campaign in New Hampshire. In 1996, Dan was the Deputy Finance Director for Victor Morales’ U.S. Senate campaign. Shortly after that he got a job editing and producing political television and radio ads – a position that allowed him to develop into the accomplished Producer and Director he is today.

Before co-founding Kully Hall, Dan was a managing partner at the Democratic media firm Laguens Kully Klose Partners. He holds a B.A. from Colgate University and lives with his wife and their two daughters in Seattle, Washington.

Brandon Hall

A founding partner of KULLY HALL, Brandon Hall is a leading political strategist with over a decade of experience managing and winning the most contested, high-profile campaigns in over 15 states.

Most recently he managed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s reelection – widely regarded as the best-run campaign of the 2010 cycle. Bucking the national Republican tidal wave, Brandon oversaw all operations of the campaign that Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston described as “a top-to-bottom machine that will never be reproduced again in this state — research, media relations, rapid response, television ads, voter targeting, polling. This campaign left nothing to chance because it knew it couldn’t afford to.”

In 2008 Brandon was hired as a senior advisor to Senator Mark Begich’s campaign in Alaska. There he engineered a robust ground operation that propelled Sen. Begich to victory. Before that he oversaw a nationally recognized campaign that gained control of the Colorado State Senate for Democrats. Brandon also served as the Western Political Director and Western Financial Services Director for the Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee, managed multiple congressional races and ballot initiative campaigns, and worked as a legislative aide on the Hill in Washington, D.C.

Brandon runs the D.C. operations for Kully Hall. Originally from Seattle, he earned a degree in political science at The University of Washington.

Fran Dunaway

KULLY HALL Partner and Director of Production, Fran Dunaway is a veteran Producer with over 15 years of experience working with political campaigns and organizations across the country.

Fran has overseen every aspect of production – from pre-production and planning to post-production and editing – at all levels of politics, including U.S. Senate and Congressional races, and statewide ballot measures in almost every Western State. She is an expert in media and advertising with a keen awareness of the needs and demands of campaigns.

Fran has a reputation for making the impossible happen, especially during the pressure packed moments that define political work. In 2006 – with Election Day fast approaching – Fran booked and flew with a crew to Montana to produce an emergency response ad for Jon Tester in his successful Senate race. Under her leadership, it took only eleven hours from the moment of conception to when the ad was first approved and shipped to stations.

Fran served on the Board of Governors for the Human Rights Campaign for four years and was at the helm of Equal Rights Washington when the legislature passed a historic civil rights bill. Before joining Kully Hall, she worked as the Director of Production for Laguens Kully Klose Partners.

An accomplished photographer and videographer, Fran has a Masters of Education from the University of Missouri – Columbia and graduated with honors from Vancouver Film School in Vancouver, British Columbia. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Michael Cross

KULLY HALL Senior Editor Michael Cross is an award winning film Director and Editor based in Seattle. His background is in film production, having studied at the USC School of Cinema-Television in Los Angeles. As an editor he uses Avid and Final Cut Pro and has taught various editing workshops to media professionals in Hollywood. Recently Cross directed and edited numerous videos for T-Mobile. Other clients include Microsoft, Mercy Corps, Alaska Airlines, Minute Maid, GE Healthcare, The Nature Conservancy and PBS. His short film, “Commercial” has screened in over 15 international festivals.

Doug Lyons

Senior Editor Doug Lyons brings to KULLY HALL a hefty toolkit of skills magnified by 30 years experience in television and film. Aside from his award winning editing, he’s also a compositor, colorist, graphic artist, writer, and visual effects supervisor.

His degree in Communication science and minor in anthropology has proven to be a valuable resource in crafting effective messages. And his work on national ad campaigns and Hollywood films is a testament to an ability to deliver high quality, evocative imagery.

He’s worked in NYC, Washington D.C., and the Netherlands. From Hi-Def to the internet; Dutch hip-hop videos to major motion pictures; Beta Max to BlueRay DVDs, Doug’s seen enough to now only work on projects he believes in.

John Gerard

Seniormost Executive Editor, John assists the editors and producers at KULLY HALL in crafting and delivering the highest quality media in the business. He is also in charge of ordering the business cards and was consequently able to choose his own title.

John got his start in the video industry working in post-production at Interface Media Group in Washington, DC. He cut his teeth in the dub room before moving into the edit suite, making political ads for the 2006 election cycle. Since then he has edited and designed motion graphics for hundreds of tv commercials, many of which have aired nationally, as well as many music video and short film projects. His work has screened in numerous film festivals throughout the country.

A graduate from St. John College, “The Great Books School”, with a double major in Philosophy and the History of Mathematics, John is almost guaranteed to laugh at any joke involving transcendental idealism or dialectical phenomenology.

Zack Tupper

Zack Tupper joins KULLY HALL in his hometown of Seattle. He is an adept writer and communicator with years of experience crafting messages for successful candidates and issue campaigns.

In 2010 Zack wrote the paid media program for television and radio that helped Democrats overcome a Republican incursion and hold their majority in the Colorado State Senate. Before that he worked on the communications team for Governor Chris Gregoire’s reelection in 2008. He launched his career in politics in 2006 as a communications intern for the successful campaign to defeat I-933 – a costly statewide initiative that threatened to expose Washington’s natural areas and farmlands to sprawling development.

Zack graduated with honors in History from Georgetown University and is a diehard fan of Hoyas basketball.

Ellen Callaghan

Ellen Callaghan is an Associate Producer and Assistant Editor at KULLY HALL.

Ellen graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Cinema Studies. She also studied digital media at the University of Hull in Scarborough, UK. Besides working at Kully Hall, she is involved in video production in Seattle’s vibrant film community, and has worked on many shorts, web series, and feature length films.

Rhonni LaCroix

Rhonni LaCroix is an Assistant at KULLY HALL. A Western Washington native, Rhonni cut her teeth in politics as a press intern in North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad’s Washington D.C. office. There she helped draft press releases and policy positions. She also worked closely with staff and constituents on state issues.

Her experience also includes online, broadcast and print journalism.

In May 2011 she graduated from Jamestown College in North Dakota with a B.A. in mass communication with a concentration in convergent journalism. After graduating she traveled to Kenya, Africa as a journalism student to document outreach programs in a small rural village.