The Green Party US Steering Committee (SC), along with the party’s staff, oversees and helps execute the day-to-day administration and operations of the party. The SC is made up of seven members plus the party’s Treasurer and Secretary, for a total of nine members.  Steering Committee members must be National Committee delegates, alternate delegates, or former delegates/alternates from their state parties.  They are elected by the National Committee for two-year terms, with a two-term limit.

Arshia Papari, Co-Chair
Texas

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Craig Cayetano, Co-Chair
New Jersey

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Craig Cayetano is currently a co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Craig is also the Communications Chair of the Green Party of New Jersey where he also served previously as co-chair of his state party.

Craig has run for local office several times in Hawthorne, N.J. for town council Ward 3 and council at-large. He received 33% of the vote in his last race in 2023. He worked on numerous Green Party campaigns since joining in 2016.

Craig's commitment to democratizing elections led him to become one of the co-founding members of Voter Choice New Jersey.

Craig has served his community through membership on the Hawthorne Green Team and is a Board Member of the Passaic County SPCA. During the pandemic he started Mutual Passaic County to provide assistance and support to neighbors in need. 

Cassandra Lems, Co-Chair

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Cassandra Lems (she/her) is Co-Chair of the 2024 Credentials Committee, and while she is looking forward to retiring from that position after the committee submits its final report, she would like to acknowledge that the other committee members have been delightful to work with.

Cassandra also serves as Program Committee Chair for the Green Party of Nassau County, New York, as a New York State Committee member representing Nassau County, as a member at large of the Executive Committee of the Green Party of New York, and as a New York delegate to the National Committee.

She ran for office four times as a Green before disgraced former Governor Cuomo took away our ballot line. Cassandra is a former paralegal specializing in foreign patents, but began her working life as an editor of books, trade magazines, and newsletters. She is a voracious reader, a skilled needleworker, and a pretty good home cook. She sometimes sings with a community choir, and has performed in 11 of the 14 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

Charles Ostdiek, Co-Chair

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Charles Ostdiek began working with the Green Party in 2000 as a member of Nebraskans for Nader and went on to help found the Nebraska Green Party. He began working directly with the Green Party of the US in 2008 and previously served as national co-chair from 2012 to 2016.

As a long-time environmental and anti-nuclear activist, Charles works locally on many public power issues and was an integral part of work to have the Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Station decommissioned.

Justin Paglino, Co-Chair
Connecticut

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Justin Paglino, M.D, Ph.D., comes from a medical science background in the fields of clinical pathology and virology, but since 2019 has been working as a piano teacher and as a Green Party activist.  He ran for US Congress in 2020 and 2022.  

In 2023 he was elected a co-chair of the Connecticut Green Party and a National Committee member of GPUS, and is also serving as co-chair of the Eco-Action Committee.  

This year he is the nominated Green Party candidate for US Senate in Connecticut.

Tamar Yager, Co-Chair
Virginia

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Wissam Charafeddine, Co-Chair
Michigan

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Holly Hart, Secretary
Iowa

Elected to two year term, August 2025

Since becoming involved with the Green Party in the late 1990's, I have been a member of my state and local chapters, I have also enjoyed working on the national Green Party's Platform, Media and Coordinated Campaign Committees, and am a member of the National Women's Caucus,

Locally, I served on the Iowa Secretary of State's Voting/HAVA Task Force and was my state party's Lt Governor candidate in 2002; subsequently, the only third party/independent panelist on a University forum featuring Women candidates; and a member of Iowans for Voting Integrity and Iowans for Justice in Palestine.

At the state and national level, I have organized and hosted press conferences and other candidate events. I've been involved in ballot access policy and work of some kind: petitioning for a ballot line, coordinating a ballot line petition drive, managing ballot filing paperwork for statewide ad two presidential campaigns, researching ballot status legislation, working for improved access and benefits for third parties, and served consultant in two successful legal settlements.

Special election, March 14, 2023

Mark Elbourno, Treasurer
North Carolina

Elected to two year term, August 2025