Marian K. Schneider

Marian K. Schneider was appointed Deputy Secretary for Elections and Administration on February 2, 2015. As Deputy Secretary of Elections and Administration, she will oversee and support the Bureaus of Commissions, Elections and Legislation (BCEL); Finance and Operations (BFO); Human Resources (BHR); and Management Information System (BMIS).

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Schneider was a Senior Attorney at Advancement Project, a national, non-partisan, non-profit civil rights and racial justice organization based in Washington, DC.  Ms. Schneider served as the lead attorney in Advancement Project’s Voter Protection Program in Pennsylvania and Virginia working to eliminate barriers to voting for voters of color.

Ms. Schneider has been working on election and voting rights issues since 2005.  Her experience includes many aspects of election administration, candidate petitions, contested elections and voting rights.  She has been a frequent lecturer and speaker on voting rights issues.

Ms. Schneider spent more than two decades in private law practice, including owning her own law practice, and her breadth of legal experience includes employment law, race, gender and disability discrimination, employee benefits, ERISA, election law, commercial litigation, insurance coverage litigation and commercial transactions.

In her home community, Ms. Schneider previously served for four years as a School Director in the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District.  She was also a member and Secretary of the Easttown Library Foundation Board and worked towards raising the funds for a new state-of-the-art library that opened in 2003.

Ms. Schneider graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania earning a B.A. in Classical Studies/Latin and received her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School where she was a member of the George Washington Law Review. Ms. Schneider lives in Chester County with her husband, George Cotsarelis and their three sons, E. Alexander, Benjamin and Samuel.