I grew up with a single mom in Springfield, MA who did campaign and volunteer management. I was always interested in politics and I am a total news junkie, but I never thought of entering politics as a career. I have been a performer since I was old enough to walk and started working “behind the scenes” by middle school and then majored in theatre in college. I am now a union filmmaker (IATSE Local 490) and I am lucky to say that I was doing what I had set out to do.  I was accomplishing my goals of making movies and art and I was happy with how my life was going.

Then the pandemic hit and my industry disappeared over night. I started volunteering for Greenpeace and the Bernie Sanders primary and then became a national delegate.  Bernie really drove home that he wanted all of us to get more involved and either run for office, or start doing the year round work in our state parties. I took his words to heart, so I started canvassing for Ilhan Omar and then ran and was elected to be Vice Chair for the Minneapolis DFL. On a whim, I applied to NDTC’s Staff Academy and was lucky enough to be selected. During this past year, I dove in head first and tried to learn as much as I could about the digital organizing world and I realized that so many of my production coordinator skills for film were transferable. I know I can make an impact and help get progressive candidates into office so we can make positive change.