I’m nominating Stacy Thompson, Executive Director of LivableStreets Alliance in Boston, MA. Stacy has been a phenomenal leader, especially during the 2020 pandemic. With her leadership, LivableStreets has been able to work with the City of Boston and other municipalities to ensure our frontline workers have safe and reliable access to streets and public transportation. She has been working closely with communities of color to better understand their needs during this challenging time and championing solutions that benefit those hit hardest by the pandemic. She is also working with our elected leaders both at the state and national level to create and pass transportation legislation that will reduce climate pollution and create more equitable and just transportation systems. Learn more at www.livablestreets.info.

Alex Mohajer is an activist, author, and award-winning independent American political writer and commentator. He is the co-founder and executive director of Bros4America, a progressive advocacy organization that gained national attention during the 2016 presidential election for its efforts to elect Hillary Clinton, and later organized to elect progressives in the 2018 mid-term elections and this year’s Presidential elections.


Since becoming chair of Stonewall Democratic Club’s Public and Media Relations Committee in 2019, Alex’s invaluable contributions to the Communications team and Stonewall’s organizing efforts have included Stonewall’s Vote at Home initiative (featuring Debra Messing, Kirsten Johnston, Nina West, and more) which registered 30,000 voters to vote by mail. He is a razor-sharp wordsmith whose influence on their official statements, relationships with media outlets, original programming, and public visibility have brought an unprecedented level of professionalism and effectiveness.

I’m nominating Karla Kares. Karla lives in Allentown, PA, but serves on the national advisory committee for Seed Your Future – a nonprofit dedicated to promoting horticulture and careers working with plants. As the pandemic was emerging, Karla (who Chairs our Social Media Committee) quickly saw that the strategy we could take to be most helpful to people was to talk about how plants have the power to calm, heal, soothe and inspire – especially during times of crisis. She has been instrumental in developing the “voice” and content we have shared on our Instagram channel @seedyourfuture. While the pandemic was, as still is, a frightening and critical issue, the gentle and inspiring messages (and sometimes lighter-hearted puns about plants) have been a beacon of hope and inspiration. Check out the channel, and also our site at seedyourfuture.org.

Kayla Kodak. Houston Texas , Rescued Pets Movement – Kayla has helped save 10,000+ animals from the streets of Houston. Great organization that she is the face of

I am nominating Keri Lee from Richmond, Virginia. Keri is a full-time special education teacher in Chesterfield County Public Schools, and also operates a nonprofit coffee roaster that trains and employs people with disabilities. She noticed that individuals with disabilities transitioning out of school oftentimes did not have the training that they needed to enter a workforce, and even more often there were no positions available to fit their needs. She decided to take action on this by launching Thrive Coffee, who, since March, has been roasting coffee to support this mission. Check out her website at DrinkThrive.org.

I’d like to nominate Eleanor Harrison, who works at the Jo Cox Foundation (https://www.jocoxfoundation.org), but has also been an incredible and selfless activist in her community through covid. Even though she has struggled personally this year, she has still achieved three huge community successes: Firstly, she has worked with the Happy Man tree community (https://www.thehappymantree.org) in Hackney in London to bring the community together to save a loved local tree, which also won Tree of the Year Award!, bringing together children and adults to campaign together while abiding by social-distancing rules. Secondly, she has been instrumental in helping create and run the Connection Coalition in the UK – a platform of 800+ community organisations working to tackle loneliness and social isolation, a role she performed uncomplainingly and working around the clock to achieve ( https://www.connectioncoalition.org.uk) – helping to create and run our webinars around grief, bereavement, intergenerational loneliness, and loneliness and extremism. Finally, as our wellbeing lead, she has cared and tended to our whole team without fail, through this difficult year, becoming a mental health first-aider and supporting each and every team member – including those who were bereaved. She is a true leader, a hero and an inspiration!

I nominate Rebecca Lammers, who has taken notice of how to be anti-racist and has worked to try and save her local domestic abuse charity that supports women of African and Carribean descent in Hackney. She has worked hard to get cross party support, and has been a driving force in getting our entire party on board. She has found bro-bono lawyers, organised social media campaigns and has pushed this story into the headlines. She is someone who you won’t see front and centre, who pushes others into the limelight and who credits the entire team, every time. She deserves recognition for quietly making things happen and inspiring everyone around her.


Here is a link to the campaign: https://www.savesistahspace.uk/


Thank you

I am nominating Pastor Kobie Vermaak at Wilshire Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, CA. She stepped up and as a result, so many of us in the local community have had the opportunity to take part in serving our neighborhood in a meaningful way this year. Since March, an army of volunteers have powered the local Food Pantry to feed 1,600 people every week on Mondays while also delivering food on Sundays to the most vulnerable in our community. Pastor Kobie’s leadership opened the door for so many people in our local community to be there for each other. More here: http://wilshirepres.org/Life_At_WPC.html

Allison McGill – Washington, D.C.


Allison founded DC Coronavirus Volunteers and, in a matter of weeks, built out a reliable corps of volunteers who were serving those in need at the initial onset of the pandemic. Whether it’s dropping off groceries to folks who have lost their jobs, providing meals to those in quarantine, or helping DC residents fend off loneliness, Allison and her team get it done.


https://www.hillrag.com/2020/04/03/hill-woman-amasses-small-dc-army-of-coronavirus-volunteers/

Dallas Robinson (she/ey) is an incredible leader! Dallas is a farmer and leads the communication dept for a national nonprofit. Ey are based in Rocky Mount, NC and creates amazing visual art with beautiful content that shows that racial justice is not a pipeline dream – but a reality we deserve. Check out their work on: https://www.instagram.com/thecofed/

Teia Evans (she, her, hers) is an amazing leader! She stepped into a leadership position at a difficult and transitionary time in our organization and has led with courage and grace. She is leading a national organization and is based in North Carolina.

I am nominating Sean Cass, 23, and Victor Rothstein, 21, from South Orange, New Jersey. They are the Captain and First Lieutenant of a volunteer EMS organization which serves our community for free! Not only are they exceptional leaders in normal times, but during COVID they especially stepped up to the plate to ensure our ambulances were fully & safely staffed without delay! Our members and community are safer because of them. They are truly phenomenal leaders, and we are successful because of their volunteerism!

www.southorangerescuesquad.org

I nominate Barbara Wollmershauser, she advocates for STEM and especially STEM for women, in the Tulsa and NE OK area. She is a long time director and officer of the Tulsa Engineering Foundation, and numerous other community organizations

Tami Streib, RN, Fredricksburg, VA

Tami is the school nurse at the DOD Cross Roads Elementary School at the U.S. military base in Quantico, VA. Tami has the responsibility of caring for the children of military troops. Not only does she handle the kids’ regular bumps and bruises but she also must deal with sick kids, parents that send sick kids to school and determining which students must be quarantined to meet COVID-19 protocols. (Some of the parents get irate when they learn that their child must be sequestered.) Her school did not and very likely will not close due to government mandates.

https://www.facebook.com/1980106228931543/posts/2726121514330007/?vh=e


Tami has displayed exceptional courage as a frontline worker in caring for the children and putting her own health at risk every day. She also brings a caring, positive attitude to her work.

I nominate Dominique Walker, founder and leader of Mom’s for Housing in

West Oakland, CA


Her group, (and she was one of the Mom’s,) took over an abandoned house in

West Oakland and occupied it for several months. They successfully were

able to purchase the house and the group decided to make it a home for

women and children with special health service needs.


And, Dominique ran for the Berkeley Housing Board, and won.


She is a young, single parent African American woman and continues to

participate in the movement in West Oakland.

Mike Long is the President of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina (PEFNC). In the past few years since he began leading PEFNC, he’s moved mountains. Mike set the singular focus—empowering parents to make the best educational choices for their own children—and trusts the staff (including myself) to execute under this vision.


The results speak for themself: Mike built bridges to new partners and set fundraising efforts, put PEFNC in the national spotlight—like when we hosted The Secretary of Education at the PEFNC office (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjE7Vmw1XR8)—and led the charge at the North Carolina General Assembly to increase funding and expand eligibility for for state scholarship programs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oykKV9KUbs). In hand, Mike led us to key house and senate districts across the state, where we educated thousands of parents about their candidates’ platforms; enough to flip districts that pollsters deemed “unflippable.”


Post Script: Shout out to our Executive VP, Brian Jodice, who stepped up and led us as Interim President before Mike was appointed. We’re fortunate to have these #EverydayLeaders, leading the team work, making the dream work.

I am nominating Joanne Kobuthi-Kuria as my #everydayleader. Joanne is in Nairobi, Kenya and she’s my line manager at Amnesty International Kenya. I call her a leader and not a boss. The reason why I’m nominating Joanne is because, over 2020 she has literally walked with me through my work and she has guided me and mentored me in everything I do at Amnesty Kenya. I am forever greatfull for the support she has given me. She’s such a phenomenal woman doing a lot of great things – check her out here: https://twitter.com/doublexagenda?lang=en / https://twitter.com/joannekuria?lang=en

I’d like to nominate Kim Batty, the single mother who co-founded the amazing Hastings Emergency Action Reslience Team (HEART) in the historic UK town of Hastings. It touched a nerve locally and saw over 1000 volunteers step up to help people in the town cope with the imnpacts of COVID-19 with food shopping, deliveries, driving keyworkers to NHS hospitals (frree of charge), collecting medications – even dog-walking! Organising all this has been a super-human teamwork effort but eKi has been there every step of the way, writing volunteer guidelines, designing websites, helping develop databases (all with the help of Nationbuilder!) and much, much more.


HEART is still very much going and is now developing into a permanent, flexible volunteer workforce supporting a host of different charity and voluntary organisations with their work across our town, keeping opur community safe and healthy and spirits as high as can be expected.


It’s working, too! Hastings has one of the lowest incidence rates for Coronavirus in the UK and research is showing that an important aspect of that has been the scale and efficacy of the volunteer response which has enabled people here to observe the lockdown rules while still keeping things going, staying safe and looking after their neighbours.


So go Kim! She’s a wonder, and would thoroughly deserve some recognition for all her hard work.

I proudly nominate Ben Lopez as one of our country’s AMAZING #Everyday leaders.


Mr. Lopez is the Executive director of NALIP – the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. The organization was founded in 1999 by a group of Latinx producers, scholars and artists who felt excluded from Hollywood. And indeed we were. And sadly, we still are.


I say “we,” because I am one of the Latinx artists who has fought alongside people like Ben with NALIP just to be heard. Our goal was clear: to build a community where we could support our own art. Tell our own narratives. If no one in Hollywood was willing to help us tell our stories, the simple question arose: could we help each other?


Ben has been a leader in this movement from the very beginning. And I have watched him grow into one of our communities most powerful advocates.


Years ago, Ben was the president of the very humble and small Tucson chapter of NALIP. And I was the founder and president of the Phoenix chapter of NALIP. We struggled and maintained a scrappy presence. We worked tirelessly to encourage our fellow storytellers to join our efforts to create content. Some did, others got discouraged, but Ben always persevered.


It comes as no surprise to me that with his dynamic, but humble, leadership style, he’s taken the reigns to race NALIP into the future.


Ben never brags. He cheerleads. He supports. He coaches. He advises. He mentors. He listens. Bottomline, Ben cares. A very, very rare quality in Hollywood.


Buoyed on by his stewardship, Ben works with industry leaders to ensure that the future of creative media in our country is inclusive.


His work is vital. Why? Well, here’s the unvarnished truth. Even as we head into 2021, our Latinx community continues to be grossly underrepresented within the entertainment industry. It’s not hard to see there’s much work to be done. Mr. Lopez tackles these challenges head-on with aplomb, grace and tenacity that few can match.


As Executive Director, Ben oversees a multitude of groundbreaking programs including the NALIP Media Summit, Diverse Women in Media Initiative, the Latino Media Fest and Latino Lens programs.  

Mr. Lopez essentially serves as THE year-round industry liaison for executives and content creators. With a selfless ease, he matches top agencies in the world with Latinx creators. His aim is always to help underrepresented voices find paths to expression. He crafts opportunities to help people move their careers forward. 


In return, he often sacrifices family time and even sleep. But Mr. Lopez is undeterred in his vision. Words alone simply do not convey his conviction and passion for the work.


I point to the following links to reference the incredible spectrum of his vision:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucUHYQ6KTMw


https://www.nalipmediasummit.com/


https://www.forbes.com/sites/veronicavillafane/2020/06/28/in-the-midst-of-the-pandemic-latino-actors-producers-directors-and-creators-meet-in-nalips-first-virtual-summit/#41903a3a3fa3


I’ll close with a personal chuckle. As I write this heartfelt nomination for Ben Lopez – I’m reminded of the countless, countless award ceremonies he has produced to honor others in our industry. But in all these years, I’ve never seen anyone take the time to give Ben an award. I’m thunderstruck. It just hit me.


Wow. That’s an #EverydayLeader. Someone who supports a grander cause for a community beyond themselves. But sometimes, those folks deserve some serious applause too. That is Ben.


In that spirit, I offer my highest recommendation to Mr. Benjamin Lopez as your next FABULOUS #Everydayleader.


With thanks,

Marcos Nájera

American Latinx Storyteller

Karly Warner is the CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT (based in Sydney), a not-for-profit organisation that provides free legal support to Aboriginal people in Australia, who are among the most incarcerated peoples in the world. I only joined the ALS recently, but have been so inspired by Karly’s warm, passionate, and deeply human leadership. As an Aboriginal woman herself, Karly is committed to her community and knows that First Nations peoples are so much more complex, diverse, and accomplished than the news headlines portray. It’s fantastic to see a young, Indigenous woman taking her rightful place as a leader and helping us walk towards a more just, united, and equitable Australia.


It’s been a huge year for the ALS, with the Black Lives Matter movement coming to Australia and lending us unprecedented support and media attention, at the same time as COVID-19 made it more urgent than ever to reduce the number of Aboriginal people in prisons.


Here are some examples of Karly’s tireless work this year speaking out in the media about the Black Lives Matter movement and justice for Aboriginal peoples:

- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/13/essentially-a-cover-up-why-its-so-hard-to-measure-the-over-policing-of-indigenous-australians

- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-21/footage-shows-police-officer-assaulting-indigenous-man-custody/12797886

- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/02/nsw-police-strip-searched-96-children-in-past-year-some-as-young-as-11

- https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nathan-reynolds-died-of-an-asthma-attack-in-jail-his-family-want-to-know-why-he-couldn-t-be-saved-20201019-p566dn.html

Sultan Sharrief is a trans-media artist, activist, filmmaker, educator and social entrepreneur. His interest lies at the intersection of art, business, and community impact. This past year, during the pandemic – he really leaned into helping the unhoused community in Venice, CA. who were profoundly impacted by the COVID closures. Here is a recent article that only tells a tiny fraction of the work he has been doing for the last 9 months. https://www.smdp.com/venaissance-group-offers-new-ideas-for-addressing-homelessness/199231


Very best,

jan

I am nominating Katelyn Johnson, the Executive Director of Blackroots Alliance in Chicago. I have been working with BA for a year aside Katelyn and I have to say she is so passionate about the work that we do that I have to convince her to take time off. She created this non-profit organization in 2015 because there was a need for criminal justice reform. There was a need for racial justice and support for Black leadership in this fight for liberation. I feel so grateful to have such an amazing boss and mentor. I want to make sure she gets all of her roses for all the work she’s done so far and for all that has yet to come! https://www.blackrootsalliance.org/?page_id=103

Julie Coleman, CPTD-KA, started the nonprofit charity, Pawsitivity Service Dogs, when a friend of hers told her the story of how her son was helped by their pet dog. The friend then said that what they could have really used was a specially-trained autism service dog, but there was no organization within a thousand miles that specialized in training these incredibly helpful animals. Right then, Julie decided to found Pawsitivity to help rescue dogs and train them as service dogs for children with autism and others with special needs.

I would like to nominate Gina Simpson of BikeWalk Cleveland in Cleveland TN. She is a volunteer leader with tremendous talent and energy who has built this organization from the ground up. Most recently, working through the pandemic, she has implemented a bike give away and “teach your child to ride a bike” program to get kids riding. So far there have been over a dozen bike give aways with a dozen more planned for this year. Gina assists with “Walk to School” programs that are implemented locally and works in many other areas such as the local greenway board. More information can be found on instagram @bikewalkcleveland.

I would like to enthusiastically nominate Brianne Whyte, a mother and elementary school music teacher in Toronto who has stepped up in a big way, becoming the team leader of For Our Kids Toronto, taking action on climate change for the first time in her life. For her having her first child was a call to action to get involved, and speak out, and her actions have inspired many other parents to follow suit. Here is a recent video of Brianne sharing her story: https://www.facebook.com/forourkidscanada/videos/836117580478837

My nomination is Robert Ruiz of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His tireless work in the organizing of educational reform efforts throughout the state has brought parents to realize their own leadership. This has led to greater amounts of people safely organizing to become partners in their children’s education and have a greater voice in the conversations about access to equitable education and better outcomes. He is a true leader and inspiration for Mexican-Americans in our home state!

Eleanor Latimer from Dallas, TX is leading https://www.montessori-mggf.org/ – globally leading the spread of great education for young minds. Children’s lives in St. Louis, MO, Kenya and S. Africa are already transformed!