Shaun Scott
Shaun is the Policy & Field Campaign Manager for the Statewide Poverty Action Network. Together with the advocacy and field teams–as well as Poverty Action’s partner organization Solid Ground–he works to build power and community for policies that alleviate the root causes of economic disenfranchisement. Shaun is a Seattle-based writer and organizer. A member of the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America and an Executive Councilmember for the union Campaign Workers Guild, he is a former field organizer for Pramila Jayapal’s 2018 re-election campaign. He was the Washington State Field Director for Bernie Sanders 2020. Shaun is the author of the book “Millennials and the Moments That Made Us” (Zero Books 2018).
Jennifer Bereskin
Jennifer is an enrolled member of the Qawalangin Tribe Of Unalaska – Unangax/Aleut and Snohomish. She has been an advocate in Snohomish County for ten years. From a young age until her late twenties, she and her family began experiencing chronic poverty and homelessness. As a single mom of a child with special needs, she began participating in the Resident Action Project to advocate for housing justice. This led her to other leadership roles in Washington state, including work with the Governor’s office, the Resident Action Project Steering Committee, and on the Urban Indians Northwest Board of Directors where she advocates for policy and reform related to missing and murdered Indigenous people. In 2019, she graduated from Emerge Washington and is currently working as a Precinct Committee Officer for her area.
Kirk McClain
Before becoming a Residential Case Manager, Kirk McClain was a Diversion and Assessment Specialist for Solid Ground where he connected people seeking stable housing to services through the King County Coordinated Entry for All. Kirk earned his BA from Western Washington University with an Interdisciplinary Pre-Law concentration. Kirk’s compassion for marginalized people led him to volunteer with neighborhood legal clinics, Statewide Poverty Action Network, the WA Low-Income Housing Alliance (WLIHA), and the Governor’s State Advisory Council on Homelessness. While he was still homeless, Kirk went back to school and earned his paralegal certification from Highline College. His volunteer work predicated upon his 5 years of homelessness earned him the ‘Advocate of the Year’ award by the WLIHA in 2016. In 2020, Kirk was appointed to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Governing Committee.
Zahra Roach
Zahra calls Pasco her home. It is where she is raising her three children and also working as a Regional Organizer for Faith Action Network. She is a graduate of Washington State University and Simmons University, where she completed her Bachelors and Masters respectively. Prior to community organizing, Mrs. Roach worked first as a Para-Professional in the Pasco School District before becoming a teacher. She has worked in Special Education & Life Skills classrooms, New Horizons High School, and Pasco High School within Pasco School District for seven years. She has been a WSU Master Gardener, a Board Member of the Children’s Developmental Center, a Board Member of the Children’s Developmental Center Foundation, a Benton Franklin Fair and Rodeo Scholarship Committee person, and a Benton Franklin League of Women Voters member. After serving on Pasco’s Planning Commission for eight years, Mrs. Roach was elected to Pasco City Council in 2019. She is passionate about community service and her hometown of Pasco.
Michelle Jenkins
Michelle has experienced the challenges of incarceration first hand which propelled her to engage in her community as an organizer, a social justice advocate, and a public speaker. Michelle is the founder of L.O.V.E Talks (Ladies of Vision and Empowerment), a support group for women of color. She has served as the Job Readiness Instructor for Seattle Urban League’s Career Bridge’s first women’s cohort, a program that helps formerly incarcerated individuals reintegrate back into the community by addressing areas in their lives that create boundaries, such as housing, driver’s licenses, and employment. Michelle is a member of the No New Jim Crow Seattle Campaign, a community organization that speaks to issues around mass incarceration. In addition to Michelle’s community work, she attends Highline College where she is pursuing a BA in Behavioral Science where she is the Work Study Supervisor, and the Community Based Organization Outreach Coordinator.
You must be logged in to post a comment.