Mentor Background

What is your area of expertise?

Are you interested in mentoring high school or college students, or both?

How did you become interested in this area?

I joke that we all seem to have stumbled into this field, but it's true! My background is in intersectional organizing, from voter registration to protecting abortion access in Ohio, I never thought foreign policy really fit in my purview until I realized that mindset was the cause of so many problems in the organizing space. Nuclear weapons and disarmament are far more intersectional than many realize, and the more we expand that consciousness the wider our scope of activists and organizers can become. 

Why should the public care?

At Beyond the Bomb, we believe nuclear weapons are issue zero – from the undemocratic launch process, to the billions spent every year, to the aftermath of testing that still impacts the health of indigenous and marginalized communities, nuclear weapons intersect with the issues progressive activists already care about. 

What is a current issue or trend that concerns you?

Sola authority, or the President's ability to launch a nuclear weapon at any time, with no one in their way is a terrifyingly undemocratic concept! At Beyond the Bomb we're working on a few things;

• Governments invest in human needs over weapons of mass destruction.
• Cooperation and community are stronger forces than fear and violence.
• The interests of citizens always come before corporations and businesses.
• Communities impacted by the nuclear system are recognized and delivered justice.
• Nuclear weapons are forever consigned to the dustbin of history.

Professionally, I am deeply concerned that momentum will be lost in the fight to diversify non-proliferation. While we are in a catalytic moment it is incredibly important that we accomplish real policy changes that ensure they remain permanent. 

Would you be willing to speak to a classroom about your work?

What themes or topics would you be interested in lecturing or discussing with a class?

I'm happy to talk about nuclear weapons history, from grassroots activism to treaties, current nuclear weapons policy and legislation in consideration, and organizing tactics. As part of our fellowship program we lead weekly webinars and have nearly twenty in our library, on topics ranging from nuclear weapons and their impact on marginalized communities to how to write a letter to the editor.