I've done economic justice organizing for a long time, starting in college.

Got really into labor when I started working at a "liberal" canvassing operation that was horrible to workers.

My now-husband and I led a unionization drive there and we got 100% shop participation, which is still one of my proudest moments so I'm gonna brag. =)

After that, I was Executive Director at Philadelphia Jobs With Justice, a coalition of labor unions, faith groups, community orgs, and students.

We successfully fought on the campaign for paid sick days, fiscally sponsored Occupy Philly, fought to force mega-nonprofits to pay their fair share towards public services (still fighting!), and made the CEO of Sunoco cry on a stage in front of everyone when she was trying to cut retiree health benefits.

That was also the period when I was spokesperson for Occupy Philly and got a lot of first hand experience with political arrests, mass ground organizing, etc.

And also with the toxicity of grifters who come into burgeoning movement space and try to get rich/famous telling people they can be leftist while still being racist, misogynist pricks.

Accountability around that sort of intra-movement reactionary bullshit has been a priority of mine since.

While I was at JwJ, it became pretty clear to me that involvement in electoral politics can be really helpful in creating relationships that advance the kind of social/economic justice campaigns I was working on.

So I became a Dem committeeperson, started getting involved, went to the DNC in 2012 as a delegate for Obama and again in 2016 as a delegate for Bernie.