This Monday Meals, Chaney Turner, Voter Engagement Director of Oakland Rising, was joined by members of our very own program team who shared about who we are, what we do, why we do it, and what we accomplished last election season.
Featuring:
Stevie Gaona, Volunteer Organizer
Stevie joins Oakland Rising as the IVE volunteer organizer. She grew up in Fresno, California and is excited to share her lived experience, knowledge, and passion for justice with the team. Shaped by her family’s history and advocacy within and after the farm worker’s movement, she has always felt a deep commitment to fairness and equity. After moving to the Bay Area for college and earning their B.A. in Philosophy with a minor in Political Science from San Francisco State University they decided to plant their roots in Oakland.
Vernetta Woods, Integrated Voter Engagement Leader
Vernetta joined our team 4 years ago first as a canvasser and then transitioned to our door fundraising team. After a break to focus on school and raising her son, she is back with us to oversee the day-to-day with our outreach team. “OR has raised the bar of my level of leadership…. I am the community. We’re here rooted in Deep East Oakland. The work being done is so necessary and needed. We’re going to tear this organizing thing up!”
Jess Inson, Lead Organizing Fellow
Jess was born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission district and is a decade long resident of Alameda county. They come to Oakland Rising as a Lead Organizing Fellow with over 10 years of grassroots non-profit organizing experience. Jess has spent her high school through college career dedicated to education justice work. During this time she supported in pushing civic engagement both locally and nationally in addition to building youth leadership in SF.