Current Position:
Director of Education and Leadership Training
Year attended Midwest Academy:
What were some of your favorite memories and activities while attending Midwest Academy session or Internship?
My first encounter with the Midwest Academy was as a trainer for the U.S. Student Association. I had been working as a full time student organizer for two years when I was asked to become a GROW (Grassroots Organizing Weekend) trainer for USSA. About 12 of us got the amazing opportunity to spend a week with Jackie Kendall and Steve Max learning to teach a student-oriented and somewhat condensed version of the Midwest Academy curriculum. It was a major turning point for me as an organizer and as a trainer.
My favorite memories include the amazing feedback I got from Steve and from my peers when I had the chance to practice teach the training modules. I loved the informal evening conversations about organizing, and I'll never forget Jackie's stories about Saul Alinsky, the history of direct action organizing, and the formation of the Academy.
Soon after that transformational week, I attended the full Midwest Academy training with Kim Bobo and Steve as my trainers. The snapshots in my mind from that experience include morning singing led by Kim, Steve's emotional telling of the story of the Hollywood blacklist before showing us "Salt of the Earth," and a late night conversation about the UMWA strike at Pittston with some union organizers Kim had invited to join us.
How has the training at Midwest Academy prepared you for your current position?
Soon after I graduated from the Academy, I became a full time organizer for the labor movement. I was a member of the UAW District 65 in my organizing job at NARAL, and a friend persuaded that me to become a union organizer. I have been in the labor movement ever since, first as an organizer and now as an educator.
The Midwest Academy gave me two incredible gifts that I am still grateful for. First, the Academy gave me the skills to teach others how to organize. Every training program I conduct in AFSCME includes the basic organizing lessons that are at the core of the Midwest Academy training: that people are willing to take action on issues when they are directly affected by them, and that people will do amazing things if they are asked. Second, the Midwest Academy training gave me a theoretical framework for the knowledge I had gained as a front line organizer. I especially appreciate the clear understanding of the relations of power that I gained from the Academy. The steps of a one-on-one recruitment conversation and the strategy chart are hard wired into my memory.
Do you currently use the Midwest Academy Strategy chart in your current work?
I use the strategy chart all the time. In fact, when I first came to AFSCME I went to my supervisor (another Midwest Academy family member named Paul Booth) and suggested that we add an exercise to our steward training curriculum that would incorporate the lessons of the strategy chart.
Do you have a success - that in part is due to your training at Midwest Academy?
Back in 1991, when I was first working as a union organizer, I helped a group of nursing home workers plan and execute a "march on the boss." A group of them went to the director's office during shift change and demanded that he recognize their union. Of course, he refused. But the impact of the event was amazing because the workers had a face to face confrontation with the person who had the power to give them what they wanted. That night, I wrote a letter to Steve telling him about my first direct action organizing experience with the union. It was not a new tactic for the union or for the labor movement, of course, but my training at the Academy helped me understand how to pull it off and why it was a powerful tactic.
Please tell us about your professional achievements and community involvements?
I feel lucky to have a job doing what I love: helping union activists develop the skills and knowledge they need to strengthen their organizations, build political power, and organize new members.
Anything you'd like to say to future Midwest Academy students?
There are lots of opportunities for organizers in the labor movement!
