I just got more info on the Brandeis Alumni/Activists that are coming tomorrow and Thursday.
Here’s the best way to chill and learn from them: facebook event. With a super surprise at the end!
Paul Adler attended Brandeis from 2000 and 2004, where he studied Politics and was active with Students for a Just Society. After graduating, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked for MoveOn.org on the 2004 election and then spent two years at Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch engaged on issues of free trade and development. Paul is currently finishing his third year of the PhD history program at Georgetown University, focusing on the history of economic globalization, transnational activism, and U.S. social movements.
A native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, Jocelyn Berger spent a year in Israel on the Nativ College/Leadership Program before coming of age at Brandeis, through activism in Students for a Just Society, ARC, and the Antiwar and Labor Coalitions. Since graduating in 2004 in Sociology, Politics, and Peace and Conflict Studies, she has worked for antiwar, labor, Jewish community, humanitarian, and international social justice organizations as a fundraiser, event planner, marketer, organizer, and jack of all trades. A 2002 Ethics and Coexistence Fellow (the predecessor of Brandeis’ Sorensen Fellowships) in Sri Lanka, Jocelyn returned to South Asia in 2007 to volunteer in Mumbai, India with the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Jocelyn now works as a Program Officer with AJWS and AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps in San Francisco, working to spark and sustain social change by building a vibrant community united at the intersection of Jewish values and passion for social justice.
Ben Brandzel, class of 2003, has focused his career on using new technologies and classic organizing strategies to build progressive grassroots political power in the US and around the world. Ben currently serves as the Director of New Media Campaigns and Fundraising for Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee, where he is responsible for the online voice of the President and the direct engagement of more than 20 million supporters to drive forward President Obama’s agenda. Ben has worked on 3 presidential campaigns, and served as Advocacy Director for MoveOn.org through the successful 2006 mid-term elections. He founded the student arm of MoveOn.org, and co-founded Avaaz.org (a 4.2 million member international advocacy network) as well as 38Degrees.org.uk (a grassroots progressive advocacy network in Britain). He has advised international NGO’s such as Greenpeace, Oxfam and Amnesty International, and led grassroots engagement trainings on 5 continents. At Brandeis, Ben was active in Student Union Government, Students for a Just Society and speech and debate. He began online organizing his junior year, by founding the Oxfam America Collegiate Click drive — a project to raise money for micro-credit anti-poverty programs that volunteer Brandeisian leaders continued for many years.
Corey Hope Leaffer attended Brandeis from 2000-2004 where she founded the women’s literary magazine “Free Your Voice” and the Brandeis Labor Coalition, graduating with a degree in women’s studies and sociology. After winning the Giller-Sagan Prize for her thesis, “Teaching Brandeis to Transgress”, Corey spent time traveling as a member of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) building schoolhouses in Ghana. Upon her return, Corey became a Jewish Organizing Initiative Fellow and lead the North Shore Labor Council (a coalition of more than 50 local unions) as Director for two years. Corey now works as the coordinator of Hospital New Organizing for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East in Massachusetts, where she recently led the largest hospital organizing campaign in Boston history, organizing more than 2,500 workers at Caritas Christi Healthcare facilities in 2009 alone. She is also a lead facilitator at SEIU’s organizer training program, the WAVE, training hundreds of new organizers from across the country on basic union organizing techniques and currently sits on the executive board of The Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) and the New England Jewish Labor Committee. A native of Denver, Colorado, Corey resides in Jamaica Plain where she gardens and participates in sprint triathlons in her spare time.
Andrew Slack ’02 was a Sociology major at Brandeis who served as a Coexistence Fellow in Northern Ireland, an acting conservatory in London, and participated in David Cunningham’s “Bus Class,” Possibilities for Change in American Communities. Andrew is the creator, co-founder, and executive director of the Harry Potter Alliance where he uses cutting edge new media platforms to educate and mobilize tens of thousands of Harry Potter fans around issues of social justice, personal empowerment, and civic engagement. With a growing network of 60 chapters, 40 volunteer staff, and whose message is syndicated to over one million people the Harry Potter Alliance has leveraged significant media coverage while achieving success on a multitude of issues including creating a coalition of 20 fan communities that raised over $123,000 for Haiti. A former member of the Brandeis-born comedy group the Late Night Players, Andrew has performed for thousands of college students across the US, produced, co-wrote, and co-starred in four videos that have been seen over 9 million times, has written for the LA Times, Huffington Post, In These Times, and appeared on Australia’s Today Show.
Claudia Martinez–bio coming soon