Leader of the Month – June 2026
Shameka Irby - Halifax/South Boston Chapter Shameka has been a dedicated member of the Halifax/South Boston Chapter and has been incredibly involved with the chapter over the past few months. She has contributed significantly to the chapter's current...
Read More »Leader of the Month – May 2026
Sharon Gomes - Norfolk Chapter Sharon Gomes is a reliable leader of the Norfolk Chapter who has contributed her dedication, leadership, and commitment to both the chapter and the community. Sharon has been an incredible source of support and consiste...
Read More »Leader of the Month – April 2026
Tiffany Hunter - Wise County Chapter Tiffany is a dedicated leader in the Wise County Chapter, having taken on several leadership roles in the chapter and participated in local, regional, and statewide events. Tiffany regularly attends chapter a...
Read More »Leader of the Month – March 2026
Alex Cole - Newport News/Hampton Chapter Alex is a dedicated member of the Newport News/Hampton Chapter. He has taken on the role of co-facilitator of the chapter's Fundraising Committee, and he has regularly participated in chapter meetings and even...
Read More »Leader of the Month – February 2026
Alexavier Allen & Olivia Carvajal - Fredericksburg Chapter Alexavier and Olivia have been dedicated members of the Fredericksburg Chapter since January 2025. They have attended several statewide actions and tabled at multiple community events to...
Read More »Leader of the Month – January 2026
Lucy van Tine - Newport News/Hampton Chapter Lucy has been a member of the Newport News/Hampton Chapter since its inception in 2018 and has been an asset and respected leader in the chapter. Lucy is a strong leader who always makes room for others to...
Read More »Leader of the Month – December 2025
Terry Tyree - Albemarle/Charlottesville Chapter Terry has been a member of and fellow with the Albemarle/Charlottesville Chapter since June. She immediately got involved with chapter events, meetings, and attended the 30th Anniversary Grassroots Gath...
Read More »Leader of the Month – November 2025
LaToya Preston - Martinsville Chapter LaToya is an active member of the Martinsville Chapter, attending meetings and acting as a leader for other chapter members. She has been a loyal promoter and attendee of chapter events, ensuring that other chapt...
Read More »Leader of the Month – October 2025
Megan Shepherd - New River Valley Chapter Megan has been an active member of the New River Valley Chapter for eight years. She was instrumental in the success of the chapter's school-to-prison pipeline campaigns and has worked diligently on its housi...
Read More »Leader of the Month – August 2025
Janice "Jay" Johnson - Newport News/Hampton Chapter Jay Johnson has been a torchbearer of Virginia Organizing for 30 years. She was a founding member of the State Governing Board, and wore many hats throughout her tenure, including acting as chairper...
Read More »Leader of the Month – May 2025
Dreame Boyd - Richmond Chapter Dreame is an active and contributing member to the Richmond Chapter and the statewide Housing Strategy Committee. She has participated in several workshops, chapter events, and statewide campaigns, as well as co-present...
Read More »Leader of the Month – April 2025
Terry "Bean" White - Norfolk Chapter Bean has been a member of the Norfolk Chapter for close to a decade, and has been a valuable participant in our local and statewide work. He first got involved with Virginia Organizing when he learned about our wo...
Read More »Leader of the Month – March 2025
Kimberly Dyke-Harsley - Lynchburg Chapter Kimberly has been a wonderful contributing leader in the Lynchburg Chapter. Her involvement with VO has included giving the chapter accomplishments at the 2024 Grassroots Gathering, consistently attending Env...
Read More »Leader of the Month – February 2025
Gerry Ellis - Newport News/Hampton Chapter Gerry has been a contributing leader in our Newport News/Hampton Chapter for several years. She is actively engaged with campaigns on Christopher Newport University's campus, leading annual tabling events fo...
Read More »Leader of the Month – January 2025
Kathy Logan - Danville Chapter Kathy Logan is a member of our Danville Chapter and has participated in a number of workshops, chapter activities, meetings, and events. She is also the secretary of the chapter and provides food during chapter meetings...
Read More »Leader of the Month – December 2024
Hannah Ainsworth - Wythe County Chapter Hannah has been a valuable leader of the Wythe County Chapter, having committed her time and effort to chapter activities. She has provided food, door prizes, photo booth materials, and graphic design items, an...
Read More »Leader of the Month – November 2024
Jen Rhame - Fredericksburg Chapter Jen has been a dedicated leader and member of the Fredericksburg Chapter, sharing her voice to help build power. Most recently, Jen was a panelist for the Fredericksburg Chapter's Restoration of Rights Forum this mo...
Read More »Leader of the Month – October 2024
Johnthan Burman - Martinsville Chapter Johnthan is a leader of our Martinsville Chapter who has been taking an active role in the work that the chapter is doing throughout the community. Not only has Johnthan been attending meetings regularly, but h...
Read More »Leader of the Month – September 2024
We are bringing back our Leader of the Month, and what better way to do that than to highlight TWO of our chapter leaders who have risen to the occasion! This month, we are featuring our very own Brandy Faulkner and Aaron Easter for their work with V...
Read More »“We Fight ‘Cause We’re Proud!”
As I sit and listen to each member of Virginia Organizing talking about what happened throughout the years, I know, I see, I hear Virginia Organizing cares. 25 years of grassroots work for justice in the VA, trying to put Virginia in a good place....
Read More »Leader Tribute | LaChere Griffin-Denton
LaChere Griffin-Denton is a lifelong resident of Hampton. She got involved in Virginia Organizing because, “I wanted to be more active in government. I saw the way my local community was being treated, and I really didn’t like what I was seeing.” Che...
Read More »Gerie Fatundimu | October 2020 Leader of the Month
When a Virginia Organizing intern first stopped in Gerie Fatundimu’s consignment business in uptown Martinsville, Gerie was happy to talk with her and fill out a survey. Five years later, Gerie has become an active leader in the Martinsville/Henry Co...
Read More »Sendy Portillo | June 2020 Leader of the Month
Sendy Portillo moved to Richmond from El Salvador in 2008. She was looking for an organization to get involved in when Virginia Organizing started developing a chapter in the Richmond area in 2019. Before the pandemic started, she helped recruit memb...
Read More »Dave Rogers | January/February 2020 Leader of the Month
Dave Rogers first came to Charlottesville when he was an undergraduate at UVA in 1965. After graduation, he moved to the Tidewater area to become a teacher, but he missed Charlottesville and soon moved back. He has lived here ever since, raising a fa...
Read More »Kel BasAvraham | December 2019 Leader of the Month
Kel BasAvraham grew up in Mississippi, and has lived in many places, but came to Abingdon in their 30s. They’ve lived in various places in Appalachia but moved back to Abingdon about 10 years ago. Soon after that they joined the Washington Count...
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Brandy Faulkner | November 2019 Leader of the Month
Brandy Faulkner wanted to get involved with Virginia Organizing years before there was a chapter in the New River Valley, so she joined immediately when an organizer moved to her area. “I was really excited to see a grassroots organization with so mu...
Read More »Tyran Green | September/October 2019 Leader of the Month
At the Grassroots Gathering this year, Tyran spoke about her experience over the summer as an intern for Virginia Organizing. She and the other interns held a living wage rally at a Charlottesville Chick-fil-A. The police were called because the road...
Read More »Rebecca Sue Brown: July/August 2019 Leader of the Month
Rebecca moved to Harrisonburg in 2010 after living much of her life in Colorado. Due to progressing symptoms of then undiagnosed Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, she had to endure nine surgeries over the next four years. She was mostly homebound during those...
Read More »Connie Wright-Zink: May 2019 Leader of the Month
Connie Wright-Zink of the Staunton/Augusta County/Waynesboro Chapter (SAW) grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. She and her husband moved first to Northern Virginia in 1995 and then out to a rural area in the Shenandoah Valley where the...
Read More »Karen Downing: March/April 2019 Leader of the Month
Karen Downing is a native of the Eastern Shore and its public schools. She went to Norfolk State University and then returned home in 1990 and got involved in service to the community. When Virginia Organizing began to form a new chapter on the Shore...
Read More »LaVerne Jackson – January/February 2019 Leader of the Month
Originally from Ohio, LaVerne Jackson moved to Virginia because of her husband’s military assignment here. She raised her children and worked as a nurse in pediatric health care, retiring after serving for many years as the Clinical Director o...
Read More »Gayle Bracy – October/November 2018 Leader of the Month
Gayle Bracy grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended school in Ohio and Maryland. She graduated from the University of Maryland School of Business Administration. She joined the Air Force and completed her tour of service. She was hired by the D...
Read More »Jerry Hill – August/September 2018 Leader of the Month
Jerry Hill grew up in Southwest Virginia, but he moved to Northern Virginia when he was young to become a teacher, administrator, and elementary school principal in Loudoun County. After 38 years of service in education, he retired and moved back hom...
Read More »Terry White – April/May 2018 Leader of the Month
Terry White, “Bean” to his friends, first heard about Virginia Organizing when he saw a flyer in the grocery store. The flyer explained that people who had had their civil rights taken away could apply to the governor to have them restored. He contac...
Read More »Lisa Taylor – February/March 2018 Leader of the Month
Lisa Taylor’s parents were from Lynchburg, but she grew up in New York while her father went to Cornell University. She came to live in Lynchburg more recently. Her son has grown up in Lynchburg and attended the Lynchburg City Schools. He’s in 9th gr...
Read More »Eric Olson-Getty: September/October 2017 Leader of the Month
Eric Olson-Getty came to Virginia from North Carolina in 2014. He moved for a new church—his wife is a pastor of a Mennonite congregation—but got to Harrisonburg looking for a new grassroots organization too. After being a part of Durham CAN, an affi...
Read More »Nagolia “Goldie” Wells: July/August Leader of the Month
Nagolia “Goldie” Wells was at the very first meeting of the Portsmouth Chapter of Virginia Organizing—and she hasn’t stopped since! “Meghan, our organizer, came to one of my civic league meetings back in 2016,” said Goldie. “A few of us decided to go...
Read More »Tamara Cherry-Clarke: May 2017 Leader of the Month
In May 2016, Tamara Cherry-Clark attended a school-to-prison pipeline community meeting with a friend from work. In the year since that first meeting, Tamara has become a leader in the New River Valley Chapter and a driving force in their local educa...
Read More »Jennifer and Angel Romero: April Leaders of the Month
Door-to-door canvassing. Agenda preparation. Planning meetings. On March 4, all of their hard work paid off. The immigrant rights workshop was a success! Jennifer and Angel Romero have only been involved in the Fredericksburg Chapter of Virginia Orga...
Read More »Randi Carpoe: March 2017 Leader of the Month
Randi Carpoe first got involved with Virginia Organizing in August through a work study program for dislocated workers. Since then, Randi has been a faithful volunteer in the Charlottesville office — phone banking, writing thank-you notes to donors,...
Read More »Jill Carson: January/February 2017 Leader of the Month
Jill Carson, a leader in the Lee County Chapter, was a founding member of Virginia Organizing Project’s original Organizing Committee back in 1995. Since then, Jill has stayed focused on helping real people make real change. “Meet people where they a...
Read More »Martha Woody: December 2016 Leader of the Month
Since 2008, Martha Woody has been a strong member of Virginia Organizing. After participating in a series of meetings with legislators around predatory lending, health care, and more during the 2008 General Assembly session, Martha became active in e...
Read More »Al Willis: November 2016 Leader of the Month
Al Willis first learned about Virginia Organizing through his church, and he's been a leader in the organizing drive on the Eastern Shore ever since. “I want to help people empower themselves and make their community better,” he said. Since getting i...
Read More »Lee Irvin: October 2016 Leader of the Month
Lee Irvin first joined Virginia Organizing in mid-2015 after meeting Lynchburg area organizer Haley Wilson. Since then, Lee has worked hard to build power for change in Lynchburg and across Virginia. "Virginia Organizing provided a great opportunity...
Read More »Trish Philon: September 2016 Leader of the Month
Trish Philon has been a member of the Harrisonburg Chapter for many years and is particularly interested in criminal justice issues in her community. Recently, her Chapter developed a community-police relations survey to learn more about perceptions...
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