Episode 228: Activism in Small Towns
L. Joy gives us tips and tools we can use to upgrade and advance our advocacy on every episode. As you work on the issues, how your message is crafted will differ depending on where you are. On this episode, L. Joy brings Kathleen Stuart to the front of the class to take a deep dive into the power of storytelling and organizing in places that are not big urban centers.
Homework:
Listen: #SundayCivics Episode 162: Clearing Up Misconceptions About Rural America https://www.sundaycivics.org/episodes/episode162
Check out: The Winning Jobs Narrative which is a working people-centered narrative architecture for talking about jobs, work, and the economy that resonates across race, geography, and issues https://winningjobsnarrative.org/
Our Guest:
Kathleen Sturat is 2023 Portland Business Journal 40 Under 40 Awardee. She founded Stuart Collective in 2017. With a crystal-clear mission to support changemakers in securing progressive wins, Kathleen works every day to win campaigns, pass high-profile legislation, and influence public opinion.
Kathleen brings over a decade of on-the-ground political work in campaigns and leading PR strategies. As a result, she advises leading progressive organizations that impact all the spaces — from healthcare to housing to infrastructure and more — that Stuart Collective shares with its clients. She’s worked with teams to flip Republican-held seats, secure and protect Democratic supermajorities, and recruit candidates in towns of every size. Her work to pass policy reforms helped shape historic passage of the Student Success Act (which increased funding to public K-12 schools by $2 billion for two years), climate harm reduction, and helped overturn historical injustices to offer overtime pay to frontline workers.
Before founding Stuart Collective, Kathleen served as a political staffer to House and Senate Democrats, the Democratic Party of Oregon, and in leadership roles supporting Oregon Governor Tina Kotek during her tenure as Speaker of the House. Additionally, Kathleen successfully led the statewide Coordinated Campaign effort for former Oregon Governor Kate Brown, contributing to the sweeping success of progressive campaigns in the 2018 election.
An Oregonian and Alaskan at heart, we're proud to report she's a 2023 Portland Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Honoree. Kathleen lives in Oregon with her husband and two young sons.
