Lead with Love

Each September we come together as a community to share stories, share power, and share our strength.  This September is not different.  Anti-violence work requires us to have a deep love for each other, our communities, and our collective capacity to do better.

We've been inspired by the Movement Strategy Center's #LeadWithLove Pledge and invite you to join us at our annual conference where we'll challenge each other to LEAD WITH LOVE as we organize, resist, and reclaim our humanity.

When: Monday, September 25th at 9:00 am to Wednesday, September 27th at 12:00 pm

Where: Yakima Convention Center, 10 North 8th Street, Yakima, WA  98901

Plenary Speakers

We have invited national leaders to come talk with us about what it takes to Lead, Lead with..., and Lead with Love.

Mimi Ho (Movement Strategy Center)

Mimi has over two decades of organizing and consulting experience - from building local organizing institutions to statewide and national policy campaigns - with a special focus on organizing low-income communities of color.  At Movement Strategy Center, Mimi has supported the alliance building work of core partners including the Climate Justice Alliance, the HEAL (Health Environment, Agriculture Labor) Food Alliance, and the United Workers Congress.  As part of MSC's Leadership Team, Mimi helped launch the Transitions Initiative, MSC's multi-movement initiative to bring movement leaders and emerging leaders together to build multi-systems social change, grounded in relationships and personal transformation.

Mimi grew up in the U.S. and Taiwan, and deeply appreciates being grounded and connected across communities.  She thoroughly enjoys and gets her deepest training from raising her two young daughters, Olive and Juniper!

Farah Tanis (Black Women's Blueprint)

Farah Tanis is a transnational feminist and co-founder, Executive Director of Black Women's Blueprint working at the grassroots to address the spectrum of sexual violence against women and girls in Black/African American communities, and working with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the nation on issues of gender, race, sexuality, anti-violence policy and practice.

Farah launched and Chairs the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the U.S. ever to focus on Black women and their historical and contemporary experiences with sexual assault.  She is founder and is lead curator at the Museum of Women's Resistance (MoWRe), which in 2013 became internationally recognized as a Site of Conscience.  Farah created Mother Tongue Monologues, a theatrical and multimedia art vehicle for addressing Black sexual politics in African American, African, Afro-Caribbean communities.  Farah is a 2012 U.S. Human Rights Institute Fellow (USHRN) and a member of the Task Force on the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).  Farah is the recipient of several awards for her human rights work, including a 2014 Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. Magazine Wonder Award.

Judith LeBlanc (Native Organizer's Alliance)

Judith has been an organizer, journalist and public spokesperson on issues of economic, social and racial justice for four decades.  In the early 1970s, Judith went to work on behalf of the Wounded Knee Defense/Offense Committee at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota during a time of immense upheaval in that community.  In 2002, Judith became a national recognized organizer and leader in the U.S. peace movement - a central organizer for numerous campaigns and mobilizations as a national co-chair and elected leader of the United for Peace and Justice and as National Field Director of Peace Action.  Judith is an enrolled member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma.  She lives in Harlem, New York.

Jorge L. Barón (Northwest Immigrant Rights Project)

Jorge L. Barón has served as the Executive Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) since April 2008, having previously worked as a staff attorney with the organization for two years.  Jorge's passion in advocating on behalf of immigrants is firmly rooted in his own immigrant experience: he is originally from Bogota, Columbia, and came to the United States at the age of thirteen.  Jorge is a graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University and lives in Seattle with his wife Tyler and their three children, Isabella, Joaquin and Luca.

Lynn Rosenthal

Lynn's mission is to inspire groups and organizations to act to end gender-based violence.  She does this through public speaking and teaching, creating sound public policy, and building strong organizations.  Lynn has worked at the local, state, and federal level, and chances are that she has faced the challenges you face every day.  If you are the director of a domestic violence shelter or state coalition, Lynn has been in your shoes.  If you are a government leader or school official, she knows the hard work it takes to create change.  If you are a community activist or nonprofit leader, she knows you are motivated by a vision for social justice.  Lynn inspires people to focus on the most critical issues we face in working together to end gender-based violence.

Sujatha Jesudason (CoreAlign)

Sujatha's passion for connecting innovation and social justice is apparent in her experience founding and leading several organizations, including CoreAlign.  She works to inspire others to be curious and generous while keeping a sharp analysis on current trends and issues facing a wide variety of movements.  Her past work ranges from community organizing in Milwaukee, to violence prevention in the South Asian American community, to policy advocacy on reproductive genetics in her role as founder and executive director of Generations Ahead.  Sujatha earned a doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and is a leading voice on women's rights, racial justice, movement building and the ethics of human genetics.  When not working or traveling, she can also be found riding her bike, running, weightlifting or reading murder mysteries in her pajamas.

M.L. Daniel (FaithTrust Institue)

M.L. Daniel brings a simple philosophy to her life's work - that all people are social engineers for change. M.L. Daniel holds a Bachelor's degree in economics and a Juris Doctorate in Law from Howard University in Washington, DC.  She also holds a M.Div. from Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry.

She is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  M.L.'s calling is unique, powerful, and vitally needed in the church and world today.  In addition to having her own law practice, she is a contracted program manager for the FaithTrust Institute and the Founder of Spiritual Audits.  M.L. is passionate about working with communities, both faith and others including non-profits, to assisting them to align their theology, values and vision with their choices at places where the secular and sacred intersect.  It is her desire to help organizations and faith communities in the areas of "Spiritual Law," which includes assisting leadership to reconnect, ground and explore their own spiritual essence and calling, boundary violations, ethics, policy writing and reviewing, and more.  In all of these situations, M.L. feels that part of her calling is "not just in the micro but also to help you stand on the balcony and see the bigger picture."  M.L. explains that there are places where the sacred and the secular meet, and she wants to help communities better respond to the difficulties that arise, placing an emphasis on helping human entities and looking out for the spiritual well-being of the larger community, recognizing the interconnectedness between individuals, groups and their communities.

Jamia Wilson

Jamie Wilson is the executive director of Women, Action, and the Media (WAM!).  She is a leading voice on feminist and women's rights issues whose work and words have appeared in and on the New York Times, New York Magazine, Refinery 29, Mic, The Today Show, CNN, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Elle, and more.  She's a columnist for Rookie Magazine and has contributed to several books such as Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop, The V Word, Slut: The Play, When Grace Meets Power and I Still Believe Anita Hill.  www.jamiawilson.org

Workshops

Want a workshop on basic advocacy?  What about advanced advocacy?  How about workshops on transformation, self-care, movement building?  We are working on lining up our workshops to deepen our work on leading with love.  Check out the workshop titles and descriptions here.

Schedule

Monday

• 9:00 am: Plenary
• 11:30 am: Lunch Program
• 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Take Action!
• 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm: Workshops
• 3:30 pm - 4:00 pm: Break
• 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm: Workshops

Tuesday

• 9:00 am: Plenary
• 10:45 am - 12:15 pm: Workshops
• 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm: Lunch and Annual Membership Meeting
• 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm: Workshops
• 3:30 pm - 4:00 pm: Break
• 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm: Workshops

Wednesday

• 9:00 am: Plenary
• 11:30 am: Group Photo and Good-Bye!

Special Events

Meals & Lodging

Lunch will be provided Monday and Tuesday; breakfast will be provided Tuesday and Wednesday.  As always, we will do our best to accommodate any dietary restrictions.

You are responsible for making your own reservations and paying for your own lodging.  When calling to make reservations, please let them know you are making a reservation under the Group Name: "Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence."  Please book early given that we have a limited number of rooms guaranteed at the per diem rate.  Click Here for Hotel Information.

Registration & Scholarships

*Registration is Now Closed*

Questions?

• For questions regarding registration, contact Katie Metzger at katie@wscadv.org 
• For childcare subsidies, contact Linda Olsen at linda@wscadv.org or (206) 389-2515 x205
• For other questions, contact Ankita Patel at ankita@wscadv.org or (206) 389-2515 x207