13th Annual Leaders Conference Attendees – NewDEAL

Salman Bhojani

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:57 +0000

Salman Bhojani

Representative | Euless, TX

Born in Pakistan to a large family, Representative Salman Bhojani immigrated to Texas as a teenager. He worked three minimum wage jobs to help support his family–climbing the ladder from convenience store cashier to successful business owner, attorney, Euless City Councilman, and Mayor Pro Tem. In 2022, he made history when he became the first Muslim and first South Asian elected to the Texas Legislature. Rep. Bhojani serves on the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and the House Committee on Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services. He also serves as the Chairman of the Criminal Procedure Subcommittee on the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.

In his first term, Rep. Bhojani worked hard to deliver real progress for his community and all of Texas. He passed 10 bills out of the House, and 2 bills into law and worked with his colleagues to craft and pass transformative legislation—allocating $5 billion to retired educators pensions for a cost of living.

Arturo Alonso-Sandoval

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:53 +0000

Arturo Alonso-Sandoval

Representative | Oklahoma City, OK

Arturo Alonso-Sandoval is a recent college graduate, attaining a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma. With the help and trust of this community, Arturo has also managed to win his seat in the State House of Representatives representing District 89 in south Oklahoma City as one of the youngest elected officials in the legislature.

Growing up on the south side of Oklahoma City, Arturo knows what it’s like to face structural injustices. From his experiences, Arturo developed values such as learning, resilience, and service, immersing himself in academic and extracurricular activities while always striving to leave a lasting contribution to his community. Arturo is a first-generation American, bilingual, and the son of immigrant parents from Mexico so he is committed to working hard and fighting for progress.

Megan Srinivas

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:46 +0000

Megan Srinivas

Representative | Des Moines, IA

Dr. Megan Srinivas grew up in small town Iowa as the daughter of two Indian immigrants and is serving her first term in the Iowa House of Representatives (House District 30). She is an infectious disease physician and translational health policy researcher who focuses on delivering care to rural and low-resource settings in the US and globally. Dr. Srinvias recently led a NIH-funded study analyzing legislative defunding of family planning health centers that was published in JAMA. She also recently co-led a World Health Organization project advancing access to sexual and reproductive health care in resource-limited settings. She is the host of the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health equity podcast, Stories of Care. Additionally, she serves at the infectious disease expert for Iowa Primary Care Association’s Project ECHO.

Dr. Srinivas was the youngest member on the Iowa State Board of Education, appointed by Secretary Tom Vilsack. She is a national delegate to the American Medical Association, a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity, sits on Iowa’s National Alliance for Mental Illness’s Board of Directors, and serves on the Iowa Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission. In the legislature, Dr. Srinivas has been a leader on reproductive health, mental health, and opioid harm reduction issues. She is a large proponent for workers’ rights, inclusive public education, and regenerative agriculture policies.

Bob Morgan

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:41 +0000

Bob Morgan

Representative | Highwood, IL

Representative Bob Morgan serves Illinois’ 58th District. He lives in Deerfield with his wife, Sonya and two children. Bob serves as the chair of the Firearm Safety Reform Working Group and led the passage of the Protect Illinois Community Act which banned the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the state. He also leads on legislative issues involving healthcare, serving as Chair of the House Healthcare Licensing and Vice Chair of the Insurance Committee.

Bob previously served as the lead healthcare attorney for the State of Illinois where he was instrumental in securing health insurance coverage for over 650,000 Illinois residents and implementing the Illinois Medical Cannabis Program. Active in the local community, Bob is a tireless advocate for those without a voice. He is an active Board Member of the Anti-Defamation League and serves on the Board of Trustees of Equip for Equality.

Ben Bowman

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:36 +0000

Ben Bowman

Representative | Tigard, OR

Rep. Ben Bowman believes that good policy focuses on upstream solutions that address the root causes of our challenges. In 2023, he helped guide major policy and investments in early literacy instruction and passed legislation to strengthen the state’s cybersecurity systems. He also led the effort to improve state-owned transportation infrastructure and helped address Oregon’s health care workforce shortages. Ben serves on committees focused on health and education, and he is passionate about improving government effectiveness and oversight. Ben is the youngest LGBTQ+ person to serve in the state legislature.

Ben was elected Assistant Majority Leader in his freshman term and was selected for the Emerging Legislative Leaders Program through the State Legislative Leaders Foundation. Before serving in the legislature, Ben was the chair of the Tigard-Tualatin School Board. During his tenure, he focused on supporting students’ mental health, passed a landmark hate speech policy, and increased access to student athletic programs and extracurricular activities. In his day job, Ben works as a school district administrator and previously worked for the Oregon Department of Education. He graduated from the University of Oregon and earned a master’s degree in education policy from Stanford University. He also co-founded and owns a small business and hosts a podcast.

Phillip Ensler

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:34 +0000

Phillip Ensler

Representative | Montgomery, AL

Phillip Ensler was elected in November 2022 to represent District 74 in the Alabama House of Representatives. He is also a lawyer and serves as the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Central Alabama. He previously worked as the Senior Policy Advisor with the City of Montgomery. Prior to that, he was Policy Counsel at Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. As an undergraduate student in Washington, D.C., he served in the Obama Administration. After graduating from the George Washington University, Phillip was a Teach for America corps member in Montgomery, AL at the former Lee High School, now called Percy Julian High School. He started the trip to DC during his first year teaching in 2012. He is a 2017 graduate of Cardozo School of Law and a member of the Alabama Bar.

Ethan Ashley

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:26 +0000

Ethan Ashley

Former School Board Member | New Orleans, LA

Ethan Charles Ashley served as an elected Orleans Parish School Board member. Previously, Ethan worked on policy and advocacy issues in many positions, including on the Hill, at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, at the Urban League of Louisiana, at the ADL, at the CDL and for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

Ethan is an advisory board member for Bard Early College New Orleans, a rigorous, credit-bearing, tuition-free college course of student in the liberal arts and sciences available to junior and senior level students. Ethan is also a board member of the Boy Scouts of America Southeast Louisiana Council, the National Juvenile Justice Network and the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity, Inc., where he has inspired colleagues to support youth through scholarships and mentoring. Ethan was a 2014 fellow of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community Leadership Network. Ethan is a member of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, LA.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Ethan graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, a law magnet high school in Los Angeles, at the age of 16. Afterwards, he continued his education at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and a Juris Doctor degree by the age of 22.

Above all, Ethan is a strong advocate for equity, business development, youth justice, civil rights, and servant leadership.

Marcelia Nicholson

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:20 +0000

Marcelia Nicholson

County Supervisor | Milwaukee County, WI

Marcelia Nicholson serves as Chairwoman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. First elected to the County Board in 2016, she is also the first Afro-Latina person to serve as Chairperson of the Board.

Chairwoman Nicholson has dedicated her time in office to addressing racial equity, climate justice, and economic development. She is proud to have authored various pieces of legislation prioritizing these issues, including the creation of an ARPA Taskforce for Milwaukee County, moving Milwaukee County towards Carbon Neutrality, creating a strategic plan to combat racism as a public health crisis, and authoring generational legislation that allows Milwaukee County to raise local revenue to avert a fiscal crisis and save and promote critical services for its residents.

Danielle Gonzales

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:09 +0000

Danielle Gonzales

School Board Member | Albuquerque, NM

Danielle Gonzales is a native New Mexican, currently residing in the Albuquerque North Valley. With over two decades of experience, her professional journey has been deeply rooted in education policy and leadership. She started this journey as a fourth-grade teacher in south Texas and has spent the majority of her time in Washington, DC advocating for educational equity, early childhood education, social-emotional learning, and supporting education leaders at the state and local levels. Danielle moved home to NM in 2020 and ran for office in 2021.

Danielle began serving on the school board in January 2022. After nearly two years in office, Danielle is proud of many policy accomplishments, including re-writing the student discipline and dress code policies to prioritize equity and restorative justice and foster an educational environment that values, affirms and welcomes ALL students, rather than focus on punishment and control. She also partnered with Moms Demand Action to advance a student safety policy focused on securing firearms in the home. She has advocated for, and secured, policy and administrative changes to improve instructional quality in the district, with a focus on equity and culturally and linguistically responsive education.

Joanna McClinton

Andrea Cruz — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 04:00:05 +0000

Joanna McClinton

Speaker of the House | Philadelphia, PA

Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton was first elected in 2015 to serve communities in west and southwest Philadelphia, as well as Yeadon and Darby in Delaware County.

As a state lawmaker she has made history three times! First in 2018 when she became the first woman and first African American to be elected as House Democratic Caucus Chair, and again in 2020, when she was the first woman elected House Democratic Leader in the institution’s 244-year history. In 2023, McClinton was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House – the first woman to serve in that position in the nation’s oldest legislature.

A lifelong resident of southwest Philadelphia and graduate of Grace Temple Christian Academy, she became active in her community while completing an internship with radio station WDAS. Later, she studied Political Science and Leadership in Global Understanding at La Salle University. After earning her degree, she enrolled at Villanova University School of Law, interning at Regional Housing Legal Services, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

She was an assistant public defender for seven years and became assistant chief of the East Zone during her last year, helping attorneys with case preparation.

In 2013, Speaker McClinton combined her passion for public service and law by becoming chief counsel to state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, where she worked behind the scenes to develop policy and legislation; organize expungement fairs and public policy forums; and assist constituents.

Speaker McClinton has earned several distinctions for her commitment to public service including City and State PA’s 40 Under 40, Power of Diversity: Black 100, and Above & Beyond lists, the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia’s Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year award, Fun Time Magazine’s Women of Influence Award, the PRE-K for PA Champion award, the Lucien E. Blackwell Guiding Light Community award, the Black Gala Women of Excellence; and Politico Recast’s Power List 2022.