RESULTS 2020 Grassroots Board Elections
Dear active RESULTS Grassroots Partners,
We are writing to offer you the opportunity to vote for two fellow RESULTS volunteers to represent the grassroots volunteers on the boards of RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund. This is a very important decision and we have great candidates.
Now, we need your vote by July 18!
RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund are looking to fill TWO grassroots board positions to serve a term of three (3) years beginning in August 2020. (There are four grassroots board seats in total.) Grassroots Board Members represent the volunteer body on the Board of Directors and on the Executive Committee of the Board. It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to work with the Executive Director in shaping the direction of RESULTS, advising on major policies for the organization, and providing fiduciary oversight. The Executive Committee of the Board is the primary governing body of the organization. Members meet frequently by conference call and are in communication via e-mail and telephone calls. Members must be able to participate at this level and are expected to chair or serve on a Board Committee(s) as well as participate in fundraising for the organization. Grassroots board members play a particular role in representing grassroots perspectives on the board.
Thank you to all who nominated dedicated volunteers as candidates to serve on the board—your nomination was recognition of their commitment and leadership skills. And thanks to the nominees who agreed to be considered. We’re honored!
Find our grassroots board candidate videos and bios below:
- Lily Callaway (Pittsburg, PA/Global Poverty Group)
- Andy Clarke (South Kitsap & Gig Harbor, WA/Global Poverty Group)
- Alaina Dougherty (Denver, CO/Global Poverty Group)
- Gerry Fairbrother (Santa Fe, NM/U.S. Poverty Group)
- Lindsay Saunders (Raleigh, NC/U.S. and Global Poverty Group)
You may vote for two candidates. Remember, voting ends Saturday, July 18 at 11:59pm Eastern Time. Check out each candidate below to view their online video statements and bios.
Lily Callaway (Pittsburg, PA/Global Poverty Group)
See Lily’s video statement here
Lily Callaway has fought for years to better the lives of others who are underprivileged. She spent two years volunteering with hospice patients weekly, completed a two-month internship at the Nobel prize winning Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, advocated for and ultimately helped obtain longer maternity leave for women in her former workplace, and in her previous job used her data analysis skills to ensure that over $150 million Medicaid dollars were allocated to the people most in need, ultimately allowing over 50,000 people quicker access to medical care. She has received three Leadership Excellence awards for her leadership within the workplace to manage a high performing team while maintaining strong employee engagement.
Lily believes that poverty can be addressed using society’s existing intellectual and financial resources. Though Lily has only been involved in RESULTS for the past seven months, she has quickly made an impact as one of the founding members of the Pittsburgh RESULTS group. Lily organized a RESULTS meeting with Senator Bob Casey’s office and the group obtained commitment from Bob Casey’s staff to prioritize the Global Fund on his agenda. In addition, the group was also able to obtain congressman Mike Doyle’s signature on the letter for the Global Fund. Finally, Lily has set up regular letter writing working sessions and set group goals for letter submission resulting in eight published letters to the editors all over the Western Pennsylvania region within a span of five months. Lily published two of those letters herself. Lily has also spoken on the RESULTS national webinar describing the process of setting up meetings with representatives during the COVID-19 era.
Statement of Intent:
If elected to the board, I would like to set up goals for the organization to increase our media footprint and interaction with our representatives. I would address this in three ways: First, I would like to encourage more people from the private sector to become involved in advocacy. I worked in the private sector for eight years and observed that many of my co-workers wanted to help but did not because they felt disconnected from the advocacy world and unsure how their actions would make a difference. I plan to use corporate partnerships to demonstrate to private sector workers that everyone can be an advocate, at any place and at any time. Second, I want to make a push for young people to become involved in RESULTS. Young people these days are tech savvy and smart. They want to make a difference. Their ability to harness digital media affords them the opportunity to disseminate information and ultimately make a difference with bipartisan issues. RESULTS is a pathway for them to learn that we do not have to pick sides in politics to make great progress. Third, I want to further diversify the members of RESULTS by encouraging involvement from a variety of socioeconomic classes. There are a lot of challenges for a socially disadvantaged person (i.e. time, transportation, money) to be able to participate in a volunteer group; as a result, it is important that we dedicate time as a group to overcome those barriers together so that we can increase volunteer participation. There is so much power in our voices no matter where you come from, and everyone’s story matters where you are a doctor, a cashier, have a PhD, or did not finish college. What matters is that we all share our stories because there is a place for everyone. Collectively, our stories together can end poverty.
-Lily Callaway
Andy Clarke (South Kitsap & Gig Harbor, WA/Global Poverty Group)
See Andy’s video statement here
I am a member of the Washington State South Kitsap / Gig Harbor RESULTS group. I have been a Tacoma RESULTS group leader and also been a member of the Global and Domestic RESULTS groups in Alaska. I have been active in helping start and support a RESULTS group in Spokane. I am on our Pacific Regional Conference board in conjunction with RESULTS Canada. I am the district contact person for Rep. Kilmer and the state contact person for Senator Murray. In this capacity I interact with the other 8 RESULTS groups in our state. I have been a RESULTS volunteer for about 10 years.
My RESULTS group is a Global group but we have taken action on domestic issues. I have taken advantage of many of the RESULTS training opportunities including Group leader and Media and writing and oppression. MY LTEs and Op Ed have been published in several publications in Tacoma, Spokane, Tri Cities and Washington Post. I have developed close working relationships with our Representatives and Senator. I have enjoyed attending several International Conferences, forming long term friendships and being energized with new ideas for ending poverty.
I feel I may have a unique and diverse perspective having been a member of several different RESULTS groups as well as working closely with RESULTS Canada. I’ve worked on fund raisers and new group startups and know how much the RESULTS staff can offer local groups. I hope to bring that perspective to the board and help reach decisions that benefit our growth. Selfishly, I want to learn more about how our organization works and how I can be more powerful in helping end poverty.
-Andy Clarke
Alaina Dougherty (Denver, CO/Global Poverty Group)
See Alaina’s video statement here
I have been volunteering for RESULTS for five years. RESULTS drew me in through its active methodology and ability to continually create change within our local and global community. RESULTS has kept me through its dedication to adapt and work towards creating an oppression free environment and oppression free policy. This is the place where long-term, social justice can occur, and it makes me so thrilled to be a part of the solution to end poverty.
I started working in this field because I have type one diabetes and it has enraged me that the lottery of my birth meant I lived, I had access to healthcare, when many in the world do not. I obtained an undergraduate degree in Medical Anthropology and a Master’s in Public Health, learning the nuances of oppression in our own system and globally that create health disparities.
I have been fortunate to receive extended training through RESULTS: The Fellowship, media training, group leadership training, and oppression training over the years. I have been able to attend four of the five RESULTS conferences in my time here. Lastly, I was one of the volunteers chosen to work with our partner CITAM+ in Zambia for a learning and advocacy training seminar where I was part of two training groups: media and community meetings. What was most exciting was seeing one of our Zambian volunteers write an LTE and get published while we were there.
I am always continuing my education and starting this summer I will be engaging in certificate programs related to public policy and analysis, non-profit management, biostatistical analysis, and democracy and social movements. I want to bring these skills and my skills as a volunteer to our Grassroots Board. Thank you for the nomination and have a great conference.
As a board member, I would like to enhance the anti-oppression work RESULTS has started through not only continued volunteer training and discussions, but also through the legislation we support. As we can so clearly see during this COVID-19 pandemic, it is so easy for people to slip into poverty when one thing goes wrong (health bill, loss of job, recession, etc.). This affects people disproportionately, so we need legislation in place that protects the most vulnerable in our society and alleviates poverty. We need social justice legislation and conversations. I’d like to be a part of that conversation and continued push to support our communities locally and globally.
-Alaina Dougherty
Gerry Fairbrother (Santa Fe, NM/U.S. Poverty Group)
See Gerry’s video statement here
I am an active member of RESULTS Santa Fe. In addition, I am a member of the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee of The Food Depot and on the policy committee of Health Action New Mexico. I am now retired, but during my career I worked as a professor at universities, hospitals and think tanks, conducting research & policy studies on the effects of policies & programs – especially health programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – on vulnerable populations. My work emphasized the effects of poverty on health and health outcomes. I not only did the research, but also made community presentations and testified before State legislatures (in three states) because I have always felt that it is important that what we learn from research becomes part of policy and practice.
After arriving in Santa Fe in 2015, I almost immediately found and joined RESULTS. This has been a natural home for me; I have taken delight in being able to use my policy and health services background to make a contribution as an advocate. In recent years, I have become more involved in the leadership of the Santa Fe chapter and now am its media lead. At the same time, I began writing opinion pieces and letters to the editor, mostly on poverty, health and immigrant issues. Most recently, after negotiating for about six months with the opinion page editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican, our local newspaper, I have started a column on food and hunger. My objective in this was to bring the face of poverty and food insecurity into focus for the “person on the street” in Santa Fe. With COVID-19 laying bare the inequities in our society and programs, I believe this is all the more important.
If elected, I hope to use my background, skills, and abilities in health and poverty policy to support the RESULTS mission. I would be especially honored to lend my expertise and enthusiasm in these perilous times for antipoverty efforts.
I bring policy and subject matter expertise to the Board from my 25-year career in health services & policy work, most recently in Washington, DC. There is much work to be done now during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect and strengthen important poverty-related programs that provide food (e.g., SNAP), healthcare (Medicaid, CHIP), housing (vouchers) and income (e.g., earned income tax credit (EITC)). But there is more beyond what we need NOW. This pandemic has laid bare the inequities in our society, and in federal policies & programs. These demand a major rethinking of policies, overhaul of programs, and most of all, a much greater level of support for the people served. I expect that RESULTS will play a strong role in that rethinking. I bring a background in understanding a variety of antipoverty programs and hope to work in this area. I bring a desire to liaison between the Grassroots Board and a policy committee.
I also bring to the board experience in working with the opinion editor of my local paper (The Santa Fe New Mexican) and in organizing a column for the paper. I picked food/hunger as the theme of the column because this brings together a priority topic of RESULTS with my experience on the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee of The Food Depot. I could, as a Grassroots member, bring my expertise in working with local newspapers valuable to RESULTS.
I would be pleased to contribute to the RESULTS Board in any way that seems appropriate; I believe that I have the broad background and expertise to be able to fit into a number of positions. I offered two areas – policy work and writing. However, I believe that my expertise can be used in a number of other areas as well, and I would be pleased to support any RESULTS priority as a Grassroots Board member.
-Gerry Fairbrother
Lindsay Saunders (Raleigh, NC / U.S. and Global Poverty Group)
See Lindsay’s video statement here
Lindsay Kelley Saunders joined RESULTS as a global advocate in January 2014, as she was wrapping up her Master’s Degree in Technical and Professional Communications. RESULTS issues were naturally a good fit. In 2015, she joined the Narrative Project as a collaborative storytelling fellowship to support her attendance at the RESULTS IC and her world instantly became much bigger. After the IC, she launched a Raleigh NC global and domestic group and attended RESULTS Group Leadership Training in Washington. The group’s biggest achievement was getting a Member of Congress to cosponsor his first bill in 2016. In 2017, it was a lightning streak of RESULTS involvement for Lindsay with her first global op-ed, a trip to Zambia to visit foreign aid partners and train grassroots, attend the RESULTS Master Advocacy Skills Training, having a domestic LTE published, speaking at the 2017 IC, and speeches to social justice groups.
In fall 2017, Lindsay left her state government career and community involvement in North Carolina to serve as a Development, Outreach, and Communications Specialist with USAID in the U.S. Embassy in Zambia. While abroad, Lindsay frequently joined RESULTS webinars and shared updates about her foreign aid work. One highlight was the READ Act becoming a reality in the development of education programs and her chance to work on messaging for it. After returning to Raleigh, NC in 2018, she had impactful op-eds published on how foreign aid can alleviate the oft-politicized immigration crisis and to highlight gentrification and the need for rent relief in the housing crisis, while also starting a new group. Now, happily married to her husband, Musole, a soon to be immigrant from Zambia, she strongly believes in and values the anti-oppression work RESULTS does. The RESULTS Raleigh group continues to grow and Lindsay draws immense inspiration from the partnership and network of RESULTS advocates, not just in NC or the United States, but around the world.
Statement of Intent
My name is Lindsay Kelley Saunders and I have been a proud RESULTS partner for six years. I bring personal lived experiences in U.S. poverty and a developing country, but also a broad range of advocacy experience. For as long as I can remember, I have always felt compelled to speak out against injustice and explore solutions to inequalities. I have called Raleigh home for over a decade, but I grew up in a lower-middle class family on a string of islands on the coast of North Carolina, where we benefited from WIC, reduced lunch, and Medicaid.
As an advocate, I have quite a resume, having hit on all of what RESULTS does. Since 2015, I have led a domestic and global group, which has given me inspiration watching others grow. I’ve attended Group Leadership training; traveled with RESULTS to Zambia to meet with foreign aid partners and train grassroots; leveraged skills from Master Advocacy Skills Training; given speeches to social justice groups; attended three international conferences; spoken at the 2017 IC; and made some really awesome friends. I’ve had three op-eds published, an LTE, and write regularly about our issues.
In late 2017, I moved overseas to work as a Development, Outreach, and Communications Specialist for USAID at the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia. During my year abroad, I frequently joined the RESULTS webinars, sharing updates about my foreign aid work. A year later, the READ Act, which we worked hard on, became a reality in the field while I was there. My job was a rare classification that did not include diplomatic privileges so I lived like “a true Zambian,” with power and water outages and the struggle to access transit to reliable medical care.
I am interested in bringing these collective experiences to the RESULTS Board and contributing my knowledge to help shape an organization that has given me so much. As I returned home in 2018, my heart ached over the increase in violence and white supremacy. So, the work of RESULTS is of particular value, as I have always done my best to be an ally to those underrepresented. My husband is a Black man and soon to be an immigrant, so as an interracial couple, we face other challenges.
As advocates, we cannot remain silent, as injustices rise, and we must continue to increase exposure to our work to shine a light for hope in the wake of forces of evil. I see an opportunity to serve on our Board as sharing a commitment to ensuring equity and empowering all voices to be elevated. Thank you for considering me.
-Lindsay K. Saunders