Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice is a joint initiative of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. ¹

It offers fellowships that include training and mentorship to individuals interested in becoming leaders in the field of social activism, specifically people of color, women, LGBT people, and people from low-income backgrounds. ²

Left-of-center activists Gara LaMarche and Deepak Bhargava are the founding directors, working with the dean of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, Andrew Rich. ³

Background

The Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice is a proposed institute and joint initiative of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. ⁴ Left-progressive activists Gara LaMarche and Deepak Bhargava are its founders; they formed the group after new social movements such as Black Lives Matter drew in large numbers of young left-progressives interested in social activism. ⁵

Its purpose is to foster and support new left-of-center activist leadership from people of color, women, LGBT people, and people from low-income backgrounds. ⁶ It offers training, mentorship and development opportunities for those individuals selected to participate. ⁷

Programs

The Social Change Fellowship is available to individuals starting out in a career. ⁸ It provides training and experience for selected individuals interested in a career as an activist, policy advocate, and grassroots leader and organizer for social change. Initially, focus issues include climate and sustainability, racial justice, reproductive health, voting rights, and justice for immigrants. The fellowship launched in the fall of 2021 with its first set of 24 fellows. ⁹

The Movement Leaders Fellowship is for mid-career social change advocates that have some experience in social change. ¹⁰ This fellowship, launched in the fall of 2021 with twenty-four initial fellows, includes in-person training and academic courses geared to build skills in the areas of social justice movement leadership and organization. ¹¹

Career Empowerment Mentor positions are offered to match up mentors who are experienced working in the social change area with the social change fellows. ¹²

Leadership

Jessica Barba Brown is the launch executive director. Previously, she was CEO of the Voter Participation Center (VPC), a large left-of-center voter registration program that targets underrepresented communities. ¹³

Deepak Bhargava is a founding director and advisory board member of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. He is a distinguished lecturer at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. ¹⁴ Previously, Bhargava was president of the Center for Community Change (CCC), ¹⁵ a left-of-center social activism organization focused on economic and racial equity and immigrants’ rights for low income people of color, women, and immigrants. ¹⁶

Gara LaMarche is a founding director and advisory board member of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. ¹⁷ He is a senior fellow at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. LaMarche has had extensive experience in left-progressive organizations, as vice president of Open Society Foundations (OSF), a foundation established by left-of-center political donor and philanthropist George Soros; president of the Atlantic Philanthropies; president of the Democracy Alliance (DA), a network of donors dedicated to building the progressive movement in the United States; and senior advisor to the Raben Group, ¹⁸ a left-of-center lobbying firm. ¹⁹

Andrew Rich is a founding director and advisory board member of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice. ²⁰ He is dean of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. Previously he was president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, a left-progressive policy think tank and leadership development organization, and CEO of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. ²¹

The organization’s advisory board includes Cristina Jiménez, the founder of United We Dream, a left-of-center immigration advocacy organization; ²² Liz Watson, executive director of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center (CPCC); May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, an international environmental activist organization; ²³ and Maurice Mitchell, national director of Working Families Party (WFP), a left-wing political party. ^{24 25}

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