For all general inquiries about YDS, contact:

David Duhalde
YDS Interim National Organizer
75 Maiden Lane, Suite 505
New York City, NY 10038
Phone: 212 727 8610 ext. 4

david@dsausa.org

 

National Organizer

Andrew Porter became involved with YDS during my sophomore year in college when Sean Monahan and I started a socialist organization at the College of Wooster.  We felt the need for a socialist presence at the school and that the other student groups were not doing the work that we wanted to see done.  The two of us gathered some friends and began the Wooster Ice Cream Socialists.  We created a facebook page and began recruiting on campus.  Our facebook presence caught the attention of David Duhalde, at the time the National Organizer.  He contacted the two of us, to see if we were interested in affiliating with YDS.  We looked over the website and brought the idea to the group.  After a near unanimous vote, we became part of YDS.

 

During that first year, I focused on building our chapter up and was not very involved in the national organization, but that changed after the first summer conference Wooster attended.  We met many of the other great YDS people and I decided to run for an at large position on the CC.  I held that position for two years, and then I was elected to the National Organizing Facilitator position.

 

After graduating from college I was hired by Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing.  With Green Corps, I worked in West Virginia on passing federal climate change by organizing around Senators Byrd and Rockefeller.  Then I moved to Utah and worked at Brigham Young University to move the school off of coal energy.  I am finishing up my year in Ann Arbor, Michigan directing a canvass office for Environment Michigan and PIRGIM

 

Co-Chair

Amber Frost grew up in a very small town in rural Indiana, and attended a satellite campus of Indiana University, later transferring to the flagstaff school in Bloomington, where she's now taking grad classes in Gender Studies. In 2008 she founded the Indiana University of Young Democratic Socialists, presiding over the chapter until she was elected as an at-large member to the Coordinating Committee. This year, she was elected female Co-Chair and is excited to work hard and organize with her comrades. Her academic interest in Socialism focuses greatly on propaganda and the intersections, between race, class, and gender.

 

 

 

 

Co-Chair

Sean Monahan is a socialist organizer in Philadelphia, PA.  He began his activism in 2006, co-founding the Wooster Democratic Socialists at the College of Wooster in Ohio.  In the summer of 2009, Sean was elected as an at-large member of YDS's Coordinating Committee, and became the Northeast regional coordinator.  The following summer, he was elected as male Co-chair.  He sees immense value in building a democratic socialist organization within a broad, diverse progressive coalition to combat corporate power and the structures of oppression.

 

 

 

 

 

Corresponding Secretary

Isabel Anreus is in her junior year at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. She is an active YDS member and is already the secretary of her local chapter. Isabel is excited that she is the Corresponding Secretary, and cannot wait to work on the Red Letter and with other YDS members across the country. After college Isabel plans on attending graduate school for an MFA in creative writing. She is looking forward to an active year for YDS on both a local and national level.

 

 

 

 

 

Anti-Racism Coordinator

I am the lovable guy that is Rich Hutchinson. As the Anti-Racist Issues Coordinator for the Young Democratic Socialists, I am sketching out an effective plan that will guide each chapter through the process of increasing the diversity in their chapter and the organization as a whole. Solidarity is key, but there can be no true solidarity without a clear understanding of the system of white supremacy and its fear of genetic annihilation which is the basis for the oppression of the non-white collective internationally. Once we effectively discuss, understand, and partner with other race organizations on our campus, then we can move forward with a thorough plan of action in solidarity.

 

 

 

 

Feminist Issues Coordinator

Gina Eastwood is a senior at Indiana University with academic concentrations in indigenous studies and social activism post-WW2. Gina works for IU's chapter of STAND (the student-led division of Genocide Intervention Network) to raise awareness about mass atrocities around the world, particularly the genocide in Darfur and the gendered violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Gina is the 2010-2011 Feminist Issues Coordinator for YDS.

 

 

 

 

 

Activist Editor

Chris Maisano edits The Activist (http://theactivist.org), the Young Democratic Socialists' blog, and is managing editor of Democratic Left. He is a public librarian and studies Political Science at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and is not sure why he continues to be a Mets fan. It's kind of not worth it anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

Coalitions Coordinator

Reared in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Will Emmons moved to Rhode Island five years ago to go to school.  These days, he continues to hang his hat in the Ocean State where he makes his living as a progressive political operative.  Will is really interested in electoral organizing, environmental justice, blue/green politics, and anti-racist work.

 

 

 

 

 

Western Regional Organizer

Justin Simons is a socialist and political science major from Los Angeles, California. He began his push towards activism in the summer of 2004, as a self-proclaimed member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), passing out pamphlets and posting anti-war and anti-corporate articles on the internet; and by establishing a socialist club at his High School. He helped organize protests during the battle over Proposition 8 in California during the 2008 election season, siding in-favor of legal marriage for LGBT couples. He had also worked on several city-council campaigns in Los Angeles during this time as well, siding in-favor of progressive alternatives, rather than neoliberal nonsense. Today, as a full member of the Young Democratic Socialists (YDS), he is the chief organizer of the Los Angeles Coalition YDS, and was voted Western Regional Coordinator at the 2010 YDS Summer Conference

 

 

 

 

Notheast Regional Organizer

David Rogers lives in Wayne, New Jerseywhere he currently attends WilliamPatersonUniversity. He is a double major in both history and political science. He has been active in the William Paterson YDS chapter for nearly two years. The protests and demonstrations that he has helped to organize include against the wars in Iraqand Afghanistan, workers rights campaigns on campus, and the recent walkout of students nation wide on March 4th, 2010. He is currently the Northeast Regional Coordinator on the Coordinating Committee. His main interests center on the continuing fight for free higher education and workers rights in and around campus.

 

 

 

 

 

National Organizing Committee Facilitator

Jackie Sewell grew up in a small town named Andover, Kansas, right outside Wichita, Kansas. She attended Wichita State University for over 2 years studying Spanish, and was an executive director, a Vice-President, and a President of the WSU YDS group. Currently she attends the University of Kansas studying Spanish and German, and is building a YDS chapter there. She is the Great Plains Regional Coordinator and the National Organizing Committee Facilitator. Main organizing interests include immigrant and worker rights, and free higher education.

 

 

 

 

 

Great Lakes Regional Organizer

Matt Porter is originally from the Youngstown, Ohio area and now attends the College of Wooster. He has been president and prime minister of this chapter. Under his leadership Wooster was able to win its first campaign to get the school to join the Workers Rights
Consortium. He is most interested in the intersection of socialism, environmentalism, and food policy. 

 

 

 

 

 

Southern Regional Organizer

Cecily McMillan is a senior at Lawrence Universityin Appleton WI. In addition to her participation in YDS, previous political involvement includes co-founding and leading her campus' FairWisconsin student organization, promoting LGBTQ rights, as well as organizing campus-wide political debates and small discussion groups. Before college, she was employed in Atlanta by Georgia PIRG, canvassing for community support on key environmental issues, and helped campaign/canvas for Nan Orrock, Georgia State Senator. Prior to Atlanta, she lived in several small towns/cities in Southeast Texas, and worked to create Young Democrats Organization's at two different high schools.

 

 

 

 

Committee Member At Large

Sarah Gollwitzer is a recent college graduate of the College of Wooster with a degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. She is currently giving her second year of service to the City of Cleveland; tutoring and mentoring at-risk, inner city youth in the public school system. She previously worked at the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland and co-lead her campus "Allies and Queers" group, and is interested in LGBT rights, women's rights, immigration, and environmentalism.