New York, NY - Following the recent
annual national convention of National Action Network (NAN), Rev. Al Sharpton,
the organization’s president, announced that NAN has hired four new staff
officials to join the national office The impetus for the four hires was
initiated from NAN’s increased activity in the wake of a new administration and
the impact policies will have on the civil rights community and people of
color.
With the continued addition of new NAN
national chapters and field offices across the entire country, the requests for
assistance from the organization has increased around criminal justice reform,
police misconduct cases, voter suppression, immigration concerns, racism and
hate crimes. Currently, there are over a hundred national NAN chapters.
The first new hire is Blair Smith, a
Special Project Advisor for NAN’s inaugural Financial and Pension Industry
taskforce that was created during NAN’s convention to demand that public,
private and labor pension fund companies do business with Black finance
managers and contractors. These entities manage billions of dollars of
minority monies and invest those funds with non-minority financial managers who
in turn invest the money with white developers who gentrify and in some cases
exploit our community. The taskforce will negotiate with them so that they have
a percentage of investments and contracts with Black and minority managers who
will guide some of those investments and jobs in the community of those people
they are handling.
Blair has over 15 years of buy-side
experience in the capital markets arena, leading the creation of marketing
strategy, plans and budgets that span industries, marketplace, customers and
competition.
Most recently, Blair was responsible for
co-managing the $5.6 billion emerging manager investment portfolio within the
State of New York Common Retirement Fund. The program manages both traditional
and alternative asset class strategies (real estate, private equity, public
equity, hedge funds and opportunistic).
As a Senior Investment Officer, he
actively evaluated and conducted research for new investment vehicles/platforms
and strategies that will strategically implement the long-term goals of the
Emerging Manager portfolio.
Blair has served as a financial expert
for News 12 Westchester (NY) and an adjunct lecturer with the School of
Continuing Studies at NYU and Baruch College in New York City. He lectured in
both Global Marketing and Executive Leadership.
The
Community Organizing Unit
Two new hires have been made in the
national office around community organizing and national field engagement.
Organizers will travel to build a state-by-state strategic plan in the era of
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, among others, who
are working to criminalize low-level offenses and set back criminal justice
reform. The organizers will devise how to challenge state governments and
legislators to have state prosecutors like New York State to deal with police
shootings and to deal with commuting unfair long-term mandatory jail sentences.
They will also organize state by state around voter suppression issues. These
two millennials will work with NAN chapters, student groups and grassroots
organizers.
Brandon Hicks holds a political science
degree from North Carolina Central University and law degree from Washington
and Lee University School of Law. Mr. Hicks was born in Winston-Salem, NC and
grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Brandon’s organizing experience has
included organizing for college groups, national organizations, and grassroots
community organizations. He has organized diverse campaigns concerning ending
police brutality, the removal of Confederate flags, and campaigns addressing
Islamophobia. He believes the words of the theologian James Cone, “God hates
injustice and will not tolerate the humiliation of the outcasts”. Organizing
allows Brandon to serve God by helping to liberate the people God cares most
about, the oppressed.
Isabel Zeitz- Moskin, is a Field and
Community Organizer who is furthering her commitment to civil rights a passion
of hers. Isabel comes to the National Action Network from an early career of
organizing and social justice. Most recently, she served as a field organizer
on the Hillary Clinton Campaign in rural Miami County, Ohio. There she
developed a passion for voting rights and grassroots campaigning. Prior to this
opportunity, she worked at Interfaith Power & Light, in Washington, D.C.,
Maryland and North Virginia, where she worked to activate communities of faith
in the fight against climate change and environmental injustice.
Isabel graduated from Carleton College
in Northfield, Minnestoa, with a BA in Religion. Within the field of religion
she focused on liberation and feminist theology and the philosophy of language
in religious doctrine. Raised in New York in a Jewish home with leftist roots,
she truly believes in the powerful intersection of religion and faith to combat
injustice.
Finally, Rev. AL Sharpton has announced
the hiring of James Fields as a Personal Assistant to Rev. Al Sharpton to
travel with him and to work directly with Rev. Al Sharpton as a Communications
Assistant reporting directly to Rachel Noerdlinger. He graduated with a degree
in Communications from Corker College in South Carolina and will assist with
messaging NAN’s work on the road as he travels and works with Rev. Al Sharpton
across the country.
Source: Mercury
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