We are pleased to announce the hiring of VOICE’s Co-Lead Organizer, Jessica Sarriot, who will be joining VOICE’s staff in June. Many of you may know Jessica from her previous time as an Associate Organizer with VOICE.
Jessica is a French-American woman raised internationally. She has a bachelors in Peace Building from Eastern Mennonite University where she led student organizing efforts around just investment policies. She spent two years through the Mennonite Central Committee supporting grassroots political and theological education and organizing efforts with a network of 12 churches in Medellin, Colombia, including supporting the network’s first public march for peace with over 400 participants. Jessica is fluent in Spanish and French.
As an organizer at VOICE Jessica helped spearhead passage of the Arlington County Affordable Housing Master Plan as well as VOICE’s first three-day Get Out the Vote campaign leading to 12% and 24% increases in voter turn-out in two target precincts and increased power for VOICE. She also helped identify and train the teachers and parent leaders needed to launch the Child First campaign at South Lake Elementary School as part of a county-wide parent organizing program.
While earning her Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University Jessica co-founded the Organizing Praxis Lab with a fellow organizer that provided training and education to students and the community around various organizing models and strategies.
Prior to rejoining VOICE as Co-Lead, Jessica spent five years in LA county’s Department of Health Services leading the LA Free the Vote initiative to expand voter education and registration for people with convictions and helping develop and implement health and employment programs for people impacted by the criminal legal system. She was pivotal to launching in-person voting in LA County jails and training over 800 county staff on voter registration, securing $40 million in state funding for reentry services, implementing salary floors for frontline workers contracted for reentry employment programs, and improving Fair Chance Hiring policies in the county.