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What Have I Done?Activist ResumeOfficial positions held:
Active member (partial list):
I have also been a strong advocate for the homeless, and have been a member of the following groups:
I also helped initiate and then served as host of the Right To Sleep Summit earlier this year, an event which brought together nearly a hundred activists and tent city members from eleven cities up and down the West Coast (Seattle to Santa Barbara). On a state and national level, I am a recognized free speech advocate (having been quoted twice by the Freedom Forum in their annual desktop calendar) via my former position as co-founder of Web Communications, LLC (a Santa Cruz area company I co-founded in 1994, and helped lead until it was acquired in 1999) and membership on various mailing lists, and a member of the Lavender Greens (official GLBT caucus of the Green Party of the United States) and the Green Alliance (grassroots unofficial movement arm of the Green Party) and have initiated the formation of a Green Party Bisexual caucus. I am also an activist for proportional representation and Instant Run-off Voting in California. I also write a book review column called "From the Library" for the local queer newspaper, Manifesto. Youthful ActivismCommunity activism and leadership is in my blood. My mother's parents both served on the local school board, and my mother has been a full time community activist in Santa Monica since 1978. I spent my youth following her around to PTA, School Board and City Council meetings. When I'd arrive home from school, I'd push the button on the answering machine and spend the next half hour listening to messages for my mother. I learned early on that one person can make a difference, and almost as soon as I could reach the microphone, I was speaking to my elected representatives.As a young person, I was the Master Councilor of L.C. Kelley Chapter, Order of DeMolay, a member of the Junior Statesmen and Junior Achivement, and was elected as Senior Class Representative (and then proceeded to initiate relocation of our Prom graduation celebration from an expensive hotel outside the city limits, to the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica proper, lowering the cost by orders of magnitude in the process). I also helped lobby the City Council of Santa Monica to create the SHWASHLOCK program (SHowers, WASHers and LOCKers for the homeless) and was a major participant in the Kids City initiative, a youth leadership program, many of whose graduates are now leading members of the community. In high school, I worked as an intern for Judy Abdo, a member of the Santa Monica City Council, who was later to become the first openly Lesbian mayor of a major U.S. city. When I attended Occidental College, participated in Student Goverment as elections manager, worked for the school newspaper, and was a member of the Bisexual Gay And Lesbian Association (BGALA) and Feminist Consciousness Coalition (FCC) (one of three men among over a hundred women), among other groups. One person can make a difference. I know it, because I've seen it happen. My neighborhood school, Edison Elementary, was the worst performing, poorest school in the city. It was 95% Latino, and taught by well meaning but overwhelmed and culturally uninformed white administrators and teachers. In less than ten years, due in large part by my mother's unceasing advocacy on behalf of its young people, the community transformed it into a nationally recognized model for Spanish language immersion programs, and it now has a long waiting list filled with students from the richest parts of the community. One of my mother's favorite stories is about a young woman from Edison, who was scared and nervous about attending John Adams Middle School. When she saw my mother the morning of her first day there, she immediately ran up to her, gave her a big hug, and said, "Oh, Mrs. Leavitt, you're here! Now I know everything is o.k. and I'm going to be safe!" That is the kind of difference I want to make in the life of the citizens of this city, the legacy I want to leave behind me. Business Achievements
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