Shannon Watts - Sine Institute Fellow 2022

SEMINAR SERIES

How do you Build a Movement to End Gun Violence and Enact Social Change?

Join Shannon Watts as she illuminates us on how she founded Moms Demand Action, one of the nation’s largest grassroots organizations, and shows others how they can build or bolster social movements to enact change in their communities. Through her series, Shannon will bring together some of the most vital voices of the movement and share her unique journey to make her voice heard on one of the country’s most critical issues.

Dates & Times
- Monday, January 24 at 4:00 p.m. (ET) - virtual
EVENT RECORDING: https://youtu.be/bNU4vCGVXZw

- Monday, February 14 at 4:00 p.m. (ET) - virtual
GUEST LECTURERS: Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA 6th District) & Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL 3rd District)
EVENT RECORDING: https://youtu.be/ryjMyk9BWn4

- Monday, March 14 at 4:00 p.m. (ET) - in-person
GUEST LECTURERS: Senator Jennifer McClellan (D-VA 9th District) & House Delegate Jeff Bourne (D-VA 72st District)
EVENT RECORDING: https://youtu.be/kQLzfrZ169s

- Monday, April 4 at 4:00 p.m. (ET) - virtual
GUEST LECTURERS
- Katie Fox, Everytown Survivor Network
- Celeste Iroha, Gun Violence Survivor
- Norri Leder, Texas Chapter of Moms Demand Action
EVENT RECORDING: https://youtu.be/D8y35cVpyvE

- Monday, April 18 at 4:00 p.m. (ET) - virtual

GUEST LECTURERS
- Angela Ferrell-Zabala, Everytown for Gun Safety
- Shayna Druckman, Students Demand Action
- Ryane Nickens, The TraRon Center
EVENT RECORDING: https://youtu.be/NHGsq9EGpUs

PLEASE NOTE:
The campus location for each these programs will be available closer to the event date. Upon check-in, AU Community will need to present an AUID. Non-AU guests will need to present identification and vaccination record card or a digital copy.
Additional information available at www.american.edu/sine-institute/2022-fellows.cfm.

About Shannon Watts

Shannon Watts is a mother of five and the founder of the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence, Moms Demand Action. Prior to founding Moms Demand Action, Watts was a stay-at-home mom and former communications executive at Fortune 100 companies. The day after the Sandy Hook School mass shooting tragedy, Watts started a Facebook group to unite women against the gun lobby as Mothers Against Drunk Driving united mothers against the alcohol lobby in the 1980s. That online conversation turned into a grassroots movement with a chapter in every state and, together with its partner Everytown for Gun Safety, now has over 6 million supporters (and is larger than the National Rifle Association).

For over eight years, Moms Demand Action volunteers have stopped the NRA’s priority legislation in statehouses more than 90 percent of the time, and helped pass hundreds of gun safety laws across the country, changed corporate policies and educated Americans about secure gun storage.

In addition to her work with Moms Demand Action, Watts is an active board member of Emerge America, one of the nation’s leading organizations for recruiting and training women to run for office, and Advance Peace, a prominent community-based organization that works to end cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in American urban neighborhoods by investing in the development, health and wellbeing of those at the center of the crisis. Her book, Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World, was released in May of 2019 and is now available in paperback.