OUR MISSION

Anthony Davis Jr. joined the Groundwork Team fresh off of Mayor Michelle Wu’s historic campaign where he served as Field Director. Davis is a graduate of Morehouse College and a member of the Pi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Since graduating, Davis has served as a political strategist and organizer with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and with a number of progressive leaders in Massachusetts, Alabama, Maryland, and Mississippi — including Senator Elizabeth Warren; Senator Doug Jones; Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Congressman Joe Kennedy, Candidate Ben Jealous and Candidate Mike Espy.

Aspen has focused their career on communications and digital organizing at social justice nonprofit organizations. Before Groundwork Project, they worked on LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights. Aspen has an MA in Women’s and Gender Studies, a BA in Cultural Anthropology, and a BA in Gender & Activism. In their free time, you can find them watching reality TV shows, cooking dinner with their wife, and hanging out with their two cats, Tooty and Turkey.

Charles Taylor is a graduate of Morehouse College and a member of Freedom Side, a national collective of social justice community organizers. He served as a State Organizer for the Mississippi Conference NAACP 2012 “This Is My Vote” campaign which registered 29,000+ African Americans to vote in Mississippi. Taylor was the Field Director and Campaign Coordinator for the Better Schools, Better Jobs (Initiative 42 in MS to fully fund education). Additionally, Taylor has consulted for One Voice, Inc. as a data manager, served as a Data Consultant with MS Votes, and worked as a community organizer for Energy Democracy. Taylor was the Data Director for Mike Espy for Senate Campaign in 2018 and for Jay Hughes for Lt. Governor of Mississippi in 2019.

Emily is a political strategist, storyteller, and team leader with a deep resume of  communications experience across highly-contested federal races, state government, and Capitol Hill. From national prime-time addresses to viral digital moments, she specializes in developing simple, persuasive narratives that cut through the noise. 

 

For the last ten years she has served as Joe Kennedy’s communications director and chief speechwriter. Emily is passionate about progressive policy reform and supporting women who want to run for office, overthrow the patriarchy…or just take a nap. She’s the oldest of three girls and loves the ocean, her two little kids, and Dolly Parton, probably in that order.

Ian is a graduate of the MGH Institute for Health Professions and a lifelong learner. He first began working with Groundwork Project through helping to create the curriculum for The Organizing Accelerator fellowship.

After wrapping up graduate school, Ian worked in medical clinics and found his passion was rooted in building relationships, educating his patients, advocating for their individual wellbeing and connecting them to resources within their own communities to support their wellness journey. In 2021, Ian expanded his work to not only support individuals but to provide groups and organizations with curriculum development, project management, health and wellness programming and growing collaborative partnerships. Now, broader community connection lies in the heart of Ian’s mission as he connects community activists, organizers and educators to each other and with diverse communities in order to defeat misinformation and help grow an educated and healthy public.

Joe Kennedy has dedicated his career to social and economic justice. A former Congressman, legal aid volunteer, and assistant district attorney, he founded Groundwork Project to address pervasive disparities in the American political system and to help ensure our democracy is more inclusive, representative, and fair.

 

Over four terms in the House of Representatives, Kennedy built an impressive legislative record around civil rights, health care, and economic policy, emerging as a national figure in some of our most pivotal political debates. From his headline-making fights for affordable health care and compassionate immigration policy to his legislative leadership on issues like mental health parity and transgender equality, he became one of the Trump Era’s most powerful voices for moral clarity.

 

In addition to Groundwork Project, Joe is the Managing Director at Citizens Energy, a non-profit company founded in 1979 to help low-income families meet their basic needs. At Citizens, Joe focuses on making renewable power more accessible to households historically priced out of green energy.

 

In December 2022, President Biden appointed Joe as the Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs, where he focuses on the long-standing U.S. commitment to peace, prosperity, and stability throughout the region.

 

He also serves as a senior advisor at the Emerson Collective and on the boards of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the Woodwell Climate Research Center, the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, and the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps.

 

Prior to serving in Congress, Kennedy was an Assistant District Attorney in Massachusetts. He attended Stanford University and Harvard Law School, where he was an active member of the Legal Aid Bureau, and spent two years in the United States Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. The grandson of former United States Attorney General Robert Kennedy and great-nephew of President John F. Kennedy and former Senator Ted Kennedy, he is married to Lauren Birchfield Kennedy, founder and CEO of Neighborhood Villages, a leading childcare advocacy group. They live in Newton, Massachusetts with their two young children, Eleanor and James.

“Focused on Leaving a Blueprint of LOVE for people and helping Create a Better Community.”
We are Better Together!

J’Shawna Smith-Hayes is an Oklahoma native that has worked in Oil & Gas for over 15 years, and 12 of those years have been in management. Over the past 2.5 years, before getting more involved in being an advocate in the community, she also served as Chief Financial Officer at All Nations Champions Church. J’Shawna is focused on bettering the community and giving back through her non-profit called The H.O.P.E Foundation (Helping Others Persevere in Excellence), founded in 2022. The H.O.P.E Foundation aims to enhance the community, supporting our youth, providing clean laundry, meals, scholarships, and education to our less fortunate and rural communities. The H.O.P.E Scholarship Fund was birthed out of wanting to provide resources to high school students that want to attend college or a trade school but may not have the resources to do so, which will be awarded each year to a high school senior that is in a rural community. The H.O.P.E Foundation, in 2022 launched a campaign in the state of Oklahoma, called Vote For Change, alongside co-founder Julius Jones and the Julius Jones Institute. VFC’s purpose and focus is voter engagement, education and registration in our local communities, high schools, and colleges. J’Shawna is also an entrepreneur creating her own dry cleaning & laundry pickup and delivery service, Pure Dry Cleaning & Laundry, established in 1999. Her business and non-profit have had the opportunity to establish partnership with Socks of Love & Laundry Love of Oklahoma over the past two years. Raising money and providing free laundry 3 times a year for families in need. In 2022, collectively J’Shawna was able to raise over $15,000 toward scholarships, free laundry, free food, and sponsorship to help with the vision and mission of each organization. Also partnering with the Julius Jones Institute & the Julius Jones Coalition in the endeavor of bringing about change in our state. She also serves as the Voting Coordinator for the Julius Jones Coalition.

Specializing in business management, J’Shawna can use that experience not only in the corporate world or the board room, but also in her non-profit, community and within her own business. By focusing on the community, using the skills she has acquired, not only in ministry, but she has also been able to put her master’s degree, in business management, earned at Southern Nazarene University to good use. J’Shawna may spend her days working relentless hours at being an entrepreneur, mom, grandmother, advocate, sister, friend, and community organizer, but it’s the love that she has for her sons, the people, and the desire of wanting a better way of life for so
many, that gets her up in the morning. When J’Shawna is not working and giving back she enjoys traveling, shooting basketball, thrifting and spending time with family and friends. She is an ambassador for 988 Oklahoma, Oklahoma’s new Mental Health Lifeline and an influencer for Goodwill Oklahoma.

Her hope and desire are to inspire others to simply go and do the same. Lend a hand where a hand is needed, show love where love is needed and give hope where hope is needed.

Julia provides political fundraising strategy to candidates and elected officials who are building districtwide, statewide, and nationwide reputations as they seek to become the next generation of inspiring and dedicated public servants.

Julia has experience advising and leading fundraising teams for nonprofits, political committees, several members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation, as well as U.S. Senate and House campaigns across the country. In 2012, Julia directed record-breaking fundraising efforts for Congressman Joe Kennedy III’s successful campaign for Congress, and continued to envision and execute Rep. Kennedy’s fundraising strategy through five election cycles. Julia also served as a part of the fundraising team for Forward Majority, an organization focused on flipping state legislatures in states with Republican trifectas, with the goal of dismantling the systematic disenfranchisement of Democrats through gerrymandering and voter suppression.

Julia is passionate about leveling the playing field to enable women to run for and win elected office. She helped spearhead the creation of a powerful political giving group in Massachusetts, which supports women candidates and elected officials, and educates women donors on the importance and impact of their political giving.

Rae has been a driving force as Digital Director for organizations like WV Can’t Wait and For West Virginia’s Future, offering invaluable support to numerous political candidates in Appalachia. When she’s not conquering the digital realm, Rae finds solace in her garden, where she tends to her plants alongside her two adorable little ones.

In 2020, Tracey returned to Georgia to lead her third statewide election as State Director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and then continued on as the senior advisor for the Democratic Party of Georgia’s Senate Runoff Coordinated Campaign for Senators Ossoff and Warnock.  Tracey has experience working on campaigns at all levels including five national presidential races and has campaigned in seventeen states from New Hampshire to Mississippi. Tracey started organizing as a volunteer in Boston, Massachusetts and would eventually become the first African American to manage a coordinated campaign in Massachusetts.  Tracey grew up in Syracuse, New York.