Thank you, Samantha Parsons!

 Dear UnKoch family,

It is with great respect and care that I share my decision to transition from the UnKoch My Campus team as paid staff. This comes after months of deep reflection on my part; my time as Campaigns Director has been one of the most exciting, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my life. 

I am so proud of what I’ve accomplished over the last eight years of working with UnKoch as a volunteer, campus organizer, and director. UnKoch has equipped over 10,000 activists with political education, skills training, organizing resources, and strategic support for escalating their meaningful campaigns. UnKoch has expanded its touch-points from four campuses to over 200 campuses in all 50 states, and it has witnessed its investigations achieve national news attention. I am filled with great joy as I reflect on these accomplishments covered in my organizing fingerprints. 

I care so deeply for the UnKoch project, my staff team, and the life-long friends this project has given me. As a result of this care, I’ve come to recognize that I am burned out and unable to show up with the same energy and purpose for this work as I once had. I’ve stayed for so long, in part, because I did not believe that the project was stable enough to survive my absence. Since voting Jasmine into leadership as Executive Director, I have watched as the small and floundering project has matured and stabilized. I have witnessed workplace equity and safety become norms. I have learned tremendous lessons about myself, how to organize in a way that is more just, and how to remain principled in a nonprofit industrial complex that seeks to dehumanize those of us on the margins. UnKoch is arriving at an incredibly exciting juncture in its future. I believe part of my continued care for this team and the communities we serve calls me to step back in order to facilitate an opening so that new, young talent can bring the energy I once had to this moment. I look forward to seeing how the leadership of a new Campaigns Director will propel this work forward in ways that I cannot imagine. 

I use the term transitioning intentionally. UnKoch’s Executive Director, Jasmine Banks, is currently transitioning our mighty project to be housed within a fully-fledged 501c3 called The Common Good Generation. That announcement is forthcoming, and I know you’ll be as excited as I am. As a part of my transition, I will cease my role as a paid staff member and move to take a seat as a founding board member. I have committed to support Jasmine Banks and Tempestt Tuggle’s critical leadership. After I take time to rest and reset, I am eager to fulfill this commitment.

I have experienced firsthand the powerful transformation that is possible, both interpersonally and at community and systemic levels, when movements are led by Black, queer women. I intend to bring the transformational principles and practices I have learned and adopted under Jasmine’s leadership into all of my future endeavors. As I dream about what that future looks like, I hope to start a community garden in my hometown that offers educational programs on sustainability, agriculture, and racial justice to young people. I also aim to use this space to facilitate anti-oppression training, political education, and mutual aid opportunities in my predominately-white, rural, working-class community. The corporate wealth-class continues to hoodwink us rural folks and it is time to put a stop to it. My vision includes redneck folks from the country like me fighting for justice instead of lining the pockets of Donald Trump and those like him. I believe I am uniquely positioned to practice this form of culture-change work— why not start with getting our hands literally and philosophically dirty? Change work, after all, does require rolling up your sleeves and getting a little messy. 

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you who have found a home within UnKoch. That political home remains, and it is my sincerest wish that in my absence you continue to agitate, organize, and disrupt undue donor influence and dark money.

I can’t wait to follow along and see what you create in the coming years.

With love and solidarity,

Sam

Honor all of Sam’s hard work and investment in our movement with a donation to keep her organizing legacy resourced.