Meet the New Jersey Youth Advisory Council
Executive Board
Name
Title
A brief description.
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Co-Founder
Maya Dummett (she/her) is a rising high school senior at Morristown High School. Throughout her high school career, Maya has organized within national, state, and local politics. Most of Maya's student organizing can be attributed to her involvement with the High School Democrats of America (HSDA) and Blue Future. During the 2019-2020 school year, Maya served on the National Expansion Committee of HSDA as a member. Following that, Maya became the Central Regional Coordinator for the New Jersey High School Democrats (NJHSD) and later, the Campaigns Political Director for NJHSD and the National Political Director for HSDA. Prior to this work, Maya interned for the Morris County Democratic Committee and worked on several local campaigns in 2019. During the summer leading up to the 2020 Election, Maya became an Organizer for Blue Future, working on 53 local, state, and federal campaigns for 240+ hours. She then resumed her organizing with Blue Future in the fall and spring, continuing campaign work and issue advocacy. On a similar note, Maya is passionate about amplifying progressive causes through computer science.
Contact:
newjerseyyac@gmail.com -
Co-Founder
Denia Smith (she/her) is a rising high school senior attending West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South and an advocate for social and educational equity. In June 2020, Denia organized a march in honor of the #BlackLivesMatter movement— garnering over 1,000 attendees— and moderated numerous community panels pertaining to inclusion. She continues to serve her community by implementing racially equitable modifications in district policy and curricula through the WW-P POC Advocacy: an organization containing 80 members and operating across 5 schools. Denia became immersed in political advocacy after becoming a Group Leader in Training at Mercer County Students Demand Action wherein she organized local “Wear Orange Day” events to advocate for gun-violence prevention. Following this, she conducted 65 hours of phone banking and ballot-curing with the Democratic Party of Georgia during the run-off campaign. She currently serves as a Policy Intern at New Voters and the New Jersey State Director at Students Against Voter Suppression to expand youth access to voting. As an organizer in Blue Future's Spring for Progress and Change cohort, Denia conducted 100+ hours of phone-banking and text banking towards progressive causes. She continues to work alongside national and international organizations to promote racial equity and empathy.
Contact:
newjerseyyac@gmail.com -
Co-Founder
Jiahn Son (she/her) is a current high school senior at Bergen Tech High School, majoring in Law & Justice. Next year, she plans to attend a four year college and major in English and Political Science. Her political organizing experience comes primarily from her involvement with NJ Food and Water Watch and Blue Future. During the past summer, she interned with Food and Water Watch and helped organize to shut down the construction of a Meadowlands power plant. Additionally, she joined Blue Future’s Summer for Progress and Change cohort, dedicating over 100 hours to phone banking, text banking, and learning about political organizing. She continued this work through the fall and spring, and she is also a part time intern with Blue Future through her high school, working on research and social media.
Contact:
newjerseyyac@gmail.com -
Co-Founder
Marisa Weinberg (she/her) is a current college freshman at Towson University in Towson Maryland, majoring in political science. Marisa is from Cherry Hill, NJ. She is a member of the Towson Democrats, Women in Business, and Tri Delta Sorority. Marisa's political experience includes an internship in Congressman Donald Norcross’ (NJ-01) district office in the summer of 2019. In the summer of 2020, she was a Campaign Fellow for Will Cunninghman for Congress where she contacted hundreds of voters through several means of communication including calling and texting. Marisa has also canvassed to potential democratic voters for the July 2020 NJ-02 primary election during a worldwide pandemic, where she employed modified strategies to reach voters during COVID. Prior to her work at Blue Future, this past fall she volunteered for Make Room PAC where she was responsible for calling hundreds of high-profile donors, as well as prospective voters. Recently, Marisa has joined Blue Future's Spring For Progress and Change cohort in order to focus more on issue-based advocacy and to form connections with organizers around her.
Contact:
newjerseyyac@gmail.com