Hello, this is Democracy or L, so we're bringing you amazing progressive candidates in down

ballot races, activists and community leaders from around the country.

I'm Amelia Montuth, I work on social at Cricket Media and like many here I came from the

campaign world, specifically the Warren and Biden presidential campaigns.

Today, I'm talking with Shelley Jackson, the executive director of InstituTto.

InstituTto is a community hub based out of Phoenix, Arizona, whose mission is to build

sustained political power with low income and communities of color in Arizona.

Thank you so much for joining us today, we are so excited to have you on our series.

For those who might not be familiar with you, do you mind just introducing yourself and

the work that you do?

I'm born and raised, still living in South Phoenix, Arizona.

I come from an artist background, so I'm not someone who grew up thinking that I was

going to be doing political or social justice work at all.

Actually, I went to school for dance and dance education before jumping into this type

of work, but right now I am a school board member, so I ran for school board in 2020 as

a writing candidate in my community in one, but more importantly also as an executive

director at InstituTto.

So here we do everything under the sun that has to do with making sure leaders are

put with all the skills, tools and resources they need to advance their communities.

I'm really curious to hear more about you being a dancer and finding your way into this

work.

What kind of inspired you or motivated you to join kind of social justice work?

...