Contact Us

For all general inquiries about YDS, contact:

Andrew Porter
YDS National Organizer
75 Maiden Lane, Suite 505
New York City, NY 10038
Phone: 212 727 8610 ext. 4

Andrew Porter - National Organizer

I became involved with YDS during my sophomore year in college when Sean Monahan and I started a socialist organization at the College of Wooster.  We felt the need for a socialist presence at the school and that the other student groups were not doing the work that we wanted to see done.  The two of us gathered some friends and began the Wooster Ice Cream Socialists.  We created a facebook page and began recruiting on campus.  Our facebook presence caught the attention of David Duhalde, at the time the National Organizer.  He contacted the two of us, to see if we were interested in affiliating with YDS.  We looked over the website and brought the idea to the group.  After a near unanimous vote, we became part of YDS.
 

During that first year, I focused on building our chapter up and was not very involved in the national organization, but that changed after the first summer conference Wooster attended.  We met many of the other great YDS people and I decided to run for an at large position on the CC.  I held that position for two years, and then I was elected to the National Organizing Facilitator position.
 

After graduating from college I was hired by Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing.  With Green Corps, I worked in West Virginia on passing federal climate change by organizing around Senators Byrd and Rockefeller.  Then I moved to Utah and worked at Brigham Young University to move the school off of coal energy.  I am finishing up my year in Ann Arbor, Michigan directing a canvass office for Environment Michigan and PIRGIM.

Email: yds@dsausa.org

Co-Chair

Jackie Sewell is an undergraduate senior at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS studying Spanish.  She has been involved in YDS for over three years, first at Wichita State University for two years before moving to Lawrence to start another YDS chapter.  She has served on the CC for two years before, first as an At-Large position and then as Great Plains Regional Organizer for the past year; as the female Co-Chair she anticipates a busy yet rewarding year to grow YDS nationally and locally in Lawrence and the Great Plains region.  Her activism has been focused on struggles related to immigration, labor, and access to higher education with emphasis on racism, and sexual and gender discrimination.

Email: yds.jackie(at)gmail.com

Co-Chair

Sean Monahan is a graduate student of Political Science at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.  This is his second year as Co-Chair of YDS.  He began his activism in 2006, co-founding the Wooster Democratic Socialists at the College of Wooster in Ohio.  Sean is interested in not only Marxian, but Polanyian and Gramscian thought, as well as the intersection of class oppression with race, gender, sexual orientation and immigration status.

Email: sean.yds(at)gmail.com

Corresponding Secretary

Liz Pride grew up outside of Portland, Maine and is completing her senior year at Temple University in Philadelphia where she is majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Women's Studies and Spanish because she loves to write papers. Liz is the former secretary of her chapter at Temple and has been an active member since 2009. In Philadelphia and at Temple she is involved in the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, community outreach, and organizing on campus. She is interested in gender, globalization, human rights, and popular culture, and strives to connect all of those topics as often as possible. She is looking forward to a great year of activism on campus and with YDS!

Email: tub67914(at)temple.edu

People of Color Caucus Chair

Sharrie Volcin is currenly entering her fourth year at William Paterson University, and working on a degree in Political Science and Anthropology. Currently she is the president of the Young Democratic Socialists chapter at William Paterson University. Although she is new to this organization, she is very excited to begin organizing and hopes to strengthen the intrinsically forceful bonds between people of color and the socialist movement.

Email: svolcin11@gmail.com

Women's Caucus Chair

Amber Frost grew up in a very small town in rural Indiana, and attended a satellite campus of Indiana University, later transferring to the flagstaff school in Bloomington, where she's now taking grad classes in Gender Studies. In 2008 she founded the Indiana University of Young Democratic Socialists, presiding over the chapter until she was elected as an at-large member to the Coordinating Committee. This year, she was elected female Co-Chair and is excited to work hard and organize with her comrades. Her academic interest in Socialism focuses greatly on propaganda and the intersections, between race, class, and gender.

Email: amberyds(at)gmail.com

LGBTQ Caucus Chair

Tom Dinardo is senior sculpture major at Tyler School of Art - Temple University. In addition to chairing the LGBTQ Caucus, Tom is also the former vice-president of Temple University Democratic Socialists. Tom has an interest in the history of the socialist movement in the United States, as well as the broader history of the American left, and can frequently be found reading some book that's distracting him from his projects. Brought up just outside of Northeast Philadelphia, he credits his politically aware upbringing on shaping who he is today.

Email:  tua95259(at)temple.edu

Activist Editor

Isabel Anreus is in her senior year at William Paterson University inWayne, New Jersey. She has been an active YDS member on both the national and local level for over a year. Isabel is excited to be the new editor of The Activist blog, and to be able to contribute her thoughts and writings about the current global political climate and leftist theory with other YDS members across the country. After college Isabel plans on attending graduate school for an MFA in creative writing. She is looking forward to an active year for YDS. 

Email: cmrd.anreus(at)gmail.com

Coalitions Coordinator

Sarah Gollwitzer is a recent college graduate of the College of Wooster with a degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. She is currently giving her second year of service to the City of Cleveland; tutoring and mentoring at-risk, inner city youth in the public school system. She previously worked at the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland and co-lead her campus "Allies and Queers" group, and is interested in LGBT rights, women's rights, immigration, and environmentalism.

Email. dsmr204(at)yahoo.com

Western Regional Organizer

Justin Simons is a socialist and political science major from Los Angeles, California. He began his push towards activism in the summer of 2004, as a self-proclaimed member of the Democratic Socialists of America, passing out pamphlets and posting anti-war and anti-corporate articles on the internet; and by establishing a socialist club at his High School. He helped organize protests during the battle over Proposition 8 in California during the 2008 election season, siding in-favor of legal marriage for LGBT couples. He had also worked on several city-council campaigns in Los Angeles during this time as well, siding in-favor of progressive alternatives, rather than neoliberal nonsense. Today, as a full member of the Young Democratic Socialists, he is the chief organizer of the Los Angeles Coalition YDS, and was voted Western Regional Coordinator at the 2010 YDS Summer Conference.

Email: jfullmetal(at)roadrunner.com

Northeast Regional Organizer

Cecily McMillan is a senior at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. In addition to her participation in YDS, previous political involvement includes co-founding and leading her campus' FairWisconsin student organization, promoting LGBTQ rights, as well as organizing campus-wide political debates and small discussion groups. Before college, she was employed in Atlanta by Georgia PIRG, canvassing for community support on key environmental issues, and helped campaign/canvas for Nan Orrock, Georgia State Senator. Prior to Atlanta, she lived in several small towns/cities in Southeast Texas, and worked to create Young Democrats Organization's at two different high schools.

Email: cecilymariemac (at) yahoo.com

Great Plains Regional Organizer

Andrew Hellier is an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas.  This is his first year being the Great Plains Regional Organizer for YDS.  He joined YDS in early 2011 and has remained committed to the socialist cause ever since.  Andrew was born in San Diego, CA in 1992, moving as a baby to Seattle, WA.  In 2001 he moved to Overland Park, KS where he would stay until he moved to Lawrence, KS in 2010.

Email: andrewhellier@gmail.com

Great Lakes Regional Organizer

Matt Porter is originally from the Youngstown, Ohio area and now attends the College of Wooster. He has been president and prime minister of the Wooster YDS chapter. Under his leadership Wooster was able to win its first campaign to get the school to join the Workers Rights Consortium. He is most interested in the intersection of socialism, environmentalism, and food policy. 

Email: mpeslost2(at)gmail.com

Southern Regional Organizer

Craig Clark is an undergraduate student at Lindsey Wilson Collegein Columbia, Kentucky, where he will be assisting in starting a new YDS chapter.  This will be his first year as the Southern Regional Coordinator.  Craig became a member of DSA/YDS early in 2011.

Email: Craig_1590(at)hotmail.com

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