Speakers

Michael Bagdes-Canning is, first and foremost, husband (Karen, 46 years), father, and grandfather. He is a retired teacher; he spent 36 years in the classroom teaching reading to delinquent and dependent boys. He was President, Vice President, and building representative of his union local. He has held elective office since 1989, serving on the Cherry Valley Borough Council until 2022; he is currently Mayor. He has also run for Butler County Commissioner, State Representative and Lieutenant Governor. For the past 15 years, he has been involved as a frontline organizer in the climate, anti-fracking and anti-corruption fights. He serves on the Planning Group of Marcellus Outreach Butler. He is a co-founder of the Better Path Coalition, a statewide coalition of grassroots anti-fracking / climate groups. He is one of the founders of Pennsylvania Action on Climate, a group formed at the intersection of bad climate policy and political corruption. He serves on the State Coordinating Committee of the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign. He works closely with the anti-corruption group, March On Harrisburg and Beyond Extreme Energy, a national group targeting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Michael has organized, planned, and participated in dozens of nonviolent direct action campaigns locally, state-wide, and nationally – including multi-day marches and bike rides, blockades, and disruptions.

Jake Fein is Indivisible’s Senior Regional Organizer for Pennsylvania and Delaware. Jake has spent his entire life promoting progressive causes and finding creative ways for folks to get involved in their communities. Throughout his career as a musician, small business manager, and political organizer, Jake has made it his mission to help folks find their voices and express themselves at protests, town halls, concerts, and neighbor’s doorsteps. In his political work across Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and Upstate New York- Jake has spent countless hours honing his organizing and canvassing skills in rural and suburban communities. 

Dr. Christopher Harris is the Director of the School Library System for the Genesee Valley BOCES, an educational services agency supporting the libraries of 22 small, rural districts in Western NY. In 2022 Dr. Harris was named a Senior Fellow for the American Library Association for school libraries and youth policy issues. He is the author of multiple books on computer science including two upcoming books on AI and machine learning from Rosen Publishing. 

Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko grew up in a steel town in western Pennsylvania as the industry was closing down, and the town began to hollow out with no other economy to take its place. When she moved to the Philadelphia area at the age of 16, she realized that people in big cities and small towns across PA share many of the same problems and challenges, though they are taught to believe that they have nothing in common. In 2012 she co-founded Put People First! PA and in 2020 the national Nonviolent Medicaid Army. Nijmie is a founding Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign and continues to be a member of the Coordinating Committee. 

 James Heckman is the McKean County delegate to the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee.  He is also chair of the North West Regional Caucus of the Pennsylvania Democrats, as well as treasurer for Demstock Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Democratic Rural Caucus, and Friends of Margie Brown.  He started his political journey with Kinzua Country Indivisible in 2017, a group which helped revitalize the county Democratic party in McKean County.

Dr. Jamie Phillips has been teaching at PennWest - Clarion for 25 years, where he serves as Professor of Philosophy and teaches courses in logic, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of literature, and applied and professional ethics, among many others. Dr. Phillips is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, having served from 1986-1990, primarily as an intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency. He received a BA in History from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1994, a MA in Philosophy from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1996 and a PhD in Philosophy with Honors from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1999. Dr. Phillips is an active member of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Public Philosophy and since 2016 has become a strong personal advocate for using social media to educate the public on philosophical theories and schools of thought, and to provide non-academics with philosophical insight into how they might better resolve the many and varied problems forced upon them by the modern world. 

Kadida Kenner is the founding chief executive officer of both the New PA Project Education Fund (C3) and the New Pennsylvania Project (C4). Kadida is a tireless advocate for social and economic justice issues, and is motivated to empower and excite the electorate to enthusiastically vote in every election -- all the way down the entire ballot. Kadida has led efforts to stop the passage of a judicial gerrymandering constitutional amendment, raise the minimum wage, fairly fund public education, protect federal courts from problematic judicial nominees, and protect the state courts from extremist attempts to undermine their independence.  

Kadida also serves as co-chair of Why Courts Matter - Pennsylvania, an advocacy project seeking to protect the independence of our state and federal courts, and educate the electorate about their importance. 

Prior to working in issue advocacy, Kadida was a director, producer and writer for HBCU sports television programming - both live and scripted television in Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia. The Temple University graduate resides in the Philly suburbs and counts civil rights organizing icon, and West Chester, Pennsylvania native Bayard Rustin as one of her civil rights heroes.

Armin Samii is a Ranked Choice Voting advocate in Pittsburgh and a volunteer with March on Harrisburg. He works with cities and counties nationwide to help them implement their first RCV elections. He is the founder of RCVis, an Election Night Reporting tool for RCV elections, and a developer for RCTab, the software which tallies RCV ballots. In his day job, he advocates for safer bicycling infrastructure as the founder of dashcam.bike.  Visit him at: https://arminsamii.com/

Dr. Jennifer Sturge is the director of the school library endorsement program at Antioch University.  She is a former school librarian coordinator, school librarian, and K-12 educator.  She can be found volunteering with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), on the editorial board of Knowledge Quest, and co-chairing the 2025 national conference for AASL.  Jennifer has presented nationally and at the state level on information literacy, mis- and disinformation, and teaches a course in research and information literacy.  Jennifer and her husband recently relocated to the Clarion area from southern Maryland and are loving it.  

Growing up, Lisa Walker had an innate desire to help create diverse and inclusive communities. She has dedicated herself to personal growth towards a more comprehensive understanding of the beauty and benefits of diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments that thrive when systemic barriers are removed. Lisa brings a professional journey of removing barriers and increasing access for all that spans almost three decades. Lisa has spearheaded the development and execution of organizational equity plans, establishing clear policies and goals to advance equity. Her approach centers on creating trusted partnerships with leaders and organizations in order to focus on their long-term health and viability. As a result, she can help leaders to dream big, solve problems, and achieve their strategic vision. Lisa is also a certified trainer for Cultural Proficiency and holds a certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Cornell University. Visit Deep Roots Solutions for more information.

As a child, when Sandy Walker read a comic that said, “With great power comes great responsibility,” he committed his life to being a champion for justice. This deep-rooted belief propelled him to become a highly skilled trainer and facilitator of complex conversations around diversity and inclusion, bias, race, equity, and social justice. In addition to leading the implementation of organizational equity policies, goals, and tactics, he has served as an advisor on multiple equity boards, impacting a diverse array of communities and organizations. Sandy is a two time participant in Harvard University’s Closing the Achievement Gap: Strategies for Excellence with Equity Institute. Sandy, along with is wife, Lisa, are the owners of Deep Roots Solutions, committed to providing solutions that are lasting toward equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Zach "Wome" Womer is a 12th-generation central Pennsylvanian. His ancestors worked in the coal mines of the Moshannon Valley. He was the first person in his family to earn a college diploma. Before and while attending Denison University, he worked construction. After college, he became a law student at Pennsylvania State Law. While attending law school, he has served on the Centre County Mental Health, Intellectual Disability, and Early Intervention Advisory Board. His writing has been featured in various local and national newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the Centre Daily Times, the Penn Capital-Star, and more. 

These bios were sent in by presenters and have been edited for clarity, when necessary, by Indivisible: We Rise. Nothing on this page should be taken to represent an opinion or political stance by Indivisible: We Rise or Indivisible: National.