November 2021 Newsletter

November 2021 Newsletter

This Veterans Day we celebrate in honor of the brave men, women, and people who have sacrificed in the service of our country. Thank you to all of our Alumnae Veterans for their service!  Emerge Nevada asked  Assemblywoman Claire Thomas, Class of 2020 and Ninna Diaz, Class of 2021 to share what having served our country means to them. Both Alumnae served in the U.S. Air Force. Ninna served from 2011-2019, and Claire for 20 years starting as an ICBM Water Treatment Specialist, and retiring Honorably as an Air Traffic Controller.

This National Native American Heritage Month, we highlight Mercedes Krause, a citizen of Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Nation, and a proud Emerge Nevada Class of 2019 Alumna! As a co-founder of Indigenous Educators Empowerment, she is a tireless advocate for more equitable data access on Native Americans and for initiatives that benefit Indigenous peoples. With over 15 years of teaching experience in the Clark County School District, she works to increase Indigenous educator recruitment and retention and has fought to advance a K-12 curriculum that accurately represents Native Americans.

Due to her experience and impressive advocacy, she is consulted on issues impacting Indigenous populations including serving on the Nevada Minority Affairs Commission, the Clark County Native American Caucus, UNLV’s Native American Alumni Club, the Las Vegas Indian Center, as an Emerge Nevada trainer, with Battle Born Progress and for the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee with the Nevada Department of Education. We are so proud and grateful for all the work Mercedes does to honor and lift up our Native American Communities and to help make our state a better and more equitable place for everyone!

 

With the fall and winter holidays approaching, excitement is building as stores are stocked with baking goods, holiday treats, and items for family gatherings. But this year, as we enter November, the COVID-19 pandemic trudges on, continuing to expose inequalities in education, healthcare, childcare, and other social services. Many families still experience huge gaps in these core essentials which became drastically more apparent over the past years as we learned how the shut-down and economic slowdown impacted the ability of thousands of Nevadans to afford daily necessities, including food. In Nevada, two Emerge Nevada alumnae make it their business to focus on food security and availability for their communities.

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In the spirit of the season of thanks, we want to share our most heartfelt appreciation to our generous sponsors and community of supporters. We thank you for your ongoing commitment to ensuring women representation up and down the ballot in Nevada, and providing the resources to help our women win to represent us state-wide and locally.

We are thankful to have an awesome network of sponsors and supporters who help to make our work possible. We will be shouting out our individual, candidate, and business supporters throughout the month on social media, so please keep an eye out and share your gratitude in the comments!

Thank you to the generous sponsors of our 15th Annual Graduation Celebration! We could not do the important work of identifying, recruiting, and training women to run for office without your support.

Recruitment Salons are a time for our staff, board and alumnae to meet with women from around the State who have heard about Emerge Nevada and might be interested in applying for our Signature Candidate Training. During October this year, there were three opportunities to come together in these “happy hour” settings to explore ideas, discuss possible plansand learn more about the Emerge program. In Northern Nevada, the Brewer’s Cabinet held space for Emerge Nevada President Denise Lopez and Alumna Board Members Britton Griffith, Kelli Kelly and Fahima Khalaf to host guests, talk about running for office and answer questions about training and preparing for campaigns. Later in the month, a Facebook Live! interview featured Executive Director Danna Lovell along with Fahima and Kelli to share their alumnae experiences and answer audience questions. And finally, in Southern Nevada Fahima Khalaf greeted a group of Muslim women at the El Dorado Cantina to introduce Emerge Nevada training information and the opportunity to train to run for elected office in the upcoming class of 2022.

Thank you to Fahima Khalaf, Britton Griffith, and Kelli Kelly, for helping to organize these successful events and bring more Democratic women into the fold. We had an almost record-breaking number of applicants for our Class of 2022, which shows how much energy there is across our state for women to run for office! We look forward to introducing the Class of 2022 soon.

 

With interviews complete, we move into selection of the Class of 2022 just as the season of thanks and giving kicks off. Many Emerge alumnae and supporters are reaching out to ask how they can best support our incoming class. The best way you can help us continue to identify, recruit, and train Democratic women to run for office is by Supporting our mission! Thank you for your generosity!

From our Executive Director Danna Lovell: “We are thrilled to announce the long-awaited launch of our Campaign Advisory Team (CAT) Workshop Series for 2022 Alumnae Candidates. This effort is spearheaded by committee chair Kristee Watson and members Connie Munk and Karina Provost! Their second-to-none campaign expertise has been invaluable as we open up the cohort of candidates and offer a series of continuing education work sessions ahead of the 2022 election season.”

Our first workshop was held virtually on October 27th and covered launching a campaign, obtaining an EIN, financial reporting with the Secretary of State, providing our specialized and tailored workbook and timeline for 2022 candidates, and more. Women were able to share advice and feedback with one another, and the space was provided to develop a  tight-knit cohort of women and supporters for the 2022 races! It has been a vision to reality being able to offer this important series of workshops heading into next year. The next session is at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 17! Mark your calendars if you’re an alumna on the ballot in 2022!

Paid for by Emerge Nevada
848 N. Rainbow Blvd. #3
Las Vegas, NV 89107