Sally Bastian | Barry Butler | Harold Folley | Ben Greenberg | Ray Higgins | Brian Johns | Sharon LaMar | Michele Mattioli | Laura Ramirez | Kevin Simowitz | Joe Szakos | Ben Thacker-Gwaltney | Cathy Woodson | Larry Yates |

Sally Bastian, Grassroots Fundraising Coordinator
Charlottesville

Sally Bastian began working with VOP in 2006, as the Grassroots Fundraising Coordinator. In the past she has worked in education, housing, and in community development. She is also a Spanish speaker. Sally is excited about VOP, because for those Virginians who are discouraged about jobs, housing, health care and other quality of life and civil rights issues, VOP offers real hope of real change.

Barry Butler, Lynchburg Organizer
Rustburg

Barry Butler has been with the Virginia Organizing Project since 2005. Barry covers the Lynchburg area for VOP. Barry is a native of Chesapeake, Virginia and a graduate of North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. Barry got his start in politics and organizing as an intern on Congressman David Price’s (D-NC) 1998 re-election campaign. Barry also interned with the North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition, which works with rural communities to highlight the disparities in health care access that tend to fall along economic and racial lines. Barry worked on numerous political campaigns across the country, as either a Field Coordinator, Field Director, Campaign Manager, State Director, and Political Consultant. Barry has worked in Nevada, New Jersey, Florida, Oklahoma, North Carolina and South Carolina, West Virginia, and here in Virginia. Barry resides in Campbell County with his wife Jennifer, two daughters and two Springer Spaniels. "My entire political career I have worked for candidates who tried to be the voice of the marginalized and the average citizen. VOP has given me the opportunity to work with these same people to leverage their collective power and be their own voice for real political change."

Harold Folley, Apprentice Organizer
Charlottesville

Harold Folley is a man who has a desire to obtain as much knowledge as possible, and to pass it on to the youth that he assists. He is a determined individual who seeks new pathways to help others. Harold believes that he can make a difference in his community by educating individuals about their choices and rights. He also has a great interest in working with the youth to ensure that they understand that education is the key to success. Harold began working at VOP as an apprentice organizer in January 2007.

Ben Greenberg, Legislative Director
Charlottesville/Richmond

Ben Greenberg joined the Virginia Organizing Project as its Legislative Director in 2006. Ben's responsibilities relate primarily to advocating for VOP's priority public policy issues at the annual session of the Virginia General Assembly and working with diverse coalitions on behalf of these issues. Current legislative issues include predatory lending, tax reform, racial profiling and child care subsidies. Ben is a native Virginian who has worked on behalf of social justice and reproductive rights throughout his career in state and local government and with statewide non-profit organizations, more than twenty-five years of which have involved state legislative advocacy. Ben is married to Connie Jorgensen, Director of Development and Public Relations for the Monticello Area Community Action Agency in Charlottesville. Ben has two grown sons and three granddaughters. "I am delighted to be part of such a wonderful organization as VOP. The organization, its staff and volunteers and the causes for which it advocates are exemplary and consistent with my life's commitment to make a real difference on behalf of the well-being of Virginians", Ben has stated.

Ray Higgins, Organizer
Roanoke

Ray Higgins grew up in the Roanoke area and completed his undergraduate work in political science at Emory and Henry College in Southwest Virginia. He studied extensively with Dr. Stephen Fisher (an expert in progressive social change in Appalachia). While studying for his Master of Arts at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, Ray was introduced to the faith-based model of community organizing as developed through the Pacific Institute for Community Organization or PICO. He finished his degree and began a ten-year career as a community organizer in the PICO network. He was trained in Oakland, CA and became the executive director of an organization in San Mateo County. In 1997, Ray traveled back to Virginia to settle down and founded Faith Works in the Roanoke Valley where he was director from 1999-2004. Ray has spent the last four years teaching in a private school in Roanoke. Feeling refreshed and eager to get back to organizing, Ray joined the VOP staff in June 2008. Ray is married to Alice Higgins (7 years in 2008) and all of his family is from Higgins Holler in Lexington, VA.

Brian Johns, Southwest Virginia Organizer
Abingdon

Brian Johns first came to the Virginia Organizing Project as an intern in 2000, and then worked as a community organizer from 2001-2005. He spent two years in Pennsylvania doing community organizing with a labor union, and returned to VOP in 2007. He is currently the organizer for far Southwest Virginia, covering from Pulaski to the Kentucky border. Brian grew up just south of Richmond in the Petersburg area and worked with the Petersburg and Williamsburg chapters, also helping open the Williamsburg office, before leaving in 2005. He is now based out of Abingdon, with his wife Paige and their daughter Lea. "VOP builds power in local communities and around Virginia by building relationships within those communities," states Brian. "I believe this is an incredibly effective way to bring about change, and I'm excited to be back with VOP and organizing in Southwest Virginia."

Sharon LaMar, Apprentice Organizer
Salem

Sharon LaMar started as an Apprentice Organizer with VOP in October 2007 covering the Salem and Roanoke areas. Prior to joining VOP's staff, Sharon volunteered with Roanoke Immigration Services teaching English as a Second Language to refugees and volunteered with Junior Achievement working with elementary students to help them understand their community. Her past work experience includes insurance, accounting, sales, and medical. Sharon is married and has two sons. She received her Bachelor's degree from Radford University and enjoys meeting new people and learning about new cultures. Sharon enjoys working with VOP to assist in empowering others to better their lives and their environment.

Michele Mattioli, Special Projects Coordinator
Charlottesville

Michele served as Development Director for VOP from 1999 to 2008 and now serves as Special Projects Coordinator. Previously she directed a Montessori school for 17 years. Michele has lived in Charlottesville since 1980, where she has been a community activist around issues of race, education, peace and justice and the environment. She and her husband enjoy developing their small organic farm. Michele says, "Working with VOP is a privilege. I am optimistic for the future because every day I see the quiet groundwork being laid for a more just and peaceful society. As our grassroots work grows, power is shifting."

Laura Ramirez, Office Manager
Charlottesville

Laura Ramirez has been the Office Manager at VOP since 1998. Laura is responsible for the financial management of the organization, database administration, desktop publishing of the VOP news magazine and other documents, administration of benefits and insurance policies, developing, implementing and maintaining a technology strategy that includes needs assessment, purchase and maintenance of hardware and software, training and security for the organization. Whew! Laura came to VOP with extensive administrative experience and technological skills.

Kevin Simowitz, Apprentice Organizer
Charlottesville

Kevin Simowitz, originally from Ohio, is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia and a Charlottesville resident. Before being hired as an apprentice organizer, Kevin interned for VOP for three years. "I'm excited to work for VOP as an organizer -building community power is the most effective way, in my experience, to help people make concrete change in their own lives and work for the common good of all Virginians."

Joe Szakos, Executive Director
Charlottesville

Joe Szakos has been the executive director of the Virginia Organizing Project since 1994. He was the founding coordinator of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and has also done community organizing in Chicago and Hungary. Joe has a Masters degree from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and is co-author, with his wife, Kristin Layng Szakos, of We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do—and Why. Joe and Kristin also edited Lessons From the Field: Organizing in Rural Communities, published by the American Institute for Social Justice/Social Policy Magazine. "Being a community organizer allows me to work with groups of people to make specific, tangible changes in their communities while helping individuals learn important leadership skills. I love having the opportunity—every day with the Virginia Organizing Project — to help people raise their voices about the concerns they have, especially when it leads to major systemic changes."

Ben Thacker-Gwaltney, Williamsburg/Peninsula Lead Organizer
Williamsburg

Ben Thacker-Gwaltney has been a community organizer for the Virginia Organizing Project since 1998. He is the Lead Organizer, and also has responsibilities for organizing on the Peninsula as well as economics education. A native Virginian, Ben worked with the Lynchburg and Amherst County chapters previous to moving to Williamsburg in 2004. His two children, Amos and Sophie, are growing quickly, and his wife Susan teaches early-childhood Reading Education for UVA.

"The thing I like about VOP is our work for long-term change," Ben writes. “We are building solid local organizations across Virginia in the hope of changing this state for everyone who gets pushed around and cut out of the possibility of a good life here. That’s a goal worth working for."

Cathy Woodson, Richmond/Petersburg Organizer
Richmond

Cathy Woodson is a Virginia native and she has worked with VOP since 1997. Her VOP work began as a volunteer. She volunteered as a team member facilitating Dismantling Racism workshops for more than a year before joining the staff. She is the organizer working the central Virginia area and she works out of Richmond. Other responsibilities include coordinating and facilitating Dismantling Racism workshops around the state, and coordinating the Leadership Institute. Working with other VOP organizers, she coordinates constituent meetings at the Virginia General Assembly.

Larry Yates, Shenandoah Valley Organizer
Maurertown

Larry Yates has been active for social justice since 1966, when he marched against housing segregation in Arlington, Virginia. He has been the Shenandoah Valley organizer for VOP since 2003. He previously served as Field Director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition and Grassroots Organizing Mentor at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, and was founding Executive Director of the Virginia Housing Coalition. He wrote a chapter on the history of housing organizing for A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda, published in 2006 by Temple Press. He and his wife Carol moved from Arlington to Shenandoah County in 2003; Larry previously lived in Richmond and Fairfax.

"I have supported VOP since I first heard about it, when Joe Szakos began to talk to people around the state. When I worked for the Virginia Housing Coalition, I learned that no issue could be won in Virginia without cooperation across different regions of the Commonwealth. However, building that cooperation, especially on a wide range of issues, is a tough and delicate job, and needed the deliberate, fair and strategic approach that VOP has brought to it."