Please join Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice and the Ashrei Foundation for this exciting event, featuring keynote speaker, M’Evie Mead (she/her), facilitator of the Will of the People Coalition and Director of Strategic Partnerships at Missouri Jobs with Justice.

This "lunch & learn" event, "The Power of the People: Understanding the Initiative Petition Process in Missouri's Democracy," will take a deep dive into the initiative petition process, a fundamental constitutionally protected tool of Missouri’s democracy. We will explore the history of initiative petitions in our state and review current challenges in the Missouri legislature this session that would reshape this important citizen-driven tool. Of course, we’ll be sure you have opportunities to take action right away!

Please bring your own lunch; this is an in-person event only. Register today!

M’Evie Mead has over 25 years leading progressive power building work in Missouri and nationally. Mead came from Washington DC to Missouri to serve as executive director of Missouri NARAL (now Abortion Action Missouri) and went on to build the organizing, power building and policy programs for Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri (now absorbed in Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest MO). From 2013-15, Mead worked with colleagues from across the country to co-create a national organizing model for Planned Parenthood called the Path to Power. Thousands of Planned Parenthood organizers and volunteers have been trained through the Path to Power University. Mead served as interim executive director for LeadMO and LeadMO Action. Mead helped LeadMO/Action successfully hire a new permanent executive director and worked with an amazing staff and board team to execute strategic priorities during the transition. In her current position as director of strategic partnerships with Missouri Jobs With Justice, Mead is building out the coalition to support Missourians for Healthy Families & Fair Wages campaign and staffs the Will of The People Coalition defending Missouri’s 100+ year tradition of direct democracy through the initiative petition process.

Mead has served in leadership positions on the boards of the Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative (MOVE Action), Progress MO, Women’s Political Caucus and Planned Parenthood’s State Public Affairs Network. Mead is the mother of 2, lives in St. Louis, and spends as much time as possible hiking and playing in the rivers of Missouri’s Ozarks.