Whether through leading a local chapter, serving on the Board, a committee, or as staff, women are the backbone of Progressive Massachusetts. This March, we want to highlight some of the many women who are leading our movement.
Leslie Greffenius. Leslie is Co-Chair of our local chapter, Neponset Valley Progressives (Dedham, Westwood, Norwood, Walpole). We are grateful for Leslie’s many years leading and mentoring at the local level and within the state chapter! Addressing climate change and protecting the Fair Share Amendment are among the issues NVP are leading on locally. If you are local and would like to connect, contact NVP, here. Follow them on Facebook, here. Thanks for all that you do, Leslie!
Get to know Leslie:
PM: Why did you choose PM as the home of your activism?
LG: By concentrating our efforts at the state, rather than the national level, we have more impact. Ultimately, too, progress made at the state level often catches on in other states and then nationally. Same-sex marriage, for example, though first legalized in Massachusetts, caught on elsewhere and is now, after 2015, legal everywhere in the U.S.
PM: What issue are you most passionate about?
LG: Transparency in government, protecting immigrants, climate change.
PM: What was the first campaign on which you organized and what did you do?
LG: I was shocked to discover that the Massachusetts State House is one of the least transparent in the country. Voting records of representatives are hard to find and committee votes are generally taken in secret. If you want to kill democracy, that’s one way to do it.
I was heavily involved in gathering signatures to place a non-binding ballot measure on transparency in several districts across the state in 2020. The question’s language: “Shall the representative for this district be instructed to vote in favor of changes to the applicable House of Representative rules to make each legislator’s vote in that body’s legislative committees publicly available of the Legislature’s website?” It was great fun collecting signatures for this because many Massachusetts residents were outraged when they found out how dysfunctional Massachusetts government was and, unfortunately, still is. Change of that sort will take time and patience.
PM: Who is your organizing or political idol?
LG: Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
PM: What movie or book about your passion issue is your favorite?
LG: “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson.
PM: What’s your favorite thing about canvassing or phone banking?
LG: Meeting kindred spirits in my community.
PM: What’s your go to quick campaign meal that is not pizza?
LG: Chinese food.
PM: If you could have a mundane super power, what would it be?
LG: To transform into a fly (on a wall) at will.
PM: Tell us something you do that no one knows about or suspects?
LG: I study foreign languages for fun.
Join the movement! Tell us how you’d like to volunteer with Progressive Mass, here.
