Down Home welcomes Jennifer Eison to our team! Jennifer joins us in a new role here at Down Home as our Climate Justice Campaigner. In this role, she will be working with poor and working folks all across the state in the fight for a cleaner, safer, and more justice North Carolina.
We, of course, had a few questions for her. Listen in below:
Welcome to Down Home, Jennifer! We are really excited to have you here. Can you tell us a little bit about why you wanted to join the Down Home team?
I wanted to join the Down Home team for many reasons. The first of which comes from seeing the incredible work down home does for and with rural communities in NC. Being from a small town in South Carolina, I am familiar with the strength and resilience of small communities. I moved to North Carolina in 2014 where I began my career working with and for rural communities. Since then I’ve been able to witness first hand the amazing work that happens in rural NC towns. I’m thankful to be back in a space where I get to work with rural communities again.
What sort of experiences are you bringing with you into your role that will help guide your work ?
I began my career working as a high school English teacher in a title one school in Eastern North Carolina as part of the Teach for America program. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to work in social justice spaces. I transitioned from the classroom and began organizing in the climate justice space as a youth organizer. This work gave me the introduction to the climate justice field and I’ve been working in climate and social justice ever since then. I look forward to bringing my knowledge about climate justice as well as my youth leadership and development skills.
What are you most excited about doing in this movement?
I’m most passionate about working with North Carolinians to understand their importance to the climate justice movement. I’ve been blessed to work with BIPOC communities in the past to work towards climate justice initiatives and I look forward to working with other marginalized rural communities to build power and create lasting transformational change.
Should grits be savory or sweet?
I feel so strongly about this question that I am honestly appalled that it’s being asked. As a South Carolinian living in North Carolina there is only one way to eat grits and thats savory. Whether you enjoy them with just butter or with cheese or even shrimp as long as it’s savory you’re good with me. It almost should be illegal to serve sweet grits. That’s my hill I’m willing to die on. Thanks for coming to my grits Ted Talk.
