Hello, SEACers! As hundreds of you are getting ready to attend regional Powershift summits across the country, I'm just beginning to dive into the great work that SEAC does. My name's Beth Bissmeyer, and I've just been hired as SEAC's new Kentucky Organizer. Louisville, Kentucky is home, and that's where I'll be based. I have the awesome job of organizing with youth across the bluegrass state on campaigns to end Mountaintop Removal mining and campaigns to promote clean energy policy, working with already-established leaders and bringing new folks into the environmental justice mix.

I started my foray into social justice the same way that a lot of you probably did: I was exposed to an issue and was compelled to learn more, to do something. For me, it was Mountaintop Removal coal mining, an issue I first heard about while a student at Berea College. Learning that such an injustice was occurring just a few hours from my home in the state that I love, I was outraged and wanted to take action. I became active with Kentuckians For The Commonwealth—a social justice group in the state—and learned more about mining and energy issues, as well as doing voter empowerment work. Like many of you, I organized on my campus and in the surrounding community on justice issues and became more active and engaged the more I learned and the more stories I heard from those directly impacted.

Doing work that you are passionate about, work that lets you work with amazing people and is aimed at improving the world for all its inhabitants isn't as common for people as it should be, so you can be damn sure I consider myself lucky to get to do such work as the Kentucky Organizer and to learn and grow with this organization.

See you at Appalachia Powershift! http://appalachia.powershift09.org/

Take care,
Beth