John Aspray Email & Phone Number

New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States

Des Moines, Iowa, United States

Des Moines, Iowa, United States

Greater Chicago Area

Ithaca, New York

Working with the graduate student employees of Cornell University to build their union through collecting membership cards, creating momentum around the need for a graduate student union at the University, and eventually winning recognition of the union by Cornell and collectively bargaining a contract.

Washington, District Of Columbia

•General Responsibilities: Coordinate development and execution of USSA national campaigns, coordinate membership maintenance and expansion, serve as a manager for USSA’s Field Associates, staff miscellaneous campus and statewide student networks.•Campaigns and Issues: Engaged students in the Debt-Free Future campaign targeting the Education Department around their student loan servicing contracts; supported students in campaign development around college affordability (Fund The Future campaign), campus sexual violence (Carry That Weight campaign), and racial justice (State of Emergency campaign); coordinated student response to the Republican FY16 Budget’s cuts (Raid on Student Aid campaign).•Accomplishments: Coordinated 7+ national days of action with coordinated efforts on as many as 30 campuses at once, coordinated several big actions in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and Bakersfield, CA, assisted students in winning campus and state-level policy change, helped the Debt-Free Future campaign win a $96 million fine of Sallie Mae, created several USSA publications, including social media guides, campaign toolkits, and issue briefs.•Skills Developed: Managing professional staff and inter-departmental relationships; managing organizational relationships with campus and statewide member organizations and national and state-level partners; developing strategic national campaigns; proficiency in SalsaLabs and Wordpress interfaces with basic HTML experience.

New Brunswick, New Jersey

•General Responsibilities: Develop a student base of support for USSA in New Jersey, build capacity for NJ United Students as a statewide organization, bring in dues-paying members for USSA, run USSA campaigns.•Accomplishments: Maintained our existing membership, brought in two more dues-paying member campuses, helped develop campus level organizing teams on six campuses, developed a statewide cadre of student leaders to run NJ United Students with participation from twelve campuses, fundraised over $25,000 for USSA/NJUS campaigns, ran a full-time, 3-month long summer internship program for 10 students in 2012 & 2013, and developed my replacement.•Campaigns and Issues: Engaged students around the 2012 student loan interest rate fight, ran a statewide voter registration effort, helped launch and staff the 2013 Tuition Equity for DREAMers campaign, and supported students on several campus-level tuition fights and student government elections.•Skills Developed: Literature creation; maintaining relationships with leaders through field visits, 1:1 meetings, 1:1 and group phone calls; logistical support for regular meetings, conferences, and internship program; legislative advocacy; power-mapping; strategy development/facilitation; interacting with non-profit and union partners; grant-writing.

Trained by USSA staff and trainers from Wellstone Action Fund on the Electoral Action Training (EAT) curriculum. This training covered both content and development of my personal facilitation style. Subsequently traveled to various college campuses to deliver the EAT for students doing electoral work.

Edison, New Jersey

Worked with a team of organizers at AFT-New Jersey to conduct member education, volunteer recruitment and GOTV efforts among members of AFT locals preparation for the 2011 NJ state legislative races. Canvassed department offices and called through member leaders to organize volunteers for phonebanks and labor walks in support of candidates endorsed by the state federation. Primary focus was on New Jersey's 14th and 38th state legislative districts, with a secondary focus on the 11th and 16th districts and one local council election.

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Served as a Teaching Assistant to Professor Janice Fine for her class “Organizing for Social Change”. “Organizing for Social Change” is based heavily off of the book by the same name, which serves as the foundation for the Midwest Academy’s training for community organizers. Duties included co-facilitating organizing trainings for a 35-person class, data entry for grades, and helping facilitate classroom discussion on the concepts of power, tactics, and strategy.

Annapolis, Maryland

Edited technical articles and book reviews for grammar and coherence, confirmed in-text reference points on financial charts, and edited financial charts with captions.

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Was part of a cohort of about 70 third-year and fourth-year students chosen to lead 1-credit seminars for incoming Rutgers University students during the Fall 2009 semester. In preparation for this role, the FIGS program staff conducted summer trainings and weekly seminars on facilitation. My FIGS class on Community Organizing & Civic Engagement was composed of 25 first-year students, 10 of whom went on to become active in service organizations, student government, electoral campaigns, and power-building organizations.

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Full-time organizer on the Ward Campaign, the flagship project of New Brunswick-based Empower Our Neighborhoods, as well as civic improvement projectsThis position focused on simultaneously building the membership of Empower Our Neighborhoods as a student and community organization as well as execution of a citywide electoral campaign. Job duties included 15 hrs/week of canvassing, preparing political literature in English & Spanish, preparing persuasive letters for fund-raising and newsprint, registering voters, researching electoral systems, and soliciting donations. We also conducted small direct action campaigns focused on improving residents' quality of life, using City Council meetings to demand speed bumps, crosswalks, and stop signs on busy streets.On-the-job training emphasized development of campaign strategy & tactics, public speaking, and people skills.

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Full-time organizer on the Ward Campaign, the flagship project of New Brunswick-based Empower Our Neighborhoods. This position focused on simultaneously building the membership of Empower Our Neighborhoods as a student and community organization as well as execution of a citywide electoral campaign. Job duties included 15 hrs/week of canvassing, preparing political literature in English & Spanish, preparing persuasive letters for fund-raising and newsprint, registering voters, researching electoral systems, and soliciting donations.On-the-job training emphasized development of campaign strategy & tactics, public speaking, and people skills.