Vote 2020: Getting Involved in the 2020 Election
By Vote 2020
In this fight for American democracy, the VOTE 2020 initiative at NYU Wagner has three goals: (1) to encourage everyone in the NYU community to vote, (2) to enable community members to find volunteer opportunities to ensure greater voter engagement across the country, (3) to fund students to work for non-partisan, get-out-the-vote operations.
Luisa Portugal sits down with Professor Erica Foldy and the VOTE 2020 Cohort, represented by NYU Wagner MPA candidates’ Alexis Richards and Abe Nelson, to discuss their efforts during the presidential election, the Vote2020 Fellowship and how students can get involved with the program.
Transcript
[0:00] Introduction by Tiffany Rose Miller, Editor-in-Chief of NYU Wagner Review,
[00:45] Erica Foldy, an NYU Wagner professor, discuss VOTE 2020’s initiative efforts,
[1:18] Luisa Portugal begins moderating, the first question asked is how VOTE 2020 was started,
[3:12] Alexis Richards and Abraham Nelson, Co-Directors of VOTE 2020, discuss their involvement with the initiative,
[6:30] Alexis and Abe discuss how NYU students can get involved with election efforts,
[12:46] Things to know when voting by mail.
Guest Speakers
Erica Foldy is an Associate Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University where she leads the Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy Program and co-directs the Capstone program. She is affiliated Faculty with the Center for Gender in Organizations at the Simmons School of Management in Boston.
Alexis Richards is a second-year MPA candidate specializing in Advocacy and Political Action, where she is Co-Director of VOTE 2020, President of the Wagner Womxn and a Staff Writer for NYU Wagner Review. She currently serves as a communications and legislative intern with the office of New York City Council Member Carlina Rivera. Her past professional experience includes serving as an intern for former presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and working on communications for Gina Ortiz Jones’s campaign for congress in TX-23. She volunteers with the Lower Eastside Girls Club, where she serves on the executive board of the Angel Alliance. She holds a B.A. in Communications and Consumer Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her background is in PR, executing strategy for brands from Target to Fossil to Rebecca Minkoff.
Abraham Nelson is a second-year MPA candidate at NYU Wagner, where he is co-director of VOTE 2020, staff writer for NYU Wagner Review, and a former research assistant on the data team at the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy. Previously, he interned on the cultural engagement and research teams at Everytown for Gun Safety and worked as a program associate in the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. In addition to working on VOTE 2020, Abe is a graduate student intern working on criminal justice reform in the National Political Advocacy Department of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Moderator
Luisa Portugal is a second-year MPA student at NYU Wagner specializing in International Development Management & Policy. She earned an LLM in Constitutional Law and Theory in Brazil. This summer, Luisa did a monitoring & evaluation internship with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and in the Fall she will be interning with the Pathfinders Program at the NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC). Her main topics of interest are climate change, migration and their intersections with international development. Luisa also serves as Co-Chair of Events for the Alliance for Climate Change and Environment (ACE), and as a staff writer for NYU Wagner Review.
Also on Spotify!
Links for Resources mentioned:
- Motivote — A community platform made by Wagner grads that is a one-stop-shop for voting accountability and resources
- Take the VOTE 2020 pledge
- Fill out the fellowship interest form
- Visit Vote.org for any questions about voting by mail/ absentee voting
- VOTE 2020 Website
- Reach out to vote2020@nyu.edu or Alexis Richards (arichards@nyu.edu) and Abe Nelson (acn376@nyu.edu) with any questions!
Wagner Action for Social Justice, Equity and Democracy (SEAD) Faculty Members:
Music Credit: Zigzag by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5020-zigzag License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/