
The National Organization
Inspired by the national presidential campaigns of U. S. Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, Our Revolution is a national movement intent on building a lasting movement for progressive political change. Our Revolution is comprised entirely of volunteers from the National Board of Directors (read their Statement here) to the people who staff the local branches. We come from a variety of different backgrounds and carry with us a variety of perspectives. We bring prior experience in nonprofits, labor unions, activism, and government. Our Revolution is a non-profit funded primarily by individual donors. We do not and will not accept corporate PAC or “dark” money. We limit large donations from single individuals. (View our national list of donors who have given $250 or more in a single year.) Our Revolution is committed to transparency. You can find full documentation of our national bylaws and policies here.

Drew Bergerson’s day job is to research, teach, and write about modern German history. In his free time, he helped create the Community School Foundation, a nonprofit to support his favorite alternate independent school, CS#1elementary. At OurRev, he designed the Research & Endorsement process, and served as the OurRev Field Leader for the statewide ballot initiatives on Medicaid Expansion. He looks forward to working on the next initiative VOTE 2022.


Upon returning from 6 years in the Peace Corps in 2018, Deborah worked on the 2018 campaigns in Florida for Andrew Gillum and Amendment 4 (Voting Rights for Returning Felons). She served as Volunteer Coordinator with Progressive Sarasota. In Kansas City, she has previously served as Board Secretary for ORKC and was a Text Training Lead on GOTV for Amendment 2. She served as a notary on the signature-gathering team for Medicaid Expansion. She now recognizes that democracy is not a spectator sport, considers the Revolution to be a decades-long project and is in it for the long haul.

Essence Jewel is an urban planning and design student at UMKC. She studied the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and poverty on child development and how to change policy to improve life outcomes. In her free time, she volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 election as a student organizer and victory captain where she primarily did activist training. During and after working for the Bernie Sanders campaign, she partnered with Winnetonka High School to attempt to bring Eco-Schools initiatives to her former district to foster feelings of community for students, teachers, and staff.

Susan is a Spanish teacher in the Liberty Public School district and lives up north in Kansas City. Education, health care and anti-racism are her focused areas of activism.
After many regrets of not personally doing more for the 2016 Bernie campaign, Susan was determined to make a difference in 2020. She joined ORKC in 2019 and participated in local Bernie events, debate watch parties, phonebanking, and making buttons. She joined the effort to get Medicaid Expansion in Missouri on the ballot by collecting more than 600 signatures and by becoming a notary to help notarize petitions. She currently serves as the newly created and evolving role of Activist Liaison. If you have an initiative or a campaign you think ORKC should be involved with, contact Susan to bring it to the attention of the Board.

Our Revolution Kansas City
In 2017, Past President Jared Wight took the lead in transforming a campaign effort in 2016 into a political movement for social justice here in Kansas City. In 2020, Our Revolution Kansas branched out on its own, with the full support of Missouri members.
Today ORKC focuses on federal, state, and local issues as they relate to the counties of the Kansas City metro statistical area on the Missouri side. That includes Bates, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Caldwell, Henry, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Platt, and Ray counties as well as Clinton, Caldwell, and Platt counties, which we share with our partner organization Our Revolution St. Joseph.
The ORKC Executive Board consists of volunteers from both sides of the state line. We bring practical experience with activism, communication, organizing, research, and everyday life. Our local bylaws can be found here.