About Jesse Lava

Jesse is a social justice activist who has amassed a decade of professional experience working across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. He is a big picture strategist and seasoned organizer whose expertise lies in both setting a vision and leading others to carry it out.

As a communications consultant on progressive policy issues, Jesse has done messaging and media relations for environmental groups, social service providers, faith-based social justice advocates, universities, politicians, philanthropists, socially responsible corporations, and others working for progressive change. He has placed stories and commentaries in numerous high-profile news outlets. Frequently, he has done this work while partnering as a team member with Shadur Communications.

In 2006, he founded Faithful Democrats, an organization that aimed to help reclaim the national values debate from the religious right. The group received coverage from media outlets such as CNN, Fox News, USA Today, NPR, and ABC, and helped set the stage for the Democratic Party’s vigorous engagement with the faithful during the 2008 elections. Previously, Jesse served as special assistant to former Democratic National Committee Chair David Wilhelm and as a staffer on political campaigns across the country. He has also been a community organizer for the faith-based American Values Network in Vieques, Puerto Rico, working to improve health services on an island that had become contaminated after the U.S. Navy used it as a live bombing range for six decades.

Originally from Chicago, Jesse has been widely published and done numerous interviews for newspapers, magazines, and radio programs. His civic commitments have included being a board member for the American Values Network and Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, as well as a leader in social justice groups such as Public Action for Change Today. In addition, Jesse is a guitarist and singer-songwriter who released an album with his two younger brothers in 2008. The band, which built up a respectable Chicago following, was aptly named The Lava Brothers.

Jesse recently received a master’s in public policy from Harvard, where he chaired the Progressive Caucus, served as executive content editor of the Kennedy School Review, and wrote a biweekly column for the Harvard Citizen. He has a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.