Malia Lazu
Former
Executive Director, Mass Vote
Malia Lazu is the National Field Coordinator for the Young Voter
Alliance a progressive 527 targeting youth voting in 5 states
throughout the country. YVA is a coalition of the League of Pissed
Off Voters, Hip Hop Political Action Convention, Young Democrats and
Stonewall Democrats and Clickback America.
Ms. Lazu was the project director for Democracy Action Project, a
national youth electoral reform organization, focusing on rebuilding
trust in government and ensuring that every vote counts. Democracy
Action Project has a signature annual event called "Democracy
Summer". Last year over 300 youth activists from 30 states
participated in the week long training school.
Ms. Lazu is the founding Executive Director for Mass VOTE, a
statewide non-partisan coalition of community-based organizations,
faith-based institutions and neighborhood associations working to
increase voter participation in urban neighborhoods. She has been
recognized by the Massachusetts State Senate and House for her role
in the rise in voter turn out in the state. Ms. Lazu was named
"Activist of the Month" by MTV in June 2000, and is a
board member of the Youth Council of The Partnership for Excellence
in Government as a representative of MTV. Ms. Lazu currently sits on
the following boards; YouthVote, Dunk the Vote, Council for
Excellence in Government, Declaration Generation and the Center for
Voting and Democracy-education committee.
Ms. Lazu moved in 1995 from her home in Honolulu, Hawaii, to
enroll in Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. While pursuing
her undergraduate degree she interned in the Women and Politics
program at the Commonwealth Coalition, a statewide progressive
politics organization. While there she played a key role in helping
to elect the first Haitian-American to the Massachusetts House of
Representatives, the highest elected office in the country for a
Haitian-born elected official. Ms. Lazu went on to become a
statewide college organizer for the Clean Elections campaign,
winning a landmark statewide ballot question in 1998 for sweeping
campaign finance reform in Massachusetts.
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