Elizabeth Tulasi, who brings 15 years of political and non-profit management experience to her Board role for California Women's List, a political action committee that supports Democratic women running for state office in California. She started her career as a Capitol Hill staffer in Washington DC. Upon returning to California, Elizabeth worked at a Food Bank, advocating to make healthy food more accessible and other programs that serve families living in poverty. Most recently she managed issue campaigns at California's largest business advocacy alliance as COO.

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FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Passionistas: Hi, and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast. We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. Today we're talking with Elizabeth Tulasi who brings 15 years of political and nonprofit management experience to her board role for California Women's List a political action committee that supports democratic women running for state office in California. She started her career as a Capitol Hill staffer in Washington, DC. Upon returning to California, Elizabeth worked at a food bank advocating to make healthy food more accessible and other programs that serve families living in poverty. Most recently, she managed issue campaigns at California's largest business advocacy alliance as COO.

So please welcome to the show Elizabeth Tulasi.

Elizabeth Tulasi: Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Passionistas: Thanks for being here. What are you most passionate about?

Elizabeth: I'm most passionate about, I think finding the truth and everybody recognizing what is the truth and what is real. And I think that if people have information and people recognize what's going on, then we can all make better decisions. I think a lot of things in our economy and our society and our political processes are hidden and obfuscated often on purpose. So if those things come to light and people have that information, then we can all make better choices that I think are better for everyone better for our clinic.

Passionistas: How does that relate to the activism that you do?

Elizabeth: Well, I think a lot of people don't know what decisions are made at all various levels of government. I think a lot of people don't even know what the various levels of government are.

The presidential campaigns take up a lot of space in people's minds and they are of course, very important, but the decisions that affect your and my everyday life are usually made much closer to home. And we also have more control over those things. So, you know, thinking about schools, if we want good schools in our communities, those decisions are made by local school boards. The funding that schools have are determined because of state and local taxes that are also determined by state and local representatives. If you have good parks in your neighborhood or in your state, those again are determined by local and state elected officials. So a lot of power resides much closer to wherever you live. And I really want people to know about that and to insert their voices into those conversations. You know, Nancy and I were talking just a minute ago about the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and she has so many quotable nuggets of wisdom. But I think that I think a lot about is one where she said women belong in all places where decisions are being made and decisions are being made all around us. And we need to know what decisions those are, who's making them. And how do we be part of that? Let's go back.

Passionistas: When did you get interested in politics and activism?

Elizabeth: I remember as a kid, I was even in girl Scouts, which wasn't necessarily political, but it was public service. And a lot of the things that we were working on, it became a question of why is this problem? You know, like when we would go make sandwiches and give them out to homeless folks, living in our area as a kid, you're always asking why are there so many homeless people, why do we need to clean up the parks? You know, like all of the little service projects that we did, it was kind of, the question is always like, well, why is it this way? So I think that that really leads to understanding what factors govern our lives. And then in high school, I was in the, I think 10th grade or 11th grade when nine 11 happened. And so there was a lot of political choices that led to that and were coming out of that. And so I became more active at that point. And then I think also, you know, even things like...

Maya Enista Smith is the President of Thoughtful Human — a plastic-free, plantable card company, which was founded to help you find honest ways to communicate in dynamic relationships and challenging life circumstances. Thoughtful Human offers ultra-sustainable sentiments for real issues and a hub with resources and community to help people find the support they need. Maya recently joined Thoughtful Human after serving as the founding executive director of Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation for over a decade, where she worked to empower young people to create a kinder, braver world and also be a source for mental health support. Prior to her role at the foundation, she was CEO for Mobilize.org, where she worked with millennials to identify societal challenges unique to their generation and fund their solutions through grants. Thoughtful Human has expanded beyond greeting cards to include a podcast where they explore shame, stigma, and how to start and continue conversations around really sensitive issues.

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Darlene Hildebrandt is a photographer and educator. Darlene helps amateur photographers improve their images through articles on her website, video tutorials on her YouTube channel, online courses, and worldwide photography tours. As a woman in a mostly male dominated industry in the 1980s, she never let being a female or standing five foot tall stop her from reaching for the sky and living her dreams.

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Learn more about The Passionistas Project.

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