We’re Growing: Cicia Lee & Anna Bakalis Join Popular Comms!
Popular Comms Institute staff members, left to right: Anna Bakalis, Cicia Lee, Allison Troy, Jonathan Smucker
One year into this venture, we’re excited to announce that we’re doubling our staff capacity, having recently hired Anna Bakalis and Cicia Lee! Both join the Popular Comms staff team in director-level roles.
Cicia Lee is our new Training & Partnerships Director. Cicia has worked for ten years as an organizer, trainer, and movement strategist. They trained thousands of leaders in their previous role with Momentum, a movement training institute and incubator that helped launch groups like Sunrise Movement and Black Visions. They began organizing in faith communities on economic and criminal justice campaigns with Faith in Action (formerly PICO). They are also currently a PhD student in the political science department at Brown University. Cicia will take the reins of Popular Comms’ training program, which provides training and other support to aligned social movement organizations, people’s candidates, and labor unions.
“Popular Comms has figured out something that works,” Cicia said. “I’m inspired by the team’s commitment and experience organizing working-class people. And I’ve seen how game-changing the strategic frameworks and practical tools they’ve developed are for movements and candidates that have taken on powerful opponents, and won. I’m looking forward to bringing these tools and trainings to more groups and campaigns.”
Anna Bakalis is our new Labor Strategy Director. Her experience as a labor communications director led her to some of the most important labor battles in the country: from leading strikes with public sector workers in Northern California to the L.A. teachers strike in 2019. Anna helped shift the narrative of public education nationally, beating back the privatization of public schools. Her work with the L.A. teachers’ strike helped redefine what was possible in a contract campaign and helped to connect labor with the community. Most recently Anna was the President of Organize! Media, a communications firm dedicated to developing and implementing strategies to support unions to launch robust contract campaigns to take on bad bosses and win. Anna will build a new Popular Comms program to provide strategic communications support to the labor movement.
“I’m thrilled to bring what I was doing through Organize! Media into this fantastic team at Popular Comms!” Anna said. “This team has a strong track record of providing strategic guidance and practical support that bolsters people’s movements and campaigns. They understand that good communications strategy must be integrated with good organizing strategy. I’m excited to lead the newly minted Labor Strategy Department to provide messaging and communications to support a revived labor movement – because workers and their unions are ready to fight back and win.”
We’re ecstatic that these two movement veterans are bringing their savvy and expertise in campaign strategy, training, and labor communications to the Popular Comms team. Stay tuned for updates on our developing work!
