About Jason

I grew up in a large central Florida family raised by my mom and my grandparents, my aunts and uncles.  We spent our weekends and summers at the lake that my grandparents lived on, swimming, fishing, playing sports, and eating great food.  My grandma grew up in Hillsborough and Pasco counties and I loved hearing stories about the Florida of her youth.  I started working early, first helping out in the restaurant where my mom worked and the small video store that my family opened, then working in the small deli that my mom started in Polk County.  Eventually I left Florida in search of access to a college education.

I joined the Job Corps and an instructor there helped me apply for college.  I was the first person in my family to go.  One of the best things that ever happened to me was the opportunity to attend Berea College, a small, Christian, liberal arts college nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. The official motto of Berea is “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth” (Acts 17:26).  As an alumnus, I try every day to live up to that wisdom.  The unofficial motto of Berea was “If you can afford to go to college, you can’t attend Berea College.”  Berea was founded specifically to help low-income folks get access to a high quality education.  In exchange, every student at Berea works part-time for the school while they attend.  In addition to my myriad labor positions there, I studied Biology and Sustainability, fell in love with Appalachia, and learned firsthand what it looks like when one community is treated as a sacrifice zone in the name of others’ greed.  Witnessing the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining impacted me deeply. 

After graduating, I was fortunate enough to receive two research awards: a Thomas B. Watson Fellowship and a student Fulbright Fellowship.  I spent nearly two years in Asia, traveling through a dozen different countries and experiencing new cultures and environments.  This experience was truly life-changing, and continued to stoke my interest in energy issues as a powerful nexus of economy, ecology, and equity. 

Since returning to Florida in 2008, I’ve worked closely with the Community Weatherization Coalition, an Alachua County nonprofit organization that helps our neighbors find ways to lower their utility bills and address critical home repairs.  I’ve been involved in numerous efforts in my city and county that directly impacted the lives of working people, including: 

• fighting against wage theft

• getting people higher wages and the right to union representation on the job

• restoration of voting rights

• reform and local control of our utility

• renters’ rights, and 

• access to affordable housing and healthcare.

I’ve also been active in my union.  I was a union electrical worker with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 1205, where I worked throughout our region in gas transmission facilities, phosphate mines, power plants, paper mills, solar projects, prisons, hospitals, and a naval base, among others.  I then transitioned to adult education, both for Santa Fe College and the IBEW apprenticeship program.  Through my union, I took part in the AFL-CIO’s Working Family Lobby Corps, which is how I first started going to Tallahassee and observing how business is done in our state capitol.

I met my amazing wife while working at Santa Fe.  We taught for the same program, Project YouthBuild, and I began falling in love with her the very first time that I saw her in action in the classroom.  We’ve been together for nearly eight years and married for two.  We’re now on our third family dog, not counting the multiple others that we’ve fostered.  I’m an uncle of five and am still lucky enough to get to spend some weekends visiting my grandma and the rest of my central Florida family.

A few years ago, I earned my master’s degree in education from the University of Florida, and  am employed there now working in the field of academic technology.  I love my amazing coworkers and the students that we support, and I’m a proud member of United Campus Workers at UF.

When I’m not working or volunteering, I enjoy spending time with my wonderful wife, our dogs, and our family, gardening, and enjoying the nature and culture of north Florida.  I truly love this state, even when it disappoints me.  And like all of us, I want to have hopeful stories to tell and a beautiful place to share with all Floridians generations from now.