Jackson Hignite

Background

About Jackson Hignite

Originally from Springdale, AR, I am currently in Boston studying for my Master's of Public Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2019, I joined the team at Lead For America as a member of their inaugural cohort of National Hometown Fellows. Through the Lead For America fellowship, I was able to serve two years with an immigrant rights advocacy nonprofit in my hometown. While the majority of my project scope was focused on my role managing digital communications for the organization, I am most proud of my work as a field and youth organizer. As an organizer I supervised our team's voter registration drive, forging partnerships with other nonprofits and community leaders to register over 200 people in the Latinx and Marshall Islander community in the span of a month. I also co-founded our organization's Youth Committee which grew to over 30 members in the span of a year and was able to organize food drives that fed over people in the midst of the 2020-21 winter. While in Boston, I hope to earn my MPP while connecting with community organizing and mutual aid groups to gain more experience in how people organize themselves in one of the largest cities in the country. After graduating in a couple of years, I plan to be right back in Springdale working as an organizer to help bring about transformative change in local governments and workplaces across the state.