In March, we deepened our long-term commitment to state capacity building by establishing our first Field Office and hiring Celeste Fitzgerald to run it. She is a talented organizer who emerged from the moratorium movement in New Jersey. Celeste provides technical assistance in organizing, strategic planning, message development, lobbying, and organizational capacity building to a Northeast cluster of state organizations moving moratorium initiatives in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, and Delaware. At the same time, she brings an extra set of capable hands to state organizing initiatives. She has quickly become a beloved and respected ally and resource for state activists. “Celeste has been an invaluable asset to our work,” says Jeff Garis, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. “She is accessible and enthusiastic. We wouldn’t have had such success with our moratorium week in October without her assistance.”
In 2002, the Northeast Field Office’s priority states will be NEW JERSEY and PENNSYLVANIA, where we are eyeing victories in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Funding permitting, we look to duplicate this regional organizing model in other parts of the country.
