ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JENNIFER R. FARMER is a leading professional in communications strategy. She has made her mark in social justice movements for close to fifteen years, having held a range of senior leadership positions with racial justice, labor, and faith-based groups. She currently serves as communications director for PICO National Network and is the founder of Spotlight PR, LLC, whose mission is to develop and distribute high-impact public relations trainings for communicators.

Among her credits is work with the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement. She led communications and outreach work in support of the weekly Moral Monday protests he organized beginning in April 2013. This included promoting the NC NAACP’s legal challenge to North Carolina’s 2013 restrictive voting measure, H.B. 589, which was overturned in July 2016.

Farmer’s understanding of the intersection of policy, advocacy, and media has helped establish the groups she’s worked with as leading voices in contemporary civil rights. She promoted the work of these organizations with news stories and TV segments in leading print, digital, and broadcast media outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, POLITICO, Al Jazeera America, MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher, and The Rachel Maddow Show.

Farmer has a range of experiences spearheading national and state campaigns to affect social change. She’s held positions in the public and nonprofit sectors, including roles with the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus and the Center for Progressive Leadership, where she trained and coached leaders seeking elected office.

She serves on the national advisory board for the National Center for State Courts’ Community Engagement in the State Courts initiative, a project designed to promote racial and ethnic fairness in the courts. Farmer earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science from the University of Rochester. She is the proud mother of two and lives in northern Virginia.