From the president
Annalisse Hart is a second-year student at Salem State University (SSU) studying English and Education through SSU’s English Teacher Pathway program. She is a student leader active in supporting youth and education reform, mental health, racial justice, and women's empowerment. For more than half a decade she served as a youth organizer in Revere Massachusetts invested in building youth power, leadership, and employment opportunities for young people through the I Have a Future Campaign and other local initiatives. She has also led efforts around voter education, outreach, and racial justice. More recently at SSU she has led campaigns around mental health that supported students in finding hope for overcoming mental health challenges and ending stigma through an art exhibit and dialogue session with faculty and the administration. Annalisse has also led advocacy efforts in support of state legislation to mandate mental health professionals in K-12 schools and will be presenting at a Mental Health Youth Summit in May of 2025 on the transition from high school to college. Through her work in the Center for Civic Engagement she facilitates advocacy education workshops for youth in Salem and in her free time mentors young women at Girls Inc. of Lynn.
Personal Statement
As a child growing up in low-income and marginalized communities, much of my time and energy growing up was spent in admiration of the resilience of my friends and family. My strength and tenacity is learned from those I’ve had the pleasure of growing with. It is also these core elements, persistence and community, that lead me in my advocacy work. Central to my approach in addressing the root causes of social issues is an affinity for the people most impacted. As much as advocacy work maintains the importance of policy work in creating sustainable change, interpersonal relationships and collective healing is what keeps the work alive. All the advocacy work I do has been and will always be a combined effort to address the needs of those who are underrepresented and disenfranchised. My roles in leadership have always been alongside others, reflecting the effectiveness of social justice work as a shared effort.