Julia Watt-Rosenfeld has been a community organizer in New York City for 20 years, working to preserve affordable housing, improve schools, prevent displacement of working class BIPOC New Yorkers and, most recently, pass climate legislation. She has worked on successful grassroots campaigns to improve neighborhood conditions, broader coalition campaigns to change citywide policy, and statewide advocacy campaigns to change laws.
For 10 years she worked as the Director of Community Organizing and Advocacy at Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation in East New York, Brooklyn. In this role, she trained and supervised organizers, served on the senior management team, and led the agency’s work on advocacy, racial equity and voter registration/GOTV. She was also a frequent speaker at conferences on topics including: bringing a social justice lens to social service; and integrating advocacy/organizing into social service organizations.
Julia holds a BA in political science and women’s studies from Williams College and an MSW from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.