Rebecca Parson is a tireless activist with an impressive track record. In college, she facilitated “know your rights” workshops and after graduation, served as a human rights observer in an indigenous Zapatista village in Mexico that was being threatened by paramilitaries. For several years, Rebecca worked with the International Association of Genocide Scholars and even presented a paper at a 2007 genocide studies conference in Sarajevo. Currently, she serves as a commissioner on the Tacoma Area Commission on Disabilities, and organizes with the Tacoma Tenants Organizing Committee, which won significant tenant protections in Tacoma, playing a large role in new state-wide protections. Since last year, she’s been on the ground doing community organizing, including occupying empty buildings to get more housing for homeless people in Tacoma. Her group helped get 200 more shelter beds in Tacoma, got hygiene stations at a homeless camp, got a temporary shelter extended by two months, and postponed a camping ban (which would have criminalized homelessness).