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Author Bios

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BJ Last

BJ Last organizes with the Seattle Solidarity Budget and is a business analyst with over a decade of budgeting experience.
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Angélica Cházaro

Angélica Cházaro is a Seattle-based writer, professor and movement participant. She organizes with the Seattle Solidarity Budget and Shut Down King County Jail coalitions.
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Melanie Brazzell

Melanie Brazzell is a scholar, organizer and a graduate student at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Their work focuses on the past, present and futures of the …
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Shirley Leslie

Shirley Leslie is the national development director of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization that seeks to build an international movement to end the prison-industrial complex by challenging the belief that …
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Beenash Jafri

Beenash Jafri is an assistant professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of California, Davis.
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Paul Balcombe

Paul has an MEng in Chemical engineering and a PhD in the field of environmental engineering and environmental economics. He is a chartered engineer from his time in industry …
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Maria Olczak

Maria Olczak is a PhD candidate at the Queen Mary University of London researching policies and technologies to monitor and mitigate methane emissions across major man-made sources. In 2022, …
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Andris Piebalgs

Mr. Piebalgs is currently the Commissioner for Development for the European Commission. He was previously European Commissioner for Energy (2004-2009), Deputy Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of …