Leadership back to members page

OAG Leadership are the movers and shakers that keep this organization chugging along. Our leaders do everything from organizing events, running the website, designing our materials, and searching for new bloggers and researchers. They are not here to tell you what to do but to find you(th) and listen to our revolutionary ideas. Want to join OAG's leadership? Check out our open positions here.

Scott Davis
Director
Scott@OurAmericanGeneration.org

In my life I have lived in Menlo Park, California, Oakley, Utah, and Seattle, Washington in that order. My adventure to Utah was a sort of revival for myself near the end of high school, where I backpacked for two months and attended a rural boarding school for about a year and a half. There I learned to do all my favorite things today like mountain bike, ski, drink coffee, think critically, and create community. I am an optimist and positivist, and I like to imagine a world very different from our own. This is life's great challenge to me, to remove myself from the individual perspective, and understand the scope of human life and our relation to everything around us. My great optimism comes from the hope that communication/information technology we create shall lead us to a more connected and knowledgeable world, where we don't simplify our economics or our ecosystems for short term gain, but instead guide ourselves to appreciation of the immensity of time and space. This appreciation in my own life has allowed me to slow down, appreciate each moment, and not drive myself to death in the name of industry. My favorite things include culture, complexity, and cooperation.

Sam Withers
Assitant Director
Sam@OurAmericanGeneration.org

I grew up in P.G. County, Maryland and attended high school in Washington D.C. In 2007, I moved to Seattle and began taking classes at the University of Washington. I’m interested in civil rights and criminal justice reform. I’m also a big fan of old school sociologists, including Durkheim, Weber, and Simmel.
During my childhood and young adult life, many of my friends were very critical of the direction of American politics. They were upset and rightly so. However, this dissatisfaction often led to disassociation. Patriotism was shunned and it made me sad. I want to work with the rest of my cohort to turn this country into a just and humane society; one in which we all can take pride.
A few more things about myself: I enjoy film (especially noir and french new wave), fall is my favorite season, and I really like living in Seattle.

Matthew Ryan
Research Leader
Matt@OurAmericanGeneration.org

I grew up in Marin County, California and have been living in Seattle since I started to attend the University of Washington. I am currently interested in understanding more about how living things, such as humans, experience and dynamically interact with their environment (both social and environmental). The incorporation of critical thought into fields such as philosophy and science, has helped me to understand not only how to live a more fulfilling life, but it has also helped me to understand why it is important to spread this information. From belief comes behavior. To overcome some of the social and environmental problems we are facing today people must become more active educators of themselves and of others. Through OAG I hope to spread and increase this understanding.

Alden Remington
Development Leader
Alden@OurAmericanGeneration.org

I’ve been privileged to have been alive on this beautiful blue and green planet for 21 of its orbital rotations around our life-giving Sun. My desire in this life is to travel, at home and abroad, learn, from those young and old, teach, myself and those with very different experiences, share, with the simple beauty of compassion, and collaborate, with the enchanting complexity of nature’s symbiosis. I find real dissent, honest self-reflection, and the taking of the “Right” action far more valuable than the contemporary selecting of the lesser evil. Concordantly, I strive to value the best of where we have come from, like indigenous overstanding and cooperation with the living-world around us, and where we are headed, like the empowering spread of information technology and the brilliance of youth who’ve diverged from the injustices of their forefathers. However, the now, this specific time and space, is all we have. Tell me, have you ever been to tomorrow? I struggle with Mutabaruka, with bees, with Richard Dawkins, with mycelium, with Taiaiake Alfred, with anyone who questions why they, themselves do as they do. I struggle with OAG. Big up the youth, iflect, and be the change.
ONE LOVE

Benjamin Shackelford
Outreach Leader
Ben@OurAmericanGeneration.org

I grew up in Akron, Ohio and ventured out to Seattle in 2008 to attend the University of Washington.  Throughout my life I have developed a passion for people and the positive interactions between them that create community. Since moving to Seattle, I have taken an interest in civil society and its interaction with the natural environment. I place importance on the cultivation of self-knowledge through critical thought. By looking at the world through different lenses of many diverse perspectives and sharing our knowledge and experiences with others, I believe we can enrich our own lives and the lives of those in our communities. I hope to use OAG as a resource to spread knowledge and raise awareness about social and environmental issues in order to evoke change.

David Lambert
Educational Event Coordinator
David@OurAmericanGeneration.org

Most of my life has been spent traveling and living overseas, so needless to say I very much enjoy seeing new and interesting places, venturing to areas of the world that are on the unbeaten path. I am, however, currently very content living in Seattle, enjoying a typical college lifestyle. I am on the verge of getting my degree in International Studies, and graduate school is in my immediate future, with the distant hope of a PhD. Back when I had time for hobbies, I was very interested in marine biology, and Scuba diving—though a rare occurrence for me these days—remains my favorite activity.  I can’t quite say how I became interested in social justice, but I am sure that a combination of living and traveling to some of the poorest and most volatile areas of the world, along with an increased academic interest and understanding of the causes and consequences of global poverty and injustice, had something to do with it. It is great to be able to start working with like minded people to learn about and take action on, the most pressing issues of our time, and if some good can come out of it, then all the more better.