A friendly shout-out

My friend, Rev. Ryan Eller, was spotlighted today in the Winston-Salem Journal. Ryan took the lead organizing position with Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE). CHANGE is a non-profit organization comprised of local churches, charities, and neighborhood groups that seeks to impact local elections and promote social justice issues in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County communities. Ryan, himself, says it better:

"Our philosophy is that the government is organized by political parties, corporations are organized by boards and management, and people oftentimes get left out of the equation because they're not organized," Eller said. "And so our job is to organize people, to organize organizations. And through that, we want to give folks a voice in their own governance in a way that they've never really ever had before."

Ryan was a classmate of mine at WFU Divinity School, and, like me, he interned with CHANGE his second year. Ryan worked for Roger Sharpe and I during Sharpe's congressional bid in 2006 against Rep. Virginia Foxx in NC-5. After Divinity School, he served in the Navy's Chaplain Corps, and recently, he managed Roy Carter's campaign against Foxx.

Congratulations, Ryan, on your new employment!