CASA in Action Appoints First Executive Director Alonzo Washington

 

CASA in Action, the Mid-Atlantic region’s largest electoral organization mobilizing immigrant and working class voters, is proud to announce that Alonzo Washington will be leading as the organization’s first executive director.

“On behalf of our Board of Directors, I am thrilled to welcome Alonzo to the helm of our organization. With his leadership and expertise, our members will win victories in legislatures, at polling booths, and in the streets!” said Gustavo Torres, President of CASA in Action.

Alonzo Washington comes to CASA in Action as a life-long Prince George’s County, MD resident with significant electoral and political experience as well as more than four years of experience with CASA in Action’s 501c(3) sister organization CASA where he directed community development and policy programming. Alonzo also has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2012 where he has been a champion on progressive reforms in the areas of elections law, education, college affordability, and police accountability. In January 2020, he was appointed to serve as vice-chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Chair on Education, the youngest delegate to do so.

The oldest of six children, Alonzo grew up under difficult circumstances confronting homelessness and extremely fragile economic conditions. Raised by a strong single mother who believed in the power of education, Alonzo became the first member of his family to attend and graduate college. His commitment to social justice, and willingness to challenge systems of injustice, was built on the shoulders of his mother, Elizabeth Washington.

“CASA in Action, from its grassroots members to its strategic campaigns for issue and electoral gains, is exactly the type of organization that can win the progressive reforms our families need,” said Alonzo Washington, Executive Director of CASA in Action. “We have a lot of work to do and I look forward to getting it done!”

Alonzo takes the helm of an organization that has won victory after victory in its first decade and now, with new leadership and the experience and capacity of a veteran organization, sets its sights even higher. With over 107,000 lifetime Latino, immigrant, and working class members, CASA in Action is the foremost Latino and immigrant organization in the mid-Atlantic region and the largest membership-based immigrant electoral group in the country. CASA in Action members in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia elect board members who endorse candidates and is one of the few organizations in the country to amass real funding from member contributions to conduct political work. For the 2018 midterm elections, CASA in Action, together with CASA in Action PAC, conducted its largest electoral program to date, hiring over 200 staff, branching staging offices and simultaneous programming in 8 counties throughout our 3 states. Alonzo steps into this role at a critical time in 2020, bringing his wealth of experience and leadership to bear in the final eight weeks of the organization’s campaign to topple totalitarian leadership from the White House.

Alonzo leads a team that includes Board President Gustavo Torres, Political Director Kim Propeack, program management team led by William Renderos, and communications shop led by Jossie Flor Sapunar.