Alyssa Akbar

By Jacob Ogles

It’s difficult for young people to find a place in The Process, and it’s hard for them to get peers engaged at all. That shifted significantly in 2018, when a tragic school shooting at Mar jory Stoneman Douglas High School spurred the March for Our Lives Move ment, drawing in Alyssa Ackbar

“I was always aware of social is sues, but was a little too young and too detached,” she said. “But when that incident happened and all opportunities to get involved arose, I couldn’t see not doing something.”

Just a junior at Robinson High School in Tampa at the time, Ackbar threw herself into the movement. “It helped show me what grassroots pol itics looks like in Florida,” she said.

She’s now a national organizer for March for Our Lives. She’s also the na tional lobbying coordinator for Team Enough, the youth outreach arm of Brady: United Against Gun Violence. For more than a year, the 22-year-old has served on the executive council for the organization.

Her focus right now is on making the lobbying process as accessible as possible to young people. She organizes collectives in Florida, California, Virginia and Washington focused on bringing young voices to state government.

“It’s hard to get young people to Tallahassee,” Ackbar said.

She notes the simple logistical challenges that stem from the Florida Capitol sitting in the Panhandle of a state where the greatest population concentrations are in the south.

She graduated in December from Florida State University with a major ing pleas to politicians and hearing excuses and demands repeated over time. But she’s also learned a greater appreciation of the intersectionality of issues and how causes interlap and build off the work of one another. She happens to feel a connection to a range of groups that need a voice on policy.

Ackbar is the child of immigrants, with a father from Trinidad and a mother from Brazil. She’s also a member of the LGBTQ community.

“As a brown woman growing up in this state, I have experienced a lot of different things,” she said. “That has allowed me to see different from my White counterparts.”