Alumni Profile: Daniel Anderson, Class of 2014 high school alum commits to service in the political sphere
Did you start in politics by volunteering? I’ve always been interested in politics and the impact it can have and how important politics is in our day to day lives and the role the government can play. That never manifested itself in more than casual interest in high school. But the one thing I knew when I was in college is that I really love San Francisco. It’s my favorite place to be. I always wanted to contribute back to the city and help make it better. I didn’t really know how I would do that. It’s just where my heart was at. When I was senior in college, I was talking to Renita LiVolsi, the Admissions Director, and she mentioned she has a friend, Theo Ellington, who was an aspiring politician. I had coffee with him, and after I graduated, I reached out and asked if he needed any help on his campaign because I thought that would be an interesting world. As soon as I started volunteering there, I got hooked. I loved being out in the community and talking to people and being able to tackle the biggest issues facing the Daniel Anderson, SFWHS Class of 2014 city. I volunteered for him, interning three days a week while I worked parttime. Did that for a few months, then eventually went full time on his campaign as the Field Director, in charge of all the other volunteers and making outreach plans on who we were going to talk to, what doors we were going to knock on, and what folks we were going to call. I did that through the 2018 election. Then I wasn’t sure I was going to stay in politics but it was so fun, and the impact you are making on the world is so apparent. I joined another District Attorney race in 2019 for Lief Dautch. After that race, I wanted to get more involved in the progressive side of things. So, I reached out to Jim Stearns, another San Francisco Waldorf connection. He and I started working together on a ballot measure. It was spearheaded by Supervisor Aaron Peskin. It was called Neighbors for Small Business. That was all about addressing the vacant storefront crisis. We passed that measure, and I stayed on to help Supervisor Peskin with his re-election campaign and also worked for Jackie Fielder who was running for State Senate, doing financing and fundraising for both those candidates. Did your San Francisco Waldorf High School education influence your trajectory? I got started in politics from a connection at the school. It’s a great community. There are a lot of people there who are dedicated to making a difference in the world. A fair number of Waldorf graduates are now involved in the political sphere here in San Francisco. Just this past election there were 6 supervisorial seats up for election, and there were Waldorf grads working on 3 of those. Myself, Emma Stearns (class of 2015), and Ben Gurewitz (class of 2016). Another fun connection is that when I was working with Dautch 2 years ago, we had an intern who I found out went to school in West Portal. It was Ewan Barker Plummer, who is now a sophomore at SFWHS, and he was just elected as a Board Member of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, which is one of the prominent LGBTQ Dem clubs in the city. He is incredibly involved in politics at such a young age. There’s clearly something in the water that’s getting these SF Waldorf High School grads into politics. What did you study at Vanderbilt? Was it something you had decided on while at the high school, and have your studies helped you in your political career? My major was Human and Organizational Development, specific to Vanderbilt. It’s certainly come in handy in politics, and it’s really helpful with the work in teams I’ve had to do. The process of learning in that major was similar to learning at Waldorf. There was a lot of going out in the real world, interacting with the community, and the freedom to making the degree what you wanted. There was a lot of looking at how people worked together as a team and understanding different perspectives. I felt more at home in that major coming from Waldorf than in some of my other classes that required me to read the textbook, memorize the textbook, move on to the next textbook, which is something I never found fulfilling in any way. My time in Waldorf was most instrumental in that choice. It’s where I learned how to learn. Continued on next page
