Stephanie Slysz
Human Resources Manager, RepresentUs: Age 31
Stephanie Slysz has long been interested in politics. In college and early in her career, she interned in the Massachusetts governor’s office and the U.S. State Department, worked at a U.S. embassy, and volunteered on a mayoral campaign.
While working as an office assistant at WHMP, she learned about RepresentUs because its executive director at the time, Josh Silver, was a regular on the station’s Bill Newman Show.
“We were nerding out about ranked-choice voting one night,” she recalled. “They were hiring for his assistant, he recommended I apply, and the rest is history.”
Slysz sees her current role as “an opportunity to grow HR for an organization that I strongly believe in, and I very much appreciate supporting the folks doing the work on the ground.”
RepresentUs describes itself as America’s leading non-partisan anti-corruption organization, fighting to fix “our broken and ineffective government.” Among its current campaigns are efforts in numerous states to implement ranked-choice voting, fight campaign corruption, and defend democracy and voter access.
Similar to how same-sex marriage, cannabis legalization, and other ideas found traction on the state level first, she explained, “the idea is to create enough momentum in these cities and states so Congress has to act on it eventually.”
As opposed to working on the ground in campaigns, where it’s easy to get emotionally invested and burnt out, Slysz feels energized to support the priorities of RepresentUs on a broader scale.
“I will always need to dedicate my time to mission-based things, whether it’s where I work or volunteering in my community,” she said, before expressing enthusiasm about the RepresentUs mission. “If you can fix the problem of money in politics, if you can make government work for more than special interests, you can fix all these other things. That is the root problem.”
Speaking of community, Slysz also chairs the Hatfield Planning Board, through which she sits on a multi-town committee organized by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to address farmland-protection policies, represents the board on the Hatfield 2040 Comprehensive Plan Committee, and more.
“I am involved locally, and that is also not partisan; I feel like it’s the way you can have the most impact on your community,” she said. “Nationally, nothing is really moving, so taking it local is the way to go. A lot of young people don’t know about their small town and their local government, but it’s not a huge lift to sit on a board or committee, build your skills, and be more connected to your town.”
—Joseph Bednar
