True Confessions Speaker: Adrienne Maree Brown

In an age where everyone is speaking about the accountability of governments and corporations to the people, and the responsibility of people to be a real check and balance on those they empower to represent them, The Ruckus Society stands out as the accountability experts. Bursting through the digital divide with powerful and visionary actions by communities directly economically and environmentally impacted.

The Ruckus Society's Executive Director, Adrienne Maree Brown, was born into an interracial military family with South Carolinian roots at the end of the 70s. Growing up in ARMY bases across the US and Germany, she somehow developed a critical analysis of the actions of her government and a sense of herself as a world citizen. She used her coming-of-age years in New York to hone her activist sensibilities and begin her career as a facilitator of organizations and change processes.

After a two year stint at the Harm Reduction Coalition, learning the politics of impacted community leadership, Adrienne found herself pulled into an amazing journey leading up to the 2004 elections which involved co-founding the League of Pissed Off/Young Voters, co-editing a book called "How To Get Stupid White Men Out of Office," and traveling coast to coast supporting local groups to develop community voter guides and increase the impact of the youth vote.

She was scooped to head The Ruckus Society with a specific focus of helping to transition the organization from a white environmental focus to an impacted leadership and community focus. Along the way she's been shifting from a protest to a vision orientation, and has fallen in love with the powerful possibilities of skilled community networks.

She sits on the board of Allied Media Project and Wiretap Magazine, and facilitates the development of organizations throughout the movement (most recently ColorofChange.org, the Positive Women's Network, and Detroit Summer).  As a graduate of the Art of Leadership and Art of Change yearlong trainings, Adrienne remains obsessed with learning, sharing and developing models for action, community strength and movement building.