Avery Reed is a seventeen-year-old junior at Credo High School in Rohnert Park, California. She works with students from across the nation to increase youth advocacy and advance national policies that align with youth interests. Avery currently serves as the State President of the California Association of Student Councils (CASC) where she oversees a cabinet of 24 students who host summer leadership trainings as well as legislative conferences. CASC provides a direct platform to present proposals to the State Board of Education as well as the State Senate and Assembly. In addition to peer collaboration, Avery works closely with several California state legislative offices in promoting environmental policies in California public schools. Right now, she has a bill on the Senate floor concerning California public school’s sexual harassment protocol. In order to more effectively advocate for students across the country, Avery worked on the founding of National Children’s Campaign whose mission is to provide a direct avenue to represent those students whose voices can not be heard by a vote. This campaign represents children’s voices at the national debates and to the Democratic candidates in order to place children’s issues as a priority in the upcoming 2020 election. Ever since experiencing the destruction from the 2017 California wildfires, she has been passionate about environmental justice. In exploring solutions to the climate crisis Avery found that student voices provide one of the most effective platforms in pushing environmental legislation; she works closely with the State Board of Education in developing climate change curriculum for public schools as well as with other student led national organizations such as Schools for Climate Action and Zero Hour. At her highschool she serves as the Zero Waste captain of One Planet Living. In this capacity she is responsible for guiding the school towards its zero waste goal by 2020. In the limited free time that’s left, Avery loves to play her cello with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
