OUR PROJECT AND ITS AIMS

Millions of lives have been impacted by the actions of this country’s current political leaders. Across the country, Americans are dealing with profound changes in their personal lives, their families, their workplaces, their communities, and their relationships with government. The mission of the We Are Your Neighbors project is to gather and call attention to the experiences of a broad selection of people – veterans, farmers, small-business owners, civil servants, Medicaid beneficiaries, immigrants and others.

We have tried to tell their stories straight, without political pleading or framing. “These people are your neighbors. Here’s what they have been through.” That’s our simple message.

Our work rests on a belief that Americans are not as sharply divided as the recent tone of our politics would suggest. On this website and in a series of public story-telling events, we will strive to create a space where people who might not ordinarily enter the same political room can listen to one another, share their lived experiences, and perhaps leave one step closer together.

PROJECT TEAM

James Lardner (Project Director) is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker as well as The American Prospect and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. His books include “Up to Our Eyeballs: How Shady Lenders and Failed Economic Policies Are Drowning Americans in Debt” (co-author and editor) and “NYPD: A City and Its Police” (co-author).

Tom Weis (Reporter) is a climate and social justice activist as well as a longtime contributor to HuffPost and Common Dreams, among other online publications. He is president of the mission-driven consulting firm, Climate Crisis Solutions, and the author of “WORLDFIRE: A Climate Journey from the Depths of Despair to a Haven of Hope.”

Lauren Jadotte (Reporter) is a communications strategist and designer who has spent her career amplifying stories that deal with financial justice, culture, and community. She has led storytelling and digital campaigns for national nonprofits and brings a background in journalism and visual communication to her reporting.

Emma Winn (Website Manager) is a communications professional, a 2025 graduate of Shepherd University, and an active member of the veterans’ community in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Douglas Lasdon is Executive Director of New York City’s Urban Justice Center, which he founded forty years ago in a burned-out building in East Harlem. Through its many anchor projects, UJC serves tens of thousands of people contending with homelessness, discrimination, and partner violence, among other deep problems.

Bill McKibben is a journalist, an environmental activist and the founder of Third Act, a fellowship of older Americans determined to change the world for the better.  He sounded the alarm about climate change with his 1989 book The End of Nature.

Miles Rapoport is a longtime organizer, policy advocate, and elected official as well as the Executive Director of 100% Democracy, which seeks to reimagine voting as both a fundamental right and a civic responsibility, with every eligible citizen required to participate.

Nancy Rosenblum is a political scientist and political philosopher, Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University, and the author, most recently, of Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos.

Mike Tidwell is the founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and nationwide.

LEGAL COUNSEL

Peter Jaszi is Emeritus Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C., and a world-renowned expert on intellectual-property law.

FISCAL SPONSOR

We Are Your Neighbors is a project of the Oil and Gas Action Network (OGAN), an IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit.