Weekly Featured Profile – Sheltreese McCoy

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Sheltreese McCoy

Sheltreese McCoy is a Crossroads Initiativecoordinator, social justice educator and program planner at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Previously, she was a teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, RISE (Recruitment Initiative for Student Employment) Coordinator at the university and Multicultural Issues Director at the United Council of UW Students.

Raised in Cleveland Ohio, McCoy attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio, majoring in ethnic studies and sociology. She joined theCommunist Party USA and Young Communist League USA in 2004 and in 2006 was a field organizer for the party’s Eastern Region.

In New York, McCoy worked for the party on the city council, the state legislature campaign races and on the 2004 and 208 Presidential Elections. In July of 2004, activists from across the country joined activists in Missouri to defeat George W. Bush. The Communist Party USA and the Young Communist League members, alongside friends and allies from Texas, California, New York and everywhere in between, have been plugged into local political battles.

The goal of the CPUSA’s Midwest Project was to “defeat Bush and the ultra-right in America’s heartland.” Central to the Missouri “part of the Midwest Project is helping to elect progressive, pro-labor candidates. Strengthening grassroots coalitions and building a broader movement to defeat Bush is tied directly into the efforts to build the Party and YCL.”

Sheltreese McCoy was a supporter of the late “progressive” Democratic Party Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones – even forgiving her for supporting Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.

Sheltreese McCoy1

It’s rare that a national figure has a deep impact on your life but I can say that I have had one, Stephanie Tubbs Jones. She was my congressperson in Ohio, and I looked up to her as you would a president or an astronaut. I wanted to do the good things she did in Ohio, and I wanted to stand up to the corporate interest that plagued the Ghetto I lived in because she did.
when I was a junior in College I went on to intern in Washington and I got to meet her in person, I wrote my final internship thesis on her and her amazing accomplishments and even remember the advice she gave me to “run for Precinct Captain.” There are few prouder moments for myself and my mother when the picture I took with her got sent to my mother’s house, signed and everything…
I didn’t agree with you when you supported Hillary for histories sake, versus supporting the new start up with the twinkle in his eye, but I forgave you…I had to because I could not through your history out with the bath water, and I could not forget that you were by far the most powerful woman I had ever come in contact with.

After 2008, McCoy “turned her focus to youth and student organizing around issues of employment, access to education and international solidarity.”

Each year in Madison, Fair Wisconsin gathers members of the LGBT community, allies, activists and policy makers to recognize those who have made significant contributions to the advancement of LGBT equality in Wisconsin.

The 2015 Madison Leadership Awards Activist of the Year was Sheltreese McCoy.

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