Hayden Emmett

Board Member | He/Him

Hayden Emmet is a long-term movement strategist and organizer. He grew up in East Boston, Massachusetts, as part of a poor, multi-racial community. He became radicalized when he ran away from home and served as a human rights observer for the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico.

He’s been deeply engaged in various progressive movements, with a long-haul focus on shifting the relations of power. He is a former Deputy Chief of Staff for the Working Families Party, was the first transgender member of the senior executive team at the Human Rights Campaign, helped found the nation’s first Trans PAC—Trans United Fund—and previously served as the deputy national political director at the Service Employees International Union. 

Over the last decade, his focus has expanded to the idea of prefigurative politics, or the belief that the health and strength of the movements and institutions we build will determine the depth and possibility of the change we can make in the world. Today, he is an independent consultant who partners with organizations at the cutting edge of transformation and change. He focuses on politics, campaigns, organizational change management, and strategic planning. His passion is doing the work that enables us to hold one another’s humanity across differences under duress. He’s based in Washington, D.C.