Maria Harmon

Co-director/ co-founder, Step Up Louisiana

Maria Harmon is from Lake Charles, LA. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Step Up Louisiana, a grassroots membership based organization that advocates for economic and education justice across the state of Louisiana. Maria has been organizing since the age of 16 with the Junior Daughters of the Knights of Peter Claver. She has a Masters Degree in Public Administration and a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from Southern University A&M College of Baton Rouge, LA. During her time at Southern, Maria built a network of over 2,000 students to become civically engaged while working with the Louisiana Democratic Party. She helped start Democracy Prep Public School of Baton Rouge by enrolling 192 students for their first school year in 2015-2016. She has also worked for the Micah Project, a federation of the PICO National Network/Faith In Action, in 2016 as a community organizer working in education and civic engagement.