Our Staff

Zandra Rice Hawkins is the founding Executive Director of Granite State Progress. Zandra developed her communications expertise with groups such as America Coming Together and New Hampshire for Health Care. As a national organizer for Corporate Accountability International, she mobilized faith communities and organized shareholder actions to challenge corporate control of water and protect our fundamental human right to water. Zandra was named the Business and Professional Women of New Hampshire’s 2009 Young Careerist, the NH Citizens Alliance Organizational Partner of the Year Award (2012), the NH Young Democrats Granite Slate Progressive of the Year (2018), the Merrimack County Democrats Mary Louise Hancock Awardee (2019), and received the national Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus Award (2021) for her successful campaign leadership around gun violence prevention. She is proud to have been part of two Business Ethics Network Benny award-winning campaigns, the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign (First Place, 2006) and the ALEC Exposed Campaign (First Place, 2012). Zandra serves on the America Votes NH Executive Work Group, the ProgressNow National Board, and is active in her local Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) committee. She previously served as a member of the NH Democratic Party 2018 Platform Committee. A graduate of Gonzaga University, Zandra lives in Concord with her husband Brian and two young children, where she serves as Treasurer of the Mill Brook School PTA and is a Concord City Councilor and member of the Public Safety, Transportation Policy, Waste Management, and Everett Arena Advisory Committees, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Executive Committee. She enjoys family camp fires, 3 hour half-marathons, and enthusiastic Pinterest fails.

company.

Linds Jakows (they/them) is the Communications and Digital Director for Granite State Progress, and the founder of 603 Equality. For the last decade, Linds has served in organizing and communications roles in New Hampshire, including working on campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights, economic justice, immigrants’ rights, and getting big money out of politics. They are most proud of working with LGBTQ+ community members to update New Hampshire’s anti-discrimination law to include transgender people in 2018. In 2022, Linds became the co-founder of 603 Equality, a statewide advocacy organization working toward equality and a safe, healthy, and thriving future for all LGBTQ+ Granite Staters. Linds has received numerous awards for their work, including the 2018 ACLU NH Bill of Rights Honoree Award for work on transgender nondiscrimination, the 2018 Citizen of the Year Award from the NH Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the 2017 NH Rights and Democracy’s Human Rights Award. Linds is a 2020 graduate of Arena Academy’s communications track, a top-tier 5-day training program for political professionals. When Linds isn’t building progressive political power, they enjoy dance, poetry, and visiting goat farms. Linds lives with their partner and two cats in Dover.

For security purposes, some Granite State Progress staff and board profiles have been removed for the time being. To connect with one of our amazing team members, email info@granitestateprogress.org.