Our Staff

Zandra Rice Hawkins
Founding Executive Director

Zandra Rice Hawkins is the founding Executive Director of Granite State Progress and 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 Democrat’s Granite Slate Progressive of the Year (2018), and the Merrimack County Democrats Mary Louise Hancock awardee (2019). She is honored 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 – New Hampshire Executive Work Group, convenes the NH Health Care Coalition and NH Gun Violence Prevention Coalition, 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. Zandra lives in Concord with her husband Brian and two young children, where she is a Concord City Councilor and a member of the Public Safety Advisory Committee, Waste Management Advisory Committee, Everett Arena Advisory Committee, and Transportation Policy Advisory Committee.

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