“When I was at Solid Ground, I spent a lot of time talking to people across the state  who seemed to be talked about a lot but never talked directly to,” says Eliseo (EJ) Juárez, the Director of Equity and Environmental Justice for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.  

EJ was hired in August 2011 as the Community Relations and Development Manager for Solid Ground’s advocacy partner, Statewide Poverty Action Network. He was responsible for building Poverty Action’s membership base, managing online campaigns, and more. 

“I spent my time travelling across Washington talking to folks at the intersections of multiple layers of oppression, people who were often at the table in more ethereal, meta levels, but never actually sat down to give their solutions and talk about what works for them, and how we can solve these problems with their expertise,” he says. 

~Video by Tim Hamp, 2024 (4:45 mins)~

“It sounds kind of cheesy, but I learned how to talk to people in a really authentic way, and I think there’s no better training than what I got at Solid Ground around how to interact with people no matter what their walk of life is.

“I learned from folks who had been systematically designed out of providing solutions  to the biggest problems we face that the solutions exist everywhere. You just have to ask. And you have to engage people who are affected most to provide those first and then work from there. 

“I’m proud that we could go to places like Walla Walla, Omak, Spokane, Vancouver, and Longview and know that the folks there were eager to share their stories with us. And that Poverty Action and Solid Ground had done the work to build trusting relationships that lasted far beyond my time.” 

After leaving Solid Ground in the spring of 2014, EJ’s jobs have taken him deeper into community, and farther up the leadership ladder of impactful organizations. For over three years, he served as Executive Director of Progressive Majority Washington, working to recruit, train, and retain progressive elected officials at the local and state levels, with an emphasis on recruiting women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and people from other underrepresented communities. 

“I think since leaving Poverty Action, one of the things that I’m most proud of is my work in Yakima helping elect that city’s first Latina majority, first woman majority. And I think about them often, and I’m really proud to have played a part in so many people’s political careers,” EJ says. 

“I was taught and mentored that when you create leaders, you are creating power that didn’t exist before. It’s not taking power – it’s creating new power.”

~Eliseo (EJ) Juárez

From working to bring more diverse voices into the political system, EJ transitioned to taking on roles to make the systems in place work more equitably. He worked in governance at the Seattle Public Library then went into philanthropy, supporting systemic solutions across the Pacific Northwest. 

EJ also served as the chair of the City of Seattle Districting Commission, which established the boundaries for City Council Districts, and the Citizens’ Elections Oversight Committee for five years. 

When asked what ties these roles together, EJ points to “the importance of the connection and responsibility to the people we work with. “And, you know, the folks that we worked with at Solid Ground were advocates for things that were more than just a passion. It was their life, their survival, and their ability to thrive.” 

In his current role with the Department of Natural Resources, EJ’s work is “centered on building a new team to revolutionize the way state government approaches environmental justice and works with folks who are most affected by environmental injustice,” he says 

“I think Solid Ground informed my sense of leadership pretty substantially. It was the first job where it was really formalized, where your job is to create more leaders … who have more responsibility, authority, and access than you might have in your own position. 

“Early in my career, I was taught and mentored that when you create leaders, you are creating power that didn’t exist before. It’s not taking power – it’s creating new power,” says EJ. “And that’s where Solid Ground is so unique among organizations, in that it creates power by creating power in new places. And I think that’s the best way that we change the world.” 

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Image at top: EJ Juárez honed his leadership skills in community relations and development work with Solid Ground’s advocacy partner, Poverty Action (video still by Tim Hamp).