In this episode Piper Stege Nelson joins us to discuss the importance of empowering women to run for office, and why she herself stepped up to run for Austin ISD District 5.
Learn more about Piper's campaign here: https://www.piper4aisd.com
Show your support for the Pink Granite Podcast and join our Leaders Circle by visiting us on Patreon at www.patreon.com/pinkgranite or by visiting PinkGranite.org
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Thank you for listening!
Executive Producer: Amy Whited
Music Composed by Jack Anderson
Editing: Amy Whited
Guest: Piper Stege Nelson
Host: Caitlin Smith
In this episode Piper Stege Nelson joins us to discuss the importance of empowering women to run for office, and why she herself stepped up to run for Austin ISD District 5.
Learn more about Piper's campaign here: https://www.piper4aisd.com
Show your support for the Pink Granite Podcast and join our Leaders Circle by visiting us on Patreon at www.patreon.com/pinkgranite or by visiting PinkGranite.org
Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram @PinkGraniteTX
Facebook @PinkGraniteTX
Twitter @PinkGraniteTX
LinkedIn: Pink Granite
Thank you for listening!
Executive Producer: Amy Whited
Music Composed by Jack Anderson
Editing: Amy Whited
Guest: Piper Stege Nelson
Host: Caitlin Smith
Amy Whited 00:04
You're listening to the Pink Granite Podcast. Pink Granite is a bipartisan community supporting women as they forge a career in Texas politics and policy. Candidates, staff, lobbyists, activists, and yes, even supportive men all have a place in the Pink Granite community. Learn more and support our work by visiting PinkGraniteTexas.com and following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @PinkGraniteTX.
Caitlin Smith 00:46
Hi, this is Caitlin Smith, with another Pink Granite Podcast and I am here today with Piper Stege Nelson. She is the chief public strategies officer for the SAFE alliance in Austin with a lot of years of experience in different policy and politics roles. And she is also currently running for a trustee position with the Austin Independent School District. And I think one of the things we will talk about is that transition in difference between working in policy and being the candidate. So welcome. Welcome Piper.
Piper Nelson 01:22
Caitlin, I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for talking with me today.
Caitlin Smith 01:26
Of course. So I was going to get started with just having you tell us more about your current job and kind of how you got there through your career history.
Piper Nelson 01:36
Um, so my current job as chief public strategies officer at SAFE. And so really what I get to do is I get to talk about all the good things that people at SAFE are doing. SAFe is a nonprofit here in Austin, Texas. And we work to stop abuse for everyone. And so we have 400 employees in Central Texas that are working with survivors and also working to prevent further child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault and sex trafficking. And it's, it's so I'm working with the volunteer services and the community and communications and doing all this and the policy work. I think that what connects this work to all the other work that I have done in my career is that I have, I'm always dedicated to causes that I believe in and they always seem to revolve around empowering women. And so you know, I can remember being in high school and going to the inauguration of Ann Richards, and my mom took me and my sister was in middle school at the time, we went down to Congress Avenue, and we watched Ann Richards march up Congress Avenue, and then she got to the Capitol, and she had that huge white hair. And I just remember being surrounded by all these women that were just like, fierce warriors for women's empowerment and thinking this is it. This is this is the right feeling. This is the thing I want to do. And so from there, you know, I majored in women's studies. And then I went on to, to work with women in Ecuador, and then in other countries. And then I started getting involved with women's political empowerment in Washington, DC, and then moved home to Austin, Texas, and started working with Annie's List, which is a great progressive organization here. And then right into working with Michelle Obama's Let Girls Learn program. So the thread through all of that has been women's empowerment.
Caitlin Smith 03:38
That's really interesting. I have a couple of questions and one not to age you, but what year were you studying women's studies? Because I've just kind of curious what the what the curriculum was like, because things changed so quickly.
Piper Nelson 03:53
Um, so it was it was I graduated from high school in 1993. So I was at Carleton College liberal arts college in Minnesota. And so I was studying Women's Studies and I was also studying Spanish. At at Carleton, of course, you go to Minnesota to study Spanish. But I think when I look back on that it was of course, a time when we were starting to realize the real handicaps to feminism and the handicaps to women's studies, but weren't there yet. I mean, I think it's, you know, every day I learned more about how we were not building equity into those into those not building women of color into those classes. I took a class on German feminism, but I didn't take a single class on African American Black feminism. So I think that that was that was a piece that was missing.
Caitlin Smith 04:47
That's really interesting. I you know, when people talk about that, they kind of, I've heard a lot that in the 90s we sort of thought we were there, but we weren't you know, even when you go back and look at 90s romantic comedies, I think some of them can be very problematic for women. But I think the the communication that we were getting across during that time was, you know, we're here, everybody has equity. It's great. And I think looking back, we don't feel that way.
Piper Nelson 05:17
No. Last night, we were listening to a set of songs called creeper songs, which are songs that you think are fine, like, "I'll be watching you." And then you take a step back, and you're like, Oh, that's really creepy. "Young girl, get out of my heart. I'm gonna chase you..." like, it's just these songs that we were listening to you take it back, like, Oh, no, that's bad. But you're right. We did think and and I would argue that we still think right, I mean, I think that lots of people think today that they are woke and that they're doing the right thing. And it's just a process for all of us. None of us can ever think that we are there because we're not.
Caitlin Smith 05:55
I think that's right. And I I tried to do that sort of challenge myself and, and challenge other people. And I think when you do it the right way it can reach people. I mentioned this to you on a prep call. I, I in my work, I was invited to call about a pretty narrow energy issue. And there were only 12 men on it. And I think just me raising, you know, why don't we add a woman or add two women? I don't think it was intentional. But I think putting that thought in people's head and kind of challenging on how we can do better each time is helpful. Absolutely. I also found it interesting that you kind of started with the female empowerment. And that's what drove your career. Because I think you and I have a lot in common. But I got there kind of the opposite way. You know, I entered an industry that's male dominated. And I think through that career, I kind of realized, Oh, we need to work more on on female empowerment and those kind of issues.
Piper Nelson 07:00
And I always, I'm very proud of what I've done. In my career. I think that working on women's empowerment is really awesome. But I've also been out of the corner, my I always watch women who were the first, you know, female attorney in their firm, or the woman that was the first woman to be the light technician or whatever it was that sort of sort of quiet empowerment that quiet, pushing the boundaries, making change the next group of women, that's always been so incredible to me, and I frankly, am a little jealous of it. I always think that the direction I should have.
Caitlin Smith 07:45
So I think we spoke about how you became interested in politics, right? It started with the, the female empowerment. So let's talk about running for office. And when you first thought about that,
Piper Nelson 08:00
I have believed for a very long time that one of the few ways that we can actually change the world for the better is by getting more women elected to political office. And when I was doing this work, getting women engaged in politics. In Washington, DC for the National Democratic Institute, we had all these studies that showed that in places where women were in charge, there were there's less corruption, there was less likely going to be armed conflict, there was more likely to be policies that support families more likely to be policies, it's for children more likely to be policies that support women, right, like these were all studies that were done. I think there was a story about all the countries that were actually handling COVID pretty well, or most of them were countries that were run by women. And so it was this sort of gut sense that women in power, make sense, and that it's been lacking in that no men have had the chance to do this the right way for, you know, thousands of years. Maybe we try something else. So it was that that and then it was the scientific piece. It was just the, you know, this has proven right. And so for a long time, what I did was encourage other women to run for office. And I did that by working on campaigns. So I worked on Ann Kitchens first campaign for the State House, and I'm pretty sure she lost but that was sort of my first entree into seeing how that works and what it's like to be a female candidate. And then I went on to do that internationally. And I had the opportunity to go to Sierra Leone. And there I worked with women who were running for a local office and I went and we just to be talked about how they can sort of win their races right. And that was eye opening, all sorts of reasons, one of which was that I went in as this white American woman and I was like, Okay, here's what you got to do got to do X, Y, and Z. And then you got to fundraise. You got to go out you got to ask for your money. And they sat quietly, and they looked at me. On a break, someone sidled up to me and said, We don't ask for people, people for money here. In fact, oftentimes, we have to pay people to go and vote and be a part of our campaign that was like, okay, so I am an ass. And I have walked into a situation where obviously, I do not know nearly what I thought that I knew. And I have some I have some work to do around that. But thinking then about how it is that women in other countries are running for office and why it's so important that we get those women in positions of power, whether that's putting in a quota, so that in like in Rwanda, we were getting a majority of women in Congress, because they, they put in a quota there, whether that's looking at female leadership in Uganda trying to fight for LGBTI rights, like, whatever it is, that women's empowerment piece that women in politics is so important. And so when I came back to the United States, and I was doing that work here, I knew that I wanted to do it in Texas, because in my life, Texas, women should really run the world, you've got this amazing mix of like, fierce and intelligent, and funny and pretty irreverent. Um, that mix of things is just awesome. And so that's when I started working with Annie's List, which was just an awesome experience, just women from around the state being encouraged and encouraging people to run for office and pro choice democratic women coming together and supporting each other and saying, Let's find you the funds to do this. That was great. That was cool.
Caitlin Smith 11:47
I like what you said about Texas women I didn't know that was unique to Texas.
Piper Nelson 11:53
I mean, I don't know that it is but when I hope it is when I think about Ann Richards, and Molly Ivan's, and Barbara Jordan, and like all these brilliant women who are fierce and wonderful and funny. And I just think that that's the type of leadership that I can think so too.
Caitlin Smith 12:10
I think there's an Instagram picture I see posted a lot of an Richard's meeting the Queen of England or something like that, that people like to reference. And I think that's pretty cute. So I was going to ask you something. And hopefully, I'll get the facts kind of straight. Carrie Collier Brown and I talked about this in March, because you mentioned sort of maybe a quota and encouraging more women to run for office. And I think you might know this better than me. But I believe during the primaries that we had, there was sort of this trend that people would go through and pick the woman because of the times we're in. And I think in some cases, there might be a very problematic candidate or you know, so I'm wondering what you think about that?
Piper Nelson 13:03
I think that's so interesting. I mean, I You're right, this last election in Travis County, people, people felt so strongly about voting for women, I think in great part because of what was happening on the national scale. It was sort of a reaction to our to our national leadership. But because of that people did vote in some women that were a bit problematic, and that maybe weren't necessarily champions of women themselves. But I think the thing that I would say to that is that when you look at how many men have been elected to office over the ages, and how many, frankly, really, crappy men have been elected to office over the ages, I think that we're going to have some women that don't necessarily align with other women, we're going to have some women that that maybe aren't the best candidates or aren't the best officials. But on on the whole, I think getting more women in makes sense. I would prefer that people did the research, I would prefer that people had examined the candidates and look to see who they should be voting for. That's what I did, but and it was hard for me to go in and click a man's name when there was a woman's name on there, but I knew that that was the right choice because I had done the research.
Caitlin Smith 14:26
Yeah, that's what I was. That's what I was going to say, you know, I was would push back on saying it's okay to elect crappy women because it's okay to elect crappy men or because we have before I think, I think I think the answer is is obvious. That's how you you ended it. And that's what I suspected. You really just have to do the research, no matter who the candidates are. So I know you go ahead.
Piper Nelson 14:52
I was gonna say we're also seeing more and more races now where you've got a woman running against another woman or against two other women, but just is going to necessitate research, right? I mean, you just can't just say, yes, that research is.
Caitlin Smith 15:07
I know you wanted to talk a little bit about how it's different for a woman to run for office and for a man.
Piper Nelson 15:15
You know, I mean, for much of my career, I have supported women as they were running. And and I think it looks hard from the outside to be a candidate and the time sink and the emotional sink and all those sorts of things. I think that oftentimes, women have to take an extra deep breath before they decide to run for office. In fact, what they say is that it takes seven times a woman has to be asked seven times before she will actually run for office, right? Whereas frequently, if you ask a man, you will have a sense that yes, he was actually supposed to be running for office all along. I think that women, whether they have children or not have a number of different hats that they wear. And I know that men do, too, and I'm going to speak in generalizations. And I will get into that, as we're talking in generalizations. Women do wear a lot more hats. We are caregivers to parents or caregivers of children, we are frequently doing our job, but also in our job. We are mentoring other people who are likely doing some form of volunteer or community work. We wear a lot of hats. And so when we think about taking on the hat of being a candidate, sometimes it feels overwhelming. Think about putting on one more hat. You think women are more likely to take that time to mentor and mentor other professionals and do the volunteer work?
Piper Nelson 16:54
I do.
Caitlin Smith 16:55
You do?
Piper Nelson 16:56
Yeah.
Caitlin Smith 16:57
I never thought about it. I'm not disagreeing. I know I spend a lot of my time on that. But so I'm not disagreeing. I just hadn't thought about it in that context.
Piper Nelson 17:05
When I look for mentors, or people who have asked me to be mentors, it's a it's a, there's a female network there. And that might me know what, Caitlin that might be happening on the male side differently. But when I'm thinking about some of the things that I encountered early on in my career, and some of the things that were frustrating to me, there were some some unique pieces about being female, early on in the policy work and in the international development work, that I looked specifically to women. And then from that experience, I sought out younger women to mentor and help and because I didn't want anybody to have to experience or have to learn the same lessons that I that I had to learn. So that's how it is.
Caitlin Smith 17:52
I think that answers my question, I'm wondering if there's just more of a need, or a desire for that mentorship from the younger women than there might be from a younger male.
Piper Nelson 18:02
Entirely possible. Um, what so I think the other thing that I would say about being a female candidate, I'm going to take the lens of someone, I'm going to take my own lens, how about that? I, I have seen men around me run for office. And most of the men that I know that he runs political office, have a wife, and they have children. And oftentimes, they have jobs that they can, that are that are a bit more flexible. And I've seen their wives able to step in and take care of children, the care of take care of all of the emotional pieces that come with raising children running a household and just making sure that there's toilet paper or whatever it is, right. And I think that when you are a woman considering running for office, you don't always have that kind of partnership, where you can sort of say, okay, the kids things, taking care of the house and taking care of the toilet paper thing is taken care of. I can just focus on this, right. And so and oftentimes those women also have jobs that they're doing to full time jobs. So I think that's one of the differentiators. Particularly for for people who have children and a partner, is that women are doing this we don't always feel like we can ask for the help. And that's honestly that's what it is. I am not great at asking for help. If I have if I walk away from this campaign with one really positive thing is that I have learned to ask for help. And so my husband now does 90% of the childcare he does 90% of the cooking. Our house is a disaster, but sometimes you gotta let go. But he is huge. And one of the reasons that I am able to work a full time job at SAFE, and then work a second full time job campaigns is because he is in on this. And yes, fully supportive. And when I get down, he is there to talk me back up. And and I'm, I'm really grateful. And I recognize how lucky that is to have that.
Caitlin Smith 20:25
Yeah, no. And you got there too, because I was wondering if it's, even if you maybe have that support system, women are less likely to, like you said, Just trust that the kids are taken care of the house is taken care of. And I'm going to focus on something else. Yes, yeah.
Piper Nelson 20:42
Yeah. And I've and I've watched other and I think, you know, there's always a guilt that comes along, I would argue that women have felt a lot of kids mentioned, a lot of guilt, whether it's just that they aren't doing as much as they're supposed to be doing work, or they're not as good. Who knows, right? And as a mom, there's always mom guilt, there's always guilt that I didn't kiss them enough, or I didn't get to spend enough time with them today, or whatever it is. I think that's inherent. And I think that the the women that I have seen run for office and really do it well have that partnership with someone who's willing to step in, and even removed that guilt.
Caitlin Smith 21:19
That's interesting. And I'm wondering about single women running for office as well. I don't know that I know, any. But it might be hard to do that without sort of see emotional support.
Piper Nelson 21:32
I think that's right, as well.
Caitlin Smith 21:34
For a man or for a woman.
Piper Nelson 21:35
I think that's right. I think that's right, because I think that the emotionally more difficult parts come not you know, during the day when you're talking to your great campaign manager or getting to be on some awesome blog, or podcast, or whatever it is. The dark parts come sort of like in the middle of the night. And so you're doing that by yourself. There's not someone there lying next to you.
Caitlin Smith 22:00
Yeah, well, I think I'll transition it this way. I think this is sort of a time where everybody's having the dark times at night, because we're mostly at home and things are, you know, really, really hard to know what's happening in the future. I think that uncertainty is hard. And so why did you pick this moment in time to run for office?
Piper Nelson 22:22
That's a great question. Um, I was having a call with my college friends last night, one of them's in California, and the sky is all dark, and the other one is in Gosh, is in a place where the COVID numbers are going back up. And it's just you know, it's not a it's not a pretty time for anyone.
Caitlin Smith 22:38
No, I have a client on the west coast. And I was waiting for a call back from him. And he texted, sorry, was putting out fires and that he put literal, not literal fires, work fires, but I thought it was kind of funny that he had to clarify even your you know, it's a podcast, but your eyes got wide. And so I think it's, it's very strange that we're in a time where it's, you're questioning if that's a metaphor or not.
Piper Nelson 23:06
So, yeah, yeah. I mean, if someone were to start talking about zombies, I'd be like, Oh, really? Is that what we're doing now? Zombies? Well it's 2020. That makes sense. Um, so I, my kids go to an credible elementary school here in central Austin. And they get a great education. They are loved. And they have small classes, cute little school. They've got a water collection tank and amazing librarian and water bottle filling stations and a new track and even have chickens right. And it's amazing little school. It is not a diverse school. And, that is one of its that is one of the pittfalls. But we work. I was working with us school in another part of Austin. And one of the reasons that Lee is so wonderful is that we have a community and a PTA that is able to raise the funds to pay for that water collection tank, and water bottle filling stations and extra books in the library. And I was working with a school that does not have that, and physical differences between the two were stark. But then also, at my kids school, the teachers don't have to pay for decorations or back to school supplies. We just have the resources to cover back. And when I looked at the school that we were working on in another part of town, it didn't have that. And it was it was sort of astounding to me that in 2018 19 whenever I started that work, the disparities were so vast, and I just, I was surprised and I was I was frankly disheartened. And I didn't understand how, how we were allowing that to happen. Fast forward a little bit, the pandemic kits. And last spring was just a disaster. And the school district did not have itself together at all. And so decisions were not being made. It was certainly not being made quickly. Families, we're not getting any information. For a while we were getting wrong information, delayed information for a while, we just didn't get any information. And then they started sending us weekly emails that just nothing. And it was at that moment that I realized that we had communication breakdowns between the district and the community. And we had seen that in some school closures. And we had seen that through the way that the special ed programs were, seeing that in other places, it was there before the pandemic. But when the pandemic hit, and it just became crystal clear that we were not as family, we were not getting information from the district but also the district didn't seem to be working to get information from us either. I Remember going to the strategic planning process, they did a series of meetings throughout the district for for families to go into and learn what they were thinking about. And I went to one of the and I was ready to have a conversation, and hear and talk and question and listen. And I walked in, and I was told to sign in. And then I was told to watch a video. And then I was told to go to another room where I got to hear a speech for 10 minutes. And then there was five minutes of questions answer, which was literally two questions. And those questions were answered the time's up. And we were directed to go look at a series of very large maps, not understand and given a bag of chips. And I remember thinking that the bag of chips was frankly, the best part of the whole thing. And that the engagement that they were creating was not actually and feel really sad about the fact that you had people that had just gotten off work and driving all the way across town to get to this meeting, and they're gonna get and they weren't going to be asked what they thought they weren't going to be engaged, not me. So I thought that I should get involved.
Caitlin Smith 27:21
I think that makes sense. You know, I have a close friend who's a teacher. And I think it's a struggle, because there's, I think the information sometimes isn't there right now. Right? And so I'm wondering if your point of view is that sort of that parent perspective, will at least help with, with how to communicate that I'm sure parents don't want to hear? Well, we just don't know. But there might be a better way to communicate? Well, we just don't know, but here are the things we're working on, or what do you want us to know? Is that the kind of dialogue you're looking for?
Piper Nelson 27:59
I mean, I think just, uh, just a sense of empathy. Right? Like, it's possible that I missed it. But most of the communication that I have seen, there has been nothing about, hey, we know this is really hard. Hey, we know that online learning is really tough for everyone. Hey, this is a really difficult time and we want to hear how you're doing. That is not happening. It is not happening. And I don't think it's I don't think it's just families either. I think the teachers really feel neglected. I talked to a teacher last week, to your point who said she felt lied to she felt like neglected.
Caitlin Smith 28:36
Yeah, that's exactly what I was about to say as well. I, you know, I'll speak in generalities again, too. But the the teacher, I've spoken to said almost word for word, what you said, you know, he's not getting from his administration, that sense of empathy. They're kind of the teachers who haven't been trained and virtual learning or safety procedures, you know, they didn't become teachers to be sort of these political figures or public health figures. And, and they don't have that kind of training. And they're just sort of expected to, to do it this year. So I think he realizes there might not be the information there. But I think he is the exact words. And so there's kind of a lack of empathy.
Piper Nelson 29:23
Yeah, which you know, that the education field, we understand empathy in some way, shape or form. So I don't know, I think, and I know your to your point, Caitlin, you're right. Nobody really knows what's going on right now. And I think that some people think it's unfair to think that the district could say, Okay, here's what's gonna happen. So the next two months, right, I get that, but I am really proud of the fact that at SAFE. We have said, we are not going to go fully in person until December 15. Anybody who can work virtually You're going to continue to work virtually until December 15. If you are one of the people at safe that goes into a shelter to work with kids or families or does other face to face work with clients, and then you get a differential, get extra pay, because we know that you're putting your life in danger to make sure that other people are healthy. And so I just doesn't seem impossible to make longer term decisions that would give families and teachers and staff and children a sense of what to expect.
Caitlin Smith 30:31
Do you think there's a specific reason why they aren't.
Piper Nelson 30:35
Yes, absolutely, because the Texas Education Agency is pushing and pushing live learning face to face learning, because Texas education agencies said, you can have a four week waiver from the day that you start, which is why they pushed off and started school. And Texas education agency has said you can have a second four weeks waiver. But they are not TEA is not allowing people to just continue working remotely. Well, that's not true. I think from what I understand that TEA employees are working remotely, but they're not allowing schools to.
Caitlin Smith 31:18
Ah, well, that's interesting. Oh, all right. Um, so I have a few different directions we could go from here. So we spoke about running for office. And something I've talked to women about before, is, you know, especially taking into context, all the difficulties particular to women. What are some kind of small ways to get involved? Because I think we're seeing more engagement in politics in general right now, but I think a lot of women especially are intimidated by the process. So I've talked a lot in the past to people about sort of the barriers to entry, and what are some small steps to to get involved before you maybe take the leap? Or if you never take the leap and run for office?
Piper Nelson 32:06
And well, as I mentioned, my first, my first role on a campaign was just as a volunteer on Ann Kitchens' campaign, and I went out and I knocked on doors, and I've knocked doors most years since I do think that's helpful, but that can be intimidating to go out and knock on doors and meet new people. Right? I know a lot of women that are writing postcards right now.
Caitlin Smith 32:29
Yes, that are that's a good activity for children, too. I, I gave some to my my neighbors, or to close in age preteen girls, and I think they were driving each other and staying because they were together constantly for six months. So I gave them a stack of postcards. And it was a great activity.
Piper Nelson 32:47
Oh, that's so great. Thank you, Caitlin. I'm writing that down. So I'm going to, I'm going to give them to children. And I'm see I'm thinking of all...
Caitlin Smith 32:54
Maybe 12. I don't know how young but I, the girl who did it for me was about 12. So they look cute, because you can tell, maybe I shouldn't say cute, but I like the way they look, because whoever receives them, you'll be able to tell that a younger person wrote them.
Piper Nelson 33:12
That a younger person took the time.
Caitlin Smith 33:15
To hand write.
Piper Nelson 33:16
I like that. I like that a lot. That's really awesome. Um, so postcards. But you know, the one thing that I've done a lot in this campaign that I had never done before, is go to the democratic club meetings. And that was always intimidating to me before, it didn't feel like the kind of place where I would necessarily belong. And what I have found is that those democratic clubs, and I, and I feel sure it's on the Republican side, as well. Those democratic clubs are just, you know, amazing. And they are groups of people who are getting together because they believe in this case, in getting Trump out of office, they believe in the democratic process. And they're funny, and they're really low key. And it's also a hub of activity, whether you're door knocking or writing postcards or making calls or whatever it is, it's also a great place to get put into those. So this is new information for me that those Democracti clubs are great. And there's so many of them, which I now know, because I believe, but whether it's the capital area, progressive Democrats or the university Democrats, young Democrats, Democrats, Black and Austin Democrats, it just keeps going. And so you can find your own sort of space to join.
Caitlin Smith 34:38
Why did you feel you didn't belong before?
Piper Nelson 34:41
I think because the democratic clubs that I had been to, briefly your, um, it was a group of people that seemed to know each other and get along really well. And there seemed to be sort of a natural affinity there that I didn't fit into. But I think what happened was Honestly, I just picked the club that happened to have, you know, or the night that they happen to have a speaker and they were all they all knew each other and they were all together. But yeah, so nothing bigger than that.
Caitlin Smith 35:16
So you have been to one that seems into intimidating.
Piper Nelson 35:19
Intimidating. And I didn't go back. And I didn't go back until I started doing this. And then last night, two nights ago, I went to the Circle C Democrats, and they were running the zoom, but the zoom was sort of problematic, and they were all giggling about that and they were having a fundraiser that involved a steak and Bananas Foster. And it was just it was all it was all it was it was lovely. And I just thought to myself, Oh, I get why people do this. This is really nice.
Caitlin Smith 35:47
Bananas foster sounds great.
Piper Nelson 35:49
That's what got me. I was like, you're gonna teach me on how to make money and foster zoom? I am in. Let's do that.
Caitlin Smith 36:01
Yeah, I would be intimidated by that. But it sounds fun.
Caitlin Smith 36:40
Ah, um, so you know, when I had those conversations before about the small ways to get involved a lot of times that led into to sort of creating leadership opportunities for yourself as a woman, which we kind of talked about, I think there's the outward advocacy of promoting women intentionally. And then I forgot what term you use, I think you said sort of like quiet leaders who get there by being first woman to do this or first woman to do that. And so I think it kind of goes together. But I know you wanted to speak about how to get more young women to be leaders and young women involved in politics as well.
Piper Nelson 37:34
Yeah. And I think it's the how but I think it's also the why is all the more important to me. So I, I think that one of the things that, I may meander for a second, sorry.
Caitlin Smith 37:47
That's great.
Piper Nelson 37:49
Um, one of the things that I've learned as part of this aisd campaign is that we aren't engaging people very much in the process. And so none of the forums that I've been to there have been no young people ask me questions, their business students ask me questions, which, honestly, I might organize that because I love the idea of kids asking questions. I've been to one equity conference. And there were a couple of high school students that showed up. And their insights. were incredible. To your point about young kids writing postcards, they have a different perspective. They're in it, they're going into that building every day, and they know what's going on to take that kind of engagement. And that that intelligence and let them know that that is actually that's valuable, right. Like speaking out what happens to you every day when you walk in school, something we don't have. That is that is incredible. So I think that there's there's a valuation of that and making sure that we're...
Caitlin Smith 38:45
Yeah, that's what I was wondering, when you started speaking about that, because I'm, I'm hosting or co chairing a conference, and we'd love to get more students there. But I don't know how you make that seem valuable to a student. And I don't know how you make that seem valuable to a high school student to show up at these events.
Piper Nelson 39:10
I'm thinking about young women in leadership and how we convince, you know, students to come and be engaged in something or to get involved in something I'm just thinking about on the international level, where we're seeing these young women that aren't just speaking up or being a part of something, but their voice is leading the whole movement, right? A whole movement to fight climate change a whole movement to, you know, make sure that girls get an education, that that is really powerful. And I think calling on those as we're talking to young people is incredible, particularly around the climate change work. Hey, you should join the aisd environmental sustainability committee. What that sounds boring? Maybe a little bit but Greta is out there doing all this work. We need more young people involved in this work and this is one way that you can do this right?
Caitlin Smith 40:01
I think they need to know about the bag of chips and the bananas fosters.
Piper Nelson 40:10
And there will be Cheetos there.
Caitlin Smith 40:12
Okay, exactly.
Piper Nelson 40:17
And there are great programs that specifically work to get young women involved in politics and in policy. I was part of the Wolfpack. Yeah, and they helped to start something called Running Start, which is a program based in DC that brings in young high school girls from around the country, and then college aged girls as well have a conference about how you can get engaged in politics and policy.
Caitlin Smith 40:48
That's awesome. That's super awesome.
Piper Nelson 40:51
But one of the big reasons that we want young women involved in politics and policy is so that they build up that confidence so that they're able to start making change and start running for offices even earlier. And that's important for many reasons, one of which is just seniority, it takes a long time to move your way up the ranks of the Texas House of Representatives, or the judicial system, or whatever it is. So getting an earlier start, which many men do means that we can we can get women in earlier and get them up through the ranks. And then the other reason that it's so important to get young women in politics is just that perspective piece, right? I think so frequently about young women in Congress and how, at any given time, we maybe have two or three women that are breastfeeding, in Congress, Congress, women that are breastfeeding. And one of the things about that is that when you don't have people that are actively living that experience, it, it's much harder to get people to advocate for. And so the fact that we don't have maternity paternity leaves written into our federal laws, is in part because we don't have as many women in political office. And it's in part because we don't have as many young women in political office, if we had a congress that was filled with breastfeeding women, we would not only have bathrooms that had breastfeeding areas in every building, but we would also have maternity and paternity leave. And we would have more regulations to make sure that mothers have the mental health care they need, that families have the childcare that they need, all those things would be in place. So that's a big reason that I feel that that's important to get women into office, for the policy.
Caitlin Smith 42:44
I think that makes sense. Even just in my career I've seen and multiple situations where, you know, it's the first partner at a law firm to ever need a maternity leave, or it's the first, you know, appointed official on a certain commission to ever need a maternity leave. So I think as we see that more and more, you're right, the policies might change. I was also wondering, you know, you you made the point about getting women in to these elected roles younger because of seniority. And then when we talk about the women that we do have in Congress, especially the the young women, and I think I'm thinking of someone in particular that most people would, they're, they're very highly visible right away, as opposed to men, I think. And so I'm wondering about the interplay there. And if that equates to just having more scrutiny, and less seniority or if it can be a benefit and having a more visible platform sometimes more quickly.
Piper Nelson 43:46
Oh, that's interesting. I don't I don't know if I had thought about it that way. I mean, I think there, you're right, there are certain young women in Congress who have made a huge splash and are able to use that platform to make some pretty great change. I don't know the answer. I, I think that I guess it's more when I think about voting. Now, if you have someone that's out there really advocating for something, they can be really loud and advanced that issue socially. It's going to require votes for them to advance it within the Congress. So I don't know, I think I want more numbers and more visibility. Can I have both, please?
Caitlin Smith 44:35
Yeah, the zombies and you get wishes also. Okay, I'm gonna go a little bit all over the place because I you're just so interesting. Um, so we I think we spoken about women you admire in politics and seeing women speak but I'm wondering about the personal relationships you've had with other women at work. I think you mentioned mentoring. So just some of those relationships, how that's shaped you or maybe even relationships with supportive men, if and when you've encountered that.
Piper Nelson 45:15
There have definitely been supportive men.
Caitlin Smith 45:21
And we've we've, we spoke about this too, I think that's something that happens is we have women in and more positions of power as well, I think we've spoken about your husband and I have a co worker, who, who stand out as being supportive of women in the workplace, and really treating them as equals or promoting them. And I think that a lot of times comes from having a female boss or being married to a female in a high powered job.
Piper Nelson 45:53
Yeah, I do think that we're seeing some shifts. When I look at the young men that I work with, when I work, when I look at the the young men that I know. And when I say young, I'm 45. So I'm talking about men in like the 20s and early 30s. I just see, not every single one, but I just see men that are more open to working with women to be led by a woman to women's ideas to thinking of it as a partnership to all of those pieces. And I find it so heartening. And when I look at my son, and he's being raised in a house, where he cares a lot about women's empowerment. And so when we come across, you know, a US Postal stamp, and it's all about women's empowerment, he'll say, Mommy, look at this stamp, right, like he just that's his lens. And I think that we are raising more and more boys and more and more men who have that lens. And I just I really, I really appreciate it. Because I have to be honest, I have had supportive men. And I am very grateful for that I have one in particular that came to my mind when I was first working for the publisher of the Texas observer, and I was just way over my head. There are a lot of characters and a lot of personalities there. And this guy had known the Texas observer for a long time. And he came along and he said, this is going to be hard, I want you to succeed. We're going to go out to lunch once a month, and you're going to tell me all the problems, we're going to work through them, I'm going to buy you lunch, because I make more money than you do right now. And where I'm going to be your support system. Any was and it is incredible. And now we got out to lunch, and he's retired, and I buy his lunch. But I really, really, really, really appreciated that. And people, my husband and my father and my I mean, I just think there are more and more men that are recognizing that you get better results when we raise up women.
Caitlin Smith 47:56
Yeah, that's great. And we was given personal shout outs on the podcast before so you can name names if you want. But I've had that as well, when I think about where I've gotten some of my most practical career advice, like the things they can't teach you in school, like managing up are ways to find out how somebody communicates. A lot of those came from a male mentor that I had early.
Piper Nelson 48:22
Well, and I think it's because of your, um, your career, right? And like the field that you're in, right? Because I have to be honest, when I all of my bosses that I have really looked up to and respected have all been female. And in fact, in the last 15 years or so I've only worked for women. I know, I know. And I think that I'm choosing them on purpose. I mean, I think it's because I work in empowerment, but I think that there's something that makes me say I have a better for me, I have a better chance of getting what I need support wise, if I work for a woman I have it so it's both the subject and instruction. But I think I have worked for women.
Caitlin Smith 49:09
I don't know. I had several bosses, I think only one or two of them have been women. So I think you're exactly right. What is the best professional advice you've ever received?
Piper Nelson 49:22
When I was in Washington, DC, I had the opportunity to go and do development and raise money for the organization where I was working and going over and learning how to fundraise for a couple of years for the organization. I didn't want to do it. And I was I was pissed that I had to make a choice and like it was a promotion. It was more money. It was all these things. I was like no I want to do it. And a friend of mine said this because it is a skill that you will use in everything that you do. And I it's how I was able to get my job back in Austin and home. It was how I was able to get other jobs. And frankly, in this campaign, fundraising has been one of the easier parts. And I think in part because I have that basic fundraising skill set. So unfortunately. I know, I know, it's necessary. I don't know if it's completely necessary evil, but I am grateful that I have that skill.
Caitlin Smith 50:24
Is there advice that you give young people a lot?
Piper Nelson 50:27
Um, I will tell you, one of the things that I talk to young people about a lot is informational interviews, and just constantly building out your network. I have had a number of times in my life where I've been looking for jobs, and I always find a chart and I list out the organizations that I might want to work for. And then I make sure that I know so many of each, or I get an introduction, and then I do an informational interview at each one. And I know whether someone got back to me, and I sort of have this process that I use. But I think that just constantly knowing that reaching out to people, and asking to chat is really important. It has worked for me, and it's how I have learned about so many opportunities, and so many things I could be doing in this world.
Caitlin Smith 51:13
You do it in a much more organized manner than I do. But that's been my advice to you know, especially while we're mostly working remote, I got asked by a younger woman that I've mentored a little bit, sort of how to continue that networking. And I said sort of do exactly what you said and what she had been doing. You know, for example, I met her when she was a student at the LBJ School. And I met her with a fellow student and he's now looking for a job and she had sent an email connecting me with him. And I said, if you just keep doing things like that, then people will know they can reach out to you. Because I think I probably get a disproportionate amount of those requests. Or maybe to your point earlier, maybe a lot of women do, but I probably get that at least once a week. But I think because, you know, most of the time, I don't get that person a job. But I usually connect them to someone else. And then that's to people who know to reach back out to me. And that's helpful. And sometimes that does result in somebody getting a job because I've stayed in contact with this wider network.
Piper Nelson 52:27
I do believe in informational interview karma. I really do. And so whenever someone contacts me, I make it happen, because I've been so grateful to all the people that have talked to me, right?
Caitlin Smith 52:38
And that's what I say, too. I think, you know, I've done that a lot, too. And I've never had someone just say, No, I'm not doing that. You know, maybe the worst was, I don't think I'm the right person to help you on this. But here's another name. And so so that's kind of the advice I give to because I think sometimes people are intimidating or intimidated if they're a student or younger and reaching out to, to professional, but I've never had somebody just dismiss me or be rude. I think most people are flattered. Most people like to, you know, Case in point. us most people like to talk about themselves and their careers. And I think most people are flattered.
Piper Nelson 53:23
I and and I think the other piece about it is and I'm sure it's even more true in your line of work, honestly. But one of the things about having this conversation is just develop the language and the cadence of the field, right. So before I started doing communications work, I didn't know a lot about like communications, like the language. And then I started doing communications work and there's just a cadence and an appeal to it. So every time you do an informational interview, you get new vocabulary, you get new sort of inside knowledge and all that.
Caitlin Smith 54:00
I think that's right, we are coming up on an hour. So I'll ask you a couple things. Hopefully some are fun. My first one though, is what's your best tip for staying on top of your to do list or being organized. And maybe it's having a supportive partner like we talked about before.
Piper Nelson 54:22
Um, it that is definitely a huge that is definitely huge. Um, I have a big to do list. That is the size of like a wall, not a wall. I have an enormous to do list that's probably you know, two feet by three feet. I have an eight and a half by 11. To Do list that is my for the week, all the things that need to happenIs that just you or the family to do list,
Piper Nelson 54:48
And then for each day I have I wish you could see I could show you but it's a podcast for each day. I have a half hour by half hour. schedule. Wow. And, and that's more aggressive right now than it normally is. But I have just found that when I start going, I need to not have to think about what the next thing is. So it's all there right in front of me. But I also really big, really big into filing my emails. Like I'm sort of obsessive about it.
Caitlin Smith 55:22
Me too, I, I started nodding, that's me too. I don't like things in the inbox. I like file them. I have a million folders, and it works for me, and then I know where to find them. But I'm trying to ease up on that a little bit. Because I think some days and weeks it's unrealistic to clear everything out of your inbox. Okay, but I'm pretty obsessive about it as well. Where are you getting your news? Are you social media or?
Piper Nelson 56:00
NPR is really helpful, Facebook, unfortunately, I get a lot of information from Facebook and the New York Times, but then I was not a podcast person. Until very recently, my friend Laura kept trying to get me to listen to podcasts for literally years. And then this campaign started and I didn't have time to do any more reading or anything. So I started listening to podcasts on my runs. And so I've been listening to nice white parents, and 1619 there's an Austin, Austin Austin one that's all about equity in a home. So I I've got I've got podcasts that I listen to now, but that's brand new.
Piper Nelson 56:42
I wrote down the XP AISD I was about to ask you earlier, if you listen to nice white parents. I just have to I have to be moving because it makes me cringe so much. And I'm sure that part of the cringing is like self recognition. Not just me, but like our district, but it's just hearing their parents speak without any self recognition just makes me cringe. And so I have to be moving right?
Caitlin Smith 57:13
That's right now what when I listened to most of them because I don't have the commute currently and you use I used to listen to podcasts in the car, but I also listen to them when I walk my dog. So that's helpful. And I did listen to nice white parents when I was driving, and I did find I had to kind of stop it. Put some music on for a while. Like 20 minute chunks, so...
Caitlin Smith 57:46
I've been listening to podcasts for a long time, though. I know. When I spoke to Amy about Pink Granite and the whole whole thing. She said, you know, when she had the idea four years ago, her husband said, Well, is it a podcast? And she thought nobody listens to podcasts. And then started finally started the podcast so.
Piper Nelson 57:58
Don't you think that the pandemic has given people like podcasts? Like they were already?
Caitlin Smith 58:06
I was early adopter. And I don't know if I should admit this, but it's because I was very into like sports. And maybe I've done a ton of sports, money gambling, but my dad used to do picks in the newspaper. And so I always used to do like game picks on ESPN and things like that. And so I think the sports world because of talk radio cut onto podcasts pretty early. So this is like, almost 10 years ago, I think that I started listening to podcasts.
Piper Nelson 58:40
I love it's your introduction to podcasts and sports.
Caitlin Smith 58:43
It was very weird. Yeah.
Piper Nelson 58:45
And now you're you're you're doing a female politics podcast. Love that range.
Caitlin Smith 58:52
Well, so I listened. We lived in Denver at the time. And my husband at the time would think I was nuts because I'd be studying or working in our home office there and I'd be listening to sports talk radio, and he was like, This is abnoxious. What are you doing, but I think I found it you know, informative about something to be competitive about and sort of, you can do something else while listening to it. All right. Last easy one. What What do you like to do for fun? Is it things with your family?
Piper Nelson 59:32
Yes.
Caitlin Smith 59:36
This is too long of a pause do you not have any fun?
Piper Nelson 59:40
I have fun.
Caitlin Smith 59:41
I know you enjoy your job.
Piper Nelson 59:45
I think I think the thing books are just such a huge part of our lives. And it's it's really interesting. It's not a very exciting response. But my children are avid readers. So during the pandemic, my daughter is reading like 4 chapter books a day, my son is also an avid reader. We have library books, books that Amazon is delivering. We've got books all over our house, right? It's just a huge part of who we are every night before I go to bed. I have to read something or another for at least 15 or 20 minutes. And so that's not an exciting answer, but it is just a huge part of who we are. We love our librarian. We love the library. The logo for my campaign is books for God's sakes, like it's really important to us.
Caitlin Smith 1:00:44
I almost asked a stupid question earlier, when you were talking about the funding and getting more library books to their school. I was, you know, do kids still read books, because there's iPad and, you know, typing, social media. I'm sure there's podcasts for children and TV shows for kids and video games. And a lot of this interactive learning or, you know, maybe the books are on their devices that I have a little bit, my gut reaction was how many kids are still going to the library and reading physical books?
Piper Nelson 1:01:20
Those teachers are still making them read books, which is really important. But so I volunteer in the library, and those kiddos come in, and they, they find great books that they love, they're excited about it, they walk out with like three books, I think kids are still reading at least the kids that I interact with, which I appreciate. So right now, I've made a poor choice. I'm reading City of Refuge, which is about Katrina. And it's rough. I know, you know, I know. So we've got the fires in California, got the COVID, we've got the zombies that are likely coming. And I decided to read about Katrina, maybe not my best decision, but it's really well written. And it's from two very distinct perspectives.
Caitlin Smith 1:02:10
How do you keep up the energy to do that? I had a conversation, the context is I had a conversation with my friend who's a teacher. And when he consumes media after work, it's things like that. It's it's these, you know, true story books about recent history, or it's those documentaries on netflix about how Facebook controls us and those types of things. And I think because he worked, you know, we talked about this, because when I go to media, at the end of the day, it's usually movies that are marketed for teenage girls. And he said, You need to stop doing that. That's, that's not reality. But I think what I, well, what I said was because I think the majority of his days interacting with kids, right. And then so at the end of the day, he still wants to get some of this intellectual stimulation. And the majority of my day is a lot of reading, it's a lot of things that are policy related, so inherently political. And so I feel like I'm in the real world all day. And then at the end of the day, I just want to watch, you know, romantic comedy with teenagers. And so I'm wondering how you keep up the energy to do both.
Piper Nelson 1:03:33
You know, I, I am naturally I was naturally born optimistic, positive. And I was also naturally born with a lot of energy, which is good, but it needs to be it needs to be heralded for good so and, and the other piece about that is that I, I had, there was a car accident. A number of years ago, and I think that if I, if I didn't have energy, and like sort of her for life before that, after recovering from that, I think that that also sort of my my desire to really live life to the fullest, for good and for bad. Really was even more accelerated. And I will also be honest that at night, I will go on to people.com and read my People Magazine, because that is my brainless I need 10 minutes to just see what it is that those you know, real housewives have done. I'm not gonna watch the show. I cannot do that yet. But I just I can read about him. And just let my mind turn off.
Caitlin Smith 1:04:33
You know, and in the conversation, and maybe I should have put that put it that way, but about how Facebook targets ads to you and things. I don't get anything political, because I think maybe I don't post anything political. And it knows everything about you. So I don't get anything really. Mommy targeted. But all I saw I was thinking what do I actually get and it's just the people article. And shopping.
Piper Nelson 1:05:04
So I'm still confused by what they target me on the shopping with. Like, sometimes it's like a teen, you know, piece of clothing and sometimes it's only for like, 75 year old women. I'm like, I'm right here. You're supposed to be so good at this. I'm right here.
Caitlin Smith 1:05:24
You've probably shopped for your kids. I don't know. I'm just gonna I don't have an excuse for them. But I yeah, I get just, you know, I think I get the single woman feed, I get a lot of content. Well, I get a lot of content about shows. I don't watch from people. It's like all these articles about the bachelorette and things like that. And I okay, so I know what's happening even though I don't watch the show.
Piper Nelson 1:05:56
But I know who the finalists. I don't know what to do with that. I just know.
Caitlin Smith 1:06:02
I might watch this time, though. I'm pretty excited. But yeah, we don't need to talk about that. But I thought that was very cool that they cast that lead Bachelorette who was 39 it was less cool that they made a huge deal out of you know, her being 39.
Piper Nelson 1:06:22
And and the fact that they cast the first Black African American man as the bachelor, also really cool. But we didn't need to make such a big.
Caitlin Smith 1:06:33
All right, this is devolved. Do you want to leave us with any closing thoughts or plug anything. And you can go ahead and tell us your your campaign website and all that.
Piper Nelson 1:06:46
I think the only final thing I would say that being on the side of supporting women always felt really awesome, but a step removed from the action. And now that I'm the candidate, I understand how much emotional work there is for the actual candidate. Someone once said women who run for office, need a therapist. And so and I think that's true. Even if it's not a therapist that you pay, you need someone that you can talk to. And I think that's, that's really, really important. I have loved the process of talking to parents and talking to teachers and talking to kids about their experience, as it has been absolutely incredible. And I wish I got to do it in person, because, frankly, running on a pandemic is so bizarre. But there is it's more of an emotional roller coaster than I thought it was going to be. And I I would want people, women in particular, to know that before they go in, not to stop them. But just to make sure that they have their systems in place. So that as they're doing it, they know what to expect. They're not surprised, and they have all the pieces ready so that they're done.
Caitlin Smith 1:08:04
I think that's very good advice. And we spoke about this, that's 100% why I would not run. So So hopefully, are saying that now, I won't close the door on that forever. But hopefully that's right. You know, I hope that isn't a barrier for people. But I think being prepared would help with that too. Because I know, the point you wanted to make too was kind of being a policy professional or working out someone else's campaign versus being the candidate. And for me a lot of times as a policy professional, you are the spokesperson and in certain arenas, and I've felt that, as you know, I've had good things happen in this my careers progress. That's increased visibility. And I can find that to be really difficult as a woman and I think even more so as a candidate. Yeah, I think that's good to be aware of and have the tools in place.
Piper Nelson 1:09:05
Right. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that part of when, when women, when anyone, but women in particular are looking at their campaign plan and figuring out their plan for how they're going to do it. You've got to think about your fundraising got to figure out your win number, you're going to figure out who who is going to help with logistics. Do you want yard signs, yes to yard signs, by the way. But do you know that yard signs are a controversial point?
Caitlin Smith 1:09:34
In what way?
Piper Nelson 1:09:35
Key political activists, political operatives. There's not a lot of science that says that that yard signs make a big impact in races. That said if you are first of all, we don't know what's going to happen in a pandemic. Second of all, I think that yard signs are an external indicator for people of what they're supporting and their party?
Caitlin Smith 1:10:02
Well, that was my kind of natural follow up to that. I think they are more important right now because we have less ways to communicate.
Piper Nelson 1:10:12
I think that's right. Oh, as you're making your campaign plan, you just have to make sure that you have to get your emotional and physical plan in place. So, I did pilates today, because I hadn't done pilantes in a while. And I needed to get that exercise in and it's hard to find the time but damn it, my core feels better.
Caitlin Smith 1:10:35
Oh, all right. Do you want to close on that?
Piper Nelson 1:10:37
Yes. I do.
Caitlin Smith 1:10:39
My core feels better.
Caitlin Smith 1:10:42
All right. Well, thank you, Piper.
Piper Nelson 1:10:44
Thank you so much for having me, Caitlin. You can learn more about my campaign at www.piper4aisd.com and it's Piper and then the number four aisd .com.