Next Up

Amber has an infectious smile, compassionate, humbling persona with a fierce, independent, bold attitude that leads her in her pursuit for social and economic justice and activism. Being raised in a rural, fruit farm community just outside of Hamilton, Ontario has given her this small town, city girl outlook on life. Hamilton, the Steel City will always be her home as steel, labour and activism has been passed down through generations of Steel working family members. She was raised by a single mom and has 4 brothers, 1 sister and her family continues to grow with nieces and nephews, whom she adores . She is always surrounding herself with strong womyn - from her mother, to her Master's supervisor an amazing Marxist, feminist role model, to her inspiring fembot comrades, to now learning and embracing many unreal political opportunities with MP Niki Ashton and the Bernie Bus . Amber's main social and economic interests include: women and work; labour rights; youth and gender justice; ending sexual violence against womyn and creating a more accessible, equitable criminal justice system; decolonizing our education system and integrating feminist, Marxist, antiracism, voices and history into the Ontario curriculum; implementing basic income to abolish poverty; and eradicating capitalism with the development of socialism for the working class. When she is not researching, writing, or reading she is playing volleyball, eating and making pizza, trying new wines, painting, facetiming with family and friends back home, snapchatting or netflixing. Amber moved to Ottawa to complete her second Master's degree and in this time she has struggled to build a solid social justice network and connect to the community, but through NextUp she has been able to find solidarity with the activists in this network and is hopeful for the continued connections and activism to come with the numerous NextUpers.