SHANNON WATTS

Shannon Watts began her career after graduating from the University of Missouri and working for the former governor Mel Carnahan. She continued to expand her career experience working for several corporate offices in their communications departments.

Eventually the mother of five children, she paused her career to focus on her family.

On December 14, 2012, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings stunned the nation as 20 children and 6 adults were killed. Deeply moved by the event, she was spurred to action and immediately started an online group, "Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America."

Her grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures quickly turned into a movement of moms, dads, students, families, concerned citizens, and survivors working together with community partners to end gun violence, a uniquely American crisis.

With nearly 10 million supporters and a chapter in every state, Moms Demand Action has become a national movement with volunteers stopping the NRA's priority legislation in statehouses roughly 90 percent of the time every year for the past decade and passing over 500 gun safety laws across the country.  

The organization has successfully changed corporate policies, educating millions of Americans about secure gun storage, and electing hundreds of volunteers to office. In 2013, Moms Demand Action merged with Mayors Against Illegal Guns to form Everytown for Gun Safety, creating one of the most powerful gun violence prevention organizations in the country.

In an historic federal victory in 2022, the grassroots movement helped break through the logjam in Congress and pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first federal gun safety bill in 26 years.  This landmark legislation addressed multiple forms of gun violence through enhanced background checks for buyers under 21, funding for state crisis intervention programs including red flag laws, new federal statutes criminalizing gun trafficking and straw purchasing, and closing the "boyfriend loophole" to keep guns away from domestic abusers.

The law also provided historic investments in mental health services and school safety programs. Since its implementation, the enhanced background check provisions have prevented hundreds of firearms from reaching young people who should not have access to them.

Shannon Watts has received numerous accolades for her activism, including serving as a Barbara Boxer Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for the Political Future, where she taught organizing, legislative strategy, and political science to the next generation of activists.

After more than a decade of full-time volunteer leadership, Watts stepped back from her day-to-day role at Moms Demand Action at the end of 2023, though she remains active as Founder Emerita and continues to advocate for gun violence prevention. She is also the author of two books: "Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World"and "Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age.”  

Her work has inspired millions to take action and demonstrated how grassroots organizing can create lasting change even in the face of powerful opposition.