David Ferris

David Ferris joined the Highlander Education Team in September 2018. David leads Highlander’s work in economic justice and social solidarity economies, also known as Highlander’s Economics and Governance program. They first became involved with Highlander through the 2010 Threads Leadership and Organizing School for Economic Justice. Originally from Stone Mountain, Georgia, David was radicalized through transformational experiences working and learning in solidarity with low-income families in central Appalachia, peasant communities in Northeast Thailand, and youth in New Orleans after the levees broke. David recently moved to Knoxville, Tennessee from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they used popular education to support community self-determination in working class, raised-poor, and Black and Brown neighborhoods. David participates in a community practice of co-counseling for emotional healing, undoing internalized oppression, and liberation. When they’re not working, David can be found cooking, playing hard with young people, gardening, snuggling, and walking their dog Judy.