Bob Fulkerson

"I've seen the difference just a couple of people from grassroots organizations who have been elected to office can make on the inside. I've learned that we will not attain progressive, systemic changes in public policy-making until we change the policymakers."
- Bob Fulkerson, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada

Join Leadership Talks on Friday, February 24 at 1 pm ET for a live, online interview with Bob Fulkerson, Director of Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, and a 2005 Leadership for a Changing World awardee. Bob will discuss strategies to change public policy through unlikely coalitions and creative tactics.

Read the Transcript from February 24, 2006 Leadership Talks Archive

Nevada is the seventh largest state in square miles, but it is one of the most sparsely populated. About three-quarters of the population live in Las Vegas and Reno where resorts and gambling fuel the economy. Outside these cities are miles of trackless desert, Indian reservations, big-acreage ranches and a tradition of independence. Nevada faces challenges that include demands to use its empty miles as sites for nuclear waste disposal and a lack of water that leads to ongoing tension between urban and rural areas competing for this resource.

A fifth-generation Nevadan, Fulkerson was attending college in Washington, D.C. in the late 1970s when his mother wrote him about her difficulty getting funding to start the first domestic violence shelter in Reno and about the federal government's plan to destroy parts of Fulkerson's beloved Nevada desert to house MX missiles. These concerns triggered a major change in Fulkerson's life. He decided to move back to Nevada, where he volunteered for the Reno Sparks Indian Colony and helped his mother work towards establishing a domestic violence shelter.

Fulkerson founded the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), a consortium of Nevada organizations, in 1994. PLAN has the ability to involve unlikely allies in its campaigns and creates committees to direct the varied work of its members. PLAN's Racial Justice Committee, for example, works to address racism in Nevada and within PLAN's membership. The Economic Justice Committee within PLAN organizes around proposed policy changes, including those keyed to the minimum wage, the role of immigrant labor, and the impact of federal budget decisions on Nevada.

PLAN organized the state's first tax-analysis and education project, which explained who paid for and who benefited from services in the state. The campaign led to a 2003 law that resulted in $500 million annually in increased taxes from businesses that previously had not paid an equitable tax. The members of the Reno Sparks Indian Colony credit PLAN and Fulkerson with helping them find support among city and state officials to stop plans for a destructive strip mine adjacent to their land. Fulkerson also suggested tribal members buy company stock and show up at the annual meeting to explain the potential harm to the tribe. The tribe won, and today uses its newfound skills to organize around other issues.

For more information

Bob Fulkerson Leadership for a Changing World profile