Kayla Gilchrist was born in 1988 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Minnesota. After graduating from high school, she moved to Spain to attend the Universidad de San Luis to study Spanish and international relations. During her junior year, she lived in Cairo, Egypt. After graduation, she remained in Spain for another year and a half and then returned to the United States to attend graduate school at The Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. She graduated with a MA in International Policy Studies with a focus on conflict resolution and community development and a MA in Translation-Interpretation. Right after, she moved to Charleston, South Carolina to join Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM) as an associate organizer. Gilchrist reflects on the life events that shaped her interest in organizing people and communities for social justice, including her experiences with school disparities as a child and living overseas. She describes her work with CAJM and Midland's Organized Response for Equity and Justice (MORE Justice). In 2020, she moved to Washington, D.C. and joined National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
This interview with Nick Rubin focuses on his political work with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). An organizer in leftist spaces for most of his adult life, Rubin got engaged with Charleston DSA in 2017. The organization became an official chapter in 2018 and was incorporated as a non-profit 501(c) 4 in 2021. Rubin reflects on the challenges and opportunities involved with forming the chapter. He talks about the many issues Charleston DSA members have been part of included the end of the 287(g) agreement between the Charleston Sheriff Office and ICE, the campaign for Medicaid for All, and the Bernie Sanders campaign. He states Charleston DSA members are active on many issues including environmental, housing, and labor rights among others. He is optimistic about the organization's potential to continue growing in South Carolina.
