Molly Jean Oberweiser Kennedy (she/her, white-bodied, cisgender, queer, woman) was born and raised primarily in Montana with a few years in Washington State. She left Montana at 18 to attend college in Minnesota, remained there for 13 years, and then moved to Oregon in 2009. She knew at just 15 years old that she wanted to become a social worker because she wanted to support young people like her guidance counselor, Ms. Cook, had supported her. She hasn’t wavered since, although she has enjoyed working within the various realms in which social workers exist, including education (both K-12 and Higher Ed), community programming, juvenile justice, and mental and behavioral health. Molly now brings her passion to the Change Matrix (CM) team.
What drew you to CM?
I love systems work in all the ways it exists. I thrive when in spaces with others who like to think critically about the complex social problems plaguing our world and collaboratively strive for solutions together. I wholeheartedly agree with Angela Davis’ statement, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world; and you have to do it all the time.” I often tell people, if the COVID-19 pandemic taught us nothing else, it taught us this truth.
What is your role at CM?
I am a Change Consultant currently supporting the 988 Crisis Response Systems Training & Technical Assistance Center (CRS-TTAC), the National Training & Technical Assistance Center for Child, Youth, and Family Mental Health (NTTAC), and the Equity Training and Technical Assistance Center (ETAC).
Which project or assignment are you most excited about?
All the projects and assignments are exciting to me in different ways. What I’m most excited about, however, are the incredible humans I am collaborating with from across the nation. Meeting and brainstorming with other systems thinkers, learning ways other parts of the country are taking on some of the hardest social issues, and co-creating together have been the highlights thus far in my short three months with CM.
Why did you choose equity work?
There’s a long story to this question I will invite folx to reach out and ask me if they want to hear. What I will say in short is, I chose equity work because I realized on a visceral level my own liberation from oppression is truly tied to those who are targeted more intentionally and deeply than I could ever know. I want all humans to be liberated and to live to be happy, joyous, and free.
