As Adjunct Justice, I am writing because I think it is important to do an article with this story. In Leah Griesmann’s short post on National Adjunct below, she is thanking everyone for the great turnout that happened on February 25th — National Adjunct Walkout Day — but especially the hard work of both Vanessa Vaile and Marnie Webster, who have been invaluable to this movement, as well as to the grassroots that cropped up around everything, everywhere, without direction from above.

I always think Vanessa and Marnie never get enough credit — they never get any credit — so I was especially heartened with a new article about Leah, “The Woman Behind #NAWD“, by Colleen Flaherty of Inside Inside Higher Ed.

As Leah points out, this event was all groundwork, done by non-activists and maintained by them.

That is the beauty of what happened.

And now, after the success of it, Leah wants to publicly acknowledge who she is. She had not done so previously because she wanted the grassroots to work its magic. I think if people read the article by Inside Higher Ed and read our thank you’s on National Adjunct, they can pretty much get an idea of what happened.

And to Leah, I want to say thank you. I am so proud of what you, Vanessa Vaile and Marnie Webster have all accomplished! The fact remains that you were catalysts for the wonderful grassroots movement you inspired, but that was within all of us, and that IS who we are.

We just need to keep this movement alive and kicking.

WE need to keep on doing, acting, working, in order to Reclaim Education for us, and for students!

Here is Leah’s thank you post:

So many people to thank in the week after ‪#‎NAWD‬! #WeAreAllNationalAdjunct, don’t you agree?

Marnie Webster of the CPFA, whose early support of #NAWD was critical to the movement’s success

Vanessa Vaile, whose social media expertise and hard work enabled #NAWD to reach the next level. (Submit to nationaladjunct.tumblr.com, Vanessa says! She’s maintaining a digital archive of #NAWD so that the stories continue)

Canadian adjuncts and unions for their early and vocal support of #NAWD

Adjun’ct N’oise, whose amazing map gave us a touchstone visual image and unified contingent faculty members everywhere

Allies of all types, from organizations to tenure-line faculty

My friends and family for moral support and their pride in the movement

But especially, all the contingent faculty members across the country—those in unions and groups to the lone, brave adjuncts—who demonstrated such unity and creativity for #NAWD

Finally, in the spirit of moving forward ‪#‎afternawd‬, I “come out” today to ensure that the focus remains on the important issues in higher ed that all those involved before, during, and #afternawd will continue to tackle.

Here is a brief excerpt from the article, “The Woman Behind #NAWD“, by Colleen Flaherty of Inside Inside Higher Ed:

Leah Griesmann didn’t mean to attract a strange sort of anonymous celebrity status in the lead-up to National Adjunct Walkout Day last week. She’s pretty shy and unassuming, and new to adjunct activism. So she didn’t realize what interest there would be in unmasking the unnamed originator of the walkout idea in the months and weeks leading up to it.

Now that the walkout is over, though, she’s lifting the veil she adopted to ensure that walkout day was more a grassroots movement than one with a designated leader. (She also had some concerns about job security.) Although she still doesn’t quite understand the curiosity surrounding her identity, she says, she’s willing to go public to satisfy it and — hopefully — put an end to questions about who she is.

In interviews with Inside Higher Ed, Griesmann — the lecturer in writing at San Jose State University who first posed the idea for walkout day on social media last fall — shared some of her thoughts about walkout day, including the stories she thinks haven’t been told yet and what might be next for the walkout day movement. She’s been an adjunct for seven years, previously teaching at Boston University and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.