A.J. Mendoza

A.J. hails from Gladstone Oregon and he graduated from George Fox University in 2013 with a double major in Political Science and History.  He was the first student at the university to publicly come out and he went on to help start an underground club for LGBTQ students and their allies called Common Ground, and he continues to advocate as a part of the LGBTQ alumni association called OneGeorgeFox.  He is a minister within the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and serves as the clerk of the Equity and Inclusion Committee of Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends.

A.J. has worked as an organizer at the Oregon Student Association and at Basic Rights Oregon.  He served as a Steward and as President for AFSCME Local 1790, and has become especially passionate about organizing workers in the non-profit sector.  A.J. has experienced first hand the difference between a union and non-union workplace, and is excited to be able to do his part to strengthen the movement as a whole at Portland Jobs with Justice.