Our September 2020 Shero of the Month is Michelle Troxell of Barto, Pennsylvania. Michelle is the current co-chair of PWN-USA Pennsylvania, a newlywed, and a woman living with HIV for over 28 years. Andrea Johnson, who nominated Michelle, said, “With pleasure, I nominate Michelle Troxell for her fearless, tireless, and awesome leadership as she helps to lead PWN-USA PA members through an important time in all of our histories and lives as we continue to forge through the huge injustices that continue to take place and encapsulates us all.”
Michelle said finding balance is not one of her strong traits. She has to constantly practice at finding balance in her life, between her new marriage and all the emerging battles that 2020 has brought. She said she learned that some things are important and some things are urgent.
“Family, health, and self-care are most important, and at times when the urgent things come up, it’s easy to overlook the other important things, like making sure my husband doesn’t forget we are married!” she said.
Advocacy work has kept her grounded and given her the energy to get through some dark times, even prior to the pandemic. In an effort to practice balance, Michelle said, “I have recently started using a tool I learned about a while ago but hadn’t been using on a regular basis, the Eisenhower Matrix. It’s a tool to divide up all the tasks that must be done, personal, work, family, etc., and you put them into categories: important AND urgent, important BUT NOT urgent, NOT important But urgent, and NOT important and NOT urgent.”
With regard to the pandemic’s impact on her advocacy goals, she said, “When our Vote Positive Pennsylvania electoral organizing team first realized the pandemic was not going to allow us to run our Pennsylvania field plan in the way we had planned–which was lots of face to face, group education, and voter registration drives–we were in a bit of shock and did not know immediately what we were going to do.”
However, they moved to digital organizing. “We began immediately learning all we could about digital organizing and doing Facebook live shows, radio shows (Real Lyfe Radio, thank you Andrea), and reaching out to all the people we knew. We realized right away that this would be the way we needed to go.”
PWN’s Pennsylvania chapter was already doing electoral work before she joined. She joined in 2018 in the midst of their get-out-the-vote efforts leading up to the 2018 midterms. She said, “When PWN’s Organizing for Power program was launched last year, I knew right away that Pennsylvania needed to be a part of this. It has been a whirlwind of education, team-building, fun, tears, and joys! Currently, we are doing phone banking, text banking, and we are reaching many thousands of voters in this way.”
The team is drafting a voter guide for the state and districts where members live so they can inform voters about the issues and candidates for their individual and statewide races.
When thinking about the rest of 2020, Michelle said the team’s first goal is finishing up the work for November 3. She said, “Following the election, we’ll continue to nurture the relationships we’ve been building in our communities, working on our other advocacy goals, healthcare for all, reproductive rights, fighting for racial justice, economic justice, LGBTQ rights, and dismantling the systemic racist, misogynist system that keeps us down, keeps people in poverty, and keeps people at risk for HIV.”
On a personal level, she said, “My plans are to spend time with my hubby, brand new grandson, my daughter, son-in-law, and the rest of my family, play a lot of music, and get out in nature as often as possible.”
To prepare for the upcoming elections, Michelle has already requested a mail-in ballot and plans to fill it out and mail it as soon as possible after receiving it.
On Election Day, she said, “my plan is to be available to go to area polling places and watch for signs of voter suppression to report or help others report if there are long lines at polling places, offer people water and chairs and, be a cheering squad and watchdog rolled into one.”
So what’s next for Michelle? She said, “Dismantling the inequities in healthcare at a policy and structural level is a huge need, and I am continuing my education in nursing with a focus on policy and building relationships with professional nursing organizations, to help make this happen.”
Regarding HIV advocacy, she said, “It is my goal to hold the people in power at the federal and state level to their promise that they are going to make meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS (MIPA) a reality.”
Congratulations, Michelle!