Called to Action

“It was all about exposure—learning and appreciating different religions and communities. That’s stayed with me. It was a very personal pursuit to situate myself in my culture and history in the world; then it became about joining the fight with other socially progressive folk and marginalized communities who were tied by the common thread of injustice and discrimination.”

Demessie recalls that Gittler—her “witty and loving American grandfather,” as she called him in the dedication of her 2010 doctoral dissertation—also appreciated this upbringing. “He got a kick out of me being Coptic Orthodox Christian, praying in Hebrew, and attending Catholic school,” she says. “It felt normal for me because my grandparents always had a home to celebrate all of our identities and cultures.” 

An engineer who held every leadership position within the Ohio ACLU, Gittler was fiercely unapologetic in his advocacy for equity—and passed that passion along to Demessie. 

“Gramps introduced me to (U.S.) Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (Colorado) when I was a pre-teen and told me it was important I did my homework on her when I got older because she cared about making the world a better place for women,” she says. Demessie also learned from Gittler’s daughter, Amy Gittler ’72, a former member of Oberlin’s Board of Trustees who won the 1983 U.S. Supreme Court case Arizona Governing Committee v. Norris, which made it unlawful for employers to discriminate based on gender when disbursing retirement benefits. 

Harvey Gittler also passed along his passion for Oberlin; Demessie smiles as she recalls being told, “Menna, dear, just know you can go to any college as long as it was Oberlin College.” In fact, she adds, “Gramps even fixed the bicycle Amy used at Oberlin College and requested I use the same bike to get to class—and I did.”

A double major in economics and law and society, Demessie graduated with honors—her honors thesis made a viable legal and economic case for reparations in modern day—played basketball, and served as senior class president. She was also a regular at Finney Chapel alongside her grandparents, seeing the orchestras and symphonies that visited campus. “We had the same seats every year,” she says. “My grandparents would go back to [the retirement community] Kendal, and I’d go back to Langston, across from the gym.”

What she learned outside of her studies was just as formative. “Almost since its founding, Oberlin has opened its doors to students who had been denied access at other institutions,” she says. “That didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s not a coincidence. Progress comes out of not just getting uncomfortable, but creating spaces for all these communities to coalition build, work together, know our destinies are always tied, and being unapologetic about freedom and justice for all.”

From PhD to Washington, D.C.

Demessie went on to earn a joint PhD in public policy and political science from the University of Michigan, writing a dissertation that was the first mixed-methods study analyzing the influence of Congress on U.S.-Africa foreign policy via congressional caucuses. She was awarded Senate funding and became one of five political scientists to receive the American Political Science Congressional Fellowship in 2010. Demessie then worked in Congress, including at the ​​Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), which gave her the chance to work on informing policy alongside figures she had studied in grad school, including “one of my all-time heroes,” longtime U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of California.

“It was such an honor and cherished responsibility to work for CBCF,” she says, noting she carries the organization’s mission “deep in my heart” while also “never losing sight of visionaries” like Howard University professor Ronald Walters, who helped create the blueprint for the Congressional Black Caucus.

“Knowing the shoulders we stand on is critical on the road to justice, so we build on what was before and get to justice that much sooner,” she says. “Leading a policy team and diving into issues like voting rights, criminal justice reform, environmental sustainability, and minority access to capital, to name a few, helped us bridge the gap between policy research and policy in practice with the ultimate goal of providing members of Congress with evidence-based analysis to make good, well-informed public policy.” 

In the summer of 2020, after what she calls the “shock factor the country experienced” in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Demessie felt called to amplify her efforts to empower underrepresented communities beyond Capitol Hill. 

“I’ve been privileged to work with so many amazing people,” she said, “and I watched the rest of the country and world start to pay more attention to issues like police brutality, workforce diversity, and corporate social responsibility.”

She heard about the Task Force for Meaningful Change, which had recently been established, and joined in December 2020 as senior vice president and executive director. Her work there is already producing dividends: Last fall, she received the Social Impact Award from the Black Music Action Coalition, a music business organization formed in 2020 to start addressing systemic racism in the music industry. Honored alongside luminaries like Grammy Award-winning artist and producer Jermaine Dupri, Emmy-winning singer-songwriter Keke Palmer, and Epic Records chair and CEO Sylvia Rhone, Demessie was given the award for her work on racial equity in the context of Universal Music Group and beyond. Who was there alongside her? Her parents, her brother, and Amy Gittler.

In June, Demessie was named to the leadership team of the newly formed UMG Global Impact Team, a group that builds on the initiatives she's been working on with the label. And, today, Oberlin is also still part of Demessie’s life: She currently serves on the Board of Trustees and views her current position as a way to build on the knowledge she’s accumulated over the years to enact change on a wide scale. “Representation matters,” she says. “Equity matters. Using one’s position, power, and platform to disrupt and dismantle injustice, racism, xenophobia, and advance social justice for all is a serious responsibility that requires resilience, conviction, and a creative imagination.” 

Maura Johnston is a journalist and editor who teaches at Boston College.

This story originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of the Oberlin Alumni Magazine.