Who We Are

Forward Justice Action Network is a 501c4 organization that engages in educational and advocacy activities to promote political and grassroots support for laws and public policies that advance racial, social, and economic justice in the US South.

Founded in 2019, we serve as a strategic partner for nonprofit organizations, coalitions, and networks at the forefront of movements organizing for a more just, equitable, and free South. Our work catalyzes success for movements and expands democratic opportunities for people affected by injustice. Our key strategies include communications, narrative change, legislative and legal advocacy, community organizing, and base-building.

Forward Justice Action Network is committed to transforming the South, thereby the country, by supporting social justice movements at the forefront of creating a “Third Reconstruction” in the United States.

Meet the team

Ashley Marshall
Co-Founder & Co-Director

Caitlin Swain
Co-Founder & Co-Director

Daryl Atkinson
Co-Founder & Co-Director

Attica Scott
Director of Special Projects

Honorable Attica Scott is deeply rooted in building healthy and safe communities. Attica is the Director of Special Projects at Forward Justice Action Network (FJAN), a 501c4 organization that supports laws and public policies that advance economic, racial, and social justice in the US South. FJAN serves as a strategic partner for coalitions, networks, and nonprofits at the forefront of movements organizing for a more equitable, free, and just South.

Attica worked for nearly a decade as an Action Learning Coach at County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. She advanced into an Associate Researcher and Culture of Health Prize Review Team Lead role at the University’s School of Medicine. Attica also served for nearly a decade as the Coordinator of Kentucky Jobs with Justice.

Attica served for three terms (2017-2022) as a State Representative and in 2022 was the only democratic woman in Kentucky to run for the US House of Representatives. During her tenure as a State Representative, she sponsored legislation related to maternal health, universal basic income, rent control, police accountability, wrongful conviction compensation, student journalist freedom of the press, racism as a public health crisis, and expanding the teaching of Black and Indigenous history in public schools.

She was an Adjunct Faculty member at Jefferson Community and Technical College and at Bellarmine University. She became a global ambassador in 2015 as an English immersion teacher in Taining County, Fujian Province, China.

Attica is a regional Connector and west Louisville Connector with Leadership Louisville and was honored with the Ms. Foundation for Women 2011 “Woman of Vision” Award. In 2021, “Today’s Woman” magazine readers voted her the Most Admired Woman in Politics. In 2020, national Jobs with Justice recognized her with the Reverend James Orange Award for building worker power. You can count on Attica being the leader that our communities need. She shows up, speaks out and stands with people who are intentionally ignored. Attica’s leadership was highlighted in 2019 by the Kentucky Gazette featuring her as one of the most Notable Women in Kentucky Politics and Government.

Attica holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Knoxville College (an HBCU) and a graduate degree in Communications from the University of Tennessee. She is a certified anti-racism trainer through Crossroads Ministry and the Commission on Religion in Appalachia. She holds a certification in Technology of Participation Facilitation Methods from The Institute of Cultural Affairs. Her proudest accomplishment is being the mom of two amazing young people.

You can follow her on social media at @atticascottky.