Why We Persist
When hate rises, we persist.
We get it. Persistence is hard. Apathy is certainly easier. But we can’t sit idly by avoiding difficult situations, hoping someone else handles it. Because in this moment, that “someone else” needs to be us.
We persist because the alternative is unspeakable. Our shared momentum addresses hate before it escalates, with the knowledge to act decisively, and building a culture where we stand up to speak.
Together we do much more than get by. We Persist.
Our Founder's Journey
The precision of a prosecutor. The empathy of an educator.
Our founder, Jacqueline Carroll, brings more than two decades of experience standing at the intersection of law, human rights, and the art of meaningful communication. Her career has been defined by an unwavering commitment to standing with the vulnerable and confronting injustice in all its forms.
As a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney for over a decade, Jacqueline specialized in prosecuting domestic violence and child sexual abuse cases and also served as a civil rights litigator in federal court. She learned early that justice demands not only legal expertise but also the ability to give voice to those who have been silenced.
Her work expanded as Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's first Mobile Museum of Tolerance (MMOT), and then nationally as Director of Partnerships & Growth, where she led the MMOT’s expansion into new states and created We the People of Illinois, a groundbreaking traveling human rights exhibit developed in partnership with the Illinois Department of Human Rights. Through these initiatives, she discovered the transformative power of experiential education—how the right story, told in the right way, can shift hearts and minds.
Her approach fuses legal rigor with creative expression. Trained as an actress, director, singer, and dancer, Jacqueline understands that advocacy is an art—that complex legal and social issues must be made accessible, that audiences must be met where they are, and that the most powerful truth-telling often happens through story.
Jacqueline has co-authored legislation, previously served on the ADL Midwest Regional Board, and currently serves as a Board Member and Co-Chair of the Decalogue Society's Committee Against Antisemitism and Hate. Her published work includes articles on Holocaust education mandates, campus antisemitism, and the rise of white supremacy. In 2021, Jacqueline was honored with Decalogue Society of Lawyers and Arab American Bar Association’s coveted Building Bridges Award.
