Kim Villanueva joins Community Voices to discuss her long history of feminist activism with the National Organization for Women. She also speaks about the ways that her experiences in Springfield helped prepare her to lead a national organization. Kim also discusses why it matters and how you should get involved in causes and organizations you believe in.
Transcripted by AI with human editing for readability
Craig McFarland:
Welcome back to Community Voices on NPR Illinois. I am your host today, Craig McFarland, and I get the pleasure of talking to the National Organization for Women President, Kim Villanueva, who hails from Springfield, you've been in Springfield most of your professional career, and now you've relocated out to DC for your term as president of NOW. You've been a feminist activist and strong advocate for LGBTQ issues, women's issues throughout your entire life. Kim, welcome.
Kim Villanueva:
Thank you. Thank you, Craig.
Craig McFarland:
It's great to get a chance to talk to you as well, because, when I was a young professional in Springfield myself, you and I served on the Springfield Area Arts Council board together. I came in while you were president of that organization. In addition to your work with NOW, you've also been a champion of local nonprofits here in Springfield, particularly issues that matter to you, including the arts as well.
Kim Villanueva:
Right, absolutely. there's a lot of connection between the arts and women's issues and community activism. By the way, you were a great president of the Arts Council as well.
Craig McFarland:
Thank you for that. I appreciate that. I want to go into your origin story with how you became involved with NOW, the National Organization for Women. That goes as far back as 1987. Talk about that origin story, why you decided to get involved, particularly in this organization and for these types of causes.
Kim Villanueva:
My origin story starts when I was 8. I was in Catholic Sunday school and I wanted to be an altar girl. I volunteered and I was told, "Nope, you can't because we only have boys. Only boys can be altar boys." I said, "Why is that?" The teacher said, "That's the way it is." I said, "That's not the way it has to be."
I've always thought of that going forward, what can I do to make change and to make sure that things stick? Throughout my life, I've always thought, how can I make things better? How can women advance? NOW is one of the ways that I found that path.
When I was in college, I chose to focus on women's issues. My major was journalism, and we had to pick a beat. I picked women's issues. I wrote about the Equal Rights Amendment, equal pay, discrimination, and I ended up talking with some members of the local NOW chapter. They invited me to come to a meeting. I started going to meetings in college.
Craig McFarland:
At the time, the Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois was at the forefront of the discussions that were going on.
Kim Villanueva:
That's right. Illinois was where it was defeated the first time in the 1980s. I moved to Springfield after college, and there was a local NOW chapter that I connected with, and they were depressed because they were burned out from the ERA campaign. I came in as this young person, "Wre going to do this, we're going to do that." They were, "Really?"
Craig McFarland:
You do have some of those organizations where it's nice to get fresh blood in and get that enthusiasm again. Especially when it's talking about particular issues that will require some level of advocacy. It seems you have been part of being an advocate for causes that you care about your entire life. Why is it important to have this advocacy piece along with the issues that you care about?
Kim Villanueva:
People's voices need to be heard. We're seeing, certainly with the current environment, that the issues we care about, like health care and economic issues are being overlooked. People need to feel that they're able to talk with their legislators or sign a petition or vote. Voting is the most important. People pooh-pooh it and say, "My vote doesn't count." Nut your vote counts because there have been races where people have won or lost by two or three votes. You literally can make a difference by voting. I've always been a big advocate of registering to vote, encouraging people to work on campaigns, or at least read about the candidates and read about the issues. Don't trust social media for your news. Be an informed person.
Craig McFarland:
Continuing on your journey with the National Organization for Women, you became the youngest state president in Illinois history. When you start that transition from volunteering to serving in the leadership of the organization, how do you evolve with the organization, also your perspective on how the organization is run?
Kim Villanueva:
I have to give a hat tip to the leaders who came before me, to allow me as a young person to step up. Because sometimes people push back. I'm not ready to leave yet. Now, we're always willing to welcome young people in and to take leadership roles because there's a ton of work to do. We all need to work together. Moving from a volunteer to a leader perspective, you realize you have to be willing to listen to people and hear all sides. You also have to realize sometimes you have to make the difficult decisions that you don't want to have to make. But that's part of being a leader.
Craig McFarland:
You found the organization, as it was then and it is today, open to types of conversations about change and allowing for newer voices to come into the process as well.
Kim Villanueva:
Absolutely, right. The language and the discussions have changed certainly around LGBTQIA issues. Starting in the 80s, it was just about LMG issues. We've expanded to include the whole idea of gender fluid people and transgender people. We're expanding to look at voting rights because that's under attack. Who would have thought we would be threatened by losing our right to vote or our right to choose? The issues that we focused on early on in the 1980s. Unfortunately, we're still working on them in 2025.
Craig McFarland:
At the time, when you're doing all this advocacy work and you're working within NOW, you also have a full-time position with the Illinois Community College Trustees Association. You work as their communications director. Then, later on, you served as an interim executive director for the same organization. Speak to how your full-time position also allowed you to learn the skills or develop the skills to be able to then bring that to a non-profit or an advocacy organization as well.
Kim Villanueva:
Part of my role with the Trustees Association was to work with the membership and get them engaged in our projects and to find out what they wanted from the association. Which is certainly the same that I'm doing with NOW, now. Also, when I was the interim director, I had to deal with a lot of management issues and administrative issues. I'm bringing that to NOW as well. I think the key thing when I was with the Trustees Association and working with community colleges, was the advocacy piece because we did a lot of work on legislation to help community college students and the colleges. I learned a lot about the legislative process, about lobbying, and the sort of the minutiae in between — that it takes a long time for something to pass and you just have to be patient sometimes. But there's also ways to move things more quickly.
Craig McFarland:
As you progress in your time with NOW, still remaining active in that organization throughout. Talk to me about the organizational structure. You're now president of the national board. Does every state also have its own individual board? How do those members interact with you in your role?
Kim Villanueva:
We have a national organization, and then most of the states have state chapters, and then many of the states have local chapters. It's a a three-tier organization, but we consider the members to be the most important part of the organization because they tell us this is the direction we want to go. These are the policies we want to have. Every year at our national conference, the membership meets, sets the policy, and then we as the officers and the national officers carry that forward.
Craig McFarland:
What made you decide that you wanted to pursue this position of president of this overall organization?
Kim Villanueva:
Because I had been involved for so long, some changes that needed to be made, but I also was excited about the opportunity. Because the other people in other states had asked me to run. I had saidI need to think about it. That was four years ago. The time was right, for me, especially with the current administration, that we needed more advocacy. We needed more boots on the ground.
Craig McFarland:
You started your four-year term. What's your vision for the organization? What are you hoping to accomplish during your tenure and during your term, ppossibly terms, as president? I did see you can have two consecutive terms should you choose that. For your vision for the next four years, what are your hopes and dreams for your tenure?
Kim Villanueva:
We want to empower people to feel that they can make a difference, especially women and children. A lot of women feel constrained by having to do things at home or school or work. But there are things people can do locally. We want to let people know that. Go the No Kings rally on a Saturday. If you can't go to that, make a sign, or drive somebody to an event, or do petitions. There are small things people can do to make a difference. That's what our goal is. We also want to do more outreach into red states and into rural areas. I've already gone to Indiana and West Virginia. I was in California last weekend, I was in Riverside, which is a very red rural area. We're doing a lot of outreach in those areas just to show, yes, there are feminists here. There are women who believe that women are equal.
Craig McFarland:
What do you see as the largest challenges to your organization in the current political environment?
Kim Villanueva:
There are quite a few, but one of the big ones is combating the feeling of being overwhelmed by everything going on. I was at a conference for California NOW, one of our largest chapters, and they had a panel discussion on burnout, how to avoid burning out as an activist, because there are so many things coming at us, and there are so many rallies and projects and actions that we're being asked to do. We need to be able to take a step back and take a breath, then move forward.
But in terms of issues facing us, tomorrow we're going to be in front of the Supreme Court because we're protesting the Louisiana case that threatens voting rights.
We're joining with other groups like the ACLU and the NAACP. We're also working on making sure people know about the government shutdown, how it's impacting health care. People may lose their SNAP benefits. and how it's affecting government employees, who are going without paychecks. So they can't feed their families, they can't pay their mortgage. We're tracking those types of situations and getting those stories out.
Craig McFarland:
We keep hearing stories about the rise of activism and volunteerism in younger generations. Are you seeing that now as well?
Kim Villanueva:
Absolutely, yes. At the California conference I was at last weekend, I think there were probably more new members than veteran members. We also have an internship program here at NOW. We have 8 or 9 college students working with us right now who are helping us, research issues and plan strategies. Which is fantastic because they bring that energy, and the perspectives we need.
Craig McFarland:
The same kind of energy you may have brought back in the 1980s.
Kim Villanueva:
Absolutely right.
Craig McFarland:
If you are talking to someone that might be disillusioned for whatever reason with the state of the world, and not knowing necessarily what to do, what would you encourage them to do? What would you encourage them to get involved in or to look up if this is something that they feel could be important issues to them? Let's say they have something they are passionate about, an issue that really matters to them. What would you say to them about getting involved and becoming an advocate for that type of issue?
Kim Villanueva:
First, I would ask them to remember what John Lewis said. Don't fall into a pit of despair. We are in this for the long haul and we need to be ready to cause 'Good trouble' and essential trouble. That somebody is interested in taking action, whether it's women's issues or environmental issues, that's great. We need that. They need to look for other like-minded people, other like-minded groups. If they look in the local newspaper or social media and see that there's an event going on, go to it and see if that's something you want to be more involved with.
If you're with women's issues, you can go to our website, NOW.org, or there's other organizations for other issues. But Definitely get involved. You may have friends that want to be involved or family members, but if not, social media is actually a good way to find other sources for activism.
Craig McFarland:
It takes that first step, right? That first moment of potentially feeling uncomfortable. Many of those organizations are looking for that new type of passion to come into their organization.
Kim Villanueva:
Yes, you're not alone. That's what we keep telling people. There are other people who feel the same way you do, and they feel hopeless or helpless, working together we can all work through this.
Craig McFarland:
Kim, it has been wonderful to get to chat with you. It's nice to touch base with you in your new leadership role within the National Organization for Women in Washington, D.C., and to talk about your roots here in Springfield as well. Thanks for joining Community Voices.
Kim Villanueva:
Thank you, Craig.
