Angela Ferrell-Zabala Named First-Ever Executive Director of Moms Demand Action

This Year Marks 10 Years Since the Founding of Moms Demand Action

NEW YORK — Today, Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, announced Angela Ferrell-Zabala as the first ever Executive Director of Moms Demand Action. Angela formerly served as Senior Vice President for Movement Building at Everytown and Moms Demand Action, where she led grassroots organizing, partnership work and external engagement and programmatic work. In her new role, Angela will continue to oversee Everytown’s grassroots advocacy efforts across the country and help craft a vision for the organization’s work moving forward. 

“For ten years, Moms Demand Action has been changing the calculus on gun safety,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, incoming Executive Director of Moms Demand Action. “As Executive Director, I’m excited to help usher in the next decade, leading our grassroots volunteers as we stand shoulder to shoulder with survivors, students, mayors, faith leaders, and lawmakers in the fight for a safer world than what the gun lobby has tried to create for us.”

“I’ve been grateful to have Angela by my side for the past four years as both a colleague and a friend, and I know Moms Demand Action will thrive with her new guidance and leadership,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “Angela is a lifelong organizer who understands that the grassroots volunteers and gun violence survivors who do the hard work day in and day out are the backbone of this movement. As I prepare to step back from my leadership role at Moms Demand Action, I know Angela is the right person to have stepping up.” 

“During her time spearheading Everytown’s movement building work, Angela has proven that she’s the perfect person to lead Moms Demand Action into its second decade,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Our grassroots army of Moms Demand Action volunteers is now bigger, stronger, and tougher than anything the gun lobby can muster, and we’re still picking up steam.” 

“As a gun violence survivor and gun safety advocate turned Congresswoman, I know the profound impact Moms Demand Action has made on the political landscape in this country,” said Congresswoman Lucy McBath. “I’m confident that Angela is the right person to bring this grassroots powerhouse into its next chapter, and I look forward to Moms Demand Action’s continued leadership in this fight.”

“For so long, young Black Americans have had to shoulder some of the heaviest burdens of our gun violence crisis,” said Makayla Jordan, a volunteer with Students Demand Action. “But we’re also leading the fight to end it. As we continue to fight for a safer country, I’m proud and inspired to see someone who looks like me leading the way.”

Over the past decade, Moms Demand Action has become a political powerhouse and leading voice in the gun violence prevention movement. Volunteers and gun violence survivors have changed the calculus on gun safety by creating the nation’s largest grassroots volunteer army on this issue — turning good policy into good politics. Moms Demand Action, together with Students Demand Action, has consistently pushed bipartisan policy makers on school boards, on city councils, in statehouses, and in Congress to act on gun safety, passing hundreds of laws to keep families and communities safe. This advocacy has had huge impacts, not just legislatively, but electorally too. Moms Demand Action has created a bench of volunteers who are going from advocating for policy to writing it, helping to take majorities in statehouses, in Congress and more. More than 275 volunteers and gun violence survivors ran in the 2021-22 election cycle — 158 of them won their races. 

Before joining the Everytown family, Angela was the National Director of Strategic Partnerships for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, where she ensured strategic alignment across the progressive movement with particular focus on issue areas that are not historically or wholly centered in Planned Parenthood’s strategies. Angela has also previously worked for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), Community Change, and the Community Voting Project. 

Under Angela’s leadership as Executive Director, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action will continue to lead the fight for gun safety in America. As the organization heads into a new decade, the largest grassroots network in the country will continue to fight at every level. Angela resides in Washington, D.C. with her wife and four children.