Ellie Boldman Hill

Name: Ellie Boldman Hill Location: Missoula, MT

A little about me

Round Three Winner of a DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship.
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Ellie Boldman Hill is lifelong Rocky Mountain Westerner, growing up most of her life in Idaho, where she is the daughter of a union worker, the only girl on her little league team and survived Catholic schools.

Ms. Hill played soccer at the Albertson College of Idaho, where she began significant involvement in social justice causes and thereafter began her interest in progressive politics at Boise State University where she graduated with her Father in 1997.

She continued her educational pursuits at University of Idaho, College of Law, where she graduated in 2001, with a Juris Doctor. In law school, she was the President of the American Bar Association and the Idaho Trial Lawyers, law student divisions. She has practiced law in both the private and public sector, most notably as an Assistant District Attorney working primarily with victim crimes and victim advocacy in Boise. Ms. Hill has also practiced law for the Nez Perce Tribe in Lapwai, Idaho and has represented varying city entities in the civil arena.

Since moving to Missoula in 2007, Ms. Hill has been the Executive Director of one of Western Montana’s best known and beloved nonprofit organizations.

The Poverello Center, Inc., founded in 1974, is the state’s largest emergency homeless shelter and soup kitchen located in the heart of downtown Missoula. The “Pov” has an operating budget of approximately two million dollars and is led by a twelve member Board of Directors and a staff of fifty. It is routinely voted as “Missoula’s Best Non Profit Organization”, and Ms. Hill have been personally voted “Missoula’s Best Activist” (2007 and 2008) for her advocacy for the impoverished.

Ms. Hill serves as the primary spokesperson for the organization. She has been featured in Montana Living Magazine’s “Dream Jobs”, Montana Business Journal’s “Women in Business”; she is interviewed frequently in print, television and radio; she is one Missoula’s chief media contact for homelessness, poverty and food insecurity issues.

Ms. Hill is married to an East Coast hockey player, and her brother is a smokejumper. She skis, drinks beer at the Kettlehouse, is a Forward Montana Rock Star, where she also serves on the Fundraising and Development Committee. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Business Council, is a fellow in Montana’s progressive “think tank” called the Policy Institute, is the Co-chair of the Missoula Chapter of the New Leaders Council, serves on the Executive Board of the Missoula County Democrats, both as the State and precinct Committeewoman, and lives donwtown in the historic Wilma Theatre. She watches Meet the Press and Jeopardy religiously.

Why I deserve a Netroots Nation Scholarship

On the January 15, 2008 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, in response to Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards, host Bill O'Reilly challenged radio host Ed Schultz by stating:
[W]e're still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges, Ed. So if you find anybody, let us know… They may be out there, but there are not many of them out there, okay. So if you know where one is, Ed ... if you know where there's a veteran sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately.
Two week earlier, on a bridge in downtown Missoula, Montana, Forrest Clayton “Clay” Salcido’s mangled and lifeless body was found was found by a man walking his dog. It was below freezing. Clay Salcido was five foot seven inches tall, a third generation Montanan and a homeless Vietnam veteran. The night before, two local boys, Seniors in high school, after drinking vodka all afternoon, started harassing Clay for being (in their words), “an old homeless bum”. Clay tried to run from them. The main perpetrator, Anthony St. Dennis, caught Clay, punched him to the ground and then stomped on his head and face thirty times. Clay was identified after police hung the lifeless, bloodied “John Doe” picture of him in our local homeless shelter (the Poverello Center). St. Dennis was identified by the blood on his tennis shoes.
Ms. Hill immediately organized a community response and rally to the hate crime. The Lieutenant Governor and other community leaders attended. Ms. Hill’s efforts have been tireless. Later that year, when the Poverello Center, the State’s largest homeless shelter, expanded their services to better serve the city’s most chronically homeless population, her efforts were met with hate filled comments on the Missoulian’s website, including a reference to Clay Salcido’s murder as a “good way to solve the homeless problem in Missoula.”

Ms. Hill has consistently provided a powerful voice in the media for all the marginalized, impoverished, elderly, disabled and homeless people in Montana. She can be seen speaking before the legislature, or in the mainstream press, or sitting on panels at the University, or speaking to school kids. In the face of adversity, Mr. Hill challenges conventional wisdom by ensuring that the community sees that the lives of their poorest citizens are worthy and valued.
Mr. Hill’s advocacy and media outreach consistently focuses on the complexities of civil liberties and social justice, and she is introspective; embodying an intelligent, deep thinking, courage that truly emulates the spirit of a DFC Netroots Nation 2009 Scholar.

What first inspired me to get involved

I came out of the womb being active politically; I know no other way. However, in a nutshell, fighting for the little guy, being the voice for the voiceless, making a difference for the underdog, and creating community awareness, that's what keeps me going...

How I've gotten others involved

Creative, grass roots, fun activites keep my staff and colleagues motivated. I also try to be fairly thorough, organized, and always passionate.
I also believe in shared power, a constant sense of humor, honoring my fellow community leaders, and cheap beer.

Why I think participation in the blogosphere is important

Blogs have created a level of civic participation, accessibility, and public dialogue that is single handedly changing grass roots involvement in this country. Blogs encourage passion, creativity, transparency, individualism, relevance, and originality. However, while I'm continually excited by the power of blogs, and I utilize them for community education and outreach regularly, I have ever-growing concerns with their blurring with the "mainstream" media. I am also passionate about the issues surrounding defamation, most often inherent with "anonymous bloggers" and "participatory journalism". Unfortunately case law will have to create the legal standards and norms, unless the bloggers create their own... and soon.

More about my volunteer work

I am confident that I am the first person to bring a homeless Cuban refugee with no front teeth to testify before the State's Joint Judiciary Committee in the old Supreme Court Chambers at the Montana State Capital. I had worked with Senator Ron Erickson to draft legislation that limited liability for health care professionals who wish to volunteer their services in community based organizations. It passed unanimously in both the House and Senate. It was called the Good Samaritan law. The Missoulian editorial board covered it here:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/05/03/opinion/opinion73.txt

I have also been voted Missoula's "Best Activist" in the Missoula Independent for the last two years, as well as declared by their reporters one of the "35 People in Missoula That You Should Know", an article published last summer.

My suggested bumper sticker slogan

Helthcare for All Americans- fighting for the right to see a naughty nurse.