CLARA CONOVER

Lead Organizer, Ohio Student Association & Ohio Young People’s Platform Coalition

Clara has been organizing with OSA since her senior year of college at Miami University, starting on staff as Digital Organizer, where she managed press and social media, created OSA’s 2024 election messaging strategy, and organized student leaders in supporting OSA comms work. She is very excited to move into her new role as Lead Organizer, where she’ll be leading OSA, coaching student leaders across the state to win education funding in the 2025 Ohio State Budget.

Clara is a proud Cincinnatian who graduated from Miami University with her master’s in geography, bachelor’s degrees in political science and geography, and degree certificates in fostering just communities and geographic information sciences. While getting her degrees and writing her master’s thesis, her organizing kicked into gear in response to the Ohio legislature’s brutal attacks on higher ed, pushing for censorship that would undermine the integrity of Ohio higher education.

Her passion for organizing blossomed during her time in Miami’s Urban Cohort at Peaslee Neighborhood Center in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Her experience with community work ranges widely, from student teaching Youth Participatory Action Research in Cincinnati Public Schools, mapping air pollution in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood, advocating for affordable housing, to organizing poetry open mics, and farming garlic in rural Kentucky. She is a steadfast believer in the power of people united.

Clara really likes the Grace Lee Boggs quote: “Healing our society will require the patient work not primarily of politicians but of artists, ministers, gardeners, workers, families, women, and communities.”— but she would add “students” to the list.

In her free time, Clara finds joy in writing, drawing, playing guitar, listening to podcasts, reading non-fiction books, and practicing hot yoga.