Shannon Watts

Known as the “summoner of women’s audacity,” Shannon Watts is an author, organizer, speaker and coach who helps women create change in their lives and in the world. Watts, who has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, a Forbes 50 over 50 Changemaker, and a Glamour Woman of the Year, is the author of "Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age", an instant New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller. The day after the mass shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook School in 2012, Watts started a Facebook group to unite women against the gun industry.

That call to action became Moms Demand Action, the largest grassroots group in the nation with a chapter in every state and over 11 million supporters – twice as large as the National Rifle Association. Under Watts' leadership, Moms Demand Action volunteers helped pass over 500 gun safety laws; stopped the gun industry’s agenda in statehouses 90 percent of the time; elected thousands of gun sense candidates to office, including its own volunteers; and passed the first federal gun legislation in a generation – all in just a decade.

In 2023, after 11 years as the full-time volunteer leader of Moms Demand Action, Watts stepped back from the organization to focus on organizing women in new ways. After Vice President Kamala Harris became a presumptive presidential nominee in 2024, she organized the largest Zoom gathering in history, mobilizing over 200,000 voters online and raising over $11 million. She also co-hosted Women Wednesdays for Harris with Indivisible, weekly calls that provided thousands of women with practical guidance on how to take political action.

Watts’ New York Times bestselling book "Fired Up", led to the creation of Firestarter University, a leadership and personal-growth program for women, as well as Bonfire groups, in-person gatherings across the country to help connect and galvanize women locally. These groups, which are now established in cities and towns across the country, are being organized by Red, Wine & Blue, a nationwide advocacy organization. In addition, Watts is a coach who helps women tap into their personal, political and professional power.

Prior to founding Moms Demand Action, Watts—a mother of five—worked as a communications executive at public relations firms and Fortune 100 companies. She’s an active board member of Emerge America, one of the nation’s leading organizations for recruiting and training women to run for office. She’s also the author of Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World, released in 2019.