Khalid Pitts is the newly elected Board Chair and President of USAction, having served on the Board since 2006. Mr. Pitts holds the Board seat of USAction’s national affiliate the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest labor union in North America with 2.1 million members, where he holds the title of Director of Strategic Campaigns. In this capacity Mr. Pitts is responsible for coordinating SEIU’s national issue campaign efforts. On staff with SEIU since 2004, he has led SEIU’s political efforts in electoral battleground states as well as on national legislative issues such as health care reform.
Before joining SEIU, he served has the Virginia State Director for Congressman Dick Gephardt’s 2004 Presidential Campaign. Prior to that Mr. Pitts was the State Director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and its sister organization, the Education Fund to Stop Gun Violence. There he guided the organization’s state legislative department as well as managed their political campaigns.
Besides serving on the Board of USAction, Mr. Pitts has close affiliations with a number of national progressive groups, including Steering Committee Co-Chair of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), Executive Committee Co-Chair of Americans United for Change and Board Nominations’ Chair of the Coalition for Human Needs (CHN).
In his private life, he is co-owner of two small businesses – Cork Wine Bar and Cork Market & Tasting Room – both nationally recognized and awarding winning establishments, with write-ups in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, Bon Appetite, GQ Magazine, and Rolling Stone Magazine.
In addition, Mr. Pitts is a national lecturer on the subject of violence prevention. His publications include the book Building Violence: How America’s Rush to Incarcerate Increases Violence and the article Medical Care Solicitation by Criminals with Gunshot Wound Injuries published in the Journal of Trauma. Mr. Pitts earned his undergraduate degree in history from The College of The Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and has a Masters in Public Health from the George Washington School of Medicine.