WHO
WE ARE
Our team brings decades of experience in campaigning, organizing, mobilizing, event production, logistics, media relations, non-violent direct action, operations, organizational management and more.
Matt Leonard
Starting from a do-it-yourself ethic as a bored teenager in a small town, Matt spent 15 years as a musician and event producer - from running small concert venues to touring internationally as a live sound engineer and tour manager. While that lifestyle allowed some space for his volunteer activism, for the past 15 years he has worked full-time with international social and climate justice movements.
He has led high-profile campaigns and mobilizations through staff positions at Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, and 350.org - in addition to volunteering or consulting with dozens of other organizations and grassroots social movements. His wide-ranging experience reflects a deep understanding how to take an ambitious vision and turn it into reality - building a plan; creating a team; working with staff, volunteers, partners, and vendors; and harnessing the power of collective action and shared community experiences.
Matt has worked for the past decade as the Director of Special Projects for 350.org, and as the Production Manager for the international touring dance company Bandaloop. He lives in Oakland, CA.
Jen Angel
The original founder of Aid & Abet, Jen brings decades of project and event management experience, with a focus on media and communications. Her goal in event planning is to create experiences that are effortless for hosts and memorable for guests. She believes that most event-related stress can be relieved by careful advance preparation and the right team of staff and volunteers.
Previously, Jen was the co-founder and publisher of Clamor Magazine. She wrote a pamphlet about it geared toward strengthening progressive media institutions, called Becoming the Media: A Critical History of Clamor Magazine (PM Press 2008). She lives in Oakland, CA and she also makes cupcakes for Angel Cakes.
Scott Parkin
Originally from the suburbs of Dallas Texas, Scott has been a trainer, coordinator and organizer in social justice and environmental movements for nearly two decades. He has worked in both the private and non-profit sectors from the aviation industry to small community colleges to San Francisco based environmental non-profits. As a social change organizer, he has worked with global justice, anti-war, labor, environmental and climate movements in North America, Europe and Australia.
As an environmental campaigner, Scott has worked with Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and Rising Tide North America, where he has led campaigns against Wall Street banks, mountaintop removal coal mining and the Keystone XL pipeline. As a direct action trainer, Scott has trained thousands of people, as well as developed mass movement training programs, such as the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, and Flood the System, to meet the climate crisis at the scale necessary to challenge it. He now lives in Berkeley, CA.
Aid & Abet started in 2006 focused on publicity and tour management – working with progressive authors, filmmakers, activists, organizations, and social movements. In 2016, we expanded to provide comprehensive, behind-the-scenes support and consulting services – including event planning, project management, campaign/organizing support, audio-visual services and more. We are based in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, but work internationally.