Shannon Watts

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence. With nearly 10 million supporters and a chapter in every state, Moms Demand Action volunteers have stopped the NRA’s priority legislation in statehouses roughly 90 percent of the time every year for the past decade; passed over 500 gun safety laws across the country; changed corporate policies; educated millions of Americans about secure gun storage; and elected hundreds of volunteers to office. In 2022, the grassroots movement helped break through the logjam in Congress and pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first federal gun safety bill in 26 years.

Ms. Watts is a former board member of Emerge America, one of the nation’s leading organizations for recruiting and training women to run for office. Ms. Watts is also the author of Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World (2019) and Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age (2025). She has also appeared as a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, CBS and NPR and written opinion pieces for Elle, Refinery29, Time.com, Newsweek and Marie Claire.

Prior to her work at Moms Demand Action, Ms. Watts built a career as a communications executive at companies including FleishmanHillard, GE Healthcare, and WellPoint. After college, she worked in the Missouri House of Representatives and for former Governor Mel Carnahan. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri and lives in the Bay Area of California with her family.