Benjamin (Ben) Wainwright (he/him)
is Rise Pennsylvania’s State Director. He is a student at the University of Pittsburgh as well as a former exchange student at Sciences Po Paris, Campus de Reims in France. Born in New York but from Berlin, Germany, Ben began attending protests in high school but grew more involved with organizing in Pittsburgh. Coming from an international background, Ben is passionate about global issues as much as he is about local ones.
In Pittsburgh, in addition to getting out the youth vote and college affordability, he focuses on reproductive rights, unionization efforts, and police accountability. He previously served as the Vice-President of Pitt’s ACLU Club chapter where he taught ‘Know Your Rights’ courses on protesting. He also spearheaded a widely successful election-protection program on and around Pitt’s campus for the 2022 midterm elections. At Sciences Po, he was a member of Transatlantic, an association that held conferences and meetings with embassies, ambassadors, and former heads of state of countries from all over the world.
Ben originally joined Rise in the Summer of 2022 as an organizing Fellow to get out the vote and build an intersectional civic network on Pitt’s campus. In February 2023, he participated in Rise’s overnight stake-out of the Supreme Court in Washington DC and later returned as a Lead Campus Organizer for the Summer and Fall of 2023.
Ben is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a minor in History and certificates in Global Studies, Western European studies, and European-North American studies. He is set to graduate in the Spring of 2025. When he isn’t talking about voting, college affordability, or students’ basic needs, Ben loves doing the Wordle/Connections/Mini Crossword (in that order), trying new coffee shops, and going to the gym.
