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dr. jiggy geronimo

JG Insights LLC is a progressive movement consulting firm led by Dr. Jiggy Geronimo, a South Asian former neuroscientist turned social justice advocate. JGI works with progressive partners, with a focus on state-based movement organizations, to innovate exceptional public opinion research and inspiring messaging, build and foster transformational coalitions, and develop winning strategies in order to realize the promise of a democracy that reflects and works for the people, not just the wealthy few.

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about jiggy

Dr. Jiggy Geronimo is former neuroscientist turned social justice advocate, with expertise in state legislative advocacy, coalition building, grassroots organizing, public opinion research, and messaging. 

Jiggy was the founding Executive Director of the Research Collaborative, an organization she grew from an ad hoc crisis research effort during the 2020 election crisis into a trusted go-to research, strategy, messaging, and collaborative convening hub for national, state and local organizations working to realize the promise of a truly equitable, multi-racial democracy. In her time leading the Research Collaborative, she managed over 150 focus groups and over 50 public opinion surveys to research the most pressing issues of the day and develop winning messaging to meet the moment. She helped build a community of over 8,000 leaders from nearly 3,000 organizations across the movement to align shared messaging and narrative, conducting hundreds of briefings and supporting progressive organizations across the ecosystem. This work shepherded the success of the movement-wide #CountEveryVote campaign during the 2020 election and successfully influenced the US Senate to name their voting rights legislation the Freedom to Vote Act, in line with the researched messaging guidance. #CountEveryVote reached over 2 billion people #FreedomToVote has reached over 800 million people.

Previously, Jiggy was the Senior Director of National Programs at Voting Rights Lab where she led rapid-response programming, messaging research, and state campaigns in 10 states, including supporting and leading the messaging for the winning CA Prop 17 legislative and ballot initiative campaign to free the vote to 50,000 Californians returning home from prison. Jiggy was also the Senior State Policy Manager at Indivisible where she authored the Indivisible States Guide and built Indivisible’s grassroots state advocacy program from the ground up, supporting and training grassroots

across the country on state legislative advocacy strategy. She also co-founded CA StateStrong, a statewide coalition of grassroots groups in California focused on advocating for progressive state policy at the California legislature.

Prior to a career in politics, Jiggy earned her PhD in Neuroscience at UC San Francisco studying the role of the neurotransmitter serotonin on inhibitory neurons in the brain. Her dissertation work discovered the neural mechanism by which serotonin excites parvalbumin-positive fast-spiking interneurons in prefrontal cortex and the implications of this modulation for temporal integration at gamma frequencies. She has published 6 peer-reviewed academic papers featured in journals such as Nature Neuroscience, Elife, and Cell Reports. Jiggy was also an Adjunct Professor teaching undergraduate biology courses at the University of San Francisco and received her Bachelors with Honors in Human Developmental Neuroscience From Cornell University. She brings her research expertise, scientific rigor, and understanding of the mind and cognition to her work in politics.

Jiggy immigrated to the United States from India at the age of two; her parents left everything they knew behind to bring her and her brothers to America for a better education. She grew up in a small town in upstate New York where her family tried to create the American dream by running a small family motel. After a franchise motel came to the town, the motel went under and the family had to rebuild. Jiggy admires the hard work, dedication, and unrelenting determination of her mother who worked full time as a nurse while going back to graduate school to provide for the family. 

Outside of work, Jiggy finds her peace in the beauty of mother nature. She also enjoys cooking, running, basket weaving, pottery, and hiking in the mountains. She lives with her husband, son, and dog in the San Francisco Bay Area.

  • Public opinion research

  • Messaging and narrative development

  • Public speaking

  • State legislative advocacy

  • Coalition building

  • Transformational partnerships

  • Grassroots activism

  • Program development

  • Project management

  • Strategic planning

  • Leadership

  • Staff management

  • Data-driven decision making

  • Legislative lobbying

  • Equity-centered analysis

expertise

  • Podcast Guest, Count Every Vote: Protecting the Election Results, Words to Win By, 2021

  • Podcast Guest, Winning the Narrative, Pod for the Cause, 202

  • Quoted, How Democrats Planned for Doomsday, NY Times, 2021

  • Report Co-author, Protecting Public Health in the 2020 Election, Voting Rights Lab, 2020

  • Moderator, Maximizing Mail-in Ballot Systems for Turnout and Equity, Netroots Nation, 2020

  • Op-ed Co-Author, Washington Is Not the Short-Term Answer to Securing Democracy. Your Local Statehouse Is, Rewire, 2019

  • Featured, California legislation would fight surprise bills, LA Times, 2019

  • Guest, Rebel HQ, The Young Turks, 2018

  • Quoted, Leaders of Tea Party and Indivisible share passion, patriotism, and tactics, The SB Sun, 2018

  • Quoted, ‘Indivisible’ makes political presence felt, Capitol Weekly, 2018

  • Quoted, The 2018 midterms had the highest turnout since before World War I, Vox, 2018

  • Quoted, Virginians Want a Medicaid Expansion. Will the Legislature Deliver?, The Nation, 2018

  • Author, Indivisible States Guide, Indivisible, 2018

  • Primary Author, Serotonin enhances excitability and gamma frequency temporal integration in mouse prefrontal fast-spiking interneurons, ELife, 2017

  • Co-Author, A Visible-Light-Sensitive Serotonin, ACS Chem, 2017

  • Co-Author, Serotonin 1B Receptors Regulate Prefrontal Function by Gating Callosal and Hippocampal Inputs, Cell Reports, 2016;

  • Co-Author, Blunted responses to reward in remitted post-traumatic stress disorder, Brain and Behavior, 2015;

  • Co-Author, Cocaine-induced structural plasticity in frontal cortex correlates with conditioned place preference, Nature Neuroscience, 2013

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publications

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