Samantha Searls, MSW ’13, has already packed a career’s worth of achievement in advocacy and community development into her 34 years. Raised in a community-oriented, single-parent household, she has volunteered since childhood — serving meals to unhoused people and helping run errands for neighbors with reduced mobility. Now a program director at Cincinnati’s Ignite Peace, with a focus on immigrant rights, Searls was named one of the city’s 10 Women of the Year for 2023.
But when she was finishing her bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Indianapolis and applying to graduate schools, Searls was unsure of what her options would be. “I applied expecting to be rejected,” she recalls, “because I wasn’t clear on what type of social work I wanted to pursue.”
However, once she got started at the Brown School at WashU, her goals quickly came into focus. “In my first semester within the social and economic development concentration,” she says, “I had a transformational conversation with Barbara Levin, from the Office of Field Education, who introduced me to the field of community organizing.”
Searls says the most rewarding experiences she had at WashU came from working with the St. Louis community, which included volunteering with PROMO Missouri, an advocacy group for the LBGTQ+ community. As a part-time job, she also worked with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. “I went into schools to administer the Project Anti-Violence Education curriculum,” she says. This introduced K-12 students to anti-bullying strategies.
For her practicum internship, Searls chose Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU), a faith-based community organizing nonprofit and part of the national Gamaliel Network. Her position there opened the door to a future in immigrant justice.
“I planned events, led educational conversations and recruited supporters to join us in working for immigration reform,” she says. MCU’s advocacy contributed to the passing of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill in the U.S. Senate in 2013; however, the bill stalled in the House of Representatives, and no comparable legislation has yet passed.
Still, the influence of the MCU internship on Searls’ work was significant. “They sent me to a weeklong National Leadership Training to teach me their philosophy of organizing,” she says. “It had a profound impact on my career.” She adds that President Barack Obama received the same training, through a Chicago branch of Gamaliel.
After graduation, Searls was hired as a community organizer in Cincinnati with Communities United for Action. In 2017, she joined Ignite Peace (until recently called the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center) as a program manager; and, in 2023, she was promoted to her current role. In addition to immigration issues, her efforts have been focused on anti-racism training and tools to prevent human trafficking.
“My goal is for everyday people to embrace nonviolence as a strategy for change … to use this approach across all of the social issues that they’re addressing.”
Samantha Searls
“Ignite Peace is focused on creating more nonviolent advocates,” Searls says. “I develop educational presentations and trainings and bring them to the community, from high school students to seasoned activists. I’m creating, researching and testing new material to teach people about nonviolence.”
“Basically, what this means is creating a situation where there is agreement rather than conflict — a sense of collective benefit,” she continues. “My goal is for everyday people to embrace nonviolence as a strategy for change. I want people to be able to use this approach across all of the social issues that they’re addressing.”
Bringing her work full circle, Searls will soon teach university students about the field of community organizing: Starting this fall, she’ll be an adjunct instructor for community field experience in the sociology, anthropology and social work department at the University of Dayton.
