Image shows a white woman with long brown wavy hair wearing glasses and a floral blouse.

Kelly Sue Waller

Southern Crossroads Director

Kelly Sue Waller grew up in trailer parks across Tennessee and Georgia. When she was working low-wage jobs in Nashville, she found Worker’s Dignity, an organization that brings together workers to fight for workplace justice issues like unions and wage theft. With Worker’s Dignity and other groups in Nashville, she organized as a member for four years and then joined Southern Crossroads staff in 2018. Along with other folks in Shelbyville, Tennessee, she founded SCOPE’s first base building project: the Bedford County Listening Project (BCLP) that brings together renters across the community to fight for renter protections. She now serves as the Director of Southern Crossroads.When not organizing, Kelly Sue can often be found with her nose buried in fiction books featuring folks fighting the system with an eye towards building better worlds. She believes that those most affected by injustice have the experience and wisdom to come up with solutions. And that building power with our neighbors across lines of difference– race, class, ability, sexual orientation– is how we all get free.

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