Redwood alum John Heffernan is the executive producer of the film “The American Agitators,” highlighting the lives of Fred Ross Sr. as well as his son Fred Ross Jr., who is also a Redwood alum. The film is set to release in March 2025 and is being developed by an organization called The Fred Ross Project. Ross Sr. was a community organizer and worked with several influential political and social justice figures such as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Like his father, Ross Jr. worked in the same field and had a successful career in organizing for social justice as well.
Heffernan was a dear friend to Fred Ross Jr., who deeply inspired him to pursue his career in social justice.
“[Ross Jr.] was a good friend of mine. He trained me as an organizer and I really admired him. I spent some time with his father Fred Ross Sr., I admired him as well,” Heffernan said.
Heffernan believes that his experiences growing up in Marin County and going to Redwood contributed to starting his career in social justice.
“Marin gives you a great foundation, [I lived] in Greenbrae with a lovely family and a supportive community. That foundation was really important to me, but I always felt like there was a lot more out there for me,” Heffernan said.
In addition, Heffernan believes Redwood to be a place where he learned how to work well collaboratively with others, especially his experiences playing water polo which helped him succeed in the real world, specifically with developing communication skills.
“I’ve always prided myself on bringing together a solid team of people and running our work as a team, and that probably comes from my water polo experience,” Heffernan said.
Before becoming the executive director for the Fred Ross Project, Heffernan worked for many different organizations.
“Right out of high school, I worked for a senator from California called Senator Cranston who ran for president in 1984. I later moved on to work at the United Nations for a number of years in New York, then after that, I worked for an organization called the International Rescue Committee where they do humanitarian relief work in warzones in places like Sudan and Bosnia,” Heffernan said.
Heffernan has since moved to Washington D.C., where he has worked for several different organizations. He ran an organization called the Coalition for International Justice (CIJ), was a human rights investigator for Physicians for Human Rights, worked several years at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, worked as the Director of Genocide Prevention at another museum in DC, was the executive director for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and currently runs The Foundation For Systemic Change. All of these have helped Heffernan build skills in social justice advocacy that are assisting him in developing the film.
Heffernan is hoping to air the film in Marin movie theaters in the future. Heffernan recently advertised the film at the Journalism Education Association (JEA) conference held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he gave a lecture to teenagers from throughout the nation, which several members of The Redwood Bark attended.
The Rosses worked as organizers particularly revolving around agriculture and social justice. Heffernan always had the idea of implementing their lives into a film but not until January 6th, 2021 did he feel it was time to go through with his idea.
“It was shortly after the incident on January 6th, here in Washington DC that [Ross Jr.] felt it was time to revive that effort [to create the film] because he felt, as I felt that the way to create change and the way to address a lot of these issues regarding economic, racial, environmental injustice, is through grassroots organizing,” Heffernan said.
Heffernan grew up with his sister, Ann Marie Heffernan-Gardner. Heffernan-Gardner is a lifelong Marin resident and feels that John has had a very influential career.
“It was after college when I first noticed John go down the path of social justice, he worked with organizations that helped him develop his contribution to the world and that is being an advocate for others,” Heffernan-Gardner said.
Both John and Ann Marie grew up in Greenbrae. Ann Marie believes that the reason John became an activist was because of the way they were raised.
“ I think a large part of [Heffernan’s] activism came from how we were raised and how our family made us aware of our surroundings and how the world around us moved,” Heffernan-Gardner said.
Heffernan is working on being an advocate for others and is now doing the same for the Rosses. Heffernan is an influential member of the community here at Redwood as he gives students an example of how to make a difference as a social justice activist.
