Satya Rhodes-Conway is a proud homeowner in the Eken Park neighborhood, where, much like District 12 itself, Madison's East and North sides come together. Raised to believe that she should give back to her community, Satya has been active in a wide range of organizations and causes, including as treasurer of the Eken Park Neighborhood Association, facilitator of a session on neighborhood responses to crime at the EINPC forum, and the organizer of a public meeting on water quality, public health and well #3.

In addition, she’s been a volunteer for numerous political campaigns at different levels—from Presidential to City Council. Satya is an enthusiastic member of the Dane County Democratic Party, Progressive Dane and Democracy for Wisconsin. In the last election cycle, she was a ward leader for the Democratic Coordinated Campaign and active on the northside with Fair Wisconsin campaign. She was appointed by Mayor Cieslewicz to the Commission on the Environment’s clean air subcommittee and the Long Range Metro Transit Ad hoc Planning Committee. Satya has advocated for Metro Transit, affordable housing, community services funding and neighborhood police officers in front of the City Council, and has worked with the mayor’s office to implement a Metro pass pool for small employers and to propose a local purchasing policy. She’s a proud member of AFT local 223 and a delegate to the South Central Federation of Labor.

Satya volunteers with the Northside Farmers Market and the Sierra Club Inner City Outings program. She’s also an active member of the Dane County Timebank and Friends of Cherokee Marsh. When she gets a chance to relax, Satya likes to go dancing with Dairyland Cowboys and Cowgirls or knit with her friends. She also enjoys curling up with a good book and her cat, Chairman Meow.

Satya grew up in Ithaca, New York—a city often compared to Madison as a center of progressive values. One of her earliest memories there is going to the polls with her mom and watching her carefully work her way down the Democratic Party ticket.

It was in the voting booth, and at the Alternative Community School in Ithaca—a democratically run public alternative school—Satya learned the importance of participating in our democracy. She learned leadership skills that served her in various capacities in and outside her studies, including working for "Youth Scoops," a training program in collaboration with Ben & Jerry’s to teach young people how to run a small business. Satya had early life-lessons in self-reliance and the varieties of economic experience, surviving for periods with her family on food stamps and shopping at used clothing stores. She worked every summer to help pay for college and grad school—as a gardener, a field hand for agricultural research, and as a laborer for a small construction company.

Satya graduated from Smith College with a BA in biology and pursued an MS in ecology at the University of California at Irvine. She worked first as an educator, teaching biology and ecology, then as a policy associate for the State Environmental Resources Center, which provided support to state legislators around the country from its Madison office.

Satya then took her expertise to the Madison office of Defenders of Wildlife, where she provided a policy support on a range of issues, including endangered species, transportation and land use. Since 2005, Satya has served as Senior Associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, working on state and local energy policy for the Apollo Alliance, and with the New Cities Project, which brings together mayors from across the country to discuss progressive urban policy.