Aaron Marquez

Aaron Marquez is an Afghanistan War veteran, AmeriCorps alumnus and Democratic candidate for Arizona State Senate. He is a relentless advocate for service and believes it's up to all of us to do our part to build a stronger Arizona.

Aaron Marquez served in AmeriCorps from 2002-2004 with City Year in Boston where he ran a service-learning program for inner-city middle school students and developed a mentoring program for high school youth that explored civic participation by attending community forums.

Between 2006-2009 Aaron co-founded ServeNext to use the power of grassroots action to advance volunteerism, service, and AmeriCorps as strategies to tackle our most pressing social challenges and strengthen our democracy. ServeNext is a member of the ServiceNation coalition and played a crucial role in helping to lead the passage of the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act – an expansion in annual AmeriCorps slots from 75,000 to 250,000 over five years. During the 2008 presidential primaries ServeNext led a grassroots campaign that secured written pledges from 9 presidential candidates, including then Senator Barack Obama, to expand national service.

Currently he serves as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserves and deployed to Afghanistan as a Civil Affairs Officer in 2012. When Aaron is not training with the Army he stays active in community service and local Arizona politics, now running for the Arizona State Senate in District 27.

He is an alumnus of the Center For Progressive Leadership’s Arizona Political Leaders Fellowship and a member of the Truman National Security Project's Defense Council. Marquez is a 2008 graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service where he studied Trans-State Actors in International Politics and earned a Bachelors of Science in Foreign Service.

*The views expressed in my blog postings are solely my own and not those of the Department of Defense.