Saa'un Bell

she/her

Saa’un Bell (she/her) is the daughter of a Black Alabama Southerner John Fitzgerald Bell and Pilipina-Visayan immigrant Nenita Deladia. Saa’un was born in Angeles City, Philippines and raised in East Long Beach.

Previously, Saa’un organized and developed Black and Brown youth and community college students to transform California’s education system at Californians for Justice (CFJ) for 11 years where she started as an organizer and eventually became Senior Strategy Director. During her time at CFJ she oversaw regional organizing in Oakland and Long Beach, led narrative, policy, and civic engagement campaigns; founded the Shared Story Table for Public Education. She is a highly regarded leader in education justice, campaign, and narrative strategy across California.

Saa’un is a first-generation college graduate with a B.A in Philosophy and minor in Marxist Studies from UC Riverside and is a graduate of Black Organizing Leadership and Dignity’s (BOLD) Directors and Lead Organizer’s 2013 and 2016 cohort. Outside of organizing, Saa’un writes short fiction and comics, fishes jetties and oceans, and is building out a beverage startup called WildSeed that brings food and drink of the Black Diaspora to BIPOC communities.  

Her organizing, strategy, and writing are deeply rooted in Eastside Long Beach, her Working Class, Black Southern, and rural Filipino Immigrant roots.