Representative Malcolm Kenyatta
MS Strategic Communications ’21
Beyond Words: Malcolm Kenyatta Speaks Up and Takes Action
“A lesson I learned early in life is that no one is coming to save us, and that if I really care about an issue, I need to take action myself,” says Malcolm Kenyatta, MS strategic communications ’21.
A Philadelphia native and now a Pennsylvania State Representative, Kenyatta has been engaged in civic life since childhood. He recalls, “When I was 12 years old, I complained to my mom about conditions on my block, and her advice to me was that if I cared that much, I should do something about it. I took that advice very seriously and became a junior block captain.”
Kenyatta has been a community activist ever since. “When it comes to the issues that matter to a community, people need to advocate for themselves,” adds Kenyatta. “It requires a community to speak up, get involved and stay engaged.”
After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Temple University, he began running political campaigns and then began his graduate work at Drexel in strategic communications. Of his educational ambitions, Kenyatta says, “I knew it would be important to have additional training in communications, to understand how folks in government communicate to voters and other stakeholders. Drexel was the right place to do that work; I had heard great things about the program.”
“I had to take time off in the course of my master’s program,” says Kenyatta. “My mom got really sick, and working full time, going to school, and taking care of her was a lot to deal with. I had to take time to focus on her. But before my mom passed, she made me promise to go back and finish the program. I kept that promise.”
While at Drexel, Kenyatta transitioned from running the campaigns of others to launching his own, and he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2018. “I had received a lot of feedback from people over the years that I should run for office,” says Kenyatta, “and I decided, once again, that if I cared enough about the issues, I should something about them. I should run.”
On the value of his graduate education, Kenyatta remarks, “Everything I learned in the program enhanced my skills as a leader and a communicator to constituents. You have to be clear and concise in your message. You have to communicate in an accessible manner. You have to know what you’re talking about.”
Central to what Kenyatta talks about are the issues related to working families in Pennsylvania. Citing his own life experiences, Kenyatta says, “I grew up in a working poor family. I recognized very early on that our economy is not structured to support all families. My parents worked hard all the time, but it was still difficult to make ends meet. They both passed away far too young because they couldn’t afford the medications they needed. There are so many other families with that same story or worse.”
Ever a person to take action, Kenyatta is focused on tangible ways to help working families in Pennsylvania. “My biggest hope is that we have a government that works for working people, that we don’t just talk it. That’s not good enough. We need the people who are most affected by today’s issues to be in the room where critical decisions are being made. Now is the time when we have an opportunity to do that.”