Amanda Elizabeth Toll’s Background
Biography
Amanda is a mother, NH State Representative, yoga teacher and small business owner. She was born and raised in New Hampshire. NH is a wonderful place, and she believes we have a tremendous opportunity for even more positive growth by attracting young people and creating more opportunities for people from all walks of life to build lives and raise families here. The key to doing this is creating a state that is green, has great schools, vibrant recreational spaces including parks and libraries, an environment where local businesses can thrive, and is warm and welcoming towards ALL including immigrants, people of color, women, and LGBTQIAGNC folks.
Amanda has been engaged in a life of service since she was a teenager. During her junior year of high school, she fell in love with empowering children and volunteered at the Kids Café Program in Manchester where after school she tutored and mentored children. In 2002, she received the Salvation Army’s “Making A Difference Award” for these activities. During her twenties, she went on to become an award-winning schoolteacher and in 2010 received the Excellence in Jewish Education award from The Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Additionally, Amanda became a certified Kripalu and Jivamukti yoga teacher. Today, Amanda owns and operates a vegan ice cream business: Ms. Amanda’s Compassionate Ice Cream (which promotes animal welfare and feminism, in addition to deliciousness). Her business and yoga classes are both avenues which she has used to educate and encourage people to get involved in progressive social change.
Amanda has a bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College where she studied Political Science, Women’s Studies and Modern American History. While at Hampshire, she worked for the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program and played an instrumental role in organizing the annual conference and delegation to the March for Women’s Lives. She went on to get her master’s of education from UMass Amherst. After graduation, she worked as a social-studies teacher for three years at an Orthodox Jewish day school in Longmeadow, Mass.
Amanda teaches yoga fundraisers for causes she believes in including recently teaching a class to benefit refugees in need of legal services at the U.S. Mexican border. Additionally, she has taught benefits for domestic-violence prevention and organized free classes with childcare for single mothers. Amanda also loves bringing her son Isaac to demonstrations for progressive causes as a means to introduce him to peaceful ways to make the world a better place. Amanda is grateful to be serving her community through her local business, teaching yoga, and mindfully parenting her five-year-old. She hopes to continue her work of empowering women, children, and minorities as a state representative come November.