Reproductive Freedom Lobby Day Speakers
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KNOW THE FACTS. BE INFORMED. Reproductive Freedom Lobby Day 2021 Speakers KEYNOTE SPEAKER RENEE BRACEY SHERMAN Renee Bracey Sherman is a reproductive justice activist, abortion storyteller, strategist, and writer. She is the founder and executive director of We Testify, an organization dedicated to the leadership and representation of people who have abortions and share their stories at the intersection of race, class, and gender identity. She is also an executive producer of Ours to Tell, an award-winning documentary elevating the voices of people who’ve had abortions. MEGAN PETERSON - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GENDER JUSTICE Megan J. Peterson joined Gender Justice in 2016, bringing her many years of experience in progressive social justice causes, primarily reproductive rights and justice. As Deputy Director for the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), Megan helped lead the organization through a period of significant growth and increased impact by expanding and strengthening its network of grassroots abortion funds and increasing its donor and foundation funding. Megan was instrumental in NNAF’s founding leadership in All* Above All, a national campaign to repeal the Hyde Amendment. Prior to her nine years with NNAF, Megan served as Director of Development and Communications for Pro-Choice Resources (now called Our Justice) in Minneapolis and as a patient advocate at Planned Parenthood in St. Paul. In college she worked with the National Organization for Women in Washington, DC, and the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (now called Legal Momentum). SHAYLA WALKER - VISION REALIZATION DIRECTOR, OUR JUSTICE Shayla is a Black Dominican American, surviving and thriving on Dakhóta + Anishinaabe land. She is a rare Twin Cities native because she loves Minneapolis just as much as she loves St. Paul. As the Vision Realization Advisor, she uses her leadership and organizing skills to advance the Our Justice mission to ensure that all people and communities have the power and resources to make sexual and reproductive health decisions with self-determination. In her free time, she practices pleasure liberation through engaging in humor, joyous deep belly laughs, twerking, bougie restaurant eating, napping, dream manifestation and car karaoke. ERIN MAYE QUADE - CAMPAIGN MANAGER, UNRESTRICT MN / ADVOCACY DIRECTOR, GENDER JUSTICE Erin Maye Quade is the Advocacy Director at Gender Justice, where she works to advance gender justice through public education, legislative outreach, strategic partnerships and coalition-building. Erin Maye Quade is a former Minnesota State Representative who was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016. There, she quickly established herself as a candid and fierce advocate for Minnesotans championing paid family leave; expanding access to affordable childcare; ending childhood hunger; eliminating gun violence; and investing in treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues. In 2018, Rep. Maye Quade founded the Childhood Hunger Caucus, a coalition of businesses, nonprofits and policymakers dedicated to ending childhood hunger in Minnesota. After legislation to prevent gun violence was stopped by Republican lawmakers, Rep. Maye Quade held a 24-hour sit-in on the House floor to protest Republican inaction on the issue and shared stories of victims and survivors of gun violence. In June 2018, Rep. Erin Maye Quade became the first LGBTQ person – and among the youngest – to be endorsed as the DFL candidate for Lt. Governor. CLAUDIA ZAVALA - FIELD ORGANIZER, UNRESTRICT MINNESOTA Claudia is the field organizer for UnRestrict Minnesota. Based out of the St. Cloud area, she works to educate, galvanize individuals, and build community around the issue of abortion care access and reproductive justice as a whole. In her past work she has organized for climate specific issues and for a handful of progressive campaigns. She is a regular volunteer with TakeAction Minnesota. MAGGIE MEYER - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NARAL PRO-CHOICE MINNESOTA Maggie Meyer brings a decade of experience in organizing, fundraising and development to her role as Executive Director at NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota. Before joining NARAL team in August of 2019, Maggie served as the Development Director at the Center for Economic Inclusion, helping to build the organization’s development infrastructure and manage program related events the first annual Powering Inclusion Summit in April 2019. Previously, Maggie served as the Finance Director for Erin Murphy’s campaign, building a fundraising program around the politics of joy. Prior to that, she was the Associate Director Women Winning, a multi-partisan political non-profit that works to elect pro-choice women candidates at every level of office, from Park Board to President of the United States. As Associate Director, Maggie led the Marketing, Development and Fundraising aspects of the organization. KRISTY WESSON Kristy Wesson is the Director of Communications and Programming and Courts Matter Minnesota lead for NCJW Minnesota. A Chicago native, Kristy and her family have lived in the Twin Cities for 17 years and will proudly declare the Minnesota State Fair as the best there is to anyone who inquires. She is honored to collaborate in the mission and work of UnRestrict Minnesota. Kristy loves her family and Beyonce (order depending on the day) and resides with them (her family, not Beyonce) in south Minneapolis. 2 LIZZ WINSTEAD As co-creator and former head writer of The Daily Show and co-founder of Air America Radio, comedian Lizz Winstead has helped changed the very landscape of how people get their news. Winstead is not only a writer and creator, she was also a correspondent on The Daily Show and co- hosted Unfiltered, Air America Radio's mid-morning show, with Chuck D and Rachel Maddow. Lizz continues doing stand-up, but spends most of her time at the helm of Abortion Access Front and Abortion Access Force, a NYC- based reproductive rights organization that she founded in 2015, which uses humor and outrage to expose anti-choice hypocrisy and mobilizes people to take action in all 50 states. Known as one of the top political satirists in America, Winstead has been recognized by all the major media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, O Magazine, and as Entertainment Weekly’s 100 Most Creative People. Winstead’s first book, Lizz Free Or Die: Essays, was released in 2012 to incredible reviews, with Ms. Magazine saying, “Lizz Winstead is a sharp- witted truth-teller, and Lizz Free or Die will inspire anyone who has ever talked back to the television or wished they could come up with satire as insightful as The Daily Show.” 3 .