2024 Workshops
FRIDAY, JULY 19th, 1:40 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET
Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pills in the US: A Movement-Driven Win and Next Steps for Equitable Access
After two-decades of building the evidence, partnerships, and broad support of bringing birth control pills over-the-counter (OTC) in the United States, we finally #FreedthePill! In July 2023 the first-ever OTC oral contraceptive, Opill, a progestin only pill, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Now the product is on shelves in stores nationwide and available online for people of all ages. Join this workshop to learn about the Free the Pill movement, the 200+ member coalition and public-facing campaign efforts that helped make OTC birth control pills a reality in the US. The panel will discuss the need for community and provider education about OTC birth control pills, including their safety, effectiveness, and appropriateness for people of all ages. Next objective for advocates: ensure affordable and equitable access for all.
Moderator and Presenter
Victoria Nichols – Project Director for Free the Pill Project at Ibis Reproductive Health
Presenters
Carmela Zuniga – Associate Research Scientist at Ibis Reproductive Health
Yevanit Reschechtko – Associate Communications Director at Ibis Reproductive Health
Lauren Schenk – Steering Committee Leader, #FreeThePill Youth Council
Now You See her, Now You Don’t: The Incredible Disappearing African American Woman
Women’s stories are often buried in history. This is especially true for African American women and even more accurate for transgendered women of color. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database, 600,000 people go missing in the US every year. People of color are approximately 34% to 52% of the missing, with a substantial share being African Americans — especially Black women. There is a stark racial divide in news coverage of missing African Americans and there is often scant coverage of missing Black women and children. Not only are African American women and girls physically missing but also their voices, their work and their contributions to society. Workshop panelists will unearth information about noteworthy but little-known African American women and trans women of color. The voices of those impacted will be raised and centered: find her name so you can say her name.
Moderator and Presenter
Katonya Hart – Action Vice President, West Virginia State NOW and a member of NOW’s National Board.
Presenters
Kasha McDaniels – Director of West Virginia Pride Foundation
Trevellya “Tee” Fordahmed, Ph.D. – An original Black Panther, Tee is the Communication/Media Board Director for the Athens, Ohio Mount Zion Black Culture Center and Professor Emerita in the College of Arts & Humanities at West Virginia State University.
Shanda Williams – Founder and Director of Money Matters Summit, an annual event that provides a platform for women to talk about money and new strategies that will help women get ahead while breaking glass ceilings. She is the owner of SD Communications and Marketing Consulting Group LLC. Shanda produces financial liberation programs and is committed to increasing equity opportunities for members of the BiPoC community while helping people heal from their financial trauma. She was awarded the 2023 Innovator of the Year by the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation. She is also active with An Economy of Our Own as a collaborator and program presenter and is active in several other organizations dedicated to advancing people of color.
Looking through the Feminist Prism to Understand our own Rainbow
A diverse panel of LGBTQIA+ BiPoC artists will discuss their relationship to feminism as experienced through various bodily and spiritual genders and partnering, as expressed through personal art and art intended for community engagement and advocacy. What makes one a woman (or not) and how does this experience inform one’s feminism? Panelists will also explore the revolutionary Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I A Woman” speech through the intersectional lens of intergenerational, multidisciplinary, cis, trans, gender non-conforming, straight, lesbian, and pansexual artists of color regarding their unique perspectives of queer identities in feminism. Each artist discusses the power of their identity, privilege, marginalization, and ultimate complexity through their expressive art, advocacy, and/or public engagement. The hope is to inspire a more intersectional NOW community and advocacy policies.
Moderator
Nichelle Rivers Ed.D. – Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources at Eastern Suffolk BOCES, Long Island; former President, Nassau County Alliance of Black School Educators.
Presenters
Anu Annam – Founder, Executive Director and Teaching Artist-SEA of Visibility and SEA of Visibility Integrated Arts Education (serves people who are low-income, disabled, BIPoC, Queer, Immigrant, mental health & neurodiverse), affiliations: Long Island Museum, Patchogue Arts Council), Director of Born this Way and Mosaic, Art Director for Gay And Lesbian Film Festival, a certified Trauma-Informed Teacher; Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, with artwork featured in many venues.
Denise Silva Dennis – Weetahmoe, (Shinnecock/ Hassanamisco-Nipmuc) is a Shinnecock Nation Elder, multidisciplinary artist and educator at Shinnecock Nation in Southampton, New York. MA degree, teacher in special education and art; currently the workshop coordinator and beadwork instructor at Ma’s, a ‘BIPoC art center, who represents and interprets her indigenous culture though life-sized figurative paintings, murals, beadwork, regalia and other artwork while visiting schools, museums and libraries.
Victoria Elizabeth Shields – A transgender artist and NY EMMY award winning photojournalist working for 26 years with major news organizations; collector of old cameras and images from the early 20th century.
Jane Olivia Remauro – a young millennial who performs under that name and originally under “Sentient Trash,” as a queer folk punk artist. She performed high energy original songs in the early 2010s when few spoke explicitly about transfeminine topics in toxic masculine rock and punk genres.
SATURDAY, July 20th, 1:40 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET
Ending Forced and Child Marriage in the US — State by State
Most people would be surprised to learn that child marriage is still legal in the majority of the States. Between 2000-2018, nearly 300,000 minors were married in the U.S. — most were underage girls wed to adult men. A panel of experts and activists fighting to end forced and child marriage will discuss their work to prevent this human rights abuse and shed light on the personal stories of those affected by the practice. We are told that sometimes parents use forced marriage as a form of ‘conversion therapy’ for an LGBTQIA+ child. Learn how marriage can easily be forced and what can be done to set the marriage age in the US at 18, with no exceptions. Unchained at Last is an activist-based organization that has had remarkable success in just a few years: 13 states have changed their laws to prohibit marriage of minors – thanks to grassroots pressure. The organization also leads the National Coalition to End Child Marriage as well as several state coalitions to end child marriage.
Moderator and Presenter
Fraidy Reiss – A survivor of forced marriage who, out of her traumatic experience, founded Unchained At Last where she is Executive Director. Fraidy was raised in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY and has been featured in books and films as well as interviewed in countless television, radio and print news stories. She is recognized as one of the foremost experts on the abuses of child and forced marriage and was featured in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s The Book of Gutsy Women.
Presenters
Tamara MC – is a cult, child marriage, and human trafficking Lived Experience Expert who advocates for girls and women to live free from gender-based violence worldwide. Her writing has been published extensively in outlets such as Ms. Magazine, The New York Times and Newsweek. Tamara was subjected to a forced spiritual marriage at the age of 12 and spent most of her childhood in a religious cult. Tamara’s background is both Jewish and Muslim. She was raised in the Sufi community.
Lisa Sales – Lisa is a former Chairwoman of the Fairfax County Commission for Women (CFW) and previous Mount Vernon District Commissioner. She is the current President of Virginia NOW. In early 2024 she led a coalition of survivors and activists to advocate for a bill to set the marriage age in Virginia at 18 with no exceptions. The bill was signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in April of 2024, making Virginia the 12th US state to end child marriage.
Becca Powell – Becca is the Director of Advocacy and Outreach for Unchained At Last. She leads the National Coalition to End Child Marriage as well as the state-level coalitions. Since joining Unchained At Last in 2021, she has successfully advocated for legislation to end child marriage in six states.
An Economy of Our Own: Tips and Tricks for a Feminist Future
It used to be “unladylike” for a woman to talk about money. But who said so? And why? Certainly, feminist activists would challenge that notion. This is why women need An Economy of Our Own and the funds to fuel our future. This workshop will talk about collaborating and creating successful fundraising opportunities that can benefit NOW Chapters. The discussion will be facilitated by the founder of Money Matters and the successful Philadelphia, PA NOW chapter. The workshop will be introduced by a short video presentation by Rickey Gard Diamond, prize-winning journalist, author of An Economy of Our Own and organizer of an advocacy organization of the same name, dedicated to flipping the scrip on a male-denominated economy and calling for broader prosperity. Together, we will fight for the future we want now!
Moderator and Presenter
Katonya Hart, Action Vice President, West Virginia State NOW and a member of NOW’s National Board.
Presenters
Shanda Williams – Founder and Director of Money Matters Summit, an annual event that provides a platform for women to talk about money and new strategies that will help women get ahead while breaking glass ceilings. She is the owner of SD Communications and Marketing Consulting Group LLC. Shanda produces financial liberation programs and is committed to increasing equity opportunities for members of the BiPoC community while helping people heal from their financial trauma. She was awarded the 2023 Innovator of the Year by the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation. She is also active with An Economy of Our Own as a collaborator and program presenter and is active in several other organizations dedicated to advancing people of color.
Vanessa Fields – President of Philadelphia NOW, a chapter that has successfully found resources to grow the organization and assist in improving the community they serve.
How Human Trafficking Prohibits Women from Participating in the Promise of Freedom and Democracy and What Women Can Do About It.
You are invited to participate in this workshop where you will gain knowledge on how to bolster resilience in the aftermath of the grim realities of human trafficking — encompassing sex, forced labor, organ harvesting, and debt bondage. Panelists have witnessed both human and labor trafficking occurring, but lacked training on the subject and were not able to respond appropriately. This workshop will reveal what you don’t know and to equip you with the information to become an advocate for anyone that you may run across that is trying to communicate with you their dire circumstance around human trafficking. The mission of the Women Against Human Trafficking in Philadelphia (#WAHTPhilly) is to bring consistent social media and exposure to human and sex trafficking as well as provide an avenue for females to learn how to prevent and/or protect themselves from becoming a victim. In addition, we provide on-line trainings that focus on women wellness solutions. The #WAHTPhilly platform (www.wahtusa.com) is designed to create an easier path for females to reach their goals and to come out of difficult circumstances via wellness, lifestyle, and business services.
Moderator
Annette Collier – Member of Women Against Human Trafficking, Vice President & DEI Chair Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors Policy Chair Philadelphia, Member of National Organization for Women, Philadelphia Executive Board NAACP Philadelphia, Housing Committee Chair Mayor of Philadelphia.
Presenter
Beverly Chandran, Ph.D. – Founder of Women Against Human Trafficking, whose organization (#WAHTPhilly) provides public awareness, education, self-defense training, and strategic marketing consulting service. Certified e-Learning Consultant, using these skills to conduct online training. In addition, she is the Executive Producer of The Bev Chandran Show© A Path Towards Purpose, Passion, and Solutions™ seen on cable TV which interviews community activists as well as small business leaders.
Understanding In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in light of the Alabama Ruling and Other Threats
The public was shocked when the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled in February that frozen embryos were to be recognized legally as children, implying that destruction of embryos would be tantamount to murder. In most cases, multiple embryos are created but often parents select one for implantation and remaining embryos are stored or ultimately disposed of. Following the legislature’s action, several in vitro (IVF) fertilization clinics paused services while parents, patients, doctors and lawmakers expressed concerns about far-reaching effects on health care and reproductive technology. The Alabama legislature hastily passed a new IVF law that extends criminal and civil immunity to IVF clinic operations. The legislation does not define when life begins, nor does it resolve all issues and a state constitutional amendment may be needed. Reproductive rights advocates see the Alabama court’s effort as part of a larger picture where abortion opponents aim to pass laws and constitutional amendments declaring that life begins at conception. The Southern Baptist Convention recently passed a resolution opposing IVF.
In this workshop, senior embryologists will provide accurate information about the current state of available IVF laboratory treatments. They will describe the various IVF procedures, explain current standards of care in the US, and answer questions regarding current fertility treatments. They will also counter misinformation that is being spread about the field. In the US infertility affects ~10% of the population, while 85 percent of the public expresses support of IVF.
Moderator and Presenter
Evelyn Neuber, Ph.D. – Evelyn received her degree in Reproductive Biology from Boston College. She also received her High-complexity Clinical Director (HCLD) certificate in 2005. Evelyn has worked in the field for 36 years and is a Senior Embryologist at a large CT fertility clinic. She served as the CT-State Co-Captain for Resolve/ASRM advocacy day in 2023 and Is the CT representative-at- large for the New England Fertility Society. In the early 1990’s she also served as the NOW co-chair of the Reproductive Rights committee for the Boston chapter
Presenter
Darlene Davies – Darlene has worked in many New England IVF Labs over the last 22 years and has a TS certification in embryology. She has presented and participated in many patient centered events like National Infertility Awareness Month and RESOLVE as well as many professional meetings. She has served as the embryologist at large for the New England Fertility Society from 2021-2023 and the member at large for The Society for Reproductive Biologists and Technologists (under ASRM) for the past three years.