![[logo] National Network of Abortion Funds](https://staging.abortionfunds.org/cms/assets/uploads/2016/08/logo-shadow-375px.png){kind=logo}
As our team grows, we know our vision to fund abortion and build power is that much closer to reality!
Since 2015 we have been building a team to support abortion funds and drive an expanded mission and political and cultural agenda. The growth of our team helps us ensure member organizations have the support they need to fund abortion and build power. We now have 30 staff in 12 states, and every staff member contributes to the strength of our network by cultivating deep community ties with their local abortion funds. Our policy agenda in particular is derived both from the barriers faced by people who have abortions and from member organizations, but also comes from the the fact that our staff brings additional racial, economic, and gender diversity to the abortion access movement.
Welcome new Policy Director, Melissa Torres-Montoya! Melissa is a sexual and reproductive justice advocate who has spent the past four years advancing policies to better include and meet the needs of women living with HIV. Melissa is a native Californian and proud graduate of the University of California at Davis and Berkeley, earning her J.D. from the U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 2011. She is admitted to practice law in the state of Maryland. She also received a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University. At U.C. Berkeley School of Law, she served on the boards of the Law Students for Reproductive Justice and La Raza Student Association. She also served as the outreach coordinator for Boalt Hall Women’s Association where she coordinated the first women’s health fair for law students and faculty at Boalt. The Boalt Hall Women’s Association also awarded her a Herma Hill Kaye Summer Fellowship for her summer internship dedicated to improving the health of women through the law. Melissa spent the year following her graduate education as a Law Student for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ) public policy and legal fellow at the National Women’s Health Network working to increase women’s access to quality and affordable health care. She is an avid reader, cook, and dog lover.
Welcome new Operations Director, Jess Kane! Jess has dedicated her career to creating access to compassionate health care. She spent the last 16 years at Chicago Women’s Health Center, growing deep roots in feminist health care delivery models that practice humanity and love. This foundation continues to inform and shape her approach to her work today. Jess brings over ten years experience overseeing the daily operations of the entire organization and clinic. As the Director, Jess led the organization through significant change and growth, including the expansion to provide primary care, the evolution to become trans inclusive, the clinic’s first relocation in over 30 years, and the design and implementation of a strategic response to health care reform. Jess enjoys implementing and managing the business and operational systems needed to increase organizational capacity and effectiveness while upholding the values and missions of radical organizations, and supporting a collaborative work culture. She was selected as a Chicago Community Trust Leader Fellow in 2015. Jess also enjoys getting out of her head by practicing and teaching Iyengar Yoga.
Rachel Todd is a Buffalo, NY native joining NNAF as our new bookkeeper. Although she has an English degree from the University at Buffalo and has also been a TV news writer, radio host, and worked in a pharmacology lab, she has spent the last 3 years providing bookkeeping and consulting services to nonprofits and small businesses in the Buffalo area, and the last 5 years managing grassroots development & income strategies for a small environmental justice organization. Through this, she has developed a passion for helping groups doing radical work navigate the non-profit industrial complex. She is also deeply involved with her local Planned Parenthood affiliate, and serves on the steering committee for their ambassadors’ program. In her free time, she’s an ardent lover of books, the outdoors, cooking, her pets, and a good ol’ fashioned Netflix binge.
Amanda Hagg joins the staff of NNAF as the new Development Associate. Amanda has been a donor and fundraiser for reproductive, racial, and economic justice in Philadelphia since 2015. Exhilarated by the collective impact of all those gifts small and large, she boosts the importance of activating folks across economic levels to grow the base. Amanda attended her first (of many!) Summit as a dedicated activist team member for Philly’s Women’s Medical Fund. She’s excited to facilitate the first race and class justice training of the white accomplices and grow the learning culture of the WMF Philly A-Team.
Megan Pietruszka joins the staff at NNAF as Data Systems Manager. Megan is a certified Salesforce Administrator and Sales Cloud Consultant joining NNAF from tech startup LevelUp. She co-leads the Boston, MA Women in Tech Salesforce User Group, and volunteers at the EMA Fund, whom she thanks for exposing her to the Network and reproductive justice framework. She feels honored to have attended this past year’s Summit in Phoenix and incredibly inspired by the work of all the member funds to fund abortion and build power. You can catch her outside of work cooking, attempting to stay active, or occasionally making her own furniture.
Jazmine Walker has been been a part of NNAF as Southern Funds Contractor, and recently moved into the permanent role of Organizational Development Manager as part of the Membership Department. Jazmine specializes in reproductive justice and solidarity economy movements. Her public scholarship and activism is rooted in people driven social and political movements that are accessible and appealing to the communities we work, love, and live. In her spare time, she is the co-creator, -producer, and -host of a weekly podcast called The Black Joy Mixtape that centers Black joy, liberation, & femmes as it tackles weekly headlines through comedy and sisterhood. She excels in technical assistance, supports local philanthropy & food systems, and creates reproductive justice organizing strategies. She resides in Washington, D.C. and is from Jackson, Mississippi.
We are bidding farewell and wishing great success to Maanav Thakore from the position of Deputy Director as he returns to train people in the movement and beyond on racial justice and organizational development. We are not seeking to fill the position of Deputy Director and do not have additional searches open at this time.
Announcing New Board Leadership! We bid farewell to outgoing board members, Veronica Bayetti Flores, Eesha Pandit and Shanelle Matthews. We are excited to announce the current Board of Directors:
Poonam Dreyfus-Pai, Board Chair (All-Options)
Poonam Dreyfus-Pai is proud to serve as the new Board Chair of the National Network of Abortion Funds. A Bay Area transplant, she was raised in New Jersey within a vibrant and loving community of Indian immigrants. In her full-time work, she happily serves as the Deputy Director at All-Options, where she creates systems and processes to support the staff and volunteers in designing and evaluating programs that offer unconditional, judgment-free support for their clients’ reproductive decisions. Her previous work includes facilitation and program evaluation as an independent consultant, program design and coaching at CoreAlign, researching abortion stigma at ANSIRH, and co-leading the Bay Area Doula Project. She served on the Board of Access Women’s Health Justice from 2014-2017. She is currently a member of Rockwood Leadership Institute’s Fellowship for Leaders in Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice, and in 2015 was featured in San Francisco Magazine’s Women in Power issue for her reproductive movement work. She earned her Masters in Public Health and Masters in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Poonam makes her home in Oakland, where she spends her free time feeding, playing music with, and endlessly photographing her little family.
Maureen Stutzman, Board Vice Chair (formerly NYAAF)
Maureen Stutzman is a second-year law student at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Maureen co-leads the Berkeley chapter of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice and the Reproductive Justice Project, a student-initiated legal services project in which students conduct legal research to support the work of reproductive justice advocates. Prior to law school, Maureen was the Public Policy Manager at Physicians for Reproductive Health, coordinating all state and local level policy and advocacy activities. Maureen served for six years on the board of directors of the New York Abortion Access Fund, as both Volunteer Coordinator and Co-Chair.
Kamyon Connor, Treasurer (Texas Equal Access Fund)
Kamyon Conner currently serves as the Intake Coordinator of the Texas Equal Access Fund, an NNAF member Fund located in the Dallas- Fort Worth metroplex. She has worked as an intake volunteer for the Texas Equal Access Fund since 2007 and is a member of their board of directors. She serves as the Co-Chair gor OUTreach Denton, a Denton based youth program dor LGBTQ+ identified teens. She works as a social worker at a non-profit agency in Denton, Texas. She received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Texas in Arlington and her undergraduate degree in social work from the University of North Texas. She is an advocate for human rights and reproductive justice.
Daphne Mazuz, Secretary (Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund)
Daphne Mazuz is a board member with the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund and has served the organization since 2011 as an intake volunteer, external relations team member, and Triathlon fundraiser chair. She holds a master’s of public health from Boston University in epidemiology and social/behavioral sciences. Daphne works at the Centering Healthcare Institute as a Practice Services Manager, supporting healthcare providers in implementing a model of patient-centered healthcare delivered in a group setting. During her graduate studies she worked on community health needs assessments for public housing residents and people living with HIV, and supported a Healthy Start site in efforts to reduce racial disparities in birth outcomes. Previously, Daphne served as a development consultant for Provide (formerly the Abortion Access Project), spent seven years in alumni affairs, development, and communications at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She lives outside Boston with her partner, an ever-growing number of cats, and a speckled dog.
Nancy Starner (Preterm, Inc.)
Nancy Starner is the Director of Development and Communications at Preterm in Cleveland, Ohio. Preterm’s clinic-based abortion fund, the Preterm Access Fund, is a member of the National Network of Abortion Funds. Previously, Nancy served as the board chair/pro bono Executive Director of Ohio’s statewide abortion fund, Women Have Options. She also currently serves on the board of directors for URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity. Previously, she has served on the board of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and was a 2011 Ohio Political Leaders Fellow at the Center for Progressive Leadership. She has also served as the Ohio Regional Coordinator for Raising Women’s Voices, a national initiative that ensures that women’s issues are addressed in health care reform. Before full-time reproductive rights activism, she had a corporate career as an editor and project manager at McGraw-Hill. Nancy holds a BA in political economy and an MBA, both from Tulane University.
Oriaku Njoku (Access Reproductive Care-Southeast)
Oriaku Njoku, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Access Reproductive Care – Southeast, works at the intersection of abortion access and reproductive justice. Currently, she supports Southerners in navigating pathways to accessing safe, affordable, and compassionate abortion care through funding, practical support, and base building. She truly believes that we can and will create a cultural shift around how we talk about abortion in the South and invites you to join her in making reproductive justice a reality.
Katherine McGuinness (Network for Reproductive Options)
Katherine McGuiness has spent the last years working at the intersections of public health, social justice and social change. She is currently Board President of the Network for Reproductive Options (NRO), working to fund abortion and build power in Oregon and Idaho. She holds Masters Degrees in Public Health and Social Work from Portland State University. She has worked in engagement, program and policy work in the fields of sexual health, domestic and sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, and immunizations. She currently works for the state public health department, working with communities to create systems, policies, and practices to reduce breast and cervical cancer disparities. Katherine moved to the United States from Latin America as an adolescent, enjoys thinking about organizational development as a tool for social change, and will never turn down a chance to go swimming.
We are also grateful to our individual members, fund leaders, supporters, donors, and funders for making it necessary and possible for NNAF to grow to meet its intersectional mission, vision, and values. This support means that we can work harder than ever, build a monumental base that cannot be ignored or denied, to make abortion access more than legal, a true reality for all people who need it, regardless of race, gender, zip code, or income.
