JLG Presents: “Gender & the Body” Fall Conference
When: Friday, November 3rd
Where: Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East B
Time: 10:00am – 3:00pm
The conference is open to the public. Register now at www.bit.ly/jlg-conference!
Program
Reproductive Justice Advocacy in 2023
- Katie Kraschel: Professor Katherine (Katie) Kraschel, an expert on the intersection of reproduction, gender, bioethics and health policy, with a particular concentration on fertility care and reproductive technologies, holds an interdisciplinary appointment with the School of Law and Bouvé College of Health Sciences. Prior to joining the Northeastern faculty in 2023, she was a lecturer in law and the executive director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School, where she co-taught the Reproductive Rights and Justice Project Clinic.
- Anjali Salvador: Anjali (she/her) is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Public Policy Litigation & Law department of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Previously, as Policy Counsel at the National Institute for Reproductive Health she provided legal and policy guidance to advocates across the country, and as Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Texas she litigated reproductive rights, voting rights, and criminal justice cases. She began her legal career as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. In her spare time, she does volunteer work with young Texans who need reproductive health care through Jane’s Due Process, and she serves on the Board of Directors of the National Network of Abortion Funds.
- Clara Spera: Clara Spera is a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where she teaches Reproductive Rights Advocacy. She is also a Senior Associate at WilmerHale, where she focuses her pro bono practice on reproductive rights litigation and advising, family law, and criminal defense. At WilmerHale, she is part of a team challenging Ohio’s six-week abortion ban and, in partnership with the Abortion Defense Network, regularly advises clients facing legal challenges related to the provision of abortion care. Previously, Clara was a Pro Bono Fellow at the Federal Defenders of New York (Brooklyn) and an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union, Reproductive Freedom Project.
- Jaime Watson: Jaime Watson is Policy Counsel at Reproductive Equity Now where she develops legislative and administrative strategies to bolster access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care in New England. Prior to joining Reproductive Equity Now, Jaime served as the Director of Legislation and Policy for Massachusetts State Senator Becca Rausch where she led the Senator’s budget and legislative priorities and work of the Joint Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources. Prior to becoming an attorney, Jaime worked as a domestic violence legal advocate at a domestic violence shelter in her home state of Arizona and as a policy advocate where she led statewide advocacy efforts to address sexual and intimate partner violence. Jaime received a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law and holds dual Bachelor’s degrees in political science and women and gender studies from Arizona State University.
- Moderated by Glenn Cohen: Professor Cohen is one of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of bioethics (sometimes also called “medical ethics”) and the law, as well as health law. He also teaches civil procedure. He has advised the U.S. Vice President on reproductive rights, discussed medical AI policy with members of the Korean Congress, and lectured to legal, medical, and industry conferences around the world. Professor Cohen’s current projects relate to medical AI, mobile health and other health information technologies, abortion, reproduction/reproductive technology, the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs, research ethics, organ transplantation, rationing in law and medicine, health policy, FDA law, translational medicine, medical tourism and many other topics.
Gun Regulation and Domestic Violence in United States v. Rahimi
- Diane Rosenfeld (she/her): Diane L. Rosenfeld is the Founding Director of the Gender Violence Program and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Ms. Rosenfeld teaches courses on Title IX; Gender Violence, Law and Social Justice; and Theories of Sexual Coercion. She also has taught many reading groups, including Feminist Utopias; The Bonobo Sisterhood; Feminist Jurisprudence and the Common Law; and Prostitution. Rosenfeld’s research areas include Title IX and campus sexual assault prevention and response; prevention of intimate partner homicide; and addressing commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls. Her recent book The Bonobo Sisterhood: Revolution Through Female Alliance describes her current focus on creating a bonobo-inspired sisterhood among women to overcome patriarchal violence.
- Elizabeth (Liz) Tobin-Tyler (she/her): Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler, JD, MA, is Associate Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health and of Family Medicine and Medical Science at the Alpert Medical School. She teaches in the areas of health policy, health justice, public health law and ethics, and reproductive rights and justice. Her research and writing focus on the structural and legal determinants of health and health inequity, public health law and policy, reproductive justice and maternal and child health disparities, poverty and social safety nets, and interprofessional health justice education.
- Marianna Yang (she/her): As a clinical instructor at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center, Family Justice Clinic, Marianna supervises and trains law students in representing survivors of intimate partner violence in all areas of family law including divorce, paternity and child custody matters before the Probate and Family Courts and the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Under her supervision, students at FJC also provide representation in early defense and administrative appeal hearings in family regulation matters. Marianna was appointed as a Lecturer on Law in 2020 and co-teaches the Family Justice Seminar. Prior to joining the clinic, Marianna represented both plaintiffs and defendants in various fields including MassTorts (MDL) Litigation, litigation involving Class A railroad companies, and most recently, as a solo practitioner in Child Welfare and Domestic Relations litigation. She also served as a panel member and mentor in the CPCS Child and Family Law Division Trial Panel and in its Appellate Panel. She is a trained mediator and a member of the MA Collaborative Law Council.
- Moderated by Martha Minow (she/her): Martha Minow has taught at Harvard Law School since 1981, where her courses include civil procedure, constitutional law, fairness and privacy, family law, international criminal justice, jurisprudence, law and education, nonprofit organizations, and the public law workshop. An expert in human rights and advocacy for members of racial and religious minorities and for women, children, and persons with disabilities, she also writes and teaches about digital communications, democracy, privatization, military justice, and ethnic and religious conflict. Professor Minow served as Dean of the Law School from 2009 to 2017.
Transgender Youth Activism and Resistance
- Shaplaie Brooks (she/her): Shaplaie Brooks is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth. She has a wealth of experience working with children and families, including over 10 years in the child welfare system serving multiple states and 20 years in social services. She assisted in writing the Law Enforcement Guidelines for the BPD, has trained the DA’s office, several district courts, DCF, and other state agencies. She has been honored locally and nationally for her work on behalf of black, brown, and LGBTQ youth with multi system involvement. Shaplaie is a fervent advocate of serving the marginalized community within the marginalized community, and has worked with cisgender boys, transgender, and nonbinary youth who were at high risk and or victims of CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children). In 2021, Shaplaie Brooks collaborated with the Commission on a report exposing pervasive threats to safety, wellbeing, and permanency faced by LGBTQ and importantly QTBIPOC youth in the child welfare system and providing critical recommendations to the Department of Children and Families. Owner and Operator of Beyond DEI, LLC, Shaplaie has worked with countless nonprofits in the New England area over the last seven years, to help strategize, train, and shift the culture of organizations as it relates to diversity, equity, Inclusion, and belonging. She is also the Chairwoman of the NAACP’s New England Region LGBTQ Committee. Shaplaie continues to get into “Good Trouble” for our communities most vulnerable in both her personal and professional advocacy.
- Él Martinez (they/elle): Él is a student, community organizer, and public health worker based in Worcester, MA. Él’s activism career started at age 15, incited by their negative experiences as a transgender student of color in MA public schools. Since then, they have worked as a legislative advocate, non-profit ambassador, DEI consultant, and grassroots activist; organizing around topics of gender identity, mutual aid, harm reduction, sex-ed, and more. As they pursue their degree in Community, Youth, and Education studies at Clark University, Él continues their work in LGBTQ+ youth programs as the Adult Advisor for SWAGLY, a social support group of AIDS Project Worcester. In their spare time, Él enjoys contributing to local mutual aid groups, creating ceramic art, and watching horror movies.
- Zee Scout (she/her): Zee Scout is a Bertha Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville, where she was a member of the Lambda Legal Society and worked in the legal clinic on expungements and voter registration issues. She has clerked for the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee and the Knoxville County Public Defender’s Community Law Office. Prior to that, she was an investigative criminal justice reporter in the Southeast covering state and federal courts and incarceration issues.
- Alex Ames (any pronouns): Alex Ames is a student, organizer, social movement scholar, and founder of the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition. Currently, Alex is Directer of Student Organizing at the Partnership for Education & Equity Rights, supporting 17+ state coalitions of parents, educators, and students organizing for racially just school funding. They manage the Student Action Network for Equity as well, the largest funder of emergent student power-building nationwide. Alex cut their teeth organizing thousands of students in victorious campaigns for labor-allied student mental health infrastructure, stopping Don’t Say Gay, reversing school board gerrymandering, executing mass political education campaigns in 50+ school districts, defeating book bans and vouchers, building student power, and securing the largest public education budget in Georgia’s history. Alex lives and works in Atlanta.
- Moderated by Luna Floyd (they/them): Luna is a 3L at Harvard Law School pursuing a career in advocacy for LGBTQ+ children and youth. They have interned at many national LGBTQ+ organizations, including the ACLU LGBTQ+ & HIV Project, GLBTQ+ Advocates and Defenders, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. As a student, they have participated in Harvard’s Child Advocacy Clinic and LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic. After graduating, they will work as a fellow with Lambda Legal’s Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project, focusing on access to gender-affirming care for youth in foster care.