The Social Justice Practitioner-in-Residence program brings to the Five Colleges individuals with experience shaping or creating public policy. While the program does not limit the field in which residents have worked, residents’ endeavors must be focused on policies that advance social justice.

2013 Residency Series

Spring

N.B. Sarojini is the founder and director of the Sama Resource Group for Women and Health, a New Delhi-based nonprofit that conducts action research and promotes appropriate health policies around issues ranging from population growth to malaria treatment during pregnancy. Sarojini has been advocating for women’s rights and their health care for more than 18 years. As Sama’s director, she has coordinated national research studies concerning the potential impacts on women of reproductive and medical technologies, the implications of the two-child norm for marginalized communities, and alternative systems of medicine. In her role as activist, she has campaigned against population control policies and the unethical implementation of HPV vaccine “demonstration projects” in tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh. Sarojini also serves on the steering committee for India’s Health Care Planning Commission, is a joint convener of India’s chapter of the People’s Health Movement, and is an organizing committee member of India’s National Bioethics Conference. She consults with numerous national and international organizations, including the Save the Children Fund (UK). Sarojini is the co-author of the book Touch Me, Touch Me Not: Women, Plants and Healing. For a full schedule of events during Sarojini's residency, click here.

Fall

Tina Reynolds is the co-founder and executive director of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), a nonprofit organization in New York City that works with currently and formerly incarcerated women to confront barriers they and their families face during and after prison. Through organizing, leadership development, mentoring and mutual support, WORTH transforms the lives of women affected by incarceration and works to change public perceptions and policy. Reynolds and WORTH have been instrumental in passing state legislation that protects the rights of incarcerated women, and recently launched a national campaign called Birthing Behind Bars to address broad issues of reproductive justice in prisons. Reynolds speaks widely on the role of storytelling in promoting social change, the use of direct action to impact public policy, prisons as tools of reproductive justice, and the abolition of prisons. She is the co-author of Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the U.S., and holds a master of social work from Hunter College.

Fall

Pete Tridish is a nationally recognized media and public interest activist. As founder of the Prometheus Radio Project, Tridish has been at the center of many battles to democratize local media markets and keep U.S. and global airwaves free and accessible to the public. These battles include demonstrations against the Federal Communications Commission and policy advocacy that eventually led to the 2010 passage of the Local Community Radio Act, allowing operation of low-power radio stations across the country. Tridish has organized “radio barn raising” gatherings in the U.S. and offered radio trainings in countries as diverse as Guatemala and Tanzania. His technical knowledge about radio broadcasting has contributed to his advocacy work, documenting the lack of interference by low-power radio waves for commercial broadcasters. Tridish holds a B.A. in appropriate technology from Antioch College.

2012 Residency Series

Fall

Kim Gandy is currently vice president and general counsel of the Feminist Majority Foundation and served as president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 2001 to 2009. During her presidency, she led NOW’s campaigns on issues ranging from Supreme Court nominations to the rights of women and caregivers, and from Social Security reform to ending the war in Iraq. Gandy also led NOW’s 40th anniversary celebration, was a lead organizer for the March for Women’s Lives in 2004, created NOW’s Campus Action Network, fought to expand equal marriage rights and benefits for same-sex couples, and worked to improve the portrayal of women and girls in advertising and the media. In the legislative arena, Gandy helped draft two groundbreaking federal laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which gave women the right to a jury trial in sex discrimination and harassment cases; and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Gandy has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, and received her law degree from Loyola University in 1978.    For a full schedule of events during Gandy's residency, click here.

Spring

Nia Robinson is currently the environmental justice representative for SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. From 2006 to 2011, she served as director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, bringing the voices of low-income communities, people of color and indigenous communities to the debate over national climate policy. She is the co-author of A Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming and a Just Climate Policy in the U.S. Robinson also has worked as part of the National Wildlife Federation’s Earth Tomorrow program and served as an organizer for the Service Employees International Union. For a full schedule of events during Robinson's residency, click here.

2014 Residency Series

Spring

Chai Feldblum is a commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December 2010. Feldblum’s lifelong commitment to civil rights is reflected in many of our laws today: She is credited with drafting the Americans with Disabilities Act and portions of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (which, if passed, would make discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identify illegal), and has written and advocated for numerous other laws that protect U.S. civil liberties. At Georgetown University, she founded their Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic and also founded and co-directed Workplace Flexibility 2010, a policy enterprise that works to improve flexible working conditions that benefit both employers and employees. She has worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, and is the first openly lesbian commissioner of the EEOC. She received her B.A. from Barnard College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.