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2023-24 UCRJ Steering Committee

Samantha Auerbach, PhD, WHNP-BC

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Sam (she/hers) is a sexual and reproductive health Nurse Practitioner with clinical experience in contraceptive and abortion care. She is currently the ACTIONS postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, where her research focuses on upholding reproductive autonomy by supporting abortion and contraceptive decision-making in the context of increasingly restricted avenues to care, and working to increase the availability of nurses in abortion care. She is committed to championing reproductive justice in our community, and aims to highlight the various ways in which this movement intersects with other movements for justice, including racial justice, environmental justice, immigration justice, and more.

Rev. Sally Fritsche

Associate Minister

Unitarian Church of Urbana-Champaign

Rev. Sally Fritsche is a Unitarian Universalist minister, ordained in June 2020, and serving a congregation in Urbana, IL. Her faith calls her to honor the dignity and autonomy of all people, which means fighting for universal access to birth control, comprehensive sex education, and abortion care. She is grateful to be surrounded by other community leaders and people of faith in this vital effort to defend reproductive justice in all its forms.

Nicole Frydman

Director of Operations

Uniting Pride

Nicole Frydman (she/they) started her activism journey at a young age, going with Mom to picket lines, rallies, and protests, and to knock doors for worthy candidates. Inspired by those experiences, they started a group at her junior high school called "Kids Who Care" and hasn't stopped this kind of work since. Nicole firmly believes bodily autonomy should be sacrosanct. They also know that Reproductive Justice is interwoven and intersectional. It cannot and should not be separated from the ongoing work all marginalized communities are doing in the fight for freedom and equality. Stripping these rights away is just one more tool to keep power concentrated in one place with one group, and Nicole will do everything in her power to fight that. They're grateful to be invited to do this work with this program and with these incredible people.

Tuyet Mai Hoang

Assistant Professor

School of Social Work

Dr. Tuyet Mai Hoang’s research focuses on the intersection between perinatal mental health and the navigation of reproductive and contraception services using community-engaged and patient-centered approaches. Her research agenda aims to increase culturally sensitive services and reduce racial mistreatment for People of Color in seeking reproductive services. As a Woman of Color, mother, and first-generation student, Dr. Hoang’s overarching research goal is to address systematic health disparities by improving delivery of and access to culturally responsive reproductive and contraception services for People of Color.

Stacey McKeever

Regional Dir. of Operations

Planned Parenthood of Illinois

Stacey McKeever (she/her) is Regional Director of Clinical Operations at Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL), where she directs PPIL's central and southern Illinois health centers, as well as its telehealth program.  Stacey has over two decades of experience in non-profit program management, with a strong background in the healthcare and higher education sectors.  

Isis Rose (she/her)

Co-Founder/Exec. Director

BIPOC for Better Birth

Isis is a student midwife, doula, lactation counselor, and anthropologist. After researching birth justice in graduate school and planning home births, Isis became a passionate supporter of midwifery and out-of-hospital-birth. She currently studies at Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery with plans to become a licensed, certified professional midwife.

Karen Tabb Dina

Professor

School of Social Work

Dr. Karen Tabb Dina’s current research agenda focuses on identifying risk factors for morbidity and mortality among perinatal women and clinical factors to improve minority health. Dr. Tabb Dina is also an expert collaborator for the Global Burden of Disease Study where she assists in estimating population morbidity and mortality for 188 countries. 

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