2025 UCRJ Steering Committee
Samantha Auerbach, PhD, WHNP-BC
Sam (she/her) 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.
Nicole Frydman
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.
Cloydia Hill Larimore
Retired – VP of Advancement
Cunningham Children’s Home
Cloydia (she/her) has been advocating for women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive justice since her undergraduate, pre-Roe v Wade days at the University of Illinois. She continues this advocacy and work on other social justice issues in her retirement. Cloydia is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana- Champaign where she serves on the Reproductive Justice Committee. She volunteers with Families of Resilience, First Followers Champaign, the League of Women Voters of Champaign County, and is a Certified Celebrant.
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.
Aleya Justison
CD(DONA)
CUPHD
Aleya (she/they) found her passion for reproduction justice in undergrad while researching and advocating for policies that advance Black infant and maternal health outcomes. She is a Certified Doula through DONA International and has worked as a community-based doula with the GREAT Start Prevention Initiative for the past year and a half. Aleya earned their Bachelor of Social Work and Honors Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics & the Public from Xavier University in 2023. Currently, they are pursuing their master's degree in social work as well as their Certified Lactation Counselor credential. She hopes to continue to create safe, informed spaces for birthing individuals and their families, especially those who are at the highest risk of experiencing healthcare discrimination and obstetric violence.
Jeannie Ludlow
Professor
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Jeannie Ludlow, Ph.D., is Professor of English and director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Eastern Illinois University where she teaches feminist and queer theories, reproductive justice, and American literatures by women and BIPOC authors. In gratitude to everyone who helped her have a positive, healing, and legal abortion experience, Jeannie has worked as an abortion patient advocate and peer counselor at multiple clinics since 1996. Jeannie’s scholarship applies what she’s learned in clinics to literary, artistic, and popular culture expressions of abortion and abortion stigmatization. She is also on the Board of the Abortion Conversation Projects, a national organization that promotes and supports open, honest, and sometimes difficult conversations about abortion and reproductive justice.
Stacey McKeever
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.
Apporva Nag
Graduate student in Social Work
Apoorva Nag (she/her) is pursuing her PhD in Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on improving how survivors of gender-based violence seek help from various formal and informal response systems, through a reproductive justice framework. Through her work, she aims to support the community of Urbana-Champaign to develop coordinated and integrated survivor-centered response systems that can address their intersectional needs.
Isis Rose
MA, CLC
Student midwife and doula
Isis has been involved in birth work since 2016. In 2019, Isis received a masters in sociocultural anthropology with a special focus on gender and sexuality studies from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Isis is a mother of 2 and an advocate for better pregnancy outcomes and birthing experiences. Isis has served families as a full-spectrum doula, birth assistant, lactation counselor, and childbirth educator. Isis has supported birth justice initiatives in Illinois through her work with BIPOC for Better Birth and Urbana Champaign Reproductive Justice. Isis pursued a career in midwifery after her daughter was safely born at home in 2018. She has trained with Indie Birth School of Midwifery and Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery while holding clinical apprenticeships with homebirth and birth center midwives. In pursuit of her certified professional midwife (CPM) credential, Isis provides culturally congruent care to those seeking physiological, low-intervention births. Isis is in her final year of clinical training and plans to be a certified and licensed independent practice midwife by Fall 2025.
Cache Merriweather
2024-2025 Intern
Clinical/Community Psychology &
Social Work
Cache (she/her) is a senior majoring in Clinical/Community Psychology with a minor in Social Work. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she plans to pursue a PhD in either Counseling or Clinical Psychology. Her research interests include mental health disparities amongst LGBTQ+ BIPOC students in higher education with an emphasis on intersectionality and the multiple minority stress model. She hopes to develop interventions/implementation strategies to better aid students of color in response to their unique mental health experiences within college clinical settings. Through working with UCRJ, Cache hopes to educate her peers, advocate for reproductive justice rights, and be part of a larger conversation about the adverse effects of the absence of accessible and comprehensive reproductive health and education.
Sydney Turner
2025 Spring Communications Intern
Psychology, Communications, & Gender and Women's Studies
Sydney Turner is a senior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Communication with a minor in Gender and Women's Studies, and Certificates in Distinguished Undergraduate Research and Leadership. On campus, she recently co-authored a referendum to expand abortion accessibility for students and authored a new version of the Campus Safety Notice email for sex crimes, delivered to the entire campus community via the Division of Public Safety. Off campus, she works on the staff and board of SafeBAE, the only youth-led national organization focused on sexual violence prevention for middle and high school students, and is the youngest board member of EducateUS, a national organization dedicated to advancing sex education. Through all of her endeavors, she seeks to articulate social justice advocacy through an artistic lens, and in the future, she plans to pursue a career in the legal field