LSRJ Reproductive Justice Fellowship Program

Erin Armstrong

Erin Armstrong is serving as the RJ Fellow at the National Health Law Program (NHeLP). Erin holds a B.S. in Sociology and Social Welfare from the University of New Mexico and graduated from University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2011. Erin is a current board member and the immediate Past-President of the National LSRJ Board of Directors and also served throughout law school on the board of UC Berkeley’s LSRJ chapter. Before law school, Erin worked as the first Program Coordinator of the Society of Family Planning (SFP), a national membership organization that works to advance family planning research and education by providing evidence-based insight and funding to improve clinical care in the areas of contraception and abortion. Before joining SFP, she worked in drug policy reform in New Mexico and HIV/AIDS advocacy, both in the US and abroad, providing further familiarity with issues of sexual health and the struggle to prioritize science, social justice, and human rights in health policy. During law school, Erin was a legal intern at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a summer RJ Fellow at the SW Women’s Law Center, and a clinical student at the East Bay Community Law Center’s Medical-Legal Partnership.  She also sits on the board of the Pamoja Project and is a former board member (ex-officio) of NARAL California’s Privacy PAC.

Anjela Jenkins

Anjela Jenkins is serving as the RJ Fellow at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Born in Germany and raised in Panama and Texas, Anjela will graduate from the University of Texas in 2011 with a law degree and a Master of Arts in Government; she did her undergraduate work in International Development, Latin American Studies, and International Relations at Tulane University’s Newcomb College. While in law school, Anjela was involved with Law Students for Reproductive Justice, the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students Association, and Women’s Law Caucus. She was also a staff member on the Texas Hispanic Journal for Law and Policy and the Texas International Law Journal. She worked in the Human Rights Clinic and provided direct services at organizations including American Gateways and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. Anjela also interned in Judicial Chambers at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, located in Arusha, Tanzania. In 2008, Anjela was honored by the Texas Young Lawyers Association with its Minority Scholarship and was recognized by the University of Texas School of Law’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law as a Public Service Scholar in 2009.

Shivana Jorawar

Shivana Jorawar is serving as the RJ Fellow at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). In addition to being a legal advocate, Shivana is also a community organizer and artist. Shivana will graduate from Emory Law School in May 2011. At Emory, Shivana is Co-Chair of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, on the executive board of OUTLaw (Emory’s LGBTQ legal association), and has led service trips for the Emory Public Interest Committee. She has been a legal clerk at the New York State Division of Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. From 2006 to 2008, Shivana worked with Sakhi for South Asian Women, a non-profit dedicated to ending violence against women of South Asian origin, as an intern and then as a Volunteer Coordinator. In 2007, she cofounded Jahajee Sisters, a New York-based movement-building organization, led by Indo-Caribbean women, that seeks to foster women’s empowerment through dialogue, arts, leadership development and grassroots organizing. Shivana is a member of Sistersong, a women of color reproductive justice collective, and volunteers with the Atlanta-based organization SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW. She is a classical Indian dancer and a spoken word poet, who seeks to use her art to illuminate women’s trauma and resilience. Shivana holds a B.A. in Political Science from Fordham University.

Lorena Marez

Lorena Marez is serving as the RJ Fellow at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). Lorena will graduate from Northeastern University School of Law in May 2011. At Northeastern, Lorena is on the Executive Board of the Student Bar Association, President of the Latin American Law Students Association (“LALSA”), and an active member of the Women’s Law Caucus (‘WLC”). Under her leadership, LALSA created the first Lawyering for Spanish Speaking Clients class ever offered at Northeastern and in conjunction with the WLC created Love Your Body Week, a week dedicated to the celebration and education of women’s health issues.  At the 2011 Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition, Lorena was a member of the 4^th best overall team.  She has completed co-ops with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Greater Boston Legal Services, and MALDEF.  In the spring of 2011, Lorena will co-op with the Brennan Center for Justice, Democracy unit. Lorena received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder where she served as a Campaign Director for the Colorado Public Interest and Research Group and was a student instructor for the Chancellor’s Leadership and Residential Academic Program. In the summer of 2003, Lorena taught Health and English in rural Dominican Republic with Amigos De Las Americas. After college, she worked as a Community Organizer in New York City with The Good Old Lower East Side, Inc., where she counseled affordable housing tenants, helped to organize tenants associations, advocated for clients in housing court, and taught monthly housing law workshops.  She was chosen to participate in the Transformative Organizing Initiative Fellowship Program, which selects approximately 25 grass-roots organizers nation-wide for leadership training and professional development.

Keely Monroe

Keely Monroe is servingas the RJ Fellow at the National Women’s Health Network.  Keely will receive her J.D. from University of California Hastings College of the Law (Hastings) in May 2011.  At Hastings, Keely served as the Community Outreach Organizer and then President of Law Students for Reproductive Justice. As an intern at the LSRJ National Office, Keely launched the “Reaching and Recruiting Law Students of Color for RJ Advocacy” Initiative, which is now in Phase 3. In law school, Keely was also the Executive Symposium Editor of Hastings Women’s Law Journal, where she oversaw a symposium on the intersection of medicine and the law regarding hormone therapy, and actively participated in student government as the 3L class President.  Since entering law school, Keely has been heavily involved with regional reproductive justice organizations and has particular interest in the implications that healthcare reform has on reproductive healthcare access.  Keely received a B.A. in Communications from Fordham University.  Since that time, she has possessed a strong commitment to public service and social justice issues, and she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central America where she taught sexual health education to at-risk youth.

Lucy Panza

Lucy Panza is serving as the RJ Fellow at the Center for American Progress, Women’s Health & Rights Program.  Lucy earned her B.A. from New York University in 2006 and will earn her J.D. from Georgetown Law School in May 2011.  Before law school, Lucy served as the sole paralegal in the Equal Employment Opportunity Project at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs, where she conducted roughly fifty monthly employment discrimination intakes and assisted with civil rights litigation support.  Because of her work at the Lawyers’ Committee, Lucy was awarded a Public Interest Law Scholarship at Georgetown for her commitment to social justice work.  During law school, she specialized in Latina reproductive justice issues, particularly at the intersection of immigration reform.  She interned at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, where she advocated for immigrant-inclusive policies in health reform implementation; at Ayuda, Inc., where she conducted domestic violence intakes and assisted immigrant Latina clients with their civil protection orders in D.C. Superior Court; and at the National Partnership for Women and Families, where she researched judicial bypass statutes impeding minors’ access to abortion care.  Lucy honed her political and legislative skills during law school by interning for two Senate Committees and participating in the Georgetown Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic.  Her article, The (Un)Holy Trinity: Unconscionable Contracts between Latinas and the Family, Religion, and the State was published in the Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives, where she also served as Managing Editor.  Lucy led her LSRJ chapter as Advocacy Chair in her 2L year and as Co-President in her 3L year, where she helped launch a campaign to overturn Georgetown’s ban on contraception coverage in student health insurance. Lucy is also a resident blogger on LSRJ’s RepoRepro Blog.

Marisa Spalding

Marisa “Mimi” Spalding is serving as the RJ Fellow at the Black Women’s Health Imperative.  Marisa received her B.S. in Family Studies and Human Development with a minor in African American Studies from the University of Arizona (Arizona) in 2006.  Continuing her studies in Arizona, Marisa pursued a M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health from the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.  As a graduate student, Marisa was a Maternal and Child Health training fellow under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Title V block grant.  She implemented a research project that assessed the efficacy of a screening instrument to detect students at risk for Usher Syndrome in the deaf and hard-of-hearing population.  Marisa contributed to three web-based continuing education courses that focus on alcohol and tobacco cessation during pregnancy, and the effects of alcohol and tobacco exposure on infants and children.  She also undertook an extensive internship project where she researched maternal and child health issues in Southern Arizona and developed a child-based program to supplement the CenteringPregnancy® program offered through the Mobile Health Program in the College of Medicine.  Marisa continued at Arizona and will receive her J.D. in May 2011 from the James E. Rogers College of Law, where she was on the Arizona Law Review, and an active member of both the Black Law Students Association and the Students of Arizona Health Law Organization.  During law school, Marisa has interned for the Civil Rights Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, spent a semester as a Diversity Writing Fellow at Quarles and Brady, clerked for the Honorable Hector Campoy in the Pima County Juvenile Court, and represented low-income clients in family law cases—including dependency, divorce, and domestic violence actions—through the Child and Family Law Clinic.

Rebecca Spence

Rebecca Spence is serving as the RJ Fellow at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF). Rebecca graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 2010, where she was a Leadership Scholar and a Global Health Fellow. She is currently a law clerk to the Honorable Liam O’Grady in the Eastern District of Virginia. Rebecca earned her undergraduate degree in religion and women’s studies at Vassar College and holds an MPH from the University of Virginia, focused in Law, Policy, and Ethics. Her interests fall at the intersection of protecting individual rights and promoting population health, particularly for vulnerable populations such as adolescents, pregnant and parenting women, low-income communities, and people living with HIV. During law school she founded and led the Maryland Law Students for Reproductive Justice and  worked as a part of the Human Rights and Law team at the United Nations Joint Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland. She serves on the Steering Committee of The Big Push for Midwives Campaign, a national effort promoting legalization and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) and has represented the interests of pregnant women recovering from addiction as a student attorney in her law school’s Drug Policy Clinic. Prior to law school, she  worked with HIV positive adolescents in Uganda, conducted policy research for the Virginia Commission on Mental Health Law Reform and was an organizer for a small nonprofit coalition focused on early childhood health and education in central Virginia.