It Takes a Village . . . To Work for Women's Rights
NOW National Action Center Staff Profiles
by Lisa Bennett-Haigney, Publications Manager
NOW
Action Center staffers and organizers on the Lesbian Rights Summit local
organizing committee. Clockwise from top to left: Angela Arboleda, Cindy
Jordan, Jonathan Darr and Bonnie Rice.
We want you to get to know the people who work here at the National
NOW Action Center, what they do and how it fits into the big picture,
and maybe even a little about why they're here. So we've started the "It
Takes a Village" series. Each installment will focus on one event, campaign
or action and feature staffers who are working to make that project a success.
Everyone in the NOW Action Center is involved in the Lesbian Rights Summit.
We've profiled a few of the Action Center staff members working on the
Summit as part of their regular duties and volunteering on the local organizing
committee, which is challenged with ensuring the Summit runs smoothly.
Angela Arboleda, Field Organizer
Angela spearheads NOW's Women-Friendly
Workplace and Campus Campaign, works on reproductive
rights issues and also coordinates the Wednesday night activist liaison
calls to chapters. She became a feminist as a child and despite her
parents' traditional Colombian roots, her family embraced feminist ideals
and encouraged Angela's fight for equality. After having been a feminist
leader on campus and an organizer for the labor movement and the Feminist
Majority, Angela joined the NOW staff in October 1998. Angela hopes
to go back home to Colombia someday, get involved in politics and rekindle
the feminist movement in her country.
Jonathan Darr, Production and Product Coordinator
Jonathan is responsible for the printing and mailing of NOW materials designed
to bring in members and donations. He also works on marketing research
aimed at matching NOW with new fundraising opportunities. Before moving
to Washington, D.C., to pursue full-time feminist work, Jonathan worked
as an editor, proofreader and Internet marketer. An avid reader of feminist
and LGBT books and magazines, he enjoys great conversation, foreign films,
any book by bell hooks and 70's funk music. Jonathan plans on becoming
more involved in the men's movement to end violence against women and the
LGBT labor movement.
Cindy Jordan, Field Organizer - Lesbian
Rights and Conferences
Cindy is currently the lead organizer of the Lesbian
Rights Summit. When not planning a conference, Cindy works on current
issues and legislation facing the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT)
community. Last fall Cindy traveled to San Diego where she worked on the
Christine Kehoe for Congress and Barbara Boxer for Senate campaigns. In
addition to LGBT concerns, Cindy also works on Title IX. Before joining
NOW's Action Center staff in June of 1998, Cindy worked as a police officer
in Montgomery County, Md., for five years. In her free time she plays fly-half
for the Northern Virginia Women's Rugby Club.
Action
Center staff member and Lesbian Rights Summit organizers, pictured left
to right: Loretta Kane, Vanessa Salinas, Sarah Rabin and AnnMarie Walker.
Loretta Kane, Public Relations Director
Loretta is responsible for all aspects of NOW's media relations and development,
such as responding to inquiries from the press, scheduling interviews with
the officers and placing editorials in news outlets nationwide. She is
a past president of Capital City NOW, a chapter in which she is still active,
and is also a full-time student studying computer information systems.
Before joining NOW's staff in 1988, Loretta volunteered at NOW and was
a market trainer for a Fortune
500 company. Born in the Bronx, Loretta is now a devoted Washingtonian
who is committed to the struggle for D.C. Statehood.
Sarah Erin Rabin, Special Projects Staff
Sarah covers many areas at NOW, but her specialties are global issues and
media access. Sarah
is working on the impact of free trade agreements on women, U.S. ratification
of CEDAW (the U.N. Convention for the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women), the World March
of Women 2000 and a project to gain public access to the new digital television
spectrum. An August 1998 graduate of the University of Florida, Sarah plans
to attend graduate school in the next year. She is from Miami, Fla., and
the oldest of three, soon to be four, children.
Bonnie E. Rice, Special Projects Coordinator
Bonnie works with organizations that request Patricia
Ireland as a speaker, and she assists with Ireland's correspondence.
Currently, Bonnie is arranging the campus speaking tour to hype the Lesbian
Rights Summit and looking for speakers, entertainers and authors to
appear at the Summit. She also monitors the Promise
Keepers and works with the NOW
Foundation on grant proposals and the Lilith Fair booth. After 21 years
as a military wife, Bonnie went to graduate school and concentrated on
women's studies. She came to NOW through the internship program and is
the proud mom of two lesbians.
Vanessa Salinas, Conference Manager / Field Organizer
-Racial & Ethnic Diversity
Vanessa came to the Action Center in January of 1997 as Conference Manager.
Her first project was organizing the 1997
Young Feminist Summit. Before moving to D.C., she served two terms
as the Colorado
NOW State Coordinator, facilitating clinic defense and the NOW Rally
during the Pope's 1995 visit to her state. She helped organize some of
the early protests against the Promise Keepers in Colorado. In 1998, Vanessa
was appointed to the Racial &
Ethnic Diversity position, and she now works on affirmative
action, welfare/economic justice and civil rights issues in addition
to conference planning.
AnnMarie E. Walker, Staff Accountant
AnnMarie is responsible for all aspects of NOW's account payables, preparing
daily cash flow reports and monthly revenue statements and assisting the
controller. She also reviews and verifies payroll, processes expense reports
for staff and board members and handles deposits for the membership department
and the store and products catalog. AnnMarie is originally from Jamaica
and lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her mother, sisters and brother before
coming to the Washington, D.C., area during Desert Storm. She is now in
her 11th year of serving in the Navy
Reserve and is also a volunteer mentor with Mentors, Inc.
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