| Advocates' Staff |
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Advocates' staff is a vibrant and diverse team of youth-serving professionals and youth activists. Staff come from a variety of backgrounds, including public health, law, social work, political science, international affairs, sociology, finance/administration and research, and are dedicated to improving adolescent reproductive and sexual health, securing young people’s rights, and realizing the Rights. Respect.Responsibility.® vision. Management Team
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Deb Hauser has been with Advocates for Youth for almost 20 years, first as Director of the Support Center for School-based Health Care, then as Executive Vice President. In January 2012, Deb became the organization’s fourth President and Executive Director, representing Advocates with the media, funders and colleagues organizations and speaking nationally and internationally about young people’s rights to honest sexual health information, confidential sexual health services and equitable social and economic opportunities. Deb’s areas of expertise include sex education, family planning and youth development. She is committed to a cascading style of leadership that promotes youth activists as change agents and leaders in the field. Before coming to Advocates, Deb served as Director of Community Health Services for the City of Atlantic City where she designed, implemented, and evaluated sexuality education, health promotion, teen pregnancy prevention, and teen parenting programs for an urban population. Early in her career, Deb served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, implementing child spacing, oral re-hydration, and childhood immunization programs. Deb holds a Masters of Public Health in Population Planning and International Health from the University of Michigan and is the author of numerous publications in the area of adolescent reproductive and sexual health.
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Kathleen Farrell, Vice President of Finance and Administration, oversees the organization’s financial management/controls. She prepares the organizational budget, works with program staff to develop proposals and financial reports for Advocates’ funders, and works closely with the Board of Directors’ Finance and Board Leadership Committees. She has spent the vast majority of her career working in various program and management capacities for Advocates for Youth. Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the College of William and Mary.
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Kate Stewart is a public opinion research and communications specialist who has worked with a wide-range of advocacy and non-profit organizations on communications, policy, and public affairs. Most recently she was a partner in the research and strategic communications firm, Belden Russonello & Stewart, LLC. Kate has created communications and public relations strategies for clients on topics such as civil liberties, public education, reproductive health, and reproductive justice. Her work has advanced the goals of many organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Ford Foundation, the ACLU, Wisconsin Education Association, the Illinois Education Association, the Center for Reproductive Rights and many others. Kate has been an adjunct professor at American University, where she taught public communication research and has served on the Governing Council of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. Kate has served on the Advocates for Youth Board and for the last three years was Board Chair. Kate received a BA with high honors in history from Haverford College and her MS in survey methodology from the University of Maryland.
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Aimee has an extensive background in communications, movement-building, and new media technologies across various social justice movements. Prior to joining the staff at Advocates, she served as the Interim Executive Director for the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and the Executive Director of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP). She has also held senior management positions in the non-profit and private sectors. Aimée sits on the Boards of Directors of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, Law Students for Reproductive Justice, RH Reality Check, and Mobilize the Immigrant Vote. She has spoken around the country at venues including Netroots Nation, Campus Progress, and SisterSong, and her writing and blogs have appeared on Daily Kos, Feministing, and RH Reality Check among others. Aimee earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Master of Public Administration from Baruch College, City University of New York.
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James currently serves as a senior advisor to Advocates’ management team. He was President of the organization from September 1997 until December 2011. Before coming to Advocates, James spent seven years at NARAL as Political Director and Executive Vice-President. During the decade prior to that, James held a number of staff positions in the Senate, including Chief of Staff to Senator Howard Metzenbaum from Ohio. Staff
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Urooj Arshad is the associate director, Equity and Social Justice at Advocates for Youth. She provides capacity building services to community based organizations working with youth of color around reproductive and sexual health. She has also designed a project that seeks to address the reproductive and sexual health needs of Muslim identified youth. Most recently, Urooj has developed a program around International Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender and Questioning (GLBTQ) youth health and rights which seeks to build the capacity of colleague organizations working with GLBTQ youth in low to middle income countries. Urooj has presented about her work at several domestic and international conferences including the International HIV/AIDS Conference 2010 in Vienna, Austria; the European Science Foundation’s conference on Religion, Gender and Human Rights 2011 in Linkoping, Sweden and at the LGBT Pride and Heritage Event hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement and the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Urooj has had thirteen years of experience organizing within GLBTQ communities of color especially addressing issues of Islamophobia, violence, sexism, transphobia and ageism. She is the co-chair of the Queer Muslim Collective which seeks to address the intersectional impact of Islampohobia, homophobia and transphobia. Urooj is also a member of the Center for American Progress’ Women’s Health Leadership Network as well as a fellow with the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute.
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Sarah Audelo is the Senior Manager of Domestic Policy at Advocates for Youth. She works sexual and reproductive health policy for young people including: comprehensive sex education, GLBTQ rights, HIV prevention, contraceptive access and abortion rights. Previously she was the Manager of the Youth Activist Network where she worked with youth across the country to fight for accurate sexual health information and services so that they can prevent unintended pregnancy and/or STIs, including HIV. Before joining Advocates, Sarah was a high school special education teacher in La Joya, Texas as part of the Teach for America program. In Texas, she was also a board member for the Valley AIDS Council, a HIV/AIDS service organization. While Sarah attended Georgetown University, she was a member of Advocates’ International Youth Leadership Council, working on international reproductive health and HIV and AIDS issues. She was also a member of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@s de Aztlan) and an Este Aztlan representative for the National MEChA Coordinating Committee. Sarah is originally from Bakersfield, California.
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Jennifer Augustine is the Director of the HIV/STI Prevention Division at Advocates for Youth. She oversees the provision of technical assistance and training to national and community-based organizations serving high-risk youth. Jennifer has 14 years of experience in adolescent sexual and reproductive health. She received a Master’s in Public Health from the George Washington University and is a certified health education specialist.
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Joy Baynes is the Program Manager for National Emergency Contraception Initiatives. She designs and implements programs in South Carolina and West Virginia to increase access to and awareness about emergency contraception among young women and men. She also provides technical assistance and resources to state organizations interested in emergency contraception work. Joy has a Master’s in Public Health from New York University.
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Emily Bridges has been Advocates’ Director of Public Information Services since 2006. She oversees the content of Advocates’ Web sites, edits materials for publication, and writes fact sheets and other educational materials. She also manages Advocates’ library, a comprehensive collection of the best and most current information about adolescent sexual and reproductive health, and assists staff, Advocates’ partners, and the public with research. Emily has a Master’s in Library Science from the University of Maryland.
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Nicole Cheetham is the Director of the International Division of Advocates for Youth, where she has worked for over ten years. In this capacity she supports the implementation of initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean focused on youth-led advocacy for sexual and reproductive health and rights; community mobilization, peer education, and youth-friendly services programming; sexual and reproductive health and rights and climate change awareness raising and advocacy; in addition to U.S.-based advocacy on international family planning, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and HIV/AIDS. Nicole started her career in international public health working at the American Public Health Association on a project to support reproductive health, maternal health, and infant nutrition in the global south by providing key educational materials to community-based workers. She later joined the Pan American Health Organization where she supported infant and child nutrition research and information dissemination strategies. She then joined The Manoff Group where she helped develop educational materials and manuals, conducted trainings, and carried out qualitative research to inform and improve infant nutrition and maternal health counseling. Nicole holds a Masters of Health Sciences in International Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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As Advocates’ Director of Development, Gail is responsible for coordinating the organization’s fundraising efforts, which include foundation proposal and report writing, researching and cultivating new prospects, and producing individual donor appeals. She has worked in fundraising for 15 years, including positions as Development Associate for the Center for Community Change and Associate Director of Development for the Henry L. Stimson Center. Gail also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Haiti, where she worked with a women’s cooperative to teach them small business skills. While in Haiti, she also taught grant writing to local organizations. Gail has a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in Political Science from Miami University (Ohio) and a Masters in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University.
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Yvonne Gaither has been Advocates for Youth’s Office Administrator since 1994. Yvonne has over 14 years of corporate bookkeeping and accounting experience and has worked with nonprofits for over 19 years. Yvonne has also participated in volunteer work at D.C. General Hospital and Columbia Hospital for Women.
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Sulava Gautam-Adhikary is the Program Coordinator for the Health and Social Equity department. She works on Advocates’ cooperative agreement with the CDC/Division on Adolescent and School Health (DASH) to increase the capacity of targeted state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) to improve their policies, systems and environments to meet the sexual health needs of youth at disproportionately high risk for HIV, STIs, and teen pregnancy. She also provides technical assistance for a team of school and community-based partners at targeted SEAs and LEAs seeking to improve policies for evidence-based sex education, linkages to sexual and emotional health services and safe spaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, among other strategies. Prior to this, Sulava worked as an intern in the International and Public Policy divisions at Advocates. Sulava has a Master’s degree in Public Policy with a concentration in global medical policy from George Mason University.
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Rana Holland has been at Advocates for Youth since July 1987. After nine months on the front desk, she became the Executive Secretary. She worked for Judith Senderowitz, our founding Executive Director/President, until Judy left in 1992. (Judy is currently on our board.). She worked for Margaret Pruitt Clark from 1992 until 1997, James Wagoner from 1997 until December 2010, and now works for Debra Hauser.
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Barbara Kemp Huberman has been actively involved in sexuality education and adolescent sexual health for almost 40 years. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Florida and a Masters in Education from the University of North Carolina. She is a certified sexuality educator and counselor and was one of the first Lamaze childbirth instructors and trainers in the U.S. Ms. Huberman has authored books on teen pregnancy prevention and building community and state teen pregnancy prevention councils, and co-authored the widely recognized monograph “European Approaches to Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Responsibility.” She is the founder of “Let’s Talk Month,” an international campaign each October to support parents and families in their role as sexuality educators of their children and “Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month” each May. She is the coordinator of Advocates’ Rights. Respect. Responsibility.® Campaign.
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Nickie Imanguli is the International Program Coordinator, overseeing Advocates’ International Youth Leadership Council (IYLC) and other international program activities. The IYLC is a group of young leaders with ties to or an interest in low- and mid-income countries working to change policy through direct lobbying, media work, campus organizing, and participation in international conferences. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the IYLC and worked with Student Advocates For Education about Rape (SAFER), Alternative Spring Break, and the HELP Center hotline. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland at College Park.
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Mr. Klaus came to Advocates for Youth in December, 2005, from Iowa, where he had been the Executive Director and a founding board member of Iowa’s statewide teen pregnancy prevention organization; a developer and master trainer of several teen pregnancy prevention programs; a writer of numerous articles, curricula, and books; a youth worker and counselor; and had held local, state, regional, national, and international leadership positions in both religious and public service organizations. Mr. Klaus is an alumnus of the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute and a trained facilitator in Appreciative Inquiry, an asset-based change and development model for organizations. Mr. Klaus earned degrees in religion and English at William Penn University, a Master of Science degree in counseling from Drake University, is an alumnus of the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute, and is currently earning a Ph.D. in Non-Profit Organizational Leadership at Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia.
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J. Lomax has worked in the information technology field for more than a decade and has been Manager of Information Technology at Advocates For Youth since 2006. Lottie McClorin Lottie McClorin work for Advocates for Youth is Senior Program Manager for the South Carolina Contraceptive Access Campaign, a broad public awareness campaign in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg and Orangeburg. Her efforts have focused on educating young women and men ages 16 – 24 about sexual and reproductive health issues in SC. Currently, she travels the state seeking to reduce unintended pregnancy by increasing access to contraception and condoms through traditional outreach and new media technology. She brings 15 years of extensive experience in the public health field with a background in health education, research, and training.
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Mimi Melles is the Manager of the International Youth Activist Network, a project that builds the capacity of youth-driven organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean to empower young people as powerful advocates within their own countries and at international forums on reproductive and sexual health and rights of youth, especially young women. Previously, Mimi managed Advocates’ Youth Activist Network, working with youth to fight for accurate sexual health information and services so that they can prevent unintended pregnancy and/or STIs, including HIV. Mimi was a member of the International Youth Leadership Council during her undergraduate career, and was hired to work at Advocates soon after graduation from the University of Maryland, College Park.
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Since 2005 Will has worked closely with program, policy, and communications staff to develop and implement a wide variety of advocacy campaigns and marketing strategies in various media, including print, online, and video. He received a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Davidson College before spending a year in the United Kingdom and Europe on a postgraduate fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, and is currently seeking a Master’s degree in Political Management from the George Washington University.
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Hemly Ordόñez is the State Strategies Coordinator at Advocates for Youth. She works with local and state-based organizations and youth activists across the country to advocate for cultural and policy changes that improve and value young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has been actively involved in youth civic engagement and advocacy with communities of color for more than 7 years. She has dedicated her life to community activism through building successful programs and education campaigns around gender, gender violence, educational access, immigration, civic engagement and youth empowerment. She holds a bachelors degree in Science and Technology in International Affairs with a concentration in International Health from Georgetown University and was the program coordinator at the Women’s Center and a co - founder of the Women Advancing Gender Equity Fellowship. Hemly is originally from Carson, California and proudly helps to represent the youth of South Los Angeles in the fight for effective sex education.
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Meghan Rapp is the Senior State Strategies Program Manager at Advocates for Youth. Meg works with state advocacy coalitions to build their capacity to improve adolescent reproductive and sexual health policies. She is the former State Policy Assistant at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) and was a member of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project’s (PEP) Young Women’s Leadership Council. Meg earned her postgraduate certificate in International Law and Human Rights from the University of Leicester and her Bachelors of Science in Political Science from Old Dominion University, where she received the award of Top Politics Student in her graduating class.
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Abby Rosenstein
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Ebony Ross is the Associate Director of the Adolescent Sexual Health Division. She has a wide range of experience in capacity building, evidence-based strategic planning, and program evaluation. Ebony brings more than twelve years of project management, workgroup facilitation, and organizational development in the fields of nonprofit management and public health to Advocates. Previously, Ebony served as a Senior Policy Associate for Altarum where she provided technical assistance to local and State health departments providing prevention and treatment services to HIV infected clients, to Federal and State teams as they worked to create and implement action plans to reduce homelessness in their States, and to State coalitions addressing health disparities in pediatric asthma. Prior to her work at Altarum, Ebony served as a Program Manager for the Academy for Educational Development. She managed numerous national multi-site projects, provided capacity building services to federally funded grantees, and completed needs assessments, work plans and technical assistance provision for over 175 minority community-based and faith-based organizations across the country as they worked to build their capacity to provide primary care services to HIV-positive clients in their communities. Ebony holds a Master of Arts degree in psychology from North Carolina Central University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Hampton University.
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Trina Scott is the Program Manager for the Young Women of Color Initiative at Advocates for Youth. She has been actively involved in sexuality education and adolescent sexual health for more than 10 years. She has dedicated her life to community activism through educating, advocating, and delivering prevention messages related to health issue for youth and young adults. Trina holds a Bachelor's degree in Health Management/Nutrition from Howard University, and is currently working on a dual Masters/PhD degree in Human Sexuality at Widener University. In addition, she is among the first graduating class of The Black AIDS Institute’s African American HIV University Community Mobilization College. Trina is a member and active participant in a number of community organizations in the DC metropolitan area.
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Nikki Serapio is the Manager of New Media Strategies. He oversees the youth activism platform Amplify as well as Advocates' presence on the social web. Previously, he worked for Involver, the leading social marketing technology provider. Outside of Advocates, he is the Director of Americans Against the Darfur Genocide, a Sudan advocacy organization. Nikki has a BA in Political Science from Stanford University. Samantha Shinberg Samantha Shinberg has worked in the field of sexual health since high school, when she was a peer educator for Children’s Hospital’s youth group, TASA (Teens Against the Spread of AIDS) in her home city of Washington, DC. After her time with TASA, Sam continued to pursue her passion for sexuality education throughout her time at college, where she worked in the Sexual Health Department of the Student Wellness Center and became a certified HIV tester and counselor at Children’s Hospital in DC. At the end of her time at the University of Delaware, Sam earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies, with a double minor in Women’s Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies. As a Project Associate for the Division of Adolescent Sexual Health at Advocates, Sam works to increase contraceptive access in high-risk communities through outreach, education, and new media strategies. She also works with the Center for Disease Control to implement evidence based programs through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative in nine different sites around the country. Prior to joining Advocates, Sam worked at SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) as a State Policy Intern. India Walters As a recent Master of Public Health graduate from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, India has begun working full speed ahead in the field of sexual and reproductive health. India currently serves as a Program Associate for the South Carolina Contraceptive Access Campaign, where she truly enjoys using innovative and new media strategies to educate young people on their contraceptive options to prevent unplanned pregnancies, as well as to educate youth on maintaining a sexually healthy life. She also works as a Facilitator for Project L.E.A.D, a teen pregnancy prevention program, as well as volunteer in her community with Youth Empowerment programs and HIV/AIDS agencies. India strongly believes that young people should have the right to access all forms of sexual and reproductive health services available, and is a committed advocate for this cause.
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Erica Yates has been Administrative and Publications Assistant at Advocates for Youth since 2005 and is a dedicated employee with a passion for working with young people. Erica writes OMG! With E, a relationship advice column on Amplify. |








