Diana Thu-Thao Rhodes is the Vice President of Policy, Partnerships, & Organizing, where she oversees the organization’s policy advocacy strategies and youth organizing campaigns on a wide range of reproductive and sexual health/rights/justice issues that affect young people. She is a member of Advocates’ Management Team, while leading strategic partnerships and movement-building efforts.

Diana has been with Advocates for nearly ten years. Since being at Advocates, she has managed state policy advocacy and youth activist programs, building campaigns with young people to pass proactive sex education policies, including in Colorado and Broward County, Florida; provided policy technical assistance to over 30 state partner organizations and coalitions; led federal policy work, including direct lobbying and education efforts on the Hill and with the Administration; and built successful culture and policy shift campaigns and projects. Her expertise and work at Advocates continues to be working with coalitions, advocates, and youth activists on policy analysis, policy advocacy strategy, grassroots campaigns, movement-building, and youth/adult partnerships. She currently sits as co-chair of the Federal Sex Ed Coalition, serves on the Advisory Committee for the COMS Project, and helps lead the Youth Abortion Access Table (YAAT).

Diana has been working in social justice movements for nearly 15 years – with both grassroots and grasstops stakeholders – primarily around issues that affect women, young people, communities of color, and the LGTBQ community. Prior to Advocates, Diana worked for the Center for Women Policy Studies, working directly with women state legislators and Members of Parliament, facilitating strategic planning sessions and providing technical assistance on women’s human rights.  Her passions lie in facilitating and creating intentional spaces for not only social justice, but also for creativity and radical self-expression. She holds an M.A. from George Washington University in Public Policy with a concentration in Women’s Studies, as well as a B.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Sociology and Women’s Studies.