Leslie is a nursing student at Brandman University where she is working toward a BSN degree. She also recently received her Masters of Education in Health and Wellness education and hopes to integrate this knowledge with her clinical knowledge as an RN! Her Nurse Leader project focuses on the intersection of sexual health and safety for people working  in the sex and body work industry. Leslie is partnering with local organizations to partnering to spearhead a resource drive that provides wellness packages and services to these folks.

Melina is a student at the University of Pennsylvania, working toward her BSN. For their project, Melina seeks to host a bilingual Women’s Gender and Sexual Health Teach-In in their hometown of Dallas, TX. This program will include content about all kinds of SRH topics, including demystifying beliefs about transgender and gender-nonconforming people, education about pronouns, and consent.

Joy is part of the MSN/DNP program at Columbia University, where she is specializing in Certified Nurse Midwifery. "This fellowship will enable me to make meaningful connections with other healthcare providers of color, and together we can empower each other to have the strength and resilience necessary to challenge white supremacy in our healthcare system." Through her Nurse Leader project, Joy will facilitate opportunities for health educators in the New York public school system to learn how to incorporate gender identity, sexual orientation, and facilitating open dialogue about sex into their curriculum.

Kristin comes to the fellowship from the University of Maryland where is on the accelerated MSN track. She is starting a chapter of NSRH at her campus and host a debut event for recruits as her Nurse Leader Project. "After earning my RN license, I will take what I learned [from this fellowship] into practice so I can help deliver SRH care in a way that will empower my clients to make the best decisions for themselves regarding family planning and sexual health."

Cassandra is a BSN student at the University of Southern Florida - Sarasota. Their passion for SRH started with their love of working with youth, and Cassandra is excited to expand their network with nurses that have similar passions. Her project for the fellowship focuses on curating training for their nurse cohort to provide trauma-informed care for patients who experience sexual and intimate partner violence.

I am looking forward to meeting other individuals who have similar interests with me in terms of my future career goals. I am excited to hopefully but my project plan into motion and start to make a change in my community. I am overall looking forward to the experience. I have never been involved with anything like this before and I am just excited to see what I learn and how this helps me become the leader I have always wanted to be.

I am excited to continue learning about sexual and reproductive health in order to improve public policy and help innovate health systems to be more accessible and equitable for everyone seeking services in this area. I approach nursing from a public health and community-oriented point of view and I am honored to join my peers who bring their own unique perspectives on this journey to increase our expertise and passion in SRH for the betterment of our communities.

My passion and goal of being of service to women, the queer community, POC, and people of low socioeconomic status is what drives me to stay connected and grow as a provider. I’m most excited to learn in an area of healthcare that means a lot to me and where I am limited in exposure.

My interest in SRH has sparked while working on a class project in nursing school. The project called for creating an awareness campaign for safe sex practices for teens. It was aimed at preventing STDs. After working with this population and topic, I realized that I liked the focus and wanted to ensure that my career included some aspect of SRH. I have since spent time working in women’s health and pediatrics.

I am excited to join a group of individuals who as just as passionate about reproductive health to help improve the health of our communities. I also look forward to the mentorship as I move forward in my nursing career as a new nurse. Lastly, I cannot wait to become engaged with my community while conducting my community project, and hope to make a difference, even if it is just connecting one individual to reproductive and sexual health services.

Kandyce Brennan (DNP, CNM) serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Duke University School of Nursing in 2016 and initiated her career in obstetric nursing at Duke Regional Hospital, known for its commitment to rural and underserved communities. Brennan furthered her education by obtaining a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) with a specialization in Midwifery from Frontier Nursing University in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Upon completing her advanced degrees, Brennan joined the midwifery team at Duke University Hospital. In this role, she leveraged her expertise in serving rural and underserved populations to educate fellow healthcare providers and medical residents. Her work highlights the critical importance of equitable reproductive healthcare grounded in principles of reproductive justice. While working with the Duke Midwifery Service, Brennan expanded her impact by providing a range of services including family planning, perinatal care, and reproductive health services with the Durham County Department of Public Health. Her experiences there ignited her passion for public and community health, leading her to embark on scholarship in these areas. Driven by a deep commitment to reproductive health, Brennan has dedicated nearly a decade to advocating for and delivering equitable, patient-centered care. Her motivation is deeply personal, rooted in the healthcare injustices faced by her paternal grandmother in rural Guilford County, North Carolina, and her maternal grandmother in New York City, New York—both of whom were subjected to coerced sterilization. These family experiences have fueled Brennan’s dedication to ensuring individuals' autonomy over their health and healthcare decisions for themselves and their families.
 

Maria Cardenas is a family nurse practitioner. She graduated in 2014 from FNP school and went directly into working im abortion care. Since then, she has worked in trauma, primary care, and is currently working as an abortion provider in New Mexico. Quality access to abortion care is important to Maria. As a board member of the Mariposa Fund, Maria is excited about working with clinics to improve language access for patients. 
 

Ms. Fletcher (RN, MSN, ARNP, FACNM), Pronouns: She/Her/Hers, is a certified nurse-midwife and communities of color health care advocate. Victoria is passionate about addressing issues of health equity, reproductive and social justice and reducing health disparities, especially maternal and infant mortality, in underserved communities. Victoria is a former chair of the Washington State Board of  , Director of Clinical Services for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands, and Director of Accreditation for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Former board service includes NSRH, Washington Center for Nursing and the advisory committee of the Washington State Health Benefit Exchange. Victoria is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington, School of Nursing, Nurse-Midwifery program. Ms. Fletcher has a BSN from the University of Washington and a MSN in Maternal-Child Health/ Nurse-Midwifery from the University of Illinois at the Medical Center, Chicago, and is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwifery.  

Ashley Ruiz, PhD, RN, is a second-generation Filipina American Assistant Professor at Emory University in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and a clinician with a specialization as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. Her research expertise in qualitative inquiry, rooted in Black Feminist thought and Intersectionality, examines Black women's experiences of secondary victimization or re-traumatization in healthcare following sexual assault.  Dr. Ruiz’s methods and methodologies center women’s voices to support advances toward health equity.  Her work has been used in state-wide trainings in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Arizona. Currently, Dr. Ruiz is investigating the healthcare models' impact on Black and Indigenous women's experiences of secondary victimization following sexual assault in Maricopa County, Arizona.  Most recently, Dr. Ruiz has received the Pediatric and Reproductive Environmental Health Scholars (PREHS) Southeastern Environmental Exposure and Disparities (SEED) K12 award, which explores the impact of climate change on women’s experiences of sexual gender-based violence following displacement from heat and water-related natural disasters.

Dr. Ellen Solis, DNP, CNM, FACNM (she/her) is a Teaching Professor at the University of Washington and the program director of the nurse-midwifery program and the Graduate Certificate in Sexual and Reproductive Health (GCSRH) and is the co-director of the ACTIONS program. She is also a practicing nurse-midwife with HealthPoint FQHC in Seattle and the board secretary of Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health. As a midwife, and educator, Ellen is committed to centering the voices of her clients, students, and colleagues—especially those from BIPOC and queer communities—and working towards increasing their voices in healthcare, education, and policy development. As a teacher, Ellen’s focus is on building anti-racism and trauma informed care into every course taught in the nurse-midwifery curriculum at the University of Washington, and on educating midwives to enter the workforce understanding that increasing the nurse-midwifery work force is an actionable solution to the maternal-child health crisis in the United States. As a midwife, she endeavors to provide excellent, evidenced-based care that centers the client and family in all interactions. Ellen has published multiple articles on evidenced-based ways to care for people seeking midwifery care, midwives as change makers, resilience for health professionals, and is the co-editor of the “Gynecological Healthcare,” textbook.
 

Colette Williams (she/her) is a Registered Nurse and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner working in the Bronx, NY. Her passion for working with and for underrepresented communities began as a volunteer and board member for the student-run organization, Bronx Community Health Leaders. She has also worked for federally qualified health centers throughout NYC. Colette is an advocate for bridging the gap between resources and equitable care for women and families in minority communities.
 

Asia Brown (she/her/hers) is a graduate of Spelman College from Vicksburg, MS. Asia is a reproductive justice advocate passionate about period equity, abortion access, and Black maternal health. Asia currently attends the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in Atlanta, GA, and aspires to become a nurse-midwife. Asia is also the co-founder of 601 for Period Equity, a Mississippi-based nonprofit that distributes menstrual products and diapers to families in Vicksburg, MS.

Hazel Ekeke (she/her) is a Nigerian-American second-year student, studying nursing, bioethics, and nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves the community as a doula, health educator, and Reproductive Justice activist working to improve conditions for all birthing people. Aspiring to become a Nurse Midwife and Nurse Ethicist, she is passionate about honoring patients' rights, decreasing obstetric mortality rates, and improving healthcare for those who are justice-impacted. She advocates for the replacement of paternalism with trauma-informed and culturally competent healthcare.
 

Samirah has always been passionate about women's and reproductive health and is excited about the opportunity for fellowship and mentorship with other individuals who share this passion. She specifically feels drawn to this field because she desires to make sexual and reproductive healthcare more accessible and less intimidating for underprivileged and adolescent populations. She hopes to take what she learns into her role as an advanced practice provider to be able to educate, advocate, and implement better clinical practices for her community. Samirah wants her patients to be able to make informed decisions while exercising their autonomy and feel empowered in healthcare spaces.

Saisahana Subburaj is a ABSN/MSN student at the University of Pennsylvania, studying to become a midwife. In 2023, she graduated from Duke University with a self-designed major titled “Global Women’s Health in Asia: Culture, History, and Power.” Her academic and personal passion manifests in her interdisciplinary experience with global determinants of women’s health outcomes in India, Korea, and Indonesia. Saisahana hopes to continue to work in the global health sphere as she becomes a women’s health provider.