Network Experts

The National Council for Research on Women’s highly informed, articulate experts can address some of today’s most complex issues and make them accessible to a wide range of audiences. From sustainable development to pay equity, and from women’s human rights to health care, the more than 2,000 researchers and specialists in our network are sources of information, analysis and inspiration.

If you have a conference, a panel or a news story in preparation and need some expertise, search our database of leaders and change-makers using the filter below or contact us directly at ncrw@ncrw.org.

Judy Robinson Rogers
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Nevada , Missouri

Judy Robinson Rogers, Ph.D., became the eleventh president of Cottey College in 2004. Previously, she served as vice president for leadership and ethics at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, and as associate vice president for academic affairs, undergraduate dean, and professor of English at Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky. In addition to general education English, Dr. Rogers taught undergraduate and graduate courses in modern and American literature. She received her undergraduate degree in English and speech/theatre from Centre College of Kentucky and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which she attended as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

Sue Rosser
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Atlanta , Georgia

Sue V. Rosser received her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. Since July 1999, she has served as Dean of Ivan Allen College, the liberal arts college of Georgia Tech, where she holds the Ivan Allen Dean's Chair of Liberal Arts and Technology and is also Professor of History, Technology, and Society and Professor of Public Policy. From 1995-1999, she was Director for the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida-Gainesville. In 1995, she was Senior Program Officer for Women's Programs at the National Science Foundation. From 1986 to 1995 she served as Director of Women's Studies at the University of South Carolina, where she also was a Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine in the Medical School.

Urjasi Rudra
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New York , New York

Urjasi Rudra manages UN Women’s global communications initiative, Say NO - UNiTE to End Violence against Women. Through an interactive web platform, www.sayntoviolence.org, Say NO highlights advocacy efforts on ending violence against women by organizations across the world. Ms. Rudra specializes in gender and human rights law and has served as an advocate with South Asian women's organizations on intimate partner violence issues in immigrant communities and transnational spaces.

Lynda Sagrestano
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Memphis , Tennessee

Lynda M. Sagrestano, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis.  She earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and held NIMH-funded postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her research interests include barriers to economic self sufficiency for women, maternal and prenatal health, adolescent sexual behavior, teen pregnancy, HIV prevention, sexual harassment in school, domestic violence, and gender and work stress. Her work is oriented toward applying psychological theory to understand and intervene on social problems and advance theory development. She collaborates with individuals in health and community agencies, to highlight the role of contextual factors in health processes and outcomes, with the goal of taking a more integrated approach to prevention and intervention in the public health sector.

Michelle Segar
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Ann Arbor , Michigan

Dr. Michelle Segar is a research investigator at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the associate director of the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy (SHARP) Center for Women and Girls. She is a recognized thought leader in promoting exercise to the general public. She has a doctorate in psychology  and master’s degrees in health behavior-health education (MPH) and in kinesiology (MS) from the University of Michigan.

Rinku Sen
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New York , New York

Rinku Sen is the President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and Publisher of ColorLines magazine.

A leading figure in the racial justice movement for the last twenty years, Rinku has positioned ARC as the national home for media, research and activism. She has extensive practical experience on the ground, with expertise in race, feminism, immigration, economic justice, philanthropy and community organizing. Over the course of her career, Rinku has woven together journalism and organizing to further social change.

Rinku is the Vice Chair of the Schott Foundation for Public Education and a Boardmember of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity. She is the Chair of the Media Consortium and sits on the boards for Restaurant Opportunities Center-United and Working America. Additionally, she is a Prime Movers fellow through the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

Pamela Shifman
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New York , New York

Since May 2008, Pamela Shifman has served as the Director of Initiatives for Women and Girls at the NoVo Foundation, where she directs its work on empowering adolescent girls in the developing world and ending violence against girls and women. Prior to joining NoVo, she worked at UNICEF, working closely with its country offices in Darfur, Sudan, Eastern Congo, Liberia, Nepal and other conflict affected countries to improve efforts to end violence against girls and women. Pamela also served as the Co-Executive Director of Equality Now, where she focused on trafficking of girls and women and sex tourism, and acted as legal advisor for the ANC Parliamentary Women's Caucus in South Africa. She has taught Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan and at Hunter College, and holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Khushbu Srivastava
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Bronx , New York

Khushbu Srivastava joined the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation as Director or Marketing and Communications in October 2010. With a decade of experience in nonprofit strategy, gender, marketing, communications and policy advocacy, Ms. Srivastava has worked on international health, education and microfinance programs across thirteen countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Liberia and Sri Lanka. Ms. Srivastava holds a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University and a BA from Wellesley College.

Sharon Stapel
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New York , New York

Sharon Stapel, Esq. is the Executive Director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP). AVP is the country’s largest organization dedicated to eliminating hate violence, sexual violence, and domestic/intimate partner violence affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) and HIV-affected communities. AVP provides direct client services in New York City and engages in advocacy and public education locally and nationally. AVP coordinates the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a coalition of 42 anti-violence programs dedicated to creating a national response to anti-LGBTQ violence, and the New York State LGBTQ Domestic Violence Network, a statewide, multidisciplinary group of direct service providers, community-based agencies, advocates, educators, policy makers and funders working on behalf of LGBTQ communities affected by domestic violence.

Sally Stevens
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Tucson , Arizona

Sally Stevens is the Executive Director of the University of Arizona - Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW) and a Distinguished Outreach Professor in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies. Dr. Stevens conducts collaborative process and outcome studies in the area of health disparities, substance abuse and mental health, HIV and other infectious diseases, and innovations in education. Much of her work is community-based with a focus on gender and culture. Dr. Stevens has published numerous articles and edited several collected volumes on these topics. Her most recent article is titled Meeting the Substance Abuse Treatment Needs of Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Women: Implications from Research to Practice. Dr. Stevens conducts workshops and trainings on substance abuse and mental health treatment approaches, diversity and equity, community-based participatory action research, and program evaluation.