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.

Donna Stewartson
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Boston , Massachusetts

Donna Stewartson, is the Associate Director of the Program for Women in Politics and Public Policy. She received her MBA from Simmons Graduate School of Management and a BA in Political Science from Boston College. She has worked as the Special Project Manager at Dimock Community Health Center, Testing Coordinator and Mortgage Scam Consultant at Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Program Technician at New Boston Pilot Middle School. Additionally, as a community activist in Boston, she is an Executive Board Member of the Columbia Washington Street Neighborhood Association, an active member of the Four Corners Action Coalition and a member of the Blue Hill Avenue Early Education Center's Parent Council. She recently, joined the Center in November 2004, bringing policy experience in Education, Homelessness, Housing & Mortgage Scam, Community Organizing and Health Education.

Juhu Thukral
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New York , New York

Juhu Thukral is the Director of Law and Advocacy at The Opportunity Agenda. She has been an advocate for the rights of low-income and immigrant women in the areas of sexual health and rights, gender-based violence, economic security, and criminal justice for 20 years. Prior to joining The Opportunity Agenda, Ms. Thukral was the founder and Director of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City. She founded the Sex Workers Project in 2001, after recognizing the strong need for an organization that protects the legal rights of sex workers, many of whom are low-income and immigrant women of color. Ms. Thukral envisioned and developed the SWP’s legal and programmatic initiatives around sex work and human rights, trafficking in persons, and economic security. She also raised the funding for the project and managed its partnerships with a diverse array of collaborating organizations.

Aili Mari Tripp
AMTripp's picture
Madison , Wisconsin

Aili Mari Tripp is Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also director of the Center for Research on Gender and Women. She received her BA and MA from the University of Chicago, and her PhD from Northwestern University. Tripp has published numerous books and articles on women’s movements in Africa and internationally, global feminism, gender and politics in Africa and globally, and on women in post-conflict African countries. She co-edits a book series with Stanlie James on Women in Africa and the Diaspora for the University of Wisconsin Press. She served as co-editor of the journal Politics & Gender from 2007-2010. She is currently president of the African Studies Association.

Melissa Upreti
mupreti's picture
New York , New York

Melissa Upreti is Regional Director for Asia at the Center for Reproductive Rights. In her ten years at the Center, she has helped position the Center as a leading advocate of women’s reproductive rights in the region and in the international arena. She has led fact-finding missions to investigate violations of women’s rights resulting from restrictive abortion laws in Nepal and the Philippines and has helped develop pioneering legal strategies to secure accountability for maternal deaths in India and access to safe abortion in Nepal. Melissa Upreti has conceptualized and co-authored several leading publications on women’s reproductive rights in Asia including two regional studies of laws and policies that affect women’s reproductive health and lives, fact-finding reports on controversial topics and analytical studies.

Debbie Walsh
Debbie Walsh's picture
New Brunswick , New Jersey

Debbie Walsh is the director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics. She joined the CAWP staff in 1981 after earning her B.A. in political science from SUNY Binghamton and her M.A. in political science from Rutgers, where she was an Eagleton Fellow.

She has organized more than a dozen national conferences for women officials, ranging from small meetings focused on issues such as women’s legislative caucuses, women in legislative leadership and training programs for newly elected women legislators to CAWP’s quadrennial national Forum for Women State Legislators, to which every woman state legislator in the country is invited. 

Judy Waxman
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Washington , District Of Columbia

Judy Waxman is Vice President of Health and Reproductive Rights at the National Women's Law Center. She pioneers advocacy, policy and educational strategies to promote the quality and availability of health care, including reproductive choice, for American women. Prior to joining the National Women's Law Center, Ms. Waxman served as Deputy Executive Director at Families USA for over a decade. In that capacity, she worked to achieve high quality, affordable health and long-term care for all Americans and was a leader on grassroots and activities on Medicaid, Medicare and other health care access legislative issues. She previously served as a Professional Staff Member with the Pepper Commission (the United States Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care). Ms.

Judith White
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Denver , Colorado

Judith S. White is the executive director of Higher Education Resource Services (HERS), an educational non-profit that provides leadership and management training for women in higher education administration. The main offices of HERS are located on the campus of the University of Denver. Previously Dr. White was assistant vice president for campus services and adjunct professor of women’s studies at Duke University. She has taught and held administrative positions at Dartmouth College, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Charlotte, and Queens College. Dr. White was a Senior Fellow of the Association of American Colleges and Universities from 2003-05, serving as an advisor to AAC&U’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Global Initiatives and the Project on the Status and Education of Women and as chair of the advisory board of Campus Women Lead. Judith attended Salem College before finishing her B.A. at Princeton University. She received her M.A.

Marie Wilson
Marie Wilson's picture
New York , New York

An advocate of women’s issues for more than 30 years, Marie C. Wilson is founder and President of The White House Project, co-creator of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work ® Day and author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Viking 2004). 

In 1998, Wilson founded The White House Project in recognition of the need to build a truly representative democracy – one where women lead alongside men in all spheres. Since its inception, The White House Project has been a leading advocate and voice on women’s leadership.

Before she took the helm at The White House Project, Wilson was, for nearly two decades, the President of the Ms. Foundation for Women. She is an honorary “founding mother” of the Ms. Foundation. In honor of her work, the Ms. Foundation has created The Marie C. Wilson Leadership Fund.

Jamia Wilson
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New York , New York

Jamia Wilson is Vice President of Programs at the Women’s Media Center. Jamia has a strong background in youth leadership development, grassroots organizing, and communications. She worked for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she managed their youth outreach program Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood and served on the PPFA Structure and Governance Committee and the Pro-Choice Education Project Steering Committee. After working with coalition partners and campus organizations to help bring thousands of students to the historic March for Women’s Lives, Jamia was honored as one of the “Real Hot 100" by the Younger Women’s Taskforce.

Barbara Winslow
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Brooklyn , New York

Barbara Winslow is Founder and Director of The Shirley Chisholm Project. An academic and activist, Winslow attended the 1974 founding convention of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and spent much of the seventies speaking to trade unionists about women's labor activism and women’s rights. She is a founder and officer of the Reproductive Rights National Network and is a professor in the School of Education and the Women’s Studies Program at Brooklyn College. Barbara speaks and writes about women’s political activism, women’s suffrage, second wave feminism, and integrating women and gender into the schools’ curriculum. She is the founder and Director of the The Shirley Chisholm Project of Brooklyn Women’s Activism, 1945 to the Present.