Sandra Kim - Founder & Executive Director
Sandra is the Founder and Executive Director of Everyday Feminism, one of the fastest growing online feminist platforms. Launched in June 2012, Everyday Feminism has built a readership of 200,000 average monthly visitors to the online magazine and team of almost 20 writers. Sandra brings an inside-out approach to feminism because she believes personal transformation and social transformation are interdependent. She’s also pioneering an innovative online business model for feminism and social justice to make this work sustainable for activists. Sandra brings a wide range of approaches and skills to Everyday Feminism from her experience working with trauma survivors, healing and personal transformation, social change work, and life coaching. Sandra believes in living a life you love while creating social change in the world. So in addition to her work, she spends time knitting, gardening, and training in martial arts and parkour. Read her articles here. Read more about her bio.
Derek Ellerman – Co-Owner and Lead Developer
Derek Ellerman co-founded and serves on the Board of Directors of Polaris Project, a leading international nonprofit organization combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery. He also serves as Board Chair of Groundswell, a national organization building new models for economic organizing in the clean energy economy. At age 26, Derek was elected as an Ashoka Fellow, joining the prestigious global association of social entrepreneurs as the youngest U.S. Fellow at the time. When not trying to save the world, Derek enjoys doing website development, writing, martial arts, vegetarian cooking, meditation, guitar, and rambling in the backwoods of his home in West Virginia. He has a Sc.B. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University. Read more about his bio.
Melissa A. Fabello – Editor
Melissa is a second-year graduate student at Widener University, working toward her M.Ed in Human Sexuality. With a research interest in the media’s perpetuating of societal myths and how it affects healthy sexual development in adolescent girls, Melissa also does writing and vlogging on body image, media literacy, and female sexuality. Along with Everyday Feminism, Melissa also currently works with Miss Representation, Adios Barbie, and Laci Green’s Sex+ community. Her not-inherently-feminist-
Ayla Engelhart – Online Community Manager
Ayla is currently working towards obtaining her M.A. in Women’s Studies with a concentration in feminist identity theory from George Washington University. She holds a B.S. in Political Science from SUNY Oneonta. Her interests include LGBTQ+ issues, the effects of war on women, and identity assemblages. In her spare time, she likes to read books and listen to folk music. She has a deep love for baking and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
B. Cole – Contributing Writer
Cole is the Founder & Project Director of Brown Boi Project, a community of masculine of center womyn, men, two-spirit people, transmen, and our allies committed to transforming our privilege of masculinity, gender, and race into tools for achieving racial and gender justice. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and has worked as a community facilitator, strategist, and consultant with non-profits, socially responsible corporations, and governmental agencies. Cole’s background crosses multiple sectors but as a young queer consultant of color with almost ten years consulting and facilitation experience she is often uniquely positioned to bring together groups across divides. For her work with Brown Boi Project, she was awarded the 2012 Echoing Green Fellowship and 2013 Retrofit Republic Tastemakers Award for Community Heroes. Follow her on Twitter @bespokebutch. Read her articles here and book her for speaking engagements here.
Cynthia Kane – Contributing Writer
Cynthia has her B.A. from Bard College and M.F.A from Sarah Lawrence College. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals including: wandermlon.com, VegNews, Pregnancy, Yoga Journal, Bridal Guide, The Jerusalem Post, and more. She has published short stories as well as Take a Hike: The Best 50 Routes in the Community of Madrid (Ediciones la Libreria, May 2011). Her favorite activities include: laughing, hiking, dancing, and sharing. For more, check out her website here or follow her on Twitter @cynkane. Read her articles here.
Erin McKelle – Online Community Manager
Erin is an 18-year-old social justice activist and blogger from Cleveland, Ohio. She has worked on a variety of projects from being a Volunteer Editor at MoveOn.org, to writing for the Scenarios USA Youth Blog, to her own YouTube channel and blog, Fearless Feminism. She will be attending Ohio University as a Women and Gender Studies Major in the fall. Most nights you can find her behind her computer or with a good book.
Erin Tatum – Online Community Manager
Erin is a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a major in film and a minor in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender studies. She hopes to pursue further graduate studies in gender and sexuality. She is a complete television junkie because she’s fascinated with how marginalized identities (particularly gender, sexuality, and ability) are portrayed in media. She hopes to one day work in television or media with the aim of diversifying representation.
Fabian Romero – Contributing Writer
Credit: Sashimi Images
Fabian Romero is a Two Spirit Queer Chicano poet, blogger, and community organizer. Their sincere poetry and stories stem from their experiences as an Economic Refugee, speaking two languages, Queerness, and working as a migrant laborer. Fabian was born in Michoacán, Mexico and came to North America when they were seven years old. Since 2007, they have performed poetry and facilitated anti-oppression and self care workshops throughout North America. Their poetry and stories have been published in several zines and publications including Uproot zine, Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics and To The Exclusion of All Others: Queers Questioning Gay Marriage. Currently they are pursuing a BA at Evergreen State College with a focus in writing, social justice and education. Learn more about their writing here and read their articles here.
Golda Poretsky – Contributing Writer
Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, which offers one-to-one and group coaching for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Her Health At Every Size® based programs and activism work have been featured on CBS’s The Early Show, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s LX New York and in Time Out New York. She is the author of Stop Dieting Now: 25 Reasons To Stop, 25 Ways To Heal, available in softcover and Kindle. Golda has also hosted major body positive online events, including The Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit, the HAES® Master Class and the Body Positive Dating Master Class. Follow her on Twitter as @bodylovewellnes and check out her Facebook page here. Read her articles here and book her for speaking engagements here.
Jamie Utt – Contributing Writer
Jamie is a diversity and inclusion consultant and sexual violence prevention educator based in Minneapolis, MN. He lives with his loving partner and his funtastic dog. He blogs weekly at Change from Within. Learn more about his work at his website here and follow him on Twitter @utt_jamie. Read his articles here and book him for speaking engagements here.
Jarune Uwujaren – Contributing Writer
Jarune Uwujaren is a Nigerian-American student recent grad who’s stumbling towards a career in writing. Jarune can currently be found drifting around the DC metro area with a phone or a laptop nearby. When not writing for fun or profit, Jarune enjoys food, fresh air, good books, drawing, poetry, and sci-fi. Read her articles here.
Kai M. Green – Contributing Writer
Kai is a filmmaker and a spoken word poet who examines through film and poetry questions of gendered and racialized violence. His most recent film, “It Gets Messy in Here,” is a 32-minute short that examines the lives of transgender men and masculine identified women of color and their bathroom experiences. Kai is a PhD candidate in the department of American Studies and Ethnicity at The University of Southern California. He is currently writing a dissertation that will serve as one historical/ethnographic account of Black LGBT lives in Los Angeles. Kai is committed to creating consciousness-raising art and scholarship. Learn more about him on Youtube and his blogs, Kai’s (Bi)Weekly Jams and In The Darkness: My Dissertation Journey. Follow him on Twitter @Kai_MG. Read his articles here and book him for speaking engagements here.
Katy Kreitler - Contributing Writer
Katy Kreitler is a Counselor in San Francisco, California. Katy utilizes an eclectic person-centered/DBT-based approach to help clients attain mental health, empowerment, and self-love, and has worked with many populations, including severely emotionally disturbed adolescents, chronically homeless adults with co-occurring substance abuse and acute mental illness, women with eating disorders, and HIV+ LGBT young adults. As a volunteer, Katy has served as a mentor to at-risk youth, a literacy coach to refugee youth, an advocate to street children in South Africa, a caretaker at an orphanage in rural Kenya, and currently serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to foster youth in the Bay Area. She has written for multiple publications about gender and social issues. In her free time, this native Arizonan enjoys vegetarian cuisine, hikes in wild landscapes, raucous laughs with friends, and shoddily playing the banjo. Katy has a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology with an emphasis in Gender and Sexuality from the University of San Francisco. Read her articles here.
Kelsey Lueptow – Contributing Writer
Kelsey is a small town amateur yogi, poet, and feminist from Wisconsin. She’s a single mother and seasonal waitress working on a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Women’s Studies. Caffeine addict and book enthusiast, Kelsey spends her time playing with her son and hanging out at coffee shops. Read her articles here.
Lauren Taylor – Contributing Writer
Lauren is lead instructor of Defend Yourself, which teaches skills for stopping harassment, abuse, and assault. She started working on gender-based violence in 1978 (with the founding of My Sister’s Place and DC’s first take back the night march), and she hasn’t stopped since. Since 1987, she has worked with thousands of women, teens, and children in the DC area from all walks of life. Lauren specializes in classes for women, for people with disabilities, for LBGTQ people, and for survivors of abuse and assault. Lauren says she is “grateful every day for this work and my wonderful students.” When not teaching, fomenting revolution, or shooing her cat off her keyboard, Lauren can be found dancing or biking. Read her articles here.Margaret Kammer – Online Community Manager
Margaret is a video blogger, University of Washington graduate (with a BA in English Literature), and food enthusiast with a tendency to turn hobbies and interests into lifestyles. She currently lives in Seattle and has post-graduate hopes of combining her editorial interests, librarian experience, social media presence, and activism into one alpha career of awesome. Follow her musings about everything from body positivity to Harry Potter on her YouTube channel, on Twitter @ItsJustMargaret, or on Tumblr.
Nina Trovato – Online Community Manager
Nina is a recent graduate from Villanova University with a B.A. in Political Science and Health Care Ethics and is heading to Seton Hall University School of Law in the fall. When she is not combatting patriarchy, oppression, and rape culture through various campaigns on her college campus, she is nose deep in a plethora of constitutions (for fun). Follow her on Twitter @NinaTonyTro!
Paige Lucas-Stannard - Parenting Writer and Educator
Paige is a former NASA research librarian turned stay at home mom to three little feminists-in-training; a daughter and twin sons. She blogs about her decade-long struggle with infertility, parenting, and women’s issues at BabyDustDiaries as well as being the founder of ParentingGently.com, a site dedicated to promoting a positive, respect-based parenting model, and co-founder of NursingFreedom.org, a resource for mothers to learn their Federal and State breastfeeding laws and rights. She believes that parenting is one of the best vehicles for social change and that motherhood should be empowering for women not a reason to be relegated to the sidelines of society (and certainly not divided in “mommy wars”). She lives in small-town Ohio with her kids and husband, Pete. When she isn’t shaping young minds she likes to cook and sew and bring back traditional homemaking skills like churning butter! She also likes social media way too much so follow her on Twitter @babydust. Read her articles here and book her for speaking engagements here.
Patricia Valoy – Contributing Writer
Patricia Valoy is a Civil Engineer and an Assistant Project Manager at STV Inc., an architectural, engineering, planning, environmental and construction management firm based in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Civil Engineering and Spanish Literature. Patricia is an advocate for women and girls who wish to enter careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM.) She is also a co-host of a weekly radio show called, Let Your Voice Be Heard! Radio where she discusses social and political issues affecting our generation. Patricia also writes about feminist issues from the perspective of a Latina and a woman in a male-dominated field. Her writings can be found on blogs such as, STEMinist, DoubleXScience, Flyover Feminism, Sex and Fessenjoon, and Nicole Clark Consulting. She has her own blog, Womanisms, and is an avid Tweeter under the handle @Besito86. Read her articles here.
Raquel Reichard – Online Community Manager
Raquel is a Latina feminist, multimedia journalist and social media strategist based in Orlando, Florida. In just a few months, she’ll be trading in her sandals for boots to work on her MA in women’s studies and new media at NYU. In addition to her work at Everyday Feminism, Raquel also heads social media for Adios Barbie and writes and edits for Latinitas magazine. Follow her on Twitter @raquelreichard.
Sam Killermann – Contributing Writer
Sam is a comedian and social justice advocate based out of Austin, TX. Sam founded It’s Pronounced Metrosexual, a one-man comedy show and blog focusing on issues of identity, stereotyping, and oppression. But in a totally funny way. He performs his show and leads discussions about social justice and queer issues on college campuses around the US, and writes articles when he’s not on the road. In addition to It’s Pronounced Metrosexual, Sam runs a non-profit called Gamers Against Bigotry, and always has a half dozen other projects in the works. When he’s not doing social justice work, Sam enjoys cycling, cooking delicious veggie meals, and working with non-profits. Sam has a B.A. in Law & Society from Purdue University and a M.A. in College Student Development from Bowling Green. Follow him on Twitter @killermann, @ActuallyMetro, or @GAB648. Read his articles here.
Sara Alcid – Contributing Writer
Sara is a young feminist living and working in Washington, DC as a reproductive health and justice advocate. She grew up in a small town in Idaho and recently graduated from Bryn Mawr College, where she studied Political Science and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Sara loves thinking, reading and writing about the socially and personally transformative power of feminism, queer issues, and women’s health. Follow her on Twitter @SaraAlcid. Read her articles here and book her for speaking engagements here.
Sarah Vitorino – Contributing Writer
Sarah Vitorino, Ph.D. (“Dr. V”) is a motivational speaker who specializes in empowering people to overcome challenges and live fuller, freer, more meaningful lives. For nearly a decade, Dr. V has worked with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women who have managed to beat incredible odds and achieve success. She shares these experiences, along with positive psychological approaches, in seminars, workshops, and one-on-one coaching sessions to help everyday people live happier, more authentic lives. She holds a Ph.D. in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Emory University as well as a B.A. in Psychology from Westfield State University. For more information, please visit her site here or follow on Twitter @dr_sarah_v. Read her articles here and book her for speaking engagements here.
Shannon Ridgway – Contributing Writer
Shannon is from the great flyover state of South Dakota (the one with the monument of presidential heads). She has a B.A. in Spanish and Sociology, and is currently pursuing a second degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies. She is passionate about all things feminist and currently volunteers at her local NARAL Pro-Choice chapter. In her free time, Shannon enjoys reading, writing, jamming out to ’80s music and Zumba, and she will go to great lengths to find the perfect enchilada. She dreams of effecting great change in the world by working for a nonprofit agency or an organization that works toward social revolution. In the meantime, she’ll just try to make people laugh. Follow her on Twitter @sridgway1980. Read her articles here.
Takeallah Russell – Online Community Manager
Takeallah is a sex-positive feminist and student at American Public University, pursuing a B.A in Child Development with minors in Sociology and Gender Studies. She also operates her own business, Peaceful Moments Birth Services. As a single mother with an African American and Native American background, she hopes to motivate more women like herself to become involved in feminist efforts. Read her blog, The Burning Bra, and follow her on Twitter @TheBurningBra.
Dr. Venus Evans-Winters - Contributing Writer
Dr. Evans-Winters is an Associate Professor of Education and has dedicated her life to community service, women’s empowerment, and educational reform. She holds a Doctorate degree in Educational Policy Studies with a specialization in the Sociology of Education and Anthropology of Education and Masters degree in Social Work and is a certified school social worker. Dr. Evans-Winters research interests are the schooling of African American female students, urban children and adolescents, critical race theory in education, and feminism(s). She’s also the founder of the Circle of Sisterhood program and a psychotherapist in private practice. In her free time, she mentors college students preparing them for post-graduate degrees and prepares the next generation of preK-12 educators and higher education scholars to engage in critical dialogue on social and educational equity. She’s author of the book, Teaching Black Girls: Resiliency in Urban Classrooms, and several academic journal articles and book chapters. Read her academic work here and her online musings at The Freire Project and Teaching Urban Children & Adolescents. Follow her on Twitter @ileducprof and #BlackEdu and on Facebook. Read her articles here.
Virgie Tovar, MA – Contributing Writer
Virgie is one of the nation’s leading experts and lecturers on fat discrimination and body image. She is the editor of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. After teaching “Female Sexuality” at the University of California at Berkeley, where she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2005, she went onto host “The Virgie Show” (CBS Radio) in San Francisco. She is certified as a sex educator and was voted Best Sex Writer by the Bay Area Guardian in 2008 for her first book. Virgie and her work have been featured by MTV, the San Francisco Chronicle, Bust Magazine, Jezebel, 7×7 Magazine, XOJane, Golden Gate Express, the East Bay Express, and SF Weekly as well as on Women’s Entertainment Television and The Ricki Lake Show. She lives in San Francisco and offers workshops, lectures and coaching nationwide. Find her online at www.virgietovar.com.
