LEADERS

Leaders are women who serve as role models in the program. Leaders represent excellence in service, activism, and creativity, and are exceptional in both voice and action.  They are appointed for their commitment to making change, forging new paths, and redefining leadership.  SNLP students use their interaction with the Leaders to examine the way in which different types of leadership can be cooperative, accountable, ethical, and effective.

Majora Carter (2005): Born and raised in the South Bronx. Founder and executive director of Sustainable South Bronx (SSB), a community organization dedicated to the implementation of sustainable development projects for the South Bronx that are informed by the needs of the community and the values of environmental justice. Named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow.

Honorable Doris Ling-Cohan (2005): Born in Chinatown, New York and elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 2002, as first Asian American woman to serve on that bench.  She recently made national news when she handed down a ruling in Hernandez v. Robles, a case in which 5 same-sex couples sued New York, asserting that denying marriage rights violated the state constitution.

Dr. Shamita Das Dasgupta (2005): Assistant Professor in Psychology at Rutgers University.  Co-founded MANAVI, the first organization to focus on violence against South Asian women in the U.S., in 1985.  On the Advisory Boards of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women and The Battered Women's Justice Project, as well as on the Board of Directors of Applied Research on Violence Against Women Network and the Women's Law Project (NJ).

Bhairavi Desai (2004):  Labor activist and organizer. Co-Founder and Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.  At 21 years old, was named by Ms. Foundation as one of top 10 female role models in 1999. Led strike of over 25,000 taxi drivers, New York City’s largest and most effective in history. 

Dr. Angela Diaz (2007): Medical Doctor, Executive Director, Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center.

Deadria Farmer-Paellman (2005): Lawyer, researcher, and professor at the Southern New England School of Law as well as founder and chair of the Organization of Tribal Unity (a slavery reparations organization), she has spent five years connecting the economic success of corporations in America to slavery and asking those corporations for apologies and support for community programs.

Ina May Gaskin (2007): midwife, founder of The Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee and author of Spiritual Midwifery

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts (2002) is a Dutch doctor (OB/GYN) who founded Women on Waves, an international reproductive rights organization which legally provides contraception, abortion services, and reproduction counseling by offering their services in international waters near countries where reproductive rights are highly restricted. 

Cheri Honkala (2005): As Founder and Executive Director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, she has played a leading role in the Economic Human Rights Campaign, the March of the Americas, housing takeovers, and the first-ever summit of 100 anti-poverty organizations, as well as many international events to end global poverty.

Councilwoman Letitia James (2004):  Represents District 35, which includes Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and other parts of central Brooklyn.  As a Working Families Party candidate she was the first third-party candidate to be elected to City Council in three decades. (Cancelled.)

Sarah Jones (2002) is an Obie Award winning poet/performer who has created and performed Surface Transit, Women Can’t Wait, Your Revolution and most recently, Bridge and Tunnel.

Karyn Kusama (2002) is a filmmaker who wrote and directed Girlfight, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. She most recently directed Aeon Flux.

Winona LaDuke (2004):  Longtime environmentalist and indigenous rights activist.  Founding Director of White Earth Land Recovery Project.  Green Party Vice Presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (2003) represents the 9th District in California (Oakland and parts of Berkeley). She was chosen as Leader for her solitary and courageous stand against broad use of force in a vote just days after 9/11.

Chisun Lee (2003) is a reporter who covers issues of race, poverty, social justice, and politics as a staff writer for the Village Voice and contributor to such publications as ColorLines and Vibe.
 
Lee Che Leong (2004):  Pro-choice activist since she was 11 years old, and now, at age 27, is Director of the Teen Health Initiative at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Rachael Lloyd (2004):  Founder of GEMS (Girls Education and Mentoring Service) an organization for young girls and women who are affected and exploited by the sex industry.

Wilma Mankiller (2003) is an author, activist and the former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. As the leader of the Cherokee people she represented the second largest tribe in the United States and was the first female in modern history to lead a major Indian tribe.

Heather McCartney (2002) is an entrepreneur who received a micro-loan in order to start her company Ethnic Edibles, which makes cookies and cookie cutters shaped like traditional Cuban, Puerto Rican and African shapes and symbols.

Iris Morales (2007), Executive Director, Union Square Awards, community activist, documentary filmmaker, attorney, and former member Young Lords Party.

Ishle Yi Park (2007) performer and poet, former Poet Laureate of Queens and touring cast member of Tony-award winning Def Poetry Jam.

Muriel Petioni, M.D. (2002) has worked for over 70 years to support the health of her Harlem community.  She founded the Susan Smith McKenney Steward Medical Society, a black women’s physician’s association and later she established the Medical Women of the National Medical Association, which is now called the Council for the Consensus of Women. 

Lisa Price (2007), entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Carol’s Daughter, skin care company with the mission of “providing exceptional products inspired by nature with a love for family to enhance one’s sense of well being.”

Kate Rhee (2002) is a Founder and the Director of the Prison Moratorium Project; and a widely known and respected prison abolitionist and activist. Union Square Award winner in 2001.

Martina Robinson (2005),  is an artist, academic and activist researching the intersection between disability rights and global justice.

Susan Rodriguez and Petra Berrios (2003) are the co-founders of Sisterhood Mobilized for AIDS/HIV Research and Treatment (SMART), which was launched in 1997 to bring treatment information to women impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Loretta Ross (2007), women’s health activist and spokesperson, and founder of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective in Atlanta, GA.

Rossana Rosado (2004):  Journalist. Publisher and CEO of  el diario/LA PRENSA, the oldest Spanish newspaper in the country and the largest Spanish language daily in the northeast.

Arundhati Roy (2003) is the author of The God of Small Things, which won the 1997 Booker Prize. Roy is also an environmental, anti-war and social justice activist in India and around the world.

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (2002) is the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the US House of Representatives (first elected in 1992). She represents the 12th District of New York, parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

Deborah C. Wright (2003) is President and CEO of Carver Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank, a federally chartered savings bank and the nation's largest and oldest African- and Caribbean-American operated bank.