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Trust Women’s Elizabeth Blackwell Bill Writing Competition for Fall 2011 is now closed.
Thank you for everyone who participated and made this competition possible!
We received a number of wonderful bills and we are incredibly pleased and excited to announce our winners:
1st Place
Sarah Kleinschmidt
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
The Informed Consent Equality Act
Mandy Hagseth
University of South Dakota Law School
3rd Place
Abortion Support Act
Tia Lincoln
University of Oklahoma
Judging Panel
Trust Women would like to extend our deepest thanks to our phenomenal judges for all of their hard work and dedication in judging our wonderful entries.
Farah Diaz-Tello, National Advocates for Pregnant Women: Farah Diaz-Tello is a staff attorney with National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Her work at NAPW has focused on the rights to medical decision-making and birthing with dignity, and on using the international human rights framework to protect the humanity of pregnant women regardless of their circumstances. She is a graduate of the City University of New York School of Law, where she was a Haywood Burns Fellow in Civil and Human Rights, and of the University of Texas at Austin. You can find more information on National Advocates for Pregnant Women at http://advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/.
Monica Raye Simpson is a proud graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, one of the nation’s historically black institutions of higher learning. During her Communications studies at JCSU, Monica became deeply involved in LGBTQ issues and community affairs on and off campus, thus beginning her journey as an organizer and activist for social change and human rights.
Upon graduation, Monica became the first person of color hired at The Lesbian & Gay Community Center of Charlotte where she served as Operations Director.
Most recently, she served as the Grassroots Fundraising Coordinator and the first Development Director of Color Fellow for Grassroots Leadership. Before stepping into her fundraising position, Monica served as the Ujamaa Coordinator where she worked to develop young African American philanthropists, fundraisers and activists in the South. Currently, Monica serves as the Development Coordinator with SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.
Monica is also dedicated to using her gifts of spoken word, acting and singing throughout her local community, and abroad, to help uplift and energize the social justice movement. Monica lives by a quote from Paul Robeson, “If the artist does not create then the world suffers.” You can find more information on SisterSong at http://www.sistersong.net/.
