Meet the Volunteer Staff:
Founder/Executive Director
Holly Kearl is the founder of the nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment and the community manager for Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship. She also has extensive experience as a consultant. In 2018, Ms. Magazine included her on a list of 100 of the “most pathbreaking, important and widely read feminist scholars and activists.”
She has authored three books, three national studies and 90 op-eds and articles for outlets ranging from New York Times and CNN to the Huffington Post and Ms. Magazine. She received a Master’s degree from George Washington University in Public Policy/Women’s Studies and degrees in History and Women’s Studies from Santa Clara University in CA. Follow her on Twitter.
2018 Social Media and Website Manager (unpaid)
Meghna Bhat, PhD (she/her/hers) is a pro bono gender and social justice scholar and educator whose work is informed by being a survivor of sexual violence and street harassment, a first-generation immigrant from India, and South Asian woman. Meghna has 14 years of extensive work experiences both in campus and community settings, ranging from interdisciplinary gender violence research and writing, program administration and consultation, education, and community organizing.
She worked at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) in the PreventConnect program for a year and served as a blog correspondent for Stop Street Harassment in 2015. Meghna is honored to have recently joined the Board of Directors at the National Girls and Women of Color Council, Inc. She received her PhD in Criminology, Law, and Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) with a specialization in Gender and Women Studies.
2017 International Anti-Street Harassment Week Manager
Britnae Purdae works as a public communications specialist at NC Institute for Public Health. She has an MA in Global Affairs, specialization in Global Health, from George Mason University. She was the 2015 Anti-SH Week manager and was a former SSH blog correspondent.
2016 International Anti-Street Harassment Week Social Media Manager
Lauren McEwen is a journalist based in D.C. She works as a digital editor/editorial aide in the Washington Post’s Style section, where she packages content for the web, conducts photo research, manages social media, sets up concert reviews, arranges photo shoots and more. She’s written about street harassment, media and workplace representation, nerd culture, TV shows and music for a number of outlets. She has served as a SSH blog correspondent and has an essay in the 2015 book Stop Global Street Harassment: Growing Activism Around the World.
2016 Special Projects Volunteers
Mariana Díaz is a senior student at the University of Costa Rica, graduating in February 2016 with a Bachelor Degree in Social Wok. Currently she’s working at the Women’s Jail in Costa Rica, in the Social Work Department. She’s very passionate about the feminist movement, gender studies, specially the dynamics between gender and media and injustice in general. She’s starting her thesis about street harassment and the positive and negative implications social media has had in it. She wants to eventually get into LSE to get a Masters Degree in Gender, Media and Culture. In her spare time, she practices CrossFit and spends time with friends.
Colleen Hodgetts is proud to support the work of Stop Street Harassment. When she was five, she wrote that her wish was “kerij and freedum for all pepal.” She still holds onto that hope. She lives in NYC with her husband and can’t work without listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.
Jill Santos is from Northern California and a graduate of Southern Oregon University with a degree in Business Administration, Marketing. She currently serves as social media and marketing coordinator positions both for work and volunteer for non-profits.
2015 International Anti-Street Harassment Week Manager
Britnae Purdae recently graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA with an MA in Global Affairs, specialization in Global Health. A new transplant to the Triangle Area, NC, Britnae is looking forward to pursuing a career promoting women’s health in a community development setting. An avid reader and writer, Britnae is currently enjoying working as a free-lance writer for several non-profits and start-ups and daydreaming about traveling the world.
2015 Social Media Volunteers
Maria del Rio is a gender specialist with three years experience as NGO’s international projects coordinator and one year experience in field research and community outreach. In December 2012, she earned a Master of Science degree from New York University in international relations, development, and gender. Her focus of research has been women’s access to citizenship through the use of public spaces and international women’s movements.
Khiara Ortiz is a recent graduate of New York University with a BAS in Journalism and Psychology. She currently works in New York City as an assistant in the contracts department for Hachette Book Group, a publishing company, and is passionate about writing, language, and literature. She is also very interested in the feminist movement, specifically in ending street harassment. Living in New York City and experiencing this type of sexual oppression first-hand has made her become aware of the degree to which it is still a problem in societies across the world and just as much of a crisis as heightened forms of sexual violence. Khiara is a Blog Correspondent and will be representing SSH in New York City. If you also live in NYC and would like to collaborate with her, please feel free to contact her at KhiaraOrtiz@gmail.com.
2014 Spring Intern:
Kendra Corbin is a senior at Shenandoah University. She is graduating in May 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communications and a minor in Women’s Studies. She uses feminism, passion, and sass to encourage gender equality for all. She will help help with the SSH blog, social media and planning for International Anti-Street Harassment Week.
2013 Interns:
Talia Hagerty recently completed her master’s degree in Global Affairs at New York University, with a concentration in peacebuilding and peace economics. Her research focuses on participatory peacebuilding, poverty reduction, economic conflict and violence, informal economies globally, and the drug trade in Latin America specifically. At CGA, Talia was a leadership member of Lysistrata, the Center for Global Affairs Gender Working Group, and recipient of the inaugural Lysistrata Travel Grant for her research on economic justice.
Talia earned a BA in Economics from Eckerd College in 2008 and then worked for women’s economic empowerment at the Greenheart Shop social enterprise in Chicago. Since moving to New York City in 2010, she has worked on violence containment research at the Institute for Economics and Peace and collaborated with regulators, civil society, and the private sector at the environmental consulting firm Blue Marble Group (formerly Matthiessen Strategies). Talia blogs about feminism, Mexico, economics, and peace at www.theoryofchange.wordpress.com and you can find her on twitter at @taliahagerty.
Rickelle Mason is an undergraduate senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. With a major in Psychology and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, she has a passion for feminist psychology, and using community-based participatory research to dismantle gender-based violence. She has worked for several years in the university’s Community Psychology Research Lab, which was recently the recipient of the “Outstanding Training in Community Psychology” International Award. There she assists in conducting research that encompasses the development, implementation and evaluation of mental health services, educational initiatives, advocacy programs, community interventions, amongst other things.
In her spare time, she likes to visit her family back home in Philadelphia, give advice to one of her 10 siblings, and read as many books as she possibly can. She also enjoys taking walks that last for miles and end with iced coffee. Follow her on Twitter, @RickelleM.
Meet the 2014 Social Media Volunteers:
Each social media volunteer is in charge of social media one week day per week.
* Lea Goelnitz is a feminist activist and freelancing political scientist, dealing mainly with women´s rights issues in Berlin, Germany. She is also involved with the women´s rights NGO Discover Football.
* Sarah Hyde is a Christian feminist who got tired of being hollered at, followed, and threatened while living and working at a non-profit in inner-city San Francisco. She is an undergraduate senior at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, with one year left of her Bachelor’s of Social Work degree. When she’s not blogging about her experiences at unconventionalsarah.wordpress.com, she’s eating good food, practicing yoga, exploring and experiencing the world with friends, and generally pursuing a good laugh.
* Muneera is from Lowell, MA, a small city outside Boston. She currently resides outside of DC with her cat and plans to attend college in Richmond in the fall of 2014.
Other Volunteers:
Katie Broendel, MD, USA, Media Relations.
Nelissa Torres, San Juan, PR, Translator.
Nelissa is a talented translater with a Master of Arts degree in Translation from Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, PR.
Meagan Harlowe, VA, USA, Graphic Design.
Meagan is a feminist, graphic and web designer who graduated from George Mason University with an English degree. She is now expanding her freelance work at Harlowe Designs. Like her company on Facebook. She design the 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers homepage graphic!
Maya Pincus, Puerto Rico, Fundraising.
Maria del Rio Sanin, Delhi, India, Special Projects.
