RHAP is always excited to have new voices and perspectives join our team. This past month, we were delighted to welcome a new employee and two new interns!

Naomi Legros, Operations Associate – I’m excited to be a part of the RHAP team and explore the world of public health through the reproductive health lens! As a newbie to reproductive rights and health care, I hope to bring the same passion that I have about bringing awareness about intersecting issues (race, class, and gender) in black and brown communities to this platform, as they too overlap in many ways. The exposure that I’ve briefly had here so far has been sharpening my understanding of the many injustices that the government and systems of power have been enforcing on these marginalized groups of people in terms of their bodies and their choice to do what they deem right for themselves. I’ve always been pro-choice, but with this opportunity, I get to represent my beliefs in a productive way. Lastly, I am hoping that this experience affirms my short-term goals of pursuing a Masters in Public Health.

I graduated from Tufts University in 2014 with a dual degree in American Studies and Africana Studies with an English minor. My academic passion has lied within representation of the Black Diaspora in the arts and humanities. When I’m not at work with RHAP, I volunteer at my alumni high school and college program, overseeing a cohort of mentors and mentees as they navigate college as first-year students. I am also doing museum research for a side project within the realm of African-American history, documenting and cataloging assigned artifacts in topics of entertainment and war. You can always find me reading (for fun!), engulfed in a soccer match, or rediscovering this amazing city!

Hailey Broughton-Jones, Communications Intern – Originally from Brooklyn, I am a rising junior at Wesleyan University, majoring in African-American Studies. I am excited to be returning to RHAP as a Communications Intern after working with RHAP as a high school intern two years ago. I first became involved in reproductive justice through conducting research on pro-choice non-profits for a high school project. My classmates and I had the great opportunity and privilege to interview Executive Director, Lisa Maldonado, about her line of work and the mission of the organization. Ever since then I haven’t been able to stay away!

Since the 10th grade, my understanding of reproductive justice has grown and continues to evolve as I reflect on how different aspects of our privileged identities shape the spaces we work and organize within—especially when it comes to abortion rights. It is essential in any line of social justice work to reflect on how our privileged identities intersect in organizing spaces, silencing those who have been historically marginalized within “liberation” movements. Specifically within reproductive justice, I am interested in providing comprehensive reproductive health care to low-income black and brown communities, especially communities that have historically experienced abuse by medical institutions.

I look forward to diving into my work during the month of June and enjoying my time learning from the awesome leaders within RHAP’s team. Outside of RHAP I love working with little humans at summer camps, biking, swimming, and organizing on campus within the Black Student Union. As a foodie, I am always down to grab a bite!

IonaPearl Reid-Eaton – RRASC Intern – I (her+she) was born in New York, grew up in North Carolina, and attend school in Massachusetts, where I am a rising fourth-year at Hampshire College. I study Reproductive Justice with a focus on abortion (access, politics, and  procedures) and sexuality education, as well as journalism.

I was introduced to the Reproductive Justice movement when I began working for the Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) program during my first semester of college (fall 2013), and most recently served as one of the organization’s Student Group Co-Coordinators. When I started working for CLPP, I began to understand intersectionality and the interconnectedness of oppressions. I knew I was helping people and I felt great about the work I was doing, but I didn’t want it to be all that I was doing, so I distanced myself.

I began to connect to my work personally in March 2015, after the death of my grandmother, and that, as well as monitoring RHAP’s “Demystifying the Manual Vacuum Aspiration Abortion: The Papaya Workshop” at the 2015 CLPP Conference inspired me to pursue becoming an abortion provider.

In my free time, I enjoy reading (Sister Outsider), eating (Sour Patch Children), and listening to Lemonade on repeat.