About Us
Leadership
o Staff Members
o Board of Directors
o Interns & Volunteers
As a peer-based organization, Access understands what lack of access to reproductive options and quality health care really means for women's lives. Our board, staff and interns include women with first-hand experience seeking birth control as low-income women without insurance; navigating the health care system as immigrants with limited English skills; raising children as single mothers; and having legal and illegal abortions. Access direct services and campaigns grow out of our collective experiences and are designed by and for women just like us.
Staff Members
Lisa Banh, Reproductive Healthline Coordinator
Lisa manages and implements the day-to-day efforts of the Reproductive Healthline. She is a former Intern who originally joined ACCESS in October 2006 working on Data Project Assistance and Development & Communications. Committed to social justice and youth empowerment, Lisa volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to help provide low-income families with affordable housing and has mentored underserved youth in programs such as D.U.S.T.Y (Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth) in Oakland, whose mission is to bridge the digital divide in this information technology age. She received her B.S. in Nutritional Sciences: Toxicology from UC Berkeley in 2007.Destiny Lopez, Executive Director
Destiny joined ACCESS in December 2006 and is responsible for management, fundraising, administration and strategic visioning for the organization. Previously, Destiny served as an account director at Fenton Communications, the largest public interest strategic communications firm in the country, vice president of programs at NARAL Pro-Choice New York and as a policy advocacy consultant to reproductive justice organizations. Destiny currently sits on the boards of both the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice. She received a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an M.P.A. from New York University.-
Guadalupe M. Rodriguez, Program and Public Policy Director
Lupe oversees ACCESS's direct services, including the Reproductive Healthline and Community Action program, and develops ACCESS's policy advocacy campaigns. Lupe joined ACCESS in July 2006 after spending time abroad working for Salud Integral Para la Mujer, an organization dedicated to promoting and defending women's sexual and reproductive rights in Mexico City. She participated in the Latinas Empowered for Action advocacy leadership training, through California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, and is now a member of a statewide Latina leadership network. She is also a recent graduate of the Women's Policy Institute (2007-2008), a policy advocacy training fellowship program sponsored by the Women's Foundation of California. She most recently completed the SPIN Academy, a communications training retreat, created by the Communications Leadership Institute. Lupe received a B.A in biology from Harvard University. -
Samara Azam, Development and Administrative Coordinator
Samara coordinates fundraising efforts to sustain vital programs and maintains the workplace environment at ACCESS. She joined ACCESS in October of 2008 after working at Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, and the UC Davis Women's Resources and Research Center and Cross Cultural Center. She has a background in community organizing, programming and events, resource referral, policy advocacy, and grassroots fundraising. Samara received Bachelor's degrees from the University of California, Davis, in International Relations and History with an emphasis on Middle East and South Asian Studies.
Board Of Directors
Zoe Harte, Chair
Zoe serves as the chief of staff for Global Customer Care at Yahoo! Inc. She has her MA in Feminist Philosophy and has worked as a clinic escort in Indianapolis; a hotline counselor for battered and substance-abusing women; and, a sexual assault survivor's advocate.Reichi Lee, Secretary
Reichi is a licensed attorney in California. Her practice is focused primarily on civil litigation, with an emphasis on labor and employment and construction defect cases. Currently, she is Of Counsel at Meyers Nave in their San Francisco office and a Teaching Fellow at Golden Gate University School of Law. Reichi is also a Board member of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area.Katiti Crawford, Treasurer
Katiti is Development Officer, Major Gifts at Earthjustice and was formerly Major and Planned Gifts Officer at Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. Katiti led the charge to stop the Wyoming Pharmacy Board from amending their bylaws and allowing their member pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on their religious beliefs. She has been involved with reproductive rights issues since the first time she volunteered to stuff envelopes at a local Planned Parenthood and the first choice rally she helped stage at Vassar College.Sara Mann
Sara is a licensed attorney in California. Currently she is corporate counsel at a wine shipping and logistics company in Napa. Her interest in the promotion of freedom and justice for women spans most of her life - or at least since age 10, when she secretly read all of the feminist literature that her older sister brought home from college. As a law student she was an editor of the UCLA Women's Law Journal and studied womens' legal issues, including reproductive rights jurisprudence. She has worked the front lines on a suicide prevention hotline, as an intern at the ACLU, and tutoring in inner city public schools.Jerrie Meadows
Now "retired", Jerrie worked in trade unions most of her life, as well as various civil rights and anti-war organizations. Jerrie also served on the Board of CARAL for more than 20 years. She continues to volunteer in political campaigns and on the board of the National Women's Political Caucus, Alameda-North.-
Silvia Estrada Murillo
Silvia graduated with a B.A. from UC Berkeley in 2008 with a major in Gender & Women's Studies and a minor in Education. Her focus was on public health and reproductive technologies. Silvia was an intern with ACCESS for 2 years during school and absolutely loved that it allowed her to see theory in action. She is now working with Planned Parenthood on the clinic floor. She continues working around reproductive health issues and health issues in general. Shailushi Baxi Ritchie
Shailushi is founder and lead consultant of Nonprofit Writing Solutions, a firm dedicated to meeting the written communications needs of public benefit agencies. She has more than a decade of experience on women.s issues including domestic violence, reproductive health, and other health and human service issues.
Interns & Volunteers
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Gabriela Castillo, Reproductive Healthline Intern
Gaby joined ACCESS in September 2008 as a healthline intern. Originally from Southern California, Gaby is in her last year at UC Berkeley majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration on sustainable development for women in rural Latin America and a minor in Portuguese. Gaby is a member of on- and off-campus organizations that promote social justice in her community and in the Americas, including the Latin America Student Association, Resources for Community Development, Family Violence Law Center and Young Queers United for Empowerment. -
Dorothy Cervantes
Dorothy joined ACCESS in June 2009 during her third year of attending UC Santa Cruz where she is studying to obtain bachelor degrees in Community Studies and History. At UCSC she is involved in various on and off campus organizations including the Santa Cruz Aids Project and the Student Health Outreach Program's Condom Co-op. She enjoys a good grape soda, and curling up to read reproductive justice handbooks. -
Olimpia Lee
Olimpia joined ACCESS in June 2009 as a healthline intern. Originally from Mexico City, she is in her last year at Oberlin College double majoring in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and Latin American Studies. She is currently writing her Honors thesis exploring the reproductive rights of immigrant Latina women in the United States. Olimpia is an active member of on- and off-campus organizations that promote health and social justice through education. She is particularly passionate about working towards environmental sustainability, women’s health, and youth empowerment. -
Annie Rigelhaupt
Annie Rigelhaupt, an Oakland native, is an intern looking to empower women and immigrants in their struggle for reproductive justice. She graduated from University of California San Diego with a Bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies. She has worked and volunteered with various local organizations promoting social justice, and reproductive health rights and education. In addition, she worked volunteering in Brazil to service and support people living with HIV and AIDS. Outside of ACCESS, she works as a bartender and is studying at U.C. Berkeley Extension towards a credential to teach English to speakers of other languages. -
Chibo Shinagawa
Chibo Shinagawa, originally from Ithaca, NY, joined ACCESS in June 2009 as a Community Mobilization Intern. Prior to entering ACCESS, Chibo was the Co-president of the Asian Pacific Islander Sisterhood Alliance on the Mills College campus, Constituency Outreach Chair for the National Asian American Students Conference, and a current member of Berkeley Advocates for Sexual Health. In addition, Chibo previously was a Helen Zia Fellow for Social Change (2008) in which she campaigned for Marriage Equality. As an Intern at Choice USA, she had the pleasure to help organize a contingent of Reproductive Justice Youth Ambassadors to attend the US Social Forum in Atlanta, GA. Her passions for reproductive health and rights include access to information about sexual and reproductive health especially for communities of color, young women, immigrant women, and queer women. Her current research is on transgender interracial relationships and the politics of identity and consciousness. Chibo is entering her final year at Mills College, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Ethnic Studies.