Leadership Council

Current Bitch Leadership Council members

Razan Ahmed

Age: 18
Current Location: DC Metro Area
What you're up to: Writing, acting, reading every good blog I can find, and, unfortunately, high school.
Favorite feminist role model: Shirin Ebadi
Favorite pop culture artifact: Clue (the 1985 film)
Secretly wishes she were: a stand-up comedienne

Meghan Amato

Age: 23
Current Location: Long Island, New York
What you're up to: I'm preparing to start graduate school where I will be studying Sociology with a concentration in Sex and Gender!
Favorite feminist role model: Naomi Wolf! She is such a strong woman that is not afraid to speak her mind. Because of her, I have resisted to conform to the standards of beauty that have been socially constructed in our society. Instead, I have learned to better appreciate my inner and outer beauty and only live up to my own standards!
Favorite pop culture artifact: I have a huge collection of McCall's magazines from the 1960s. I love looking at these magazines and seeing how gender roles and expectations of the time played into the type of magazine ads and articles that were in every issue.
Secretly wishes she were: able to live in Ellen DeGeneres's shoes for a day. She is a strong, real, smart, and funny woman... and she gets to dance just about everywhere she goes!

Rachael Bazzett

Age: 21
Current Location: Honolulu, HI
What you're up to: On exchange for the year at the University of Hawaii
Favorite feminist role model: Gioconda Belli
Secretly wishes she were: Rachel Maddow!

Lena Chen

Age: 22
Current Location: Boston, MA
What you're up to: Senior at Harvard and Freelance Writer/Blogger (TheChicktionary.com)
Favorite feminist role model: Esther Greenwood, the heroine of Sylvia Plath's semi-autobiographic memoir, The Bell Jar
Favorite pop culture artifact: Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
Secretly wishes she were: not the size of an Oompa-Loompa.

Becky Dier-McComb

Age: 22
Current Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
What you're up to: One year away from a Joint Honours in Women’s Studies and Political Science
Favorite feminist role model: Kathleen Hanna
Favorite pop culture artifact: “This is what a feminist looks like” on everything.
Secretly wishes she were: A Librarian

Edenne Fournier

Age: 20
Current Location: Montréal
What you're up to: Studying International Relations and International Law, blogging at Jesuisfeministe.com (a French Canadian blog about pop culture), and learning more about Middle Eastern feminists
Favorite feminist role model: Simone De Beauvoir
Favorite pop culture artifact: Big German unisex geeky glasses
Secretly wishes she were: A Scandinavian feminist writer wearing red lipstick

Laura Hadden

Age: 24
Current Location: Brooklyn, NY
What you're up to: I'm a documentary filmmaker, radio producer, and non-profiteer at The Moth, a live storytelling organization.
Favorite feminist role model: Amy Goodman and all the other amazing feminist mediamakers out there
Favorite pop culture artifact: The B movie classic, Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death
Secretly wishes she were: A subversive country music diva and/or a roller derby girl named Galloping Gertie

Alicia Harris

Age: 23
Current Location: San Francisco, CA
What you're up to: working on environmental justice and health inequities programs at a non-profit org, spending hours on gchat with dear friend (and fellow leadership council-er) Laura Hadden, stress baking, missing cooperative living and getting nervous about starting the grad school application process.
Favorite feminist role model: the folks behind South End Press. without them, i wouldn't have the work of Andrea Smith, Vandana Shiva and so many others on my bookshelf (and constantly on my mind).
Favorite pop culture artifact: John Waters' mustache.
Secretly wishes she were: watching reruns of Golden Girls and discussing caftans with Andre Leon Talley

Heba Jahama

Age: 16
Current Location: Amman, Jordan
What I'm up to: Sifting through schoolwork, eating M&Ms. Asking questions, writing--and always wanting to do more of both.
Favorite Feminist Role Model: Today? Staceyann Chin.
Favorite Pop Culture Artifact: Decapitated Barbie doll. (sorry, Barbie, I was only seven, but I'd probably do it again if I got the chance)
Secretly wishes she were: A bumblebee.

Sasha Langford

Age: 20
Current Location: Vancouver, BC
What I'm up to: Working with a local community group doing media literacy education for youth, resisting the effects of the Olympics and gentrification in my city, creating street art and performance poetry
Favorite Feminist Role Model: Kathleen Hanna, because she's the first person who made me realize that feminism is cool, and I have to believe she did the same for many other young women
Favorite Pop Culture Artifact: Patsy Cline's 12 Greatest Hits
Secretly Wishes she were: Sitting in the forest on Saltspring Island, BC

Francesca (Frankie) Mastrangelo

Age: 22
Current Location: Winter Park, FL
What you're up to: Hosting a weekly feminist talk radio show, "The F-Bomb", on WPRK 91.5 FM; serving as Managing Editor for specs, an international journal of arts and culture at Rollins College; promoting worker’s rights/economic equality through the Rollins Student Labor Action Project; discoursing on the fundamental human right to nap.
Favorite feminist role model: Gilda Radner
Favorite pop culture artifact: The 80s television show, Kids Incorporated.
Secretly wishes she were: a character in an Octavia Butler novel.

Amber Sollenberger Matthews

Age: 20 years old
Current Location: Oakland, California
What you're up to: I serve bagels to the hungry people of Berkeley to pay my rent, but for true fulfillment I tutor kids in San Francisco and help them with some awesome writing projects. I also spend a few hours a week volunteering at a Berkeley LGBT counseling center.
Favorite feminist role model: there are too many to name, but right now I am enamored with Michelle Tea and her prodigious creative output.
Favorite pop culture artifact: anything related to the Golden Girls, a show I've loved since my middle school days.
Secretly wishes she were: a queer Betty Crocker

Kellie Morgan McClure

Age: 22
Current Location: New Orleans, LA
What you're up to: While going to school in Small Town Texas I waited enough tables to move to New Orleans, a city that seduced me while I did construction for it's rebuild in 2009. I'm here to explore myself and this place from top to bottom and am constantly inspired by the art, music, and philanthropy happening here. I work at a 60's boutique and smoke shop and am currently writing a movie with help from my girlfriends. I enjoy yoga, science fiction, sunflowers, and long walks on the river.
Favorite feminist role model: Ariel Levy, Natalie Angier, Agent Scully, and Lisa Simpson.
Favorite pop culture artifact: Mood rings.
Secretly wishes she were: A rock star, a ballerina, or a bunny rabbit.

Lizamarie Mohammed

Age: 22
Current Location: NYC
What you're up to: Currently I'm working in marketing at a software company that creates technological solutions for grants management for the giving community worldwide. I also recently took my lsats and am considering my options for graduate school. I am trying to keep my foot in the feminist world and not lose touch with what I am really working for now in life that I've graduated and am back in the "real world."
Favorite feminist role model: I have many but one that comes to mind right now is Alice Paul.
Favorite pop culture artifact: This answer is going to be interpreted differently but I'm going to say Lady Gaga - She may be falling into the typical role of female artists in regards to being sexualized, but the difference here is that she is owning and it and not apologizing for it. She is doing what she wants, enjoying life and not trying to bring down other women around her. Lady Gaga answers to no one but herself. She is this generations Madonna in my eyes and is therefore my favorite pop culture artifact.
Secretly wishes she were: I secretly wish I was Margaret Sanger - without the underlying eugenics issue. She started a great revolution for women with pushing for contraceptives and empowering women to take charge of their role in family planning.

Katie Presley

Age: 23
Current Location: Los Angeles, CA/ Portland, OR
What you're up to: Writing, reading, making art, volunteering, working a day job to save travel money, making life difficult for "The Man" in all its forms.
Favorite feminist role model: Any feminist who existed before the word "feminist" existed, or exists today in a place where their is no word for "feminism."
Favorite pop culture artifact: Two-way tie: Singing *NSYNC poster circa 1999, or entire boxed set of The West Wing, presented in fake presidential briefcase.
Secretly wishes she were: Jean Grey, if Jean Grey had gone to a small college and listened to Ani DiFranco

Lily Reid

Age: 18
Current Location: Wellington, New Zealand
What you're up to: I'm in my first year at university studying Media Studies and Art History
Favorite feminist role model: All of the amazing women I've met through the YWCA of Wellington
Favorite pop culture artifact: "I Would Die 4 U" by Prince
Secretly wishes she were: The Slayer

Rosy Ricks

Age: 23-ish
Current Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
What you're up to: Working as an Americorps Public Ally Fellow until July, but after that, it's all freelance! I am also a core facilitator for Think Outside the Bomb National Youth Network, a group of people (young and old) working toward a nuclear free future. Contact me if you want more info on Disarmament Summer.
Favorite feminist role model: Every single mother who works her fingers to the bone, every woman who walks away from an abusive situation, every woman who can praise her sisters instead of tearing them down.
Favorite pop culture artifact: Anything related to the Beat Generation, particularly Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." Kerouac captured the otherness of counter-cultural existence when he said, "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!"
Secretly wishes she were: Able to live off the grid with a group of amazing people in perfect harmony with ourselves and our world.

Fiona Rowles

Age: 19
Current Location: Bellingham, WA
What you're up to: Pursuing a degree in Death studies
Favorite feminist role model: Dorothy Parker
Favorite pop culture artifact: Lady Gaga
Secretly wishes she were: A chess prodigy!

Jazmyn Sadri

Age: 15 3/4
Current Location: Portland, OR
What you're up to: Tentatively trying out freeganism while working towards my Associate's degree and Certificate in Women's Studies as a full time student at Clark College.
Favorite feminist role model: Pippi Longstocking
Favorite pop culture artifact: Harry Potter
Secretly wishes she were: A ginger

Anita Sarkeesian

Age: 26
Current Location: San Francisco, CA
What you're up to: I am currently finishing up my master's degree where my work has focused on representations of women in science fiction/fantasy television. I also run a feminist pop culture video blog at www.FeministFrequency.com
Favorite feminist role model: bell hooks
Favorite pop culture artifact: The Television (but more specifically TV shows, without the commercials of course)
Secretly wishes she were: a technopath (the ability to manipulate technology with your mind... think of Micah from Heroes).

Jenny Smith

Age: 20
Current Location: Portland, Oregon
What you're up to: After serving as the Associate Director of the Bus Project's PolitiCorps program (political leadership development bootcamp for young folks) during 2009, I'm now the Volunteer and Field Coordinator for NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon where I'm working on increasing women's awareness of and access to emergency birth control, organizing student organizers on campuses around the state, electing pro-choice officials, and lots more.
Favorite feminist role model: Tupac Shakur. Usually when we think of Hip-Hop, we think of misogynist lyrics and demeaning music videos. While Tupac's art often stood in contradiction to itself, his feminist messages remind us that shattering stereotypes isn't neat or simple, but complex and a constant struggle.
Favorite pop culture artifact: Tickets to my first concert: Avril Lavigne. Let's not talk about it...
Secretly wishes she were: I'm just happy being me. And by that I mean Michelle Obama.

Kathryn Terrell

Age: 22
Current Location: Cleveland, OH
What you're up to: I'm currently working in higher education with a college access and retention program for students from low-income backgrounds. I'm also managing a volunteer-run K-6 literacy program for Cleveland public schools and libraries.
Favorite feminist role model: Kaia Wilson
Favorite pop culture artifact: The Girl Sleuth: A Feminist Guide by Bobbie Ann Mason (1975)
Secretly wishes she were: Solving a mystery

Nancy Thebaut

Age: 24
Current Location: Belen, New Mexico
What I'm up to: I work for feminist artist Judy Chicago and her husband, photographer Donald Woodman
Favorite feminist role model: it's a tie: Pearl Cleage and Alice Paul
Favorite pop culture artifact: pet rocks
Secretly wishes I were: A Guerrilla Girl

Natalia Thompson

Age: 18
Current Location: New Haven, CT
What I'm up to: I'm a first-year student at Yale University hoping to double-major in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Ethnicity, Race and Migration. I serve on the boards of the Yale Women's Center and Fierce Advocates for Equality at Yale (FAERY), an LGBTQ advocacy group. I also mentor queer youth in New Haven and participate in MEChA de Yale, a Chicano social justice group. In my "free time," I like to swim, take roadtrips, hone my addiction to certain blogs, and make messes in other peoples' kitchens.
Favorite feminist role model: That's a toughie -- probably a tie between Audre Lorde, Ani DiFranco, Frida Kahlo, Rebecca Walker, and Gloria Anzaldua.
Favorite pop culture artifact: Does Bitch count? If not, Rachel Maddow. Or Tina Fey. (If one could package their brilliance and call it an artifact.)
Secretly wish I were: a hot barista.

Janet Y. Tsai

Age: 25
Current Location: Boulder, Colorado
What you're up to: Teaching robotics and yoga (not simultaneously... yet) to students of all ages and backgrounds. Writing formal math lesson plans for the state of Florida and informal essays and blogs about being a female engineer. Craigslist-stalking odd jobs to make it through until Fall 2010, when I will enter grad school in the field of engineering education!
Favorite feminist role model: Tough to choose one favorite, but I'll go with Ada Lovelace, "the enchantress of numbers," for her amazing accomplishments, notable mathematical mind, and pioneering work as the creator of the first algorithm and concept of a computer program. Followed by the ENIAC "refrigerator ladies", the original computers, programmers, and computer scientists who are just now finally being recognized some 60 years after their work laid the foundation for the personal computer and the technology that surrounds us today.
Favorite pop culture artifact: Computer Engineer Barbie! Just kidding... for now. I also find the Hello Kitty Roomba weirdly indicative of cultural differences yet I am pleased to admit I own one.
Secretly wishes she were: Famous. Influential. A spitfire. A superhero. A machinist. A mascot.

Noelle Yasso

Age: 21
Current Location: Washington, DC
What you're up to: currently working on finishing a thesis on comic books, graduating from college, and figuring out what to do once both of these things are done. Suggestions are most welcome.
Favorite feminist role model: bell hooks
Favorite pop cultural artifact: The psychedelic music video for "C'est La Vie", that B*Witched song filled with double entendres.
Secretly wishes she were: one of MIA's backup dancers.