Staff

Julie Falk, executive director

julie(at)b-word.org

Julie Falk was hired as Bitch Media’s first Executive Director in June 2009. She previously served as Executive Director of the Center for Health Justice in Los Angeles and the Prison Media Fund in Cambridge, MA.Born in Kentucky, Julie is a graduate of Swarthmore College. She is thrilled to have landed in Portland OR, where she enjoys cooking and eating the local bounty and exploring the town through the eyes of her children and dog, Copper.

Favorite TV: Perry Mason, Rockford Files, Designing Women, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire

Favorite Movie: Rear Window

Favorite Authors: Carson McCullers, Carolyn Keene, MFK Fisher, Georges Simenon, Lois Lowry

Turn-ons: bakeries, used bookstores, German writing instruments, clean linens

Turn-offs: industrial meat production, extreme temperatures, inconsistency

Andi Zeisler, cofounder and editorial/creative director

andi(at)b-word.org

@andizeisler

Andi is the co-founder of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. A longtime freelance writer and illustrator, Andi's work has appeared in numerous periodicals and newspapers, including Ms., Mother Jones, Utne, BUST, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Women's Review of Books, and Hues. She is a former pop-music columnist for the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, and also contributed to the anthologies Young Wives' Tales, Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women's Friendships (both from Seal Press), and Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit (Crown). She is the coeditor of BitchFest: 10 Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, and the author of Feminism and Pop Culture (Seal Press). She speaks frequently on the subject of feminism and the media at various colleges and universities, and is currently working on a second book about feminism and popular culture.

Andi graduated from The Colorado College in 1994 with a B.A. in Fine Art that has proved to be more or less useless, though she did use it to secure a job designing rugs for Pottery Barn back in the day. She passes her non-Bitch hours watching television, hanging out with her family, embroidering portraits of dogs, and subscribing to whatever magazines are left on Earth. Her other interests include drawing, snacking, traveling, speed Scrabble, and the interrobang.

Fatal weakness: candy, naps

Crushes: Gram Parsons, Steve Buscemi, Hugh Laurie, John and Andy from The Bugle

Favorite TV shows: True Blood, Mad Men, Parks and Recreation, Freaks and Geeks, Project Runway, Game of Thrones, Dexter, and dog shows (but not shows about dogs).

Favorite authors: Laurie Colwin, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, Mary Roach, Alison Bechdel, Rona Jaffe

Turn-ons: clogs, flocked wallpaper, the Winter Olympics, rainbow cookies

Turnoffs: lip liner, improper punctuation, Gwyneth Paltrow

Secretly wishes she were a: zookeeper

Kate Lesniak, development director

kate(at)b-word.org

Kate arrived at Bitch Media in the Fall of 2012.

Most recently, she served as Deputy Finance Director for Democracy for America where she leveraged her passion for organizing into the resources that it takes to fund progressive projects. Her work before Bitch ranges from issue organizing for marriage equality in Vermont and Maine to grant writing for Corporate Accountability International’s public water initiatives to coaching goalkeeping at youth soccer camps.

Kate graduated from the University of Vermont with a BA in Political Science and Sociology and also served as team captain for the Women’s Ice Hockey team.

Fatal weakness: hamburgers

Favorite TV shows: Parks and Recreation, House of Cards

Turn-ons: fresh snow, outdoor projects, live music, swimming

Turn-offs: people who are rude to canvassers

Movies: Rachel Getting Married, V for Vendetta, Harold and Maude

Celebrities: Hillary Clinton, Angela Davis

Poets: ee cummings, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich

Music: Ella Fitzgerald, Fleet Foxes, Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, Brandi Carlile, Crosby, Stills Nash and Young, Robyn, John Coltrane

Secretly wishes she were a: musician

Kristin Rogers Brown, art director

kristin(at)b-word.org

Kristin Rogers Brown joined Bitch Media as Art Director in March, 2010. Though her first love in design is print, she loves finding the right media for the message and believes in keeping a balance of form, function, and delight in all the details of her work whether it’s brand development, packaging, identity, or web design. In addition to designing Bitch, Kristin is a freelance designer, educator, and former vice president of AIGA Portland (American Institute of Graphic Arts). She has worked with sustainable design and design community initiatives for a variety of clients, and has been instrumental in work with AIGA Portland’s sustainability team (established in 2008), Worldstudio’s Urban Forest Project, and Design Week Portland.

Born outside of Chicago, Kristin is a graduate of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. When not designing, Kristin frequents waterparks, swoons for David Bowie, stalks jewelry designers and illustrators, attempts to sew, and runs or rides her bike around Portland. She is part insomniac, part narcoleptic, and quite possibly the messiest perfectionist ever.

Forever celebrity crushes: David Bowie, Wayne Coyne, Mike Rowe, Adam Scott, Parker Posey

Favorite music of the moment: Bowie, Neko Case, Sharon Jones, Budos Band, Jawbreaker, Mars Volta

Favorite movies: Bottle Rocket, Hoosiers, Little Miss Sunshine, Amorres Perros, Christopher Guest in every flavor

Favorite TV shows: 30 Rock, Alan Alda’s Scientific American Frontiers, Breaking Bad, Arrested Development, Adventure Time, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Trailblazers’ basketball, Discovery Channel-style reality shows, and most things related to law and/or order

Favorite books: Cruddy (Linda Barry), Dubliners (James Joyce), Spook (Mary Roach), Yehuda Amachai’s poetry, Raymond Carver in general

Turn-ons: scrabble, mix tapes (or CDs, since it’s not 1983), road trips, crabcake benedicts, Radiolab

Turn-offs: bad teeth, slam poetry, MOTHS, using the wrong “to”, “too”, or “two” (ditto for “your/you’re”)

Secretly wishes she were a: botanist

Kjerstin Johnson, editor in chief

kjerstin(at)b-word.org

Kjerstin Johnson was born and raised in Kansas City proper (that is, Missouri) and moved to Oregon with her parents soon after she had moved to Minnesota for college. In 2011, she graduated from Portland State University's master's program in writing and publishing, but has since continued research in her previous fields of expertise, namely old-timey comics and meticulously crafted mix CDs. Kjerstin has volunteered with the Rock'n'Roll Camp for Girls, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, and Partnership for Safety and Justice in Portland.

Favorite Authors: Kelly Link, Dorothy Parker, the Russians, Brenda Ueland

Favorite TV shows: The Critic, Peep Show, Adventure Time

Turn-ons: savory snacks, happy hour, Twitter

Turn-offs: small talk at the bank, cyclists with headphones in, Facebook

Secretly wishes she was: in an all-girl Replacements cover band.

Kjerstin's animal twin: Kjerstin imagines herself a bit of a bleating, awkward lamb because she is sometimes clumsy and likes to graze (her hair can be unruly at times as well).

Sarah Mirk, online editor

sarah(at)b-word.org

Sarah Mirk lives most of her life on the internet. But after hours, she likes to make comics, consume entire newspapers, and talk to strangers. Before she started at Bitch Media in January 2013, she was (in reverse chronological order) a news reporter, a men's prison playwriting teacher, a college newspaper editor, a radio host, an "arte del mundo" teacher, a tour guide, a terrible caterer, a barista, a science camp counselor, and a bookseller. Currently, Mirk is at work on a nontraditional dating guide, Sex From Scratch (Microcosm, 2014). She grew up in a small town and is thankful that her parents are feminists.

Favorite Authors: Joe Sacco, Joan Didion, Tina Rosenberg, Margaret Atwood, Sherman Alexie, Cheryl Strayed, Ursula Le Guin, Jon Ronson, Junot Diaz, Marjane Satrapi

Favorite TV shows: Daria, The Office, Twin Peaks, The Wire

Turn-ons: Enthusiasm, comic books, sending mail

Turn-offs: Condescension, early mornings, Crocs

Secretly wishes she was: A skateboarder

Sarah's animal twin: Frisbee-chasing dog

Ashley McAllister, outreach coordinator

ashley(at)b-word.org

Ashley was born on a futon mattress in SE Portland. She's spent most of her life in Portland, outside of a six-year stint in Bellingham, Washington, where she studied Literature and Women's Studies at Western Washington University and worked for a couple wonderful women's shelters. She moved back to Portland in 2010 and has been at Bitch Media ever since. Ashley has spent a lot of time working with women who have been affected by domestic violence, educating teenagers on the effects of sexual assault, and teaching kids the ins and outs of social justice. She likes to take on elaborate craft projects, bake cookies, and talk to her plants.

Favorite books: Fun Home (Alison Bechdel), Kindred (Octavia Butler), The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)

Favorite movies: Fire,The Big Lebowski, rom coms

Favorite TV: Parks and Recreation, Party Down, Mad Men

Turn-ons: scones, knit graffiti, estate sales, snail mail

Turn-offs: factory farming, snagging her tights

Secretly wishes she were an: erotic baker

Ashley's animal twin: Ashley identifies with the honey bee, because she is busy, likes sweet things, and is community-minded.

Hannah Forman, editorial intern

info(at)b-word.org

Hannah Forman is the editorial intern at Bitch Media. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Hannah has been living in Southeast Portland (with some France and Germany thrown in) since 2007. Hannah graduated from Reed College where she studied French and English Literature, with a focus on gender and performance theory. At Reed, Hannah spent an arduous year writing a thesis on Jean Genet and Judith Butler. She has yet to tell whether the toil paid off. When not interning, Hannah is likely doing yoga, learning about non-violent communication, or riding her bike for countless kilometers across Portland.

Favorite celebrity crushes: Gertrude Stein, Amy Goodman, Alison Bechdel, and yes, Ani DiFranco

Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food: Robyn

Turn-ons: bulldogs, big scarves, Tegan & Sara

Turn-offs: mansplaining

Secretly wishes she were a: dancer

Emilly Prado, editorial intern

magazine(at)b-word.org

Emilly Prado is the former new media intern and current editorial intern at Bitch Media. She was raised in the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area and has lived in Portland since 2009. She is a graduate of Portland State University with a bachelor’s degree in Child & Family Studies, and a minor in Elementary Education. When not interning, Emilly works with kids and blogs. Her hobbies include cooking/baking, learning how to drum, reading, and keeping up on pop culture. In the next few years, she hopes to go to graduate school in New York City. In the meantime, she’s figuring out her career goals and dreams about traveling the world.

Favorite celebrity crush: Ryan Gosling, James Dean, Gael Garcia Bernal, Paul Simonon

Favorite music of the moment: Portland bands, The Crystals, Tom Tom Club, 2Pac, Selena

Favorite movies: Clueless, River’s Edge, Heathers, Paris, Texas, The Godfather, anything Almodóvar

Favorite TV shows: Mad Men, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Freaks and Geeks, Twin Peaks, Dinosaurs

Turn-ons: mixtapes, sideburns, netflix marathons, train rides, blogging

Turn-offs: dupstep, anxiety, deviled eggs

Secretly wishes she were a: travel writer

Megan Cox, outreach & development intern

megan(at)b-word.org

Megan Cox is one of Bitch Media's new outreach and development interns. Megan has a background in marketing, is passionate about social justice and has volunteered with SCRAP, Rock 'N' Roll Camp For Girls, Feminist Agenda PDX and Oregon College of Art and Craft. She graduated from the University of Evansville with a BA in Writing and an emphasis in Art. Having grown up in Southern Illinois, she lived in Toledo, Spain and New York City before moving to Oregon in 2006. When not interning, Megan spends her time taking pictures, crafting, cooking, gardening and blogging.

Celebrity crushes: Eddie Izzard, Margaret Cho, John Cusack, Parker Posey

Favorite authors: Shel Silverstein, Marge Piercy, Allen Ginsberg, Diane DiPrima, Dave Eggars

Favorite movies: Party Girl, Harold and Maude, Say Anything, Waiting for Guffman

Favorite music: Suzanne Vega, Ani Difranco, Tegan and Sara, Peaches, Dolly Parton, Le Tigre

Favorite TV shows: Mad Men, True Blood, Absolutely Fabulous, Parks and Recreation

Turn-ons: chocolate, glitter, libraries

Turn-offs: Funyuns, Paul Ryan

Secretly wishes she were: feminist farmer

Allison Curtis, outreach & development intern

allison(at)b-word.org

Allison Curtis is one of the new development and outreach interns at Bitch. She will soon be a graduating from Lewis and Clark College with a degree in Sociology and Anthropology with focuses on urban sociology, social change theories, and South Asian cultures. When not hanging out at Bitch, Allison enjoys riding her bike around town, learning how to knit, hiking, reading social theory, and camping.

Turn-ons: Wool socks, brownies, libraries, redwood trees

Turn-offs: Changing the cat litter, clear cuts, splinters

Favorite TV Shows: Parks and Recreation, Freaks and Geeks, Girls, Twin Peaks, The West Wing, X-Files, and pretty much any 90’s show on Netflix

Celebrity Crush: Ron Swanson

Current Favorite Music: The Cranberries, King Tuff, New Order, Eidolons, Grimes

Secretly wishes she were: A National Geographic photographer