You don't want to miss this. In line with our new five-year strategic plan to level up in order to meet the needs of this moment, PRA has been growing our staff and strengthening our teams. We know that spacious human capacity is key to building a resistance movement grounded in care and sustainability. The fight we're in is a long one. As outlined in the plan, we have listened to our partners who have asked for continued strategic support from PRA and are building a more robust infrastructure to meet their needs. 2023 is the inaugural year of PRA's Department of Strategic Partnerships, which is being developed and led by Director Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart. We welcome Naomi and our new colleagues joining every team at PRA: The Public Eye Editor Kitana Ananda, Senior Research Analyst in LGTBQ Justice Annie Wilkinson, Grants Manager Renee Kuhl, Communications Coordinator Zoe Newton, and Operations Coordinator Melanie Bouchard. Stay tuned to see, read, and experience their invaluable contributions to PRA's work of resisting authoritarianism and building inclusive, multiracial democracy. Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart Strategic Partnerships Director Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart, a Blackqueer daughter of Detroit, is a minister, professor, and movement strategist. She is so grateful to be able to make a life doing the work she was made for - preaching, teaching, and plotting resistance to inhumane political, economic, and religious systems. Naomi has worked as a faith organizer and director for POWER Interfaith, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement in the city of Philadelphia. She teaches emerging scholars of religion and theology at Villanova University, Arcadia University, and Harvard School of Divinity. Music was and is her first love. Naomi received dynamic vocal and instrumental training from some of Detroit’s finest music educators, and has served as director for the New Spirit of Penn Gospel Choir at the University of Pennsylvania, Co-Pastor and Minister of Music at the Wisdom's Table at St. Peter's United Church of Christ, and most recently director of the Villanova University Gospel Choir. In her spare time, she delights in singing with the Philadelphia Threshold Singers, an all-volunteer choir whose mission is to bring audible comfort and kindness to the bedsides of people living in hospice care. Rev. Naomi is proudly affiliated with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM). Read her full bio here. Watch some of her public speaking at [link removed]. Follow Rev. Naomi on social media @OHolyShift. Kitana Ananda, PhD Editor, The Public Eye Kitana Ananda is an editor, writer, and researcher working at the intersections of racial, gender, economic, and im/migrant justice. She is committed to building a world liberated from violence. Kitana joins PRA as Editor of The Public Eye with nearly two decades of experience that spans editorial, communications, and qualitative research. As an editor, she partners with writers to translate their work into strategic insights that will inform social justice organizing and shift public narratives—most recently, as a Health Not Prisons Collective editorial consultant and as Nonprofit Quarterly’s Race + Power editor. A former college educator, Kitana earned a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology from Columbia University for her scholarship on diasporic politics in Sri Lanka’s ethnonationalist civil war. Her writing has appeared in Prism, CNN Opinion, the New York Times, and elsewhere. Annie Wilkinson, PhD Senior Research Analyst Annie Wilkinson, PhD (she/her/ella) joins PRA as a Senior Research Analyst focusing on LGBTQ Justice with 15 years of experience supporting transnational feminist and LGBTQ social justice movements through engaged feminist social science research, analysis, and movement building roles. She holds advanced degrees from the University of California, Irvine (PhD, Anthropology) and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) (MA, Social Sciences) and has held research fellowships at the Sexualities Project at Northwestern University, National Science Foundation, Institute for Citizens and Scholars, Center for US-Mexico Studies at the University of California, San Diego, US Fulbright Commission, and Stanford Haas Center for Public Service. Her research covers gender and sexual politics, anti-LGBTQ/feminist/gender movements, misinformation, authoritarianism, and right-wing organizing in Latin America, the United States, and Eastern and Southern Africa. In addition to her 2013 book Sin Sanidad, No Hay Santidad: Las prácticas reparativas en Ecuador [Cleanliness is Holiness: Conversion Therapy Practices in Ecuador] (FLACSO-Ecuador, reprinted 2019) which analyzes transnational ex-gay movements and SOGIECE practices (sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression change efforts) in Latin America, Annie’s political analysis and ethnographic research has appeared in the International Journal of Feminist Politics, Feminist Anthropology, Social Anthropology, and North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) among other publications, and she has taught courses on the politics of misinformation, right-wing populism, democracy, anti-feminism, and science of race, gender, and sexuality at several universities, including the University of California, Irvine and Northwestern University. Renee Kuhl Grants Manager Renee Kuhl is the Grants Manager at Political Research Associates. Renee has extensive experience in non-profit development and administration, particularly in proposal writing, grants management, and institutional relationships and partnerships. Renee is a native of the Midwest, originally hailing from the Kansas City area, then achieved her Master's degree at DePaul University in Chicago and spent most of her professional career serving social services organizations in Illinois. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her dog Dolly. Zoe Newton Communications Coordinator Zoe is a visual storyteller and creative problem solver. Their work centers around community and cultural competency. In 2021, Zoe graduated from the Sam Fox School of Art and Design at Washington University in St. Louis with a BFA in Communication Design and African and African American Studies. At PRA, Zoe assists with implementing and monitoring social media strategies, creating new media projects, assisting with the communications of Religion Dispatches and designing of outward facing collateral. Melanie Bouchard Operations Coordinator Melanie comes to PRA with a background in community engagement, event planning, and capacity building. As Operations Coordinator, Melanie assists in hiring efforts, digital security, and overall operations with an emphasis on sustainability, equitable workplace practices, and fostering interdepartmental collaboration. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Keene State College and is deeply committed to PRA’s mission. Political Research Associates | 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, Somerville, MA 02144 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!