MEET THE CONVERSATIONALISTS

Who is talking about abortion in a new and interesting way? Here is a list of Abortion Conversation Project conversationalists as well as other speakers of interest. Contact each directly for availability and terms.

Ruth Arick, Springfield MO/national
Renee Chelian, Detroit MI
Grayson Dempsey , Portland OR
Amy Hagstrom Miller, Austin TX
Claire Keyes, Pittsburgh PA
Karen Kubby, Iowa City IA
Charlotte Taft / Shelley Oram, Glorieta NM/national
Victoria Tepe
Penny Lane, Troy NY
Jennifer Baumgardner
Gillian Aldrich
Judith Arcana
Terry Sallas Merritt, National

Ruth Arick, Springfield, Missouri – is the Director of FemChoice Partners, a purchasing and business service group for abortion providers.  Ruth is a former clinic director, and a long-time consultant, speaker, and trainer specializing in abortion care and services.  Throughout her career Ruth has worked with major pharmaceutical companies, abortion clinics of all sizes and corporate structure, political and advocacy groups that focus on abortion, and a variety of companies that offer services and products to abortion providers.  Ruth knows what it takes to run a clinic, grow a patient base, motivate a staff, and rally the troops – all the while, respecting the range of opinions and complex nature of the abortion issue.  Her speaking style is conversational and up-beat – no one leaves without a substantial energy boost.

Ruth can be found at: 
ruth@femchoicepartners.com
417.883.8541 office
FemChoice Partners
2733 E. Battlefield Rd., #264
Springfield, MO  65804

Renee Chelian, Detroit MI-- Founder and CEO of Northland Family Planning, Renee speaks of the days of illegal abortion and the evolution of abortion clinics. She has been a provider since 1971. She encourages her audiences to ask difficult questions and explore the complexity of abortion. She has provided training for MARAL, Michigan pro-choice legislators, and Medical Students for Choice. "I enjoy talking to the so-called "mushy middle" who are honest about their ambivalence but open to new perspectives." Contact: (248) 559-0590.

Grayson Dempsey, Portland OR – As a counselor, doula, educator, and organizer, Grayson’s favorite work has always been facilitating conversations around pregnancy, abortion and sexuality. Since 1999 she has been providing training to schools, activist groups, social service workers and medical professionals on client-centered counseling, pregnancy options, and various aspects of reproductive health. She is a founding board member of Backline, an organization that provides open and honest pregnancy options discussion to women and their loved ones, and was chosen as one of Choice USA’s Top 30 Under 30 Activists in 2004. In all of her work, Grayson aims to address the reality of the emotional, spiritual, and sociological issues that impact people’s reproductive decision-making, and to encourage a dialogue about choice that embraces diversity of experience and opinion. For schedule and fees, please email graysondempsey@comcast.net.

Amy Hagstrom Miller is the owner and founder of Whole Woman's Health, an abortion and reproductive services provider in Austin TX. Amy's work with abortion began with her first job out of college, at Planned Parenthood in St. Paul Minnesota. Her introduction to this work, via Planned Parenthood, launched her toward 15 more years of service in women's healthcare and abortion. In addition to her direct clinic experience over these 15 years, Amy's political involvement on a local and national level has grown. She currently serves on the faculties of both the National Abortion Federation and the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, and is also well-known in her community for her advocacy on the local level.

Amy enjoys working with abortion because it is an issue where all the "big stuff" intersects—life and death, sexuality, power and control, feminism, God, and family. Amy explains, "I am drawn to the abortion issue because I can sit with each woman in that profound process - be next to her, guide her, value her experience, trust her exploration. I hope to invite a process that allows her to listen to and value herself. I often plant the seeds that bring her to a place of comfort, peace and power."

Contact: (512) 250-1005, amyhagstrommiller@yahoo.com

Claire Keyes reports that most of her life's work has been in abortion. Although she has been the director of Allegheny Reproductive Health Center for 25 years, her heart, she says, has always been in counseling. For the past 12 years she has been training counselors; she has presented often at both the National Abortion Federation and the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, focusing on new paradigms for healing spiritually and emotionally after abortion. She also has a particular interest in men's issues. Through the years her work has been featured in Vogue, Glamour, as well as other publications. Recently she co-authored, with Margaret Johnston "How Do You Want Your Abortion?" an essay appearing in the newly published Viable Utopian Ideas edited by Arthur Shostak, Ph.D.

Claire says that she welcomes counseling-related queries. She can be reached at claire_keyes@yahoo.com

Karen Kubby has been a community activist and volunteer in Johnson County Iowa since 1979. Karen spent 11 years as an activist member of the Iowa City City Council. She has worked locally on a variety of issues including standing on picket lines with local labor unions, environmental protection, affordable housing, supporting the public library, and a variety of human rights issues. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of the Emma Goldman Clinic for Women, a feminist reproductive health care clinic located in Iowa City that serves clients throughout the Midwest. Karen can be reached at 227 N. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52245, (319) 337-2112, and emmagold@avalon.net.

Charlotte Taft and Shelley Oram are partners in IMAGINE, a training, counseling and consulting business they began in 1989. Between the two of them they have over 20 years direct clinic experience in virtually all areas from counseling to security. Both are Certified Hypnotherapists with training in many areas including Conflict Resolution, Feminist Studies, Codependency, Death and Dying, Psychodrama, and Transformational Education. Through IMAGINE Shelley and Charlotte have done trainings and workshops all over the country, both for clinics and statewide pro-choice groups. They have provided crisis response for clinics that have been attacked or threatened. They also do in-services for clinic staffs, training, management team building, problem solving, and staff team building. One of their favorite projects is facilitating clinic retreats. Through referrals from clinics, or through their website they do both pre and post Abortion Resolution Counseling over the phone with women from all over the country. They also do individual coaching, counseling, and women's retreats at their beautiful Dragonfly Canyon Retreat in Northern New Mexico. Charlotte Taft and Shelley Oram IMAGINE taftoram@cybermesa.com www.imaginecounseling.com 505-757-2991

Victoria Tepe holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Northwestern University (1988). Her professional history includes research, writing, and publication in the areas of reproductive rights and domestic violence. She is the founder (1990) and editor of the online reproductive news service, ChoiceMail. Her experience as a reproductive rights advocate includes 13 years as an organizer, activist, author, researcher, teacher, clinic volunteer and volunteer coordinator. She developed a college course on the subject of 'The Abortion Debate', which has been taught at Wright State University (Ohio) and is currently offered through the Women's Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts. She is a consultant to the National Coalition of Abortion Providers and serves as a member of the Community Advisory Board for the Four Women Reproductive Health Center in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Contact: email: vtepe@comcast.net

Penny Lane - Filmmaker and Young Activist
Troy NY
penny@theabortiondiaries.com

Penny Lane has been working in independent media to bring out the voices of silenced communities -- from inncer city youth to welfare recipients to civilian casualties in Iraq -- for eight years.

Penny Lane's documentary The Abortion Diaries dispels the silence surrounding women's experiences by making abortion easy to talk about. The film creates an intimate, conversational and at times surprisingly funny "dinner party" by introducing twelve diverse women who speak about their abortion experiences and what they might say behind closed doors about sex, love, motherhood, spirituality, medical technology and their own bodies. Penny was driven to make the film after her own experience of the isolation and stigma of abortion. Excerpts of her own "abortion diaries" weave throughout the narrative, reminding audiences of all the women out there who find themselves in that scary, alone place every day.

Both serious and accessible, The Abortion Diaries prompts audiences to consider their own experiences in relation to those of the women in the film and to share their own abortion stories. At a half-hour, The Abortion Diaries is the perfect length to allow for deep audience reflection and conversation after each screening. Penny loves to present the film to all kinds of audiences, and believes the film is especially useful for teenagers and college students.

Jennifer Baumgardner - Journalist, Activist, Filmmaker -- Jennifer Baumgardner is a journalist and activist who seeks to reconcile some of the hardest contradictions found in the abortion issue. A former editor at Ms. (1993-7), she has written for Harper’s,The Nation, Jane, Glamour, Marie Claire, Bust, Bitch, and Elle, as well as NPR’s “All Things Considered,” often on the subject of abortion. She is the author, with Amy Richards, of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism (both Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Jennifer created the “I Had an Abortion” campaign to encourage women (and men) to “come out” about their procedures; the project includes a photo essay, the infamous "I had an abortion" t-shirts, resource cards, and a film entitled “Speak Out: I Had an Abortion" that she produced with the director Gillian Aldrich.

Contact Jennifer at jennifer@manifesta.net

Gillian Aldrich - Documentary Filmmaker, Journalist -- Gillian Aldrich is a documentary producer and journalist who has worked on social justice issues in television, radio, and print. She has worked with Michael Moore on several projects, including most recently as a field producer for the academy award winning documentary Bowling for Columbine. In radio, she produced the progressive daily national news show Democracy Now on Pacifica, and she wrote and produced a one hour documentary for National Public Radio's This American Life, entitled 20th Century Man, involving the search for her late father's true identity in the bizarre twists and turns his life took.

Contact Gillian at gandj@speakoutfilms.com

Judith Arcana was a Jane, a member of Chicago’s pre-Roe underground feminist clinic; she’s a writer, teacher, speaker and dynamic performer who focuses on the complex reality of women’s lives. Judith has worked with staff, students and faculty at colleges and universities as well as clinics and the National Network of Abortion Funds, Medical Students for Choice, NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. Her new book, What if your mother, prompts fierce praise from writers and abortion rights advocates: “She’s articulated the impossible … given us a way to think about what couldn’t have been thought.” (Toi Derricotte) … “I want everyone to see Judith Arcana perform her beautiful poems, giving voice to thousands of women who have abortions but do not have the freedom or safety to talk about their experience.” (Kate Ojerio) … “The title poem should be made into a poster and pinned up on the wall in every clinic in the United States.” (Peter Bours, MD) 

For more information about Judith’s work, visit womenarts.org, chicorybluepress.com and cwluherstory.org.
Contact Judith at jawhatif@earthlink.net.

Terry Sallas Merritt, Cape Canaveral, FL is Connections Consulting, specializing in the art – and business – of effective communication. Terry is a former abortion clinic counselor, administrator and corporate director of multiple sites. She has served women’s rights as a lobbyist, trainer and teacher. Terry also spent years as an educator and VP of a successful Public Relations firm. A frequent consultant and presenter for the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, Terry has also conducted workshops for the National Abortion Federation and many abortion providers. Over the last 25 years, she has trained staff, provided management consult, facilitated Strategic Planning, and offered her full array of marketing services, including web writing, with a keen awareness of both the uniqueness of abortion provision and the tools needed to reach the selected people in their circles of care, from local to national.

In addition, Terry brings national experience with Media Training and has worked with The Oprah Winfrey Show, Primetime Live, with large entities such as NASA and Dupont and equally with individuals and clinics of all sizes. She brings expertise, enthusiasm and skills that foster inspiration and motivation with practical results. The greatest need we have is the need to connect. Externally, it’s how we survive as a business. Internally, it’s how we thrive as individuals. Terry’s style is probing, reaching into the heart and mind to bring forward authentic commitment that makes for long-term success on all levels.

Contact Terry:  321.783.4699 or TMerritt3@cfl.rr.com