Advisory Board

About the 2026-2027 Advisory Board

President Jessica N. Pabón (2025-2027) names her commitment to building on the inaugural President's Advisory Board in her 2026-2027 Strategic Plan. She writes:

To combat the continued efforts to de-platform and de-institutionalize feminist thought and action, I plan to grow and fortify our ranks by engaging a range of feminist organizers/leaders outside of academia—folks whose work may be taught, but not always practiced, whose knowledge is generated through embodied creative practices, and whose theory is cultivated in everyday life. I want to emphasize that while the widespread shutting down of feminist centers, programs, and departments is a tremendous loss that we must acknowledge and mourn, I take these losses as a provocation to forge new relationships (and rekindle old ones) that strengthen our connections beyond institutions—ultimately improving our offensive position. 

To assist in the development of relations between the academic-facing aspects of our Association and public-facing and practice-oriented organizations and initiatives, my iteration of the President’s Advisory Board will be composed of an elder community activist, a prior Program Administration and Development (PAD) member, a prior Women's Centers Committee (WCC) member, and a community organizer specialized in healing justice and care work. 

Read President Pabón's Strategic Plan

Association Governance

The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) is governed by elected members with varying leadership and service experience within the organization. Each member of our Governing Council (GC) serves two-year terms with our President serving an addition ex-officio year of service on the GC. NWSA recognizes the breadth and depth of how our members engage in women's, gender, and sexuality studies - therefore we welcome any interested members in serving on the GC and encourage you to nominate a colleague or run for a position during our annual Elections season. 

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Jenn Brandt, PhD

Jenn Brandt, PhD (she/her) is the founding chair and a professor of women’s studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she is currently serving as Interim Dean of Undergraduate Studies. She has been an active member of NWSA since 2012, serving as the co-chair for the Program Administrators and Directors group (PAD) from 2018 - 2025. Jenn Brandt is an interdisciplinary scholar with an MA in Popular Culture, a graduate certificate in gender and women’s studies, and a PhD in English Literature. Her first book, An Introduction to Popular Culture in the US: People, Power, and Politics was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2018, and was the 2019 winner of the Popular Culture Association’s John G. Cawelti Book Prize. Her current manuscript #FemLit, which explores the popular culture convergences around women’s writing, digital culture, and sexual politics, is under contract with Rutgers University Press. 

Sekile M. Nzinga, PhD

Sekile M. Nzinga, PhD (she/her) is an engaged leader, educator, and practitioner whose expertise spans academic, governmental, not-for-profit, therapeutic, and arts sectors. She currently serves as the Vice President of Campus Enrichment and Community Engagement at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to her time at SAIC, she served as Illinois’ inaugural Chief Equity Officer. 

Nzinga is a professor of social work and women and gender studies and is the founding director of Nazareth University’s Women and Gender Studies Program. At Northwestern University, she served as both the Women’s Center Director and the Interim Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion. While at Northwestern, she established a Feminist in Residence program, which supports the creative projects of Chicago based feminist artists and activists. 

Sekile is the author of Lean Semesters: How Higher Education Reproduces Inequity (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), the editor of Laboring Positions: Black Women, Mothering and the Academy (Demeter Press, 2013) and the author of a blog  on child sexual abuse survival entitled, “I usta be Monique”. 

Nzinga is a former board chair of the Chicago Abortion Fund, a former at large member of the NWSA Governing Council, the owner of Polyester Soul Vintage, and the co-founder of Pitch Your Peeps: Queer Slide Deck Match Making. She conducts lectures, workshops, and retreats at the intersections of healing, justice, bodily autonomy, joy, play, and vintage fashion. 

Iris Morales, MFA, JD

Iris Morales (she/her/ella) is a lifelong activist for social justice and the decolonization of Puerto Rico. Her decades of organizing span movements with tenants, students, workers, feminists, community advocates, and media makers. Her activism and love of history led her to create Red Sugarcane Press to produce works centering the Puerto Rican and Latinx Diasporas. She has edited several anthologies, including Voices from Puerto Rico: Post-Hurricane María and two volumes of Latina feminist writings. Morales is the author of Through the Eyes of Rebel Women and Revisiting Herstories: The Young Lords—the only published works documenting the activism of women members—and is the producer-writer-codirector of the acclaimed documentary ¡Palante, Siempre Palante!. She was a leading member of the Young Lords and co-founded its Women’s Caucus and Women’s Union. Morales holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law and an M.F.A. in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College.

tayla shanaye MA, PhD

tayla (she/they) is a biculturally Black somatic decolonial Black feminist scholar, educator and coach. tayla has a master’s in somatic counseling psychology and a doctorate in women’s spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies. tayla is the founder of Embody the Revolution through which tayla provides somatically-oriented therapeutic coaching for private clients, somatic education and consulting for adults and university students, and somatic mentorship. tayla is also the Co-Founder of the retreat center We the Earth located in Northern Michigan and is on the faculty of Weaving Earth and Coaching for Healing, Justice and Liberation.

they have authored several resources on somatics and personal-social transformation including Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices (2018), Nourishing the Nervous System (2020 and 2024), Locate Your Liberate (2022), Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices (2025), Compassion in Crisis (2026), along with various articles on topics of justice, ecology and embodiment.

tayla's work weaves together the wisdom of the body with the spiritual significance of animate matter to guide individuals and groups toward a deeper understanding of existence as both a mother, partner, guide, teacher, and author.

About the Inaugural Advisory Board

In her 2024 Strategic Plan, President Heidi R. Lewis (2023-2025) outlined the need for and value of counsel from past leaders with the National Women's Studies Association. She writes:

Each immediate past President serves on the Governing Councel (GC )for one year following the end of their term. Additionally, current presidents have communicated with previous ones for many understandable reasons, such as learning the role, developing institutional knowledge, seeking support when the Association is under scrutiny or threat, and maintaining a commitment to intergenerational collaboration. For those reasons and more, it is important to maintain appropriate relationships with former GC members. However, continuity should not only be maintained through relationships with past presidents, and it should not only be maintained through relationships with the most recognizable ones, those still heavily involved with the Association, and/or those to whom current GC members are closely connected personally and/or professionally. The contours of these advisory relationships should be clear, consistent, and agreed upon by all members of the GC and the former GC members who aim to be supportive.

Therefore, the Association formed the first iteration of the Advisory Board, drawing on past members of the Governing Council who expressed interest in and commitment to strengthening the Association in this period of growth.

Read the 2024 Strategic Plan

Gwendolyn Beetham

Advisory Board Member

Member at Large, 2015-2016

Dr. Gwendolyn Beetham (she/they) is the Associate Director of the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Gwendolyn has been a fellow at the Democratizing Knowledge Project and the Institute for Research on Women and is a former member of the Governing Council and the co-founder of the Contingent Faculty group at NWSA. Their work has been published in Feminist Formations, The Scholar and Feminist Online, and American Quarterly. Gwendolyn was awarded the University of Pennsylvania's Models of Excellence Award in 2022 in recognition of her work on care work and trans affirming policies at the university.

Nadia Brown

Advisory Board Member

Member at Large, 2014-2015

Dr. Nadia E. Brown (she/her) (Ph.D., Rutgers University) is a Professor of Government, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and affiliate in the African American Studies program at Georgetown University. She specializes in Black women’s politics and holds a graduate certificate in Women's and Gender Studies. Dr. Brown's research interests lie broadly in identity politics, legislative studies, and Black women's studies. While trained as a political scientist, her scholarship on intersectionality seeks to push beyond disciplinary constraints to think more holistically about the politics of identity.

She is the author or editor of several award winning books – including Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making (Oxford University Press);  Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites (with Danielle Lemi);  Distinct Identities: Minority Women in U.S. Politics (with Sarah Allen Gershon, Routledge Press); The Politics of Protest: Readings on the Black Lives Matter Movement (with Ray Block, Jr. and Christopher Stout, Routledge Press); Approaching Democracy: American Government in Times of Challenge (with Larry Berman, Bruce Allen Murphy and Sarah Allen Gershon, Routledge Press). Professor Brown is the lead editor of Politics, Groups and Identities. Professor Brown is part of the #MeTooPoliSci Collective where she spearheads efforts to stop sexual harassment in the discipline. Along with co-PIs Rebecca Gill (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) Stella Rouse (University of Maryland, College Park), Elizabeth Sharrow (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) she is the recipient of a million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation for their project titled "#MeTooPoliSci Leveraging A Professional Association to Address Sexual Harassment in Political Science." Lastly, Professor Brown is an editor with The Monkey Cage, a political science blog in the Washington Post. 

Elora Halim Chowdhury

Advisory Board Member

Vice President, 2015-2017

Dr. Elora Halim Chowdhury (she/her) is Professor & Chair of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her teaching and research interests include transnational feminisms, violence and human rights advocacy, narrative and film with an emphasis on South Asia.

Elora is the author of Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh (Temple University Press, 2022). Her first book, Transnationalism Reversed: Women Organizing Against Gendered Violence in Bangladesh (SUNY Press, 2011),  was awarded the National Women’s Studies Association Gloria Anzaldua book prize in 2012. She has co-edited several volumes: Dissident Friendships: Feminism, Imperialism and Transnational Solidarity (University of Illinois Press, 2016), Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights: History, Politics, Practice (Routledge, 2018), and, South Asian Filmscapes: Transregional Encounters (University of Washington Press, 2020). Her current project explores affective and intimate realms of women’s narratives and storytelling around migration, food pathways, and ethics of care.  

Elora served on the Executive Committee of NWSA (as Vice President) 2015 – 2017.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Aisha Durham

Advisory Board Member

Women of Color Caucus Co-Chair, 2010-2011

Dr. Aisha Durham (she/her) is a Professor of Communication at the University of South Florida where she explores the relationship between media representations and everyday life using autoethnography, performance writing, and Black feminist thought. Her body of work contributes to hip hop feminist studies. The former Fulbright-Hays faculty fellow uses her popular culture expertise to pen public scholarship and to provide media analyses for news and entertainment outlets, such as NPR, CNN, and The Washington Post.

Vivien Ng

Advisory Board Member

Inaugural President, 1993-1994

Treasurer, 2008-2009; 2009-2011

Dr. Vivien Ng (she/her) is an independent scholar/researcher living in Albany, NY. She retired in September 2020, 24 years after joining the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she served as department chair, faculty, and associate dean. Before moving to Albany, she taught at the University of Oklahoma for 13 years.

Vivien has published ground-breaking work in Chinese social history and LGBTQ+ Studies, but she identifies primarily as a storyteller and inveterate archival researcher. 

 Outside academia, Vivien has served as president of the Oklahoma chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and was a member of AAUW and the AAUW Educational Foundation boards. She also served on the boards of Holding Our Own and the Social Justice Center, both in Albany, NY.

 She is happiest when she is weeding her perennial garden.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.

Suspendisse at elementum nisl, vehicula semper felis. Nunc aliquam tincidunt ex, a semper turpis molestie nec. Integer vitae pretium enim, at tristique odio. Praesent in tellus porta, ultricies nibh quis, vestibulum enim. Curabitur nisi odio, volutpat vel sodales ut, blandit ut orci. Aenean ut lectus ac ex accumsan egestas. Fusce fermentum porta tellus. Suspendisse congue ultricies ligula, non porta felis feugiat eu.