Baptism By Fire: Leadership Insights from Reproductive Justice

After the unexpected departure of my predecessor, I stepped into the role of Executive Director at New Voices for Reproductive Justice in January 2024. I was unprepared and reluctant, but my institutional knowledge and relationships made it clear to my board and team that I was positioned to lead during this critical transition. Now, nearly two years into my tenure, I recognize how the Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework has not only shaped my leadership, but sharpened my understanding of what this socio-political moment demands from leaders and organizations committed to advancing its vision.

Five years before I became the Executive Director, I joined New Voices as its Communications Manager. At the time, I was also coaching a high school girls basketball team in West Philadelphia, combining my passion for youth mentorship with a burgeoning interest in social justice. Discovering this organization for Black women, founded and led by Black women, expanded my understanding of what it meant to support young Black girls not just in word, but through meaningful action. I developed deep reverence for the founding mothers of RJ, and their vision of new realities driven by the self-determination of all, especially those most often harmed and overlooked.

Reproductive Justice transcends the “pro-choice” vs. “pro-life” binary by highlighting interconnected human rights violations faced by marginalized people. These violations include coerced birth and forced sterilization, socioeconomic inequities that shape pregnancy and birth outcomes, disparities in postpartum health, and the trauma caused by family separation due to incarceration or immigration detention. Emerging from the analysis and organizing work of feminists of color who sought to address the exclusions of second-wave feminism, RJ insists that all people, regardless of race, gender, income, or other social markers, deserve the power and resources to make dignified decisions about their bodies, sexuality, and reproductive lives.

Since the 1970s, Black feminists and RJ organizations have fought for recognition and sustainability in a landscape regulated by better-resourced, white-dominated “Reproductive Health” and “Reproductive Rights” groups. As a generation of founders who carved possibilities out of scarcity look to pass the torch, new leaders step forward, charged with honoring their legacy while advancing the movement’s boldest ambitions. 

My evolving leadership at New Voices, and deepened understanding of RJ, inspired me to shed what no longer served me. I felt challenged to lean into vulnerability, collective imagination, resistance, and restoration in new, unfamiliar ways. As an ever-expanding blueprint for advancing freedom in its truest sense, RJ continuously stretched my belief in what is possible, challenging limitations I once accepted without question.

From Critique to Accountability: The Unseen Labor of Executive Leadership

What has most surprised me since crossing the executive threshold are the dehumanizing conditions that so many leaders have resigned themselves to as the norm, myself included. I’ve succumbed to unrealistic expectations to rapidly develop a comprehensive, nuanced understanding of organizational life with minimal guidance. I’ve grappled with the perpetuation and alienating impact of gatekeeping, education bias, lookism, celebrity culture, and insular cliques echoing the very exclusionary practices RJ was born to dismantle. And I’ve shouldered the lofty charge to cultivate a Board that serves not merely as oversight, but as thought partners, challenging, guiding, and holding me to the same standards and expectations that I’ve set for my staff. 

Every day I’m confronted with tensions I need to hold in balance. I navigate the numbing administrative responsibilities that sustain organizational functions, while simultaneously nurturing the heart work of leading with empathy, and investing in staff members often burdened by disillusionment and the grueling obligations of their everyday life. I weigh practical constraints against the desire to fully realize our mission within the rigid limitations of the nonprofit infrastructure. I contend with the frustrations of funding models that privilege conventional reform and electoral politics, while undervaluing the necessary investment(s) in community organizing, narrative change, and cultural strategy to awaken new possibilities. With this in mind, I challenge myself to remain steadfast in my commitment to building an organization that actualizes the care, tenacity, and dedication to community that the RJ movement was founded upon.

Before becoming Executive Director, I often fell into the common pitfall of critiquing without offering actionable alternatives. I disparaged imbalanced pay structures, inefficient program design, flawed organizational planning, and deficits in transparency, trust, and staff agency. While these observations remain valid, assuming executive leadership compelled me to transcend condemnation and embrace action, a swift maturation few are called to confront. The shift from observer to accountable leader grounded me, and reinforced my resolve to build rather than merely find fault. RJ, at its core, compels this shift.

Confronting Crisis: Pursuing Collective Liberation Amid Compounding Injustices

White Christian nationalism, patriarchy, and neocolonial agendas dominate our sociopolitical reality, manifesting as legalized control over our bodies and worsening economic disparities. Concurrently, we face the deterioration of healthcare and education systems, attacks on climate and land protections, and the continuation of US-manufactured and facilitated genocides across the globe. The perpetrators of these converging crises aim to normalize our suffering, moving us toward feelings of resignation and defeat.  

But RJ defies collective despair by reminding us of what we’re fighting for rather than fixating on what we’re fighting against. We call for safe streets where women, queer, and trans folks can move freely without fear for their lives; vibrant green spaces where children can inquire and explore without inhaling toxins; healthcare systems that are culturally responsive, honoring our full humanity and the breadth of our identities; and dignified jobs that fulfill our passions and enable us to contribute meaningfully to society.

Policy reform and electoral politics play a role in achieving these goals, but do not offer total salvation. Too often, influential figures within social justice sectors are granted a proverbial “seat at the table,” only to find that the pressing issues of our communities are dismissed as expendable. In exchange for cosmetic access, there’s a whispered expectation to overlook the disproportionate emphasis on electoral strategies and performative representation, and cling to an unwavering faith in broken systems that jeopardize our survival. 

As author and political prisoner George Jackson warns, revolutionary anger is often redirected into hollow outlets, acting as pressure valves that dissipate the urgency for authentic, lasting change. The temptation to exchange genuine transformation for rhetorical victories risks fracturing solidarity with the most marginalized. Successful coalitions are those that defy dominant narratives, challenge and undermine the legitimacy of oppressive structures, and forge new roadmaps, embodying the vision and ethos of interwoven movements for collective liberation. 

While we can’t adopt every available tactic, we can strategically leverage our distinctive assets, sharpen our approaches, and cultivate partnerships grounded in aligned values and goals. Building lasting power does not call for forced uniformity, instead, it urges us to weave tailored strategies that equally prioritize community care and well-being alongside tactical gains, political wins, and strategic advancements.

Bridging Vision and Practice: A Strategic Framework for Sustained Impact

Before enduring personal and political radicalization takes hold, people often undergo a profound moment of pain and awakening, a stark realization that they have been misled and deceived by systems they once thought served them. These harrowing epiphanies offer important insights that are too often minimized by organizations looking to build mass movements. The keen awareness that our misfortunes stem not from personal failings, but systemic inequities, opens the door for movement-building organizations to deepen the perspectives of newly awakened people who have long been charmed and discarded, catalyzing their participation in sustained, collective action.

Liberatory work champions the most disenfranchised, uplifting them not as symbolic representatives, but as essential theorists, organizers, and visionaries. In today’s fraught political climate, it’s clear that no singular strategy or sector possesses all the answers. Instead, it’s paramount to develop community-driven, trust-based methodologies that promote clear and coordinated alignment across various fields.

To resist the siloed heroism that often isolates executive leadership, I engaged junior staff, like-minded peers, and seasoned elders within the Reproductive Justice movement to deepen my understanding of effective power-building strategies. 

My team and I aim to transform critical observation into an actionable framework by reshaping community initiatives, revitalizing programs, and enhancing our capacity. This transformation has called for concrete steps such as reassessing pay equity across all leadership levels, crafting coherent job descriptions that accurately reflect the full scope of role duties, and developing an equity-centered staff handbook to ensure team clarity and alignment. Alongside these internal changes, we studied past revolutionary efforts to help us identify approaches that could strengthen our responses – and those of other local movement-building organizations – to today’s declining conditions. Each strategy is crucial in its own right, yet their true potential emerges when they’re woven together.

• Base Building, as we practice it, lays a cornerstone for community engagement by establishing trusted “political homes” where neighbors can convene to educate, discuss, rejuvenate, and build relationships. Earlier this year, our organizing team launched community-building hubs called “The People’s Portal” in each city where we operate (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland), which are accessible spaces for members to explore the root causes of the challenges we face, and adopt tangible interventions to combat the injustices we experience.
  
  These spaces provide access to leadership development workshops, political education sessions examining systemic inequities, and civic engagement training aimed at amplifying marginalized voices. Participants also engage in vital skill-building activities, voter education, and the enduring practice of community care, all of which help foster a nuanced political analysis and cultivate a shared sense of collective responsibility and transformative agency.

• Community Organizing for us is the ongoing work of relationship-building that connects and politically emboldens folks affected by injustice(s). We organize Black women and queer people across the greater Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland areas. Our work centers on voting rights and voter suppression, abortion access, Black maternal health, comprehensive sex education, and environmental justice. This year we’re focused on building a responsive base, and next year we plan to launch power-building campaigns leading into the midterm elections.
  
  Effective community organizing at New Voices aspires to embody the interconnected work of community care carried out by aunties, grandmommas, doulas, hairdressers, teachers, and others who sustain the health, resilience, and longevity of our communities. Our organizing efforts equip community members with the language, understanding, and community needed to confront structural barriers rooted in anti-Black and misogynistic oppression. 

• Mutual Aid swiftly and efficiently allocates resources to address pressing necessities like bail money or refuge for survivors escaping interpersonal or state-sanctioned violence. Mutual aid plays a critical role in helping meet dire needs and responding to urgent crises. We understand it not as an act of charity, but as a practice to help build trust between our organization and the community members who engage with us. New Voices’ commitment to mutual aid is exemplified through ongoing distribution of resources (stipends, diapers, etc.) to community members, tangible support to help remove barriers to participation in our programming, and seasonal campaigns (such as monetary distributions and  back-to-school drives) that provide essential financial and material assistance. 

• Political Education leverages Paulo Freire’s observation that education can either perpetuate conformity or cultivate critical analysis, recognizing its profound impact on individual and societal development. Rather than passively pouring information into people, political education creates spaces where community members can engage in dialogue, reflect deeply on their own experiences, and connect those insights to broader systemic realities. This approach fosters moments of collective “aha,” enabling participants to understand what they have long sensed but never fully articulated.
  
  Through ongoing discourse, community members debate earnestly, gain new perspectives, and critically examine individual and shared goals alongside the systemic barriers to building the world we aspire to create together. Assessing the impacts of systemic oppression, accessible political education is essential in shaping the mindsets and behaviors that equip communities for transformative resistance. At New Voices, we host teach-ins on organizational issues such as Black maternal health and comprehensive sex education, while also providing foundational training on the tenets of Reproductive Justice to partners ranging from local colleges to direct service organizations like the OSHUN Family Center.

• Narrative Change transforms the ways stories about our communities are told, and restructures the frameworks shaping our understanding of engagement with systems of injustice. It’s a crucial tool for expanding public imagination, making social and political transformation both conceivable and attainable.
  
  The effectiveness of narrative change most resonated with me when I first encountered the “Overton Window,” the range of ideas on public policy and social issues deemed acceptable by the public. This concept helped me understand how shifting public perception and expanding what is seen as possible are fundamental to societal transformation. At New Voices, narrative change moves beyond theory into practice, as showcased in our 2024 voter engagement campaign, “Our Power is Local: Imagine More. Demand More.” Rather than rely on narratives of guilt and blame, we built a relatable campaign that responded to the emotional and material realities of the people we connected with. Through zine distribution, in-person events, canvassing, and phone banking, we addressed voter apathy while fostering informed participation and strengthening our persuasion and mobilization efforts. This approach led to increases in engagement, with higher contact and participation rates across our operational cities, and growth in digital engagement (mailing list sign-ups and social media). 

• Leadership Development fosters the emergence of new leaders through rigorous mentorship, reinforced by grace and shared accountability. This method respects the diverse perspectives and insights within communities, enhancing the relevance and durability of organizations by cultivating leaders who are both genuine and visionary. At the beginning of the year, New Voices initiated leadership development cohorts that reflect our commitment to bolstering the collective genius of Black communities. Our newly established cohorts, “Defend Our Kin,” (community organizing), “We The People” (voter engagement), and “Imagining New Worlds” (policy and advocacy), offer vital skills and resources for those determined to drive meaningful change in their cities and neighborhoods.

We recognize the potential for setbacks and embrace the lessons learned from unmet objectives. While we continue refining tools to measure our effectiveness, we’re energized by a strategic framework and organizational theory of change that balances commitment(s) to our communities with the realities of limited resources and capacity.

Concluding Thoughts: The Essential Practice of Community-Rooted Leadership

Through my engagement across Black liberation, faith organizing, climate, labor, and gender equity sectors, I’ve witnessed what sustains movements and conversely, what contributes to burnout. We are in a sociopolitical season that requires our organizations to do more than demand awareness and mere participation. We need to value personal narratives, offer tangible support, foster a shared sense of purpose, and cultivate real trust and belonging. Meaningful change is not primarily achieved through symbolic gestures or headline-inducing moments. The most impactful work often occurs incrementally and without immediate visibility; it’s characterized by a succession of deliberate and purposeful decisions that together manifest in shifted norms, amplified broad-ranging voices, and a legitimate opportunity to effectuate transformative change. 

Throughout my leadership journey, my teachers have ranged from excitable new organizers, to seasoned elders honed by triumph and defeat, to tenacious neighbors with inspirational resolve. This collective learning has been fortified by building authentic relationships with neighbors and kindred spirits maintaining hope for a better life. 

Today’s circumstances insist we move the needle toward freedom by pioneering fresh paradigms rather than merely retracing the steps of ancestral heroes. Liberation is a collective struggle, anchored in earnest grassroots commitment. From courtrooms to neighborhood meetings, from mutual aid campaigns to human rights advocacy, liberatory possibilities continue to emerge through everyday acts of transformation. 

Our work must transcend fleeting news cycles and rote recitations of movement theory. Meaningful, sustained investment in communities is essential for adapting to rapidly evolving conditions, and preparing for whatever these times might demand of us.

Featured image by Kimmie Dearest