Common Ground Panel: Guest Speakers

Our educational panel on anti-choice laws and how they affect maternal healthcare is this Thursday, at Burton Barr Central Library! We have an amazing group of guest speakers lined up to share their experience and knowledge with us. Learn more about them below:

Marinah Ferrell

Politics and traditional medicine are what led Marinah to midwifery, and she has a firm commitment to both political activism and birth work. Marinah has worked in innovative birth centers and medical facilities for international NGOs, in free­standing birth centers in the U.S, and is the owner of a long standing homebirth practice in Arizona. She is the Senior Advisor to the MANA Division of Access and Equity, the Network Coordinator for the Good Birth for All Network, and a founding board member of a community funded free clinic in downtown Phoenix.

Marinah is known locally, nationally and internationally for her advocacy work on behalf of midwives and vulnerable communities, and continues to champion the idea that community midwives and health workers can bridge professional midwifery with community traditions.

Dr. Kristin Livingston

Dr. Kristin Livingston was raised in Northern CA and attended college at the University of California, San Diego where she received a BS in Biology with a Minor in Health Care: Social Issues. Although always raised Pro-Choice by her divorced mother, Kristin did not have her first exposure to abortion care until college, when she spent a summer working as a medical assistant in a community abortion clinic in Redding, CA. Dr. Livingston then attended medical school at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia where she was the chair of the school's chapter of Medical Students for Choice and was able to attend all four National Conferences.

Kristin later returned to California for OB/GYN Residency at Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center, and a special elective at University of California, San Francisco, where she was privileged enough to receive training in all aspects of abortion care. Dr. Livingston moved to Phoenix in 2014 and is honored to be one of the few providers of second trimester abortions in the state. Kirstin mainly works as a General OB/GYN in the West Valley and delivers babies at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. She also works part time at Camelback Family Planning and Desert Star Family Planning where she enjoys teaching medical students and residents while providing safe, affordable, and legal abortion care.

Jovanna Anzaldua

Jovanna Anzaldua is an Arizona native and an advocate for reproductive health, rights and justice. She works for Provide, a national organization that works with health and social service providers to build a health system that is equipped to respond to women’s health care needs around unintended pregnancy. She proudly sits on the board of directors for the Arizona Family Health Partnership, the Title X recipient within Arizona which provides, promotes and protects access to comprehensive quality reproductive healthcare services and education for all Arizonans regardless of income. With a background in communications and women's health policy she also works as a consultant and/or volunteers her time for various organizations and campaigns, pulling the string of reproductive justice through projects and conversations to ensure that the intersectional nature of reproductive rights and other oppressions are addressed and that marginalized voices are centered.

Brittany MacPherson

Brittany is the Phoenix Campus & Community Organizer with #Fight4HER Arizona, a campaign to end the Global Gag Rule. Although this is her first Reproductive Justice role, Brittany has been organizing for progressive campaigns and causes for nearly a decade in Arizona and Oregon. She is really excited to be back working in AZ for such an important time in the Reproductive Justice fight. In her free time she likes to binge House Hunters and play with her two adorable dogs, Teddy & Franklin.