New York, NY – The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is proud to announce a new fellowship focused on gender, democracy and justice. As of July 2018, Vice President of Development Jennifer Weiss-Wolf will serve as the organization’s inaugural Women and Democracy Fellow.
This fellowship is designed to explore how our nation’s systems of democracy and justice do – and more importantly, do not – work for half the population in terms of equal representation, process, policy and outcomes.
“Across the country, women’s voices and votes matter like never before. From the unprecedented Women’s Marches, to the cascading effects of #MeToo, to the record number of women – and women of color especially – running for office this year, it has become clear that women are now key players in our political dialogue, and are here to stay.” said Weiss-Wolf. “I am thrilled to take on this role, and help bolster the Center’s mission through this new, exciting and necessary angle in the fight for a stronger democracy.”
In her near decade at the Brennan Center, Weiss-Wolf has balanced thought leadership with a successful track record as the organization’s chief fundraiser. As part of her work to commemorate the Center’s 20th anniversary, she conceptualized the 2015 volume and symposium, Legal Change: Lesson’s from America’s Social Movements. The collection shares accounts from a generation of legal advocacy in America and features case studies ranging from the victorious fight for marriage equality and partisan wrangling over the right to vote, to understanding modern movements for reproductive rights, the environment, criminal justice reform, policing, the Second Amendment, and abolition of the death penalty.
Later this year Weiss-Wolf will co-lead the Center’s November 2018 convening, The Equal Rights Amendment: A Century in the Making, A New Opportunity for Progress.
Weiss-Wolf is a steadfast advocate for issues of gender, feminism and politics in America. Dubbed the “architect of the U.S. campaign to squash the tampon tax” by Newsweek, she is the author of Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity. Periods Gone Public earned a starred review by both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. The Washington Post called it “a riveting read … and a rich picture of the current menstrual landscape and a promising call to smart activism.”
A regular contributor to Ms. magazine, Weiss-Wolf’s writing and work have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, NPR, Bustle, Refinery29, Salon, and Slate, among others. She is also a contributor to the recent Young Adult anthology, Period.: Twelve Voices Tell the Bloody Truth.
Weiss-Wolf is a graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (‘92).
Weiss-Wolf will be based in our New York office. To schedule an interview, contact Beatriz Aldereguia (beatriz.aldereguia@nyu.edu, 646–292–8369).
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