“I raise up my voice – not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard”
– Malala Yousafza
This event took place virtually via Zoom Webinar on Thursday, January 5th, from 9:00 am- 10:00 am. Hosted by the Women’s Fund Miami-Dade, the webinar was about learning from faith-based voices in the conversation of Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice.
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, researchers warn that limiting access to safe abortions will cause significant health consequences for women, disproportionately affecting women and families of color. The Women’s Fund Miami-Dade recognizes the importance of holding space to converse with leaders who voice perspectives not often heard in the mainstream. For this Impact Collaborative, we will use our platform to invite voices from several faiths to share their views and insights from their communities.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Arathi Ramappa is a certified executive and spiritual coach, Forbes Coaches Council member, speaker, and management consultant who helps individuals thrive in life and business. Using the concepts of emotional intelligence, self-compassion, and conflict management, Arathi has helped clients reduce stress, increase productivity, execute business strategy, develop leadership skills, diminish conflict in relationships, implement positive behaviors, and increase confidence. She created the EASE Experience™ methodology to help others Explore, Analyze, Strengthen, and Empower their thinking to identify and conquer obstacles to success and change their lives and businesses.
In her current coaching business, she offers one-on-one coaching to executives, c-suite, entrepreneurs, and independent professionals. In addition, she works with organizations to help their leaders and teams enhance their emotional intelligence and become better problem-solvers. As a result, organizations can develop their company culture and increase collaboration, productivity, performance, leadership skills, and learn conflict management.
Arathi’s career started in technology as a certified Microsoft developer. She quickly went into operations management and oversaw the development of large scale financial applications. With this knowledge, she ventured out as an entrepreneur and started a technology and business consulting firm that she had for ten years. One of the highlights of this business was when she consulted on the acquisition of a $4 Billion commercial asset management portfolio and became the Director of Risk and Control for the portfolio. During this time, she also owned a healthcare diagnostic imaging facility that she eventually sold to an HCA hospital.
With twenty years of experience in technology and business management coupled with certifications in coaching and emotional intelligence, Arathi’s background as a serial entrepreneur and a veteran in the start-up space has provided her with extensive cross-functional knowledge that she can apply to any situation or client. She has managed teams globally in places such as India, Japan, China, Germany, Canada, Taiwan, Eastern Europe, as well as the U.S., and has worked with a wide range of clients from the financial, technology, healthcare, cybersecurity, and fashion industries, among others.
PANELISTS
Jamie Manson is President of Catholics for Choice. For over fifteen years she has been a thought leader and advocate in the field of women’s equality and reproductive rights in the Catholic Church and the public square. Jamie’s received her Master of Divinity from Yale University where her studies focused on Catholicism and sexual ethics. She edited and wrote the introduction to Changing the Questions: Explorations in Christian Ethics. Jamie has published op-eds in the New York Times, NBC Think, and Ms. Magazine, among others, and has been featured in dozens of media outlets, including NPR, the LA Times, and CNN.
Laura Lee Rodriguez is the President of Your Write Hand and works as an Independent Contractor offering services to non-profits. She currently serves as the Florida State Policy Advocate for the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Chair of Pro-Truth Florida (an NCJW campaign to expose Fake Clinics), Chair of the Courts Matter Florida Coalition and is a Past President and is on the current Board of the Greater Miami Section of NCJW.
A graduate of Boston University, Laura has worked her entire adult life in the non-profit world as both a volunteer and professional. For nearly 20 years she served at Lehrman Community Day School as a PTA President, Board Member, Librarian and Director of Institutional Advancement. She was a Senior Campaign Director and Director of the Jewish Volunteer Center at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and served as the Chair of JPRO (Jewish Professionals Organization).
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Laura remembers a childhood filled with friends around the corner, riding bikes to Dairy Queen and secret paths to get to friends’ houses. To this day, she has childhood friends who share her ideals. Laura’s parents instilled a fierce sense of equality, justice, and women’s rights in her. She has used this passion to engage Florida’s NCJW sections in legislative actions as well as bringing a sense of camaraderie. Laura has led advocacy groups to Tallahassee and Washington DC for over seven years. This past year she testified before several state legislative committees on the unconstitutionality of HB 5 (the 15-week abortion ban). Laura was instrumental in moving the Miami section forward in the past four years, reaffirming its place as a progressive force in Miami and Florida.
Laura’s volunteer and professional accomplishments have been recognized in receiving the NCJW Hannah G. Solomon Award, NCJWGMS Myra Farr Volunteer Service Award, the NCJW Emerging Leader Award and Awards of Service and Recognition from both Lehrman Community Day School and the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. Recently asked what accomplishment she was most proud of, she responded with her first thought was that she was able to raise three kind, loving and giving people. She added, “of course, being in a committed relationship with the same person, Silvio, for 33 years ranks a very close second”.
Teresa Lomax grew up in Hollywood, Florida and graduated from Miramar High School where she was a cheerleader for all four years. She matriculated to Florida State University graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. She later obtained a Master of Science in Nursing from Barry University as a Family Nurse Practitioner and is nationally certified. She recently obtained a post-Master’s certificate and certification as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and is practicing at Shalom Mental Health and Wellness Center where she is a provider for persons who have challenges with their mental health. In her career, she has held many exciting nursing positions. Her favorite thus far was working 16 years at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where as Nurse Manager she helped to launch the “Patient First” cross-training initiative. Though she loved working at Jackson the best, her most demanding and rewarding assignment to date, however, has been that of stay-at-home wife and mom.
Teresa gave her life to Christ as a young adult and never looked back. At The Fountain Church where her husband, Wayne Lomax, has served as Founder and Senior Pastor for the past twenty six years, Sister Tee, as she is affectionately known, presently serves as Ministry Advisor to the Women’s Ministry. Over the years she has chaired many women’s events, bible studies, and conferences, her favorite themed, “Seasons of A Woman’s Life.” The whole month was dedicated to women! She has also served as a Lay Counselor with her passion being mentoring of wives. She believes with faith and trust, the power of God and obedience to His way, there is not a marriage that can’t be saved, a life that can’t be brought back on track. She and her husband have three wonderful children, Christopher, Marcus, and Le Reine and three beautiful grandchildren, Caden, Arya, and Ace.
Aliza Kazmi is from the San Francisco Bay Area and is a second generation Shia Muslim of Pakistani and Muhajir descent. Her lifelong passions for social justice come from being a survivor of domestic violence, a daughter of immigrants, a daughter of an educator, and a former educator herself.
Aliza has organized around race and social justice in a number of regions including Alaska, Michigan, New Mexico, and communities across California. She has created partnerships with numerous advocacy collaboratives, including convening grassroots community organizers and supporting their radical change-making and policy engagement, and mobilizing thousands of people to vote in various elections and take part in the 2020 Census. Aliza has also been featured in various outlets including Al Jazeera, The Independent, Mic, Rewire News Group, and The New Arab.
Aliza is an alumna of UC Berkeley’s Peace & Conflict Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies programs and the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy, where she received the Rackham Merit Fellowship. Aliza is also a trained survivor advocate and certified in conflict resolution and mediation. She is also a voting member of the Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women, and is a (mostly) vegan who loves biking, hiking, and dance.
