Feminist Majority Campus Team

Wendy Matheny - Campus Program Coordinator

Wendy Matheny is a Fulbright scholar with a background in political science and international women's rights. Committed to learning about the economic and social justice issues surrounding the women's movement, Wendy has focused much of her energy at the grassroots level. As an undergraduate at Manchester College , Wendy organized campus voter registration, coordinated gender-focused activities like Take Back the Night, and served as a US student ambassador for ECHOPPE—a West African microloans association who grants small loans to impoverished women in Togo , Benin and Mali . After college, Wendy spent several months interning on Capitol Hill, then went on to study the role of women in European politics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles' Institute for European Studies.

duVergne Gaines, J.D. - West Coast Campus Director

duVergne Gaines graduated with honors and a J.D. from Loyola Law School. As a law student, Gaines received recognition for excellence in constitutional and first amendment law and was also a member of the prestigious Entertainment Law Review. Prior to law school, Gaines co-directed Rock for Choice for seven years, gained extensive experience as a campus field organizer both for the Iowa ERA Campaign and the National Clinic Access Project. Prior to directing the West Coast Campus Program she most recently headed Rock for Choice programming and organized western states for the March for Women’s Lives.

East Coast Organizers:

Kassidy Johnson - Primary Organizer for Southern Region

Kassidy is a graduate of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina with a degree in mass communications and journalism. This past spring, she interned at Fleishman Hillard International Communications in Los Angeles. She writes for N-Touch News and worked as Event & Media Coordinator for the Historically Black College University Newspaper Conference in February 2006, as well as having been the public relations assistant at the Women's Sports Foundation.

Phone: 202-415-1768
Email: kassidyj@feminist.org

Kate Nielson - Primary Organizer for North East and Great Lakes Region

Kate majored in Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and minored in Gender and Women's Studies. She has interned at the Caucus of Women Legislators in Boston and worked at Planned Parenthood in Cleveland. During her senior year, she researched voting trends in college-aged students for Planned Parenthood in Scarborough, Maine.

Phone: 202-468-7038
Email: katen@feminist.org

Janel Quarless - Primary Organizer for Mid Atlantic Region

Janel earned her degree in Psychology with a certificate in Women's Studies, and a minor in Black women's studies, at the University of Maryland College Park. She has interned with the Advocacy Institute, worked as a Community Organizer for Community Voices Heard in Manhattan, and as a Field Manager for the Working Families Party. She also served as Social Chair for the Feminist Activists of Maryland, a FMF campus affiliate. As a native of Panama, Janel is fluent in Spanish.

Phone: 202-468-7031
Email: janelq@feminist.org

Abby Csanda - Primary Organizer for Mid West Region

Abby graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.  At Illinois Wesleyan University she provided leadership to relaunch and strengthen the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, and eventually became president of the group.  While serving as president, Abby led a number of successful initiatives, including the Women's Health and Wellness Fair, now an annual event that provides health-related information to women on campus and in the community.  Abby also served as a Student Member on the local YWCA Board of Directors and as a counselor for a local Easter Seals camp for children and adults with disabilities.  Her passion for women's issues is evident in her artwork, which focuses on such feminist themes as motherhood, menstruation, and body image.

Phone: 202-468-6324
Email: acsanda@feminist.org

West Coast Organizers:

Olivia Ortiz - West Coast Campus Organizer

Olivia Ortiz graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in English Literature.  During her undergraduate years, she worked with advanced high school students in a university setting as a program advisor for the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science.  She also advised a multicultural organization, the Fellowship for the Advancement of Cultural Education, in fundraising for a camp that serves adults and youth with disabilities.  For a number of years, she served as an academic tutor in the University Writing Lab and was actively involved in the greater Dallas area through the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Feminist Majority Foundation.  Olivia has also studied at Columbia University and London's Royal College and served as a panelist at the National Women's Studies Association's National Conference.  She is a native Spanish-speaker and fluent in French.

Phone: 310-597-7017
Email: oliviao@feminist.org

Mayra Gomez - West Coast Campus Organizer

Mayra Gomez graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. A native of Jalisco , Mexico , Mayra moved to the United States as a teenager and attended high school in Los Angeles . While at Notre Dame, Mayra founded and led the Feminist Voice of Notre Dame student club. A member of the distinguished Honors Balfour Hesburgh Scholars Program, Mayra also helped found the first Gender Relations Center on the University's campus. After being awarded a Boehnen Summer Internship grant, Mayra interned with the Feminist Majority Foundation during the summer of 2004. During her internship she worked intensively on the FMF's Get Out Her Vote Campaign researching campus polling locations, and voter registration and id laws in California , Nevada and other Western states.

Phone: 310-597-7812
Email: mgomez@feminist.org

How Can My Campus Organizer Help?

The Campus Organizers are your connection to the Feminist Majority Foundation and the national feminist movement! Campus Organizers are available to give you anything you need to help you organize on your campus--from fliers, buttons, and other materials, to advice and ideas for your group. Call us anytime with problems or concerns; we are here to offer you any support that you need. Also make sure to call us when something works well on your campus, so that we can share it with other campuses and maybe even feature it in our bi-monthly Ezine!

The Campus Team can also be reached via email at campusteam@feminist.org. Call the East Coast Campus Organizers in the Washington D.C. office at 1-866-444-FMLA (toll free), and the West Coast Campus Organizers in the Los Angeles office at 1-866-471-FMLA (toll free).