PREGNANCY JUSTICE TEAM

Dana Sussman, JD, MPH

Dana Sussman, JD, MPH

Acting Executive Director

Dana Sussman (she/her/hers) joined Pregnancy Justice in 2021 as Deputy Executive Director and is currently serving as Acting Executive Director. Dana previously served as a Deputy Commissioner at the NYC Commission on Human Rights and has 15 years of experience as a workers' rights, civil rights, and gender justice attorney. After graduating from Northeastern University School of Law, Dana served as a Legal Fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights and clerked for federal Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in the Eastern District of New York. Dana holds a B.A. and an M.P.H. from Tufts University.


Zenovia Earle

Zenovia Earle

Media & Communications Director

Zenovia Earle (she/her/hers) joined Pregnancy Justice in 2022 as the Media & Communications Director. She leverages experience in government affairs, community outreach, marketing, media relations, and journalism. Before joining Pregnancy Justice, Zenovia held NYC government communications roles in aging services and technology. She started her career in TV and online news. Zenovia holds a B.A. in journalism from Georgia State University and an M.P.A. from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.


Damaris Williams

Damaris Williams

Controller

Damaris Williams (she/her/hers) is an accountant with experience in both the profit and non-profit sectors in various industries ranging from real estate management to publishing, higher education tech-startups, trade/barter, and professional associations. She graduated cum laude from Hunter College and holds a B.A. in accounting. She also holds a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. While working for a psychological association, she realized the importance of contributing to the well-being of society, leading her to Pregnancy Justice.


Samantha Valente, MA

Samantha Valente, MA

Senior Operations Associate

Samantha (she/hers) is an administrative professional with over 9 years of experience in office coordination and financial management at higher education institutions and non-profit organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in gender studies and history from Hampshire College and a Master of Arts degree in Labor Studies from the City University of New York (CUNY). Before joining Pregnancy Justice, Samantha worked as an Administrative Coordinator for the Public Engagement department at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. There, she supported multiple initiatives including civic engagement trainings; an energy democracy non-profit; a worker cooperative project and an academic journal, New Labor Forum.


Leena Chawla

Leena Chawla

Operations and Development Associate

Leena Chawla (she/her/hers) joined Pregnancy Justice in 2022 as the Operations and Development Associate. She holds a B.A. in sociology and gender, sexuality, and feminist studies from Middlebury College. Leena most recently worked at the Legal Aid Society, helping NYC tenants fight eviction and unjust housing laws. Before moving to Brooklyn, Leena worked with domestic violence survivors in Austin, Texas.


Samantha Lee, JD

Samantha Lee, JD

Senior Staff Attorney

Samantha Lee, JD, (she/her/hers) is a human and civil rights attorney committed to people’s inherent right to make their own decisions about their bodies, their families, and their health. After graduating from NYU Law School, Sam served as a public defender in Brooklyn, NY, representing parents against allegations of child abuse or neglect. At Pregnancy Justice, she combines grasstops organizing, public education, and legal advocacy to improve protections for pregnant people's legal rights in the criminal, family regulation, and hospital systems. She earned her B.A. from Stanford University, focusing on international human rights law, and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Anne E. Thompson, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.


Lindsey Hull, JD, RN

Lindsey Hull, JD, RN

Staff Attorney

Lindsey Hull, RN, JD, (she/her/hers) obtained her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Tennessee, after which she spent five years as a labor and delivery nurse at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. As a nurse, she is nationally certified in in-patient obstetrics and has helped hundreds of women through some of the best, worst, and hardest days of their lives. Lindsey loves bedside nursing and misses her team, but she decided to go back to law school as a result of growing disenchantment with our healthcare system and a desire to advocate for positive policy changes. She obtained her JD from the University of Tennessee in the spring of 2020, where she had the opportunity to assist Professor Wendy Bach in researching and documenting the negative effects of Tennessee's criminal "fetal assault" law.


Emma Roth, JD

Emma Roth, JD

Staff Attorney

Emma Roth (she/her) is a civil rights attorney and gender justice advocate. Prior to joining Pregnancy Justice, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ronnie Abrams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She also worked as an Equal Justice Works fellow for the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, where she brought impact litigation to advance the rights of women and girls in courts across the country.

During law school, Emma was awarded a Ford Foundation Public Interest Fellowship to intern with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. She also interned with the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. As a clinical student, she engaged in policy advocacy and litigation with the Yale Global Health Justice Partnership, Veterans Legal Services Clinic, and Reproductive Rights and Justice Project. She also served as a fellow in the Yale Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy and the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice. Prior to law school, Emma worked with a pro bono team at Paul, Weiss representing Mississippi’s last abortion clinic in its efforts to stay open.

Emma received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her A.B., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Brown University.


Trip Carpenter, JD

Trip Carpenter, JD

NYU Public Service Legal Fellow

Trip Carpenter (he/him/his) joined Pregnancy Justice in 2022 as an NYU Public Service Legal Fellow. Prior to that, Trip served as a member of the Reproductive Justice Clinic at NYU Law School, where he support litigation challenging policies and laws that restrict the autonomy and equality of pregnant people. Before law school, Trip worked as a minority- and women-owned business enterprise (M/WBE) policy analyst at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, where he was responsible for policy research and training procurement staff. Trip earned his J.D. from NYU Law School, his M.A. in human rights studies from Columbia University, and his B.A. from Western Kentucky University.


Mahathi Vemireddy, JD

Mahathi Vemireddy, JD

Knighton-Newman Legal Fellow

Mahathi Vemireddy (she/her) is a recent graduate of Northeastern School of Law with a concentration in health law and policy. She was involved with the school's Domestic Violence Clinic, Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Clinic, Salus Populi Project, and the Committee Against Institutional Racism. She previously interned with the National Institute for Reproductive Health, ACLU's Women's Rights Project, and Pregnancy Justice. She is excited to return to Pregnancy Justice as a Knighton-Newman fellow. Mahathi earned her B.A. from New York University, with a focus in decolonization and feminist movements.


Purvaja Kavattur, MSc

Purvaja Kavattur, MSc

Research and Program Associate

Purvaja S Kavattur (she/they) is a sexual reproductive health researcher. She’s particularly interested in the intersections between population control, gender and sexuality as well as exploring anti-colonial approaches to healthcare provision. Her research has examined US transmasculine adolescent abortion experiences and the influence of scientific literature on abortion jurisprudence. Prior to starting at Pregnancy Justice, Purvaja worked with the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and the UN Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. Wherein she led a menstrual health policy review across Senegal, Kenya, India and the United States.

Purvaja has a MSc in Global Health and Population from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a BSc(Hons) in Social Policy and Economics from the London School of Economics.


Lauren Wranosky, MSW

Lauren Wranosky, MSW

Policy and Program Associate

Lauren Wranosky (she/they) is a holistically trained social worker with experience in direct practice, policy, and research. They are passionate about enacting policy informed by data, practice, and lived experience to confront deliberately designed systems of oppression. Prior to Pregnancy Justice, Lauren worked in mental health, hospice, and skilled nursing.

Lauren holds a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) from Azusa Pacific University and a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Columbia University, where she studied Public Policy and International Social Welfare. During her graduate studies, she interned with Pregnancy Justice focusing on public policy and abolitionist social work.


Fikayo Walter-Johnson

Fikayo Walter-Johnson

Research Assistant

Fikayo Walter-Johnson (she/her) is a social science researcher committed to transformative social movements. Prior to joining Pregnancy Justice, she was a paralegal with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, where she supported pressing First and Fourth Amendment litigation. She is excited to combine her knowledge of privacy and free speech to advance pregnant people's social and legal protections. Fikayo received her bachelors from the University of Chicago with a dual degree in Sociology & Public Policy and a specialization in Gender & Sexuality Studies.