WIL is excited to welcome Melissa Goodman, Executive Director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy at UCLA Law School, for a behind-the-scenes look at the legal fight for reproductive justice

WIL is pleased to bring you our June speaker, another amazing woman who can inform us, and, yes, even depress and anger (but also inspire) us.

Melissa Goodman is Executive Director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at UCLA Law School. She is an expert in the current local and nationwide litigation and policy landscape concerning reproductive rights and how changes from the federal government or the courts could impact all of us, even here in California.

Melissa willl talk about the most dire potential dangers to gender and reproductive justice that she sees in the next few years, and what are, and may become, the most incendiary legal hot spots.

The Center Melissa heads is a UCLA think tank and research center aimed at developing solutions to address the national crisis in abortion access and expand protections for wider reproductive health and justice. It includes lawyers, policy experts, scholars and researchers who seek innovative legal strategies, policy solutions and opportunities to address, and solve, the complex issues surrounding women’s reproductive rights faced by us, our families and our nation.

Melissa has over 20 years of experience advocating for reproductive rights and gender equity in the courts, in legislatures, and through organizing. Formerly the Legal and Advocacy Director at ACLU of Southern California, she has also worked at the ACLU in California and New York on reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, and gender equity campaigns. Melissa holds a law degree from NYU School of Law and a BA in Politics and Urban Studies also from NYU.