It's Time Network Team

On Mother's Day 2006 Joan Blades co-founded MomsRising.org with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner to tap the power of online grassroots organizing for mothers and families in the US. Joan is also a co-founder of MoveOn.org. A deep believer in the value of grassroots engagement, Joan understands that citizen voices are crucial to a healthy democracy. When co-writing "The Motherhood Manifesto", the book with which MomsRising was launched, Joan was drawn to explore work practices that fit people's lives. Inspired by her own experiences and emerging work practices that are good for not just mothers but everyone she co-authored "The Custom-Fit Workplace", and has since developed work with The Great Work Cultures. Previously she co-founded Berkeley Systems, taught mediation at Golden Gate Law School and wrote Mediate Your Divorce. Joan was on the founding committee of "Reuniting America: A Transpartisan Campaign of Political Reconciliation" which engaged people from diverse political points of view in respectful dialogue leading to creative, breakthrough solutions to the challenges facing our nation. From this work she launched Living Room Conversations. Joan is an artist, a nature lover, Sunday soccer player and mother.

Known for her unique ability to build powerful coalitions that bring diverse people together for the common good, Melanie L. Campbell, has fought for civil, youth and women’s rights for over 20 years. A veteran at leading, planning and managing highly successful multi-million dollar civic engagement, census, and issue-based campaigns, Campbell is recognized as one of the hardest working leaders in the social justice movement. Successful projects enacted under her leadership include the Unity Voter Empowerment Campaign, Unity Diaspora Coalition Census 2010 Campaign, and the ReBuild Hope NOW Coalition to assist survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in rebuilding their lives in the Gulf Coast. Her acclaimed youth-focused leadership development program, Black Youth Vote! (BYV), garnered her the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Emerging Leaders Legacy Award. Melanie was recognized as one of Washington D.C.’s “Top 40 Under 40 Emerging Leaders.” receiving leadership and woman of power awards from The National Urban League, Women in the NAACP, SCLC W.O.M.E.N., National Voting Rights Museum & Institute, and 100 Black Men of Washington D.C.

A passionate advocate for women and girls, Denise Dunning is the founder and Executive Director of Let Girls Lead, based at the Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA. Let Girls Lead is building a global movement to ensure that girls can attend school, stay healthy, escape poverty, and overcome violence. Denise teaches Women’s Health & Empowerment at University of California San Francisco, and is Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary PODER. She served as a Fulbright Scholar in Honduras,with the United Nations Development Program on hurricane relief. Dunning is a native Spanish speaker, avid scuba diver, and mother of two young daughters.

Alicia has been the recipient of multiple awards for her organizing work in Black and Latino communities, receiving the Local Hero award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Jeanne Gauna Communicate Justice award from the Center for Media Justice in 2008. She was Executive Director of People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in San Francisco beginning in 2009. In 2013, Alicia co-founded #BlackLivesMatter, an online platform developed after the murder of Trayvon Martin, designed to connect people interested in learning more about and confronting anti-Black racism. Alicia speaks and organizes around the country, supporting this emerging movement. When she's not scheming on freedom, Alicia enjoys dancing, reading and writing.

Carla is an attorney with 20+ years of experience in public interest advocacy and has worked extensively in city and state government on issues related to women's rights, poverty, public health, and social justice. As the director of the Omega Women’s Leadership Center, based in upstate New York, Carla is at the heart of the current wave of the global women’s movement and brings experience, knowledge, and passion to the belief that globally women’s leadership is an untapped resource which can change the way we see ourselves and our society. Omega Women's Leadership Center has produced the Women and Power Leadership Conference for more than years. The OWLC is catalyzing a new way of envisioning women's leadership, transforming what it means to lead, and celebrating women and men who are models of doing power differently; for the sake of everybody. Carla appears regularly on local and national radio and television, on issues related to women’s empowerment, holistic and sustainable living, and spiritual activism.

Sarita has been named one of the 19 Young Activists Changing America by Bill Moyers. Under her direction, Jobs With Justice is leading the fight for workers’ rights and an economy that benefits everyone by anchoring strategic campaigns and shaping the public discourse to build power for working people. Jobs With Justice brings together labor, community, student, and faith voices at the national and local levels to create innovative solutions to the problems workers face today. In over 45 communities in 25 states, JwJ local coalitions are organizing to address issues impacting working families. Together with McArthur Genius Award-winner Ai-jen Poo, Sarita co-founded Caring Across Generations, which is building a national movement to transform the way we give care in this country, harnessing the power of social action, social media and storytelling to spark connections across generations and to strengthen family and caregiving relationships.

At 84, Dolores continues to work tirelessly developing leaders and advocating for the working poor, women, and children. As founder and president of the DH Foundation, she travels across the country engaging in campaigns and influencing legislation that supports equality and defends civil rights. She traversed the country for two years on behalf of the Feminist Majority’s Feminization of Power: 50/50 by the year 2000 Campaign encouraging Latina’s to run for office. Huerta, along with Cesar Chavez, Co-founded the United Farm Workers of America, whose work is recognized as a cornerstone of the American labor and civil rights movements. Numerous awards have been bestowed upon Huerta, from the California Hall of Fame, the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from President Clinton, Ladies Home Journal’s 100 Most Important Woman of the 20th Century, and 9 Honorary Doctorates. In 2012 President Obama bestowed Dolores with The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. When Dolores is home in Southern California, she enjoys being surrounded by her 11 children, 16 grandchildren and 7 great grand-children.

Originally from Ecuador, Cristina came to the U.S. with her family at the age of 13, attending high school and college as an undocumented student. Cristina has organized immigrant youth and workers for the passage of pro-immigrant policies at the local and national level for the past 9 years. She was recently named among Forbes “30 under 30 in Law and Policy,” one of “21 immigration reform power players” and one of 5 non-profit leaders who will influence public policy by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Cristina co-founded the New York State Youth Leadership Council, the Dream Mentorship Program at Queens College, was an immigration policy analyst for the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and an immigrant rights organizer at Make the Road New York.

Betsy McKinney - mother, writer, speaker, philanthropist and social entrepreneur, is the Founder and CEO of It’s Time Network, a growing community of people and organizations working to achieve gender equality, evolve democracy and build fair economies that regenerate the Earth. In May of 2016, It’s Time Network published the first ever, Mayor’s Guide: Accelerating Gender Equality©. She serves as a Board Director of the Women Donors Network, and an active member of Women Moving Millions and Alliance for Girls. She also manages Faraway Foundation, a 501c3 private foundation. She speaks nationally and internationally, was a columnist for an award winning small town newspaper in Telluride, Colorado, and in 2011 she wrote a Declaration of Interdependence©. Betsy currently lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Leilani Munter is a biology graduate turned race car driver and renowned environmental leader. Leilani uses her unique voice as a competitive NASCAR race driver to spread environmental awareness and renewable energy to millions of race fans. Glamour Magazine called her "An Eco Hero". Discovery named her the #1 Eco Athlete in the World, she is a recipient of ELLE Magazine's Genius Award, and Sports Illustrated has named her one of the Top 10 Female Race Drivers in the World. Leilani believes it is essential for humans to adapt and evolve the way we are living to a sustainable way that does not destroy the world around us. Two of the many ways she is bringing awareness to the mainstream pubic are through her recent appearance demonstrating her Tesla Motor Car in the Louis Psihoyos film "Racing Extinction", and her role as a spokesperson for The Solutions Project: The campaign to bring !00% renewable energy solutions to all global citizens.

Jacqui was born and raised on the south side of Chicago to a Jamaican immigrant father and an African American mother from Mississippi. She attended Boston University where she gained a Bachelors in Special Education. She has worked as a trainer, organizer, researcher, program manager, and policy analyst on international and domestic issues and social justice movements with organizations including Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Baltimore City Healthy Start, IMA World Health, United for a Fair Economy, ActionAid, Health GAP, and the organization she co-founded, Women of Color United (WOCU). Before joining the team at NAACP, she established herself as a national leader through Women of Color United’s participation in a Movement Generation for Change Ecology Justice Retreat and partnership with the Women’s Environment and Development Organization. To launch her work with NAACP, one our our nations largest civil rights groups, she facilitated a partnership with Women of Color United to engage in the “Women of Color for Climate Justice Road Tour”, uplifting stories of differential impact and community self reliance. Jacqui represents the NAACP in forging partnerships both nationally and globally, most recently attending the UN Climate talks in Lima, Peru.

Kathy is the co-founder of Tewa Women United, a group that raises awareness about environmental issues, domestic violence prevention, and drug and alcohol abuse. She has organized women’s voices in her community to be instruments of political, social, and economic change for gender equity and equality both in Indian Country and internationally. TWU is a collective inter-tribal women’s voice in the homelands of Northern New Mexico. The name comes from the Tewa words wi don gi mu which translates to “we are one.” In the safe spaces women create, transformation and empowerment comes through critical analysis and the embracing and re-affirming of our cultural identity. TEWA produces an annual cross-tribal gathering for womens leaders across the Southwest. Kathy also serves on the National Council of Elders - veterans of the Civil Rights, Women’s, Peace, Environmental, LGBTQ*, Immigrant Justice, Labor Rights and other movements of the last 60 years, coming together to share the torch of freedom, justice, peace, and non-violent action with those who have risen anew in the 21st century.

Since Eveline's leadership began in 1999, Forward Together has become widely recognized for its innovative role in the Reproductive Justice Movement—working with grassroots communities; providing thought leadership; developing effective tools and resources for evaluation, training, and documentation; and organizing for long-term systemic change. Eveline serves on the board of the Movement Strategy Center and the Bay Area Social Justice Funders Network advisory committee. Eveline formerly led the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and is currently featured by the Women's Foundation of California for her impactful work in the field of health, environmental and economic justice. With Eveline's leadership, Forward Together works with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and 20 community based organizations in 13 states on a national community-driven research project documenting the experiences and resilience of families who have experienced incarceration. The initiative "Toward A Caring Economy, is producing original research, developing campaigns and policy solutions for safe and thriving communities, and strengthening the national movement to end mass criminalization and mass incarceration.