CWRC Members
CWRC Staff
Laura Weiss
Laura Weiss, MSW, has been the Director of the Cornell Women's Resource Center since 2006. She loves working with students to create events, programming, and awareness on matters of gender, feminism, sexuality, diversity and other issues that impact women's lives. Prior to coming to Cornell, Laura worked as a therapist specializing in sexual assault counseling at Northeastern University, where she was also a lecturer in the Human Services department. Laura is a House Fellow at the Flora Rose House, and hopes this will help bring the mission and message of the CWRC to West Campus even more.
Laura always looks forward to meeting and talking with students informally. Some of her favorite topics are: good books, good movies, feminism, blogs, pop culture (especially feminist blogs about pop culture), vegetarian recipes, random trivia, women in politics, life after college, and international travel. In her free time, Laura enjoys reading (particularly non-fiction and memoirs), running, snowshoeing and finally learning how to cook.
Advisory Board
Claire Barbour
Claire Barbour was born in Eastern Canada, bred in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and is currently a senior at Cornell University. She is an English major with dreams of literary greatness; she is also minoring in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Education in order to hopefully be a pretty kickass teacher if the whole literary greatness thing doesn't work out. She is interested in breaking down the stereotypes surrounding being a feminist and being pro-choice, believing that education and conversation are the only answers to ignorance and assumption. Outside of school, her interests include baking so that people will like her more, reading until her eyes fall out from lack of sleep, and knowing too much about the ins and outs of the Disney Channel social network.
Elise Blasingame
Elise Blasingame is a feminist. She is also a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, concentrating in Inequality. In addition to the WRC, she is a proud member of the Watermargin Cooperative, Justice for Children International, and the Campus Anti-War Network. As a strong Southern woman from the beautiful but red state of Georgia, she is dedicated to eradicating structures oppression on the basis of sex, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. After her educational aspirations have been attained, she hopes to dedicate her life to ending forms of slavery, especially in women and children. Her favorite things include: stress baking, Polaroid pictures, celebrating half-birthdays, road trips, building pillow forts, arranging flowers, mixed-media art projects, fried okra, the nonsensical, and her snakes, Trouser and Hood Rat.
Jaime Churchill
Mark Collins
Mark is a junior double majoring in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Government (although he is not going into politics or to law school, if you were about to ask). From the great state of Rhode Island, he hopes to return one day as a professor and educate students about the history of feminism from the dawn of time to the present and the place of men within it. His current interests include: existentialism, snails, anything ever penned by or about John Stuart Mill, and buying way too many books from Cornell Store book sales.
Vanessa Coleman
Vanessa is a super-senior majoring in Human Biology, Health and Society and minoring in Global Health. Her passions are feminism, Africa, health equity and reproductive justice, however she is very interested in all areas of social justice both domestically and internationally.
Rhea Fernandes
Kathleen Jercich
Kathleen Jercich is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in English with minors in Biological Sciences and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Kathleen hails from Northern California, has a slight problem with discretion, and loves to talk (at all times) about sexual health, gender fluidity, heteronormativity, and eroticism. In her spare time, she enjoys editing for Kitsch magazine, writing questionable poetry, caving with Cornell Outdoor Education, imitating zombies and/or dinosaurs, dancing poorly, and straddling various binaries. She would also like to hug you.
Lauren Meador
Lauren Meador is a senior in CALS, studying Development Sociology and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She feels passionate about improving the way our health care system thinks about and deals with "women's issues", problems and challenges that apply to each and every one of us. She plans to eventually follow up her B.S. at Cornell with a Ph.D. in Public Health, and hopes to, upon graduation, live the rest of her years surrounded by friendly creatures of the canine and feline variety. In her free time, Lauren enjoys playing all types of music, watching Seinfeld, and desperately trying to build up her book collection with impressively thick volumes about who knows what.
Alka Menon
Alka is a senior College Scholar and biology major in the College of Arts and Sciences. For her College Scholar project, she is studying the history of same-sex marriage in the United States. In addition to being a new member of the Women’s Resource Center, she is involved with Ordinary People, the Cornell Prison Education Program, and Cover Africa. She is also an RA in Balch Hall (Balchies are gorgeous!). Alka enjoys opinionating, key lime pies, stars, and her certificate of Native Texan birth, but books are her favorite.
Kate Meyer
Kate is a senior Government and Unicorns major in the college of Arts and Sciences, and has been a member of the Cornell Women's Resource Center since Fall of 2007. Her favorite things include black coffee, modern dance, oatmeal raisin cookies, Newfoundlands, radical bookstores and feminism. She is inspired by strong women who speak their mind and know who they are, and all the strong individuals who encourage them, appreciate them, and love them for it. She giggles often, most notably in her sleep.
Morgan Miller
Morgan is a Senior in CALS studying clouds and rainbows, hoping to pursue a career in broadcast meteorology where she will get paid a lot of money for being wrong. When she's not sending out the weather forecast for the WRC, she's out trying to conquer sexism on campus. Morgan joined the WRC board in Fall 2007. She loves educating others about the importance of self respect and sexual consent. Her interests include dancing, scarves, being loud, empowerment, forecasting, candy, and choice.
Samantha Pedreiro
Jacqueline Rios
Jackie is a junior majoring in Government, with minors in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Law and Society. Born and raised in suburban New Jersey (the cool part), she hopes to go to law school after graduation, and eventually become a lawyer fighting for equality, social justice, and other bleeding-heart liberal ideals. She is a total computer nerd and the current WRC webmaster. Her interests include: baking delicious things, comedy, indie movies, Conor Oberst, puppies, being awesome, the internet, and a ridiculously long list of great TV shows.
Lauren Schneider
Lauren is a feminist, an American Jew, and a junior majoring in Human Development and minoring in Education. Her interests include cats, reproductive justice, superheroes, ending sexual violence, queer stuff, babies, Dar Williams, graphic novels, blogging, and films with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in them. In her spare time, she likes to watch Mad Men, House, and reruns of Will and Grace, as well as read feminist books and Batman comics. When she grows up, she wants to be a preschool teacher, an education reformer, and a mom to beautiful Jewish feminist babies.
Erica Southerland
Erica is a senior majoring in communications with a concentration in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She used to want to be a journalist and now has no idea what to do with her life. Her interests include: watermelon, Northampton MA, baby animals, the WRC candy bowl, choice, the Cornell Store, feminism, her unfortunate online shopping addiction, and shamelessly plugging FemSex (take it Fall '09!).
Lauren Tsuji
Kelly White
Kelly is a junior with a double major in French and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Sexual health is her thing, and she loves showering her peers with free condoms, dental dams, and lube. She aspires to be a sex educator for Planned Parenthood. In her free time, Kelly also loves facilitating FemSex, giving tours of campus, star gazing, horseback riding, and eating cookie dough.
Advisory Board Alumni
Molly Baker
Molly Baker is a senior in Development Sociology. She is specifically interested in education reform. After she graduates she hopes to return to West Africa with the Peace Corps or some other international development agency. She is also involved with the Campus Life Student Advisory Committee and the Social Business Consulting Group. In her free time she loves hanging out at ABC cafe, going to concerts and exploring Ithaca.
Julie Cantor
Julie Cantor once ran for Student Trustee against Graham in 2006, and used the adjacent picture to campaign, and lost. This year, she's running for a place in your heart, and is using the same picture. Julie likes smiling. One day, she hopes to be a tv chef with a hard-hitting edge, covering women's rights, worker's rights, and celebrity gossip while she bangs out a delicate souffle. Vote Julie for 2008!
Jenny Coico
Jenny is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Government. In addition to being a feminist, she is a tap dancer, a public health activist, and a Cornell Big Red Bear mascot. She will be graduating from Cornell in December 2008, which means that she will soon be entering the real world. Although this is a scary thought, she is comforted by the fact that she will be staying in Ithaca during the spring so she can become the sketchy alumna who hangs out in the Women's Resource Center all the time.
Ariela Rutkin-Becker
Ariela Rutkin-Becker is a senior-in-denial in the school of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Near Eastern Studies. Soapbox issues/hobbies in the women's movement and WRC include: consent education (verbal communication), pro-choice issues (pro-choice does not, and has never, equal pro-abortion!), proudly reclaiming the name and notion of feminism(s), orgasming on stage (with Vagina Monologues) and knowing that her bio is not as funny as Liana's.
Graham Rengert
Graham Rengert is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in not-math/not-science studies. He enjoys gardening, building, running, playing Ultimate, creating art, and witnessing spoken word. He loves animals and was once pre-vet; now he wants to be a middle school teacher.
Sabrina Stierwalt
Sabrina is a graduate student getting her PhD in astrophysics. She joined the WRC after working with her good friend Hannah to start the Female Sexuality workshop. (Take FemSex next semester: all genders welcome!) Sabrina wakes up every morning to the soft snoring of her two bulldogs and ready to fight for under-represented people everywhere. She feels you can't have too many enemies because if someone isn't angry about what you're doing, you're not pushing hard enough for your beliefs. She likes organic food, tattoos, and Joel McHale, but dislikes giant squid.