Teresa Akintonwa
Teresa Tindle Akintonwa, born in 1976, has been an Educator for over 25 years with extensive experience in Instruction and Corporate Training. Since becoming a Long Hauler after her initial covid infection in February 2020 she founded the Black Covid-19 Survivors Alliance which was first an online Patient-support group. It has since evolved into activism and advocacy aimed at helping African-Americans overcome the misinformation and social stigma of CoVid and Medical Research involvement. As President of Black CoVid Survivors Alliance she now collaborates with various organizations to increase Health Equity through Health Coaching, research participant recruitment, and DEI advisement to Research organizations.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, gender and health, racial identity
Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Aleisha Amohia
Aleisha Amohia graduated from Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science (majoring in Computer Science and specializing in Artificial Intelligence) and a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Management and minoring in Information Systems). While at VUW, she was President of VUW Women in Tech for two years. She is now the Koha Technical Lead at Catalyst IT, an open source software company, where she started as an intern in 2014. Aleisha is a passionate young advocate for diversity and equity in all spaces, particularly in the technology industry. She is currently Co-President of the Wellington Branch of the National Council of Women in New Zealand (NZ) and has previously served on the Boards of the YWCA Greater Wellington, the Wellington Alliance Against Sexual Violence, and the Māori Design Group at InternetNZ. In 2022, Aleisha was a finalist for the NZ Impact Awards for contributing a young, Māori, Asian and female lens to NZ's gender equity movement, and other diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, indigenous issues, intersectionality
Media: Transcript, YouTube Video
JD Davids
JD Davids, born in 1967, is a US-based health justice and communications strategist working with national networks of disabled and chronically ill people. He co-founded Strategies for High Impact and its Network for Long COVID Justice in 2021. Davids has been an external expert advisor to the NIH, CDC, and local health departments, and has served as a strategist and organizer with many pivotal groups, including ACT UP Philadelphia, AVAC, the Coalition for a National HIV/AIDS Strategy, Health GAP, the Health Not Prisons Collective, the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance, Positive Women’s Network – USA and the U.S. Caucus of People Living with HIV. As a queer and trans person living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), Long COVID and other complex chronic conditions, he writes and hosts conversations for The Cranky Queer Guide to Chronic Illness (@TheCrankyQueer), sits on the board of #MEAction and is a contributing member of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, which released the first comprehensive study on Long COVID.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, disability rights, gender and health, international rights
Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Anna Kulaya
Anna Meela Kulaya was born in 1975 in Tanzania, and has spent almost twenty years serving her community through her work in the legal sector especially on issues around gender-based violence in the community and workplace. She holds LLB and Master of Law degrees from the University of Dar es Salaam. She is an advocate of the High Court of the United Republic of Tanzania. She began working for Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) as a legal officer and subsequently held various positions within the same organization; she is currently the National Coordinator of WiLDAF Tanzania. Kulaya serves on various boards, and coordinates the 16 Days of Activism Campaign against GBV in Tanzania and its national campaign. She was the chairperson of the Legal Aid Committee of the Tanganyika Law Society, and is currently serving in a network for legal aid providers (TANLAP), and in the Tanzania Association of Non- Governmental Organizations (TANGO), an association with more than 100 Civil Society Organizations. She also leads Her Initiatives, a dynamic organization advocating for young women rights, chairperson of My Legacy and currently serves as a chairperson of CSO’S Women Directors Forum, which brings together more than 50 women Directors from the non-governmental organizations advocating for gender equality and women empowerment. She is also a member of the Committee of GBV Multi-Sectoral COORDINATED by the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHDEC). She is also a member of the Tanganyika Law Society.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, gender-based violence, community activism
Media: Transcript, YouTube Video
Fiona Lowenstein
Fiona Lowenstein, born in 1993, is an award-winning independent journalist, producer, and speaker, covering health justice, wellness culture, LGBTQ+ issues and more. Their work has appeared in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Vox, The Guardian, and Business Insider, among other publications. Fiona is the founder of Body Politic – home of the original Long COVID support group. They are also the editor of the recently published anthology, THE LONG COVID SURVIVAL GUIDE, out November 2022 from The Experiment. Photo credit: JJ Geiger
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, disability rights, gender and health, intersectionality, media
Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Lisa McCorkell
Lisa McCorkell, MPP, born in 1992, is the co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC), a group of people with Long COVID who conduct research on Long COVID. She has presented PLRC's work to Congress, NIH, CDC, the President's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, and more, and has co-authored several research papers and chapters on Long COVID. She is a policy expert, with a background in social safety net, public health, labor policy, advocacy, writing, and research. She has a Masters of Public Policy from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, gender and health
Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Netia McCray
Netia McCray is an educator whose global non-profit organization, Mbadika (bah-GEE-kah), has helped thousands bring their ideas to reality through leveraging STEM. For over 10 years, Netia has worked to demystify STEM in order to make it accessible to typically disadvantaged groups. As a March 2020 Longhauler, she has witnessed first hand the short and long term devastation that Long COVID has brought to not only her community but to communities worldwide. Netia believes knowledge is power and being able to obtain appropriate care and support starts with equitable access. Through her work with C-19 LAP, she utilizes her educational background to demystify Long COVID and recovery for communities like hers that shouldered the burden of the COVID pandemic.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, education, intersectionality
Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Nasra Juma Mohamed
Nasra Juma Mohamed is a retired Deputy Commissioner of the Tanzania Migration Department, where she held several positions for many years. While working with the Migration Department, Mohamed was actively involved in sports. She is an accomplished athlete, a licensed football coach, and holds certificate in sport management. She holds a diploma in foreign relations and diplomacy and a bachelor’s degree in social work from Tanzania Open University. Mohamed’s activism has emphasized both women’s sports (she established the first female soccer team in Tanzania) and women’s roles in coaching. She has served as an executive member of Tanzania Olympic Committee; head coach of First Division Men’s team Kikwajuni Football Club in Zanzibar; Executive member of Zanzibar Football; Chairperson of Technical Committee of Zanzibar Football Federation; and many coaching positions. As an athlete, she participated in national, regional, and international competitions in badminton and soccer.Keywords: community activism, education, activism during the COVID-19 pandemic
Media: Transcript (Swahili, English), YouTube Video (Swahili, English)
Dona Murphey
Dona Murphey, born in 1979, is a neurologist, neuroscientist, historian of science, and community organizer. She has navigated local, state, federal, and international partnerships across academia, government, and health tech sectors in rapid response and strategic mobilizations at the intersections of race, poverty, and immigration. Her belief in the foundational democratic rights to health, migration, public education, and voting have informed her extensive grassroots activism and nonprofit advocacy and a run for her local school board in Texas. Her current project is a public benefit start-up that marries her scientific and clinical expertise with a community organizing ethos to develop a digital diagnostic tied to culturally and language specific content and community health worker access to help eliminate racialized health disparities in dementia.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, disability rights, intersectionality
Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Chimére L. Smith
Suffering with the debilitating effects and symptoms of Covid-19 for nearly a year, Chimére L. Smith, born in 1982, has had to learn the hard knocks of advocacy in healthcare. While seeking treatment and care, she experienced racism, sexism, and dismissal by several medical professionals. Chimére boldly took matters into her own hands by challenging Baltimore hospitals for better, comprehensive treatment for herself and other Black Long Covid patients in urban communities. She is an author, speaker, highly-requested panelist, and thought leader who unapologetically shares her Long Covid journey — including balancing the effects of her disability emotionally, physically, and financially. Chimére Smith has been featured on CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, and in The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She has written for Huffington Post, Medium, The Long Covid Survival Guide, and She Knows.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, disability rights, gender and health, media
Media: Transcript (English), YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Katherine Soto Torres
Katherine Soto Torres, born in 1993, studied Sociology at the Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal and is currently completing a Master's in Public Policy at the Universidad Católica-Peru. She is the daughter of migrants and the first in her family to have access to a college education. Kate is a young activist, recognized by the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations for her work with Carabayllo youth through her club of girls SULANS (Siempre Unidas Lograremos Alcanzar Nuestros Sueños; United Always We Will Reach our Dreams), which works to create safe and empowering spaces for young girls. Among other awards, Katherine received the “Order of Merit for Women” from Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra in 2018, in recognition of her social work in the promotion of women's rights and the fight for gender equality. Kate founded Mujeres Desaparecidos Perú (Missing Women-Peru), an organization that reports cases of missing women and girls and was born out of the disappearance of her friend Solsiret Rodríguez, who is still unaccounted for. Kate is also the coordinator of the CHIRAPAQ, a Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú project that promotes the affirmation of identity and the recognition of indigenous rights in the exercise of citizenship, with a special commitment to indigenous children, youth and women.
Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, community activism, sex work
Media: Transcript (Spanish, English), Video, YouTube Video (Spanish, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio
Interviewee Photo Credit
By SouhiroZ. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katherine_Johana_Soto_Torres.jpg. Creative Commons. Accessed 2 February, 2021.
Dora María Téllez (2024 Interview)
Dora María Téllez Argüello is a Nicaraguan historian, politician, and social rights activist. She was a prominent Sandinista guerrilla commander in the popular struggle against the Somoza military dictatorship in Nicaragua in the 1970s. She served as representative, vice president of the Council of State, and as Minister of Health during Nicaragua’s revolutionary government (1979-1990). In 1995, she parted ways with the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) due to its authoritarian drift and co-founded the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), now UNAMOS.
Téllez has since been a vocal opponent to the consolidation of a new dictatorship in Nicaragua led by President Daniel Ortega. She was imprisoned for twenty months, held in isolation, and total deprivation of rights for denouncing the authoritarian nature of the government and its human rights violations. In February 2023, she was banished and expatriated from Nicaragua to the United States as part of a group of 222 political prisoners who were also illegally stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality.
Her struggle for democracy, social justice, and defense of human rights has been internationally recognized. She has been awarded numerous accolades, including the 2022 René Cassin Prize in Human Rights awarded by the Government of the Basque Country, Spain.
Téllez has also developed an academic career as a historian. She is the author of books and academic publications, including ¡Muera La Gobierna! (1999), which documents the internal colonization of indigenous lands by the Nicaraguan state in Matagalpa and Jinotega between 1820 and 1890. She was co-author of the monograph El Café de Nicaragua (2014) on the impact of the development of coffee production in Nicaragua in the 19th and 20th centuries. She has also published various essays on the challenges of democracy and democratic governance, citizen security and the criminal justice system, the role and evolution of social movements, the social and political exclusion of indigenous and other minoritized communities, and the evolution of Sandinismo.
Téllez was incorporated into Nicaragua’s and Guatemala’s Academies of Geography and History. She has also received two honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki (2011) and from the Sorbonne-Nouvelle (2022). In the summer of 2023, she was a Visiting Research Scholar in the Program in Latin American Studies at Princeton University. Currently, she is a visiting professor and holds the Richard E. Greenleaf Distinguished Chair in Latin American Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, imprisonment, military work in Nicaragua
