2009 Honoree: Loretta J. Ross '07
Loretta
J. Ross ‘07
is the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive
Health Collective, a network of 80 women of color and allied organizations
founded in 1997 that work on reproductive justice issues.
Ross
graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in women’s
studies and is enrolled in the women’s studies doctoral program at Emory
University. She was awarded honorary
Doctorate of Civil Law from Arcadia University in 2003.
In
2004, Ross was National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s
Lives in Washington D.C., which brought over one
million activists to the capitol. From 1996 to 2004, she was the Founder and
Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Ross
was one of the first African-American women to
direct the first rape crisis center in the United States in the 1970s. From 1985 to 1989, she served as the
Director of Women of Color Programs for the National Organization for Women, organizing
the first national conference on Women of Color and Reproductive Rights in
1987.
Ross
has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning America, The
Donahue Show, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, and BET. Additionally, she serves as a political
commentator for Pacifica News Service. Currently, she is writing a book on
reproductive rights entitled Black Abortion. Her papers are housed and
accessible in the archives of The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in
Northampton, Massachusetts.