meet us

Before becoming About-Face’s first full-time Executive Director in 2008, Jennifer completed a ten-year career in magazine and web publishing, culminating in a top-ranking editorial position at Macworld magazine. She was a volunteer with About-Face since 1997, when she came back home to the San Francisco Bay Area after receiving her B.A. in Communication Studies with High Honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At U of M, Jennifer completed her thesis project about media effects on men’s body image and was an intern at HUES (Hear Us Emerging Sisters) magazine, a national publication for young women of all cultures, shapes, and sizes.

Jennifer’s writing about body image and her experience with food allergies was published in the book Body Outlaws (also published as Adios, Barbie), ed. Ophira Edut (Seal Press, 2004), which is read across disciplines on college campuses. She has been interviewed in numerous publications, including O: The Oprah Magazine (June 2010).

As the Executive Director of About-Face, Jennifer develops and executes strategy to further educate young people about media messages and their formation of self-identity, self-esteem, and body image.

Before becoming About-Face’s first full-time Executive Director in 2008, Jennifer completed a ten-year career in magazine and web publishing, culminating in a top-ranking editorial position at Macworld magazine. She was a volunteer with About-Face since 1997, when she came back home to the San Francisco Bay Area after receiving her B.A. in Communication Studies with High Honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At U of M, Jennifer completed her thesis project about media effects on men’s body image and was an intern at HUES (Hear Us Emerging Sisters) magazine, a national publication for young women of all cultures, shapes, and sizes.

Jennifer’s writing about body image and her experience with food allergies was published in the book Body Outlaws (also published as Adios, Barbie), ed. Ophira Edut (Seal Press, 2004), which is read across disciplines on college campuses. She has been interviewed in numerous publications, including O: The Oprah Magazine (June 2010).

As the Executive Director of About-Face, Jennifer develops and executes strategy to further educate young people about media messages and their formation of self-identity, self-esteem, and body image.

Lee Ann is a Vice President for BlackRock, a global asset manager, driving knowledge sharing via enterprise social collaboration for the firm’s 10,000 global employees. While with BlackRock, she has also held roles leading team development and communications, and product management of web and mobile financial tools. She is an active member of BlackRock’s Women’s Initiative Network and coordinates BlackRock’s “Giving Days” corporate fundraising committee. Prior to BlackRock, Lee Ann worked at Charles Schwab developing statements and retirement tools that help clients build better financial futures. Her first job after college was with Accenture, a global consulting firm, where she led process improvement and change management initiatives for a variety of U.S. and global clients.

Lee Ann holds an MBA from the University of California’s Haas School of Business and a B.A. in Economics, Political Science, and German from the University of Michigan. She explored her passion for travel during her studies as an intern for Germany’s Joint Constitutional Commission and for the U.S. Department of State, and as a microfinance consultant in Ghana for BizWomen, a non-profit funding women-owned small businesses.

Dan Dworkin works for The Hamlin School as the Director of Technology, where he also teaches a sixth grade Media Literacy/Digital Life course. Dan’s work at Hamlin has evolved, as he started as a sixth grade Humanities teacher, and then served as the 5th through 8th grade Technology Integration Specialist. Prior to teaching at Hamlin, Dan worked at The Langley School in McLean, Virginia, where he taught 7th grade English and 6th through 8th grade Drama. Before working in private schools, Dan taught at a public high school in northern California. In addition to classroom and administrative work, Dan has become a leading voice in school safety, building relationships with the Red Cross and the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.

Dan grew up amongst the political landscape of Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s, with parents actively involved in the Civil Rights movement, specifically the rights of women and homosexuals. Dan left LA for college to attend Humboldt State University, where he received a B.A. in English and continued his education there to receive his California Secondary Teaching Credential. More recently, Dan completed his M.A. in Education with a focus on Instructional Technologies at San Francisco State University.

Beth Till has previously worked as an Account Director at a number of top marketing and advertising agencies in both San Francisco and Chicago such as DDB Worldwide, Solution Set (now Ryan Partnerships), and Frankel (now Leo Burnett/ARC Worldwide), with specialties including digital, direct, promotions, advertising, and partnerships. Her wide range of clients have included Visa, Clorox, and Frito-Lay, to name a few. Following graduation from Augustana College, Elizabeth volunteered and lived in Ecuador and the spark for service was ignited in her. Her commitment to community involvement outside work has continued through the years. She currently is a tour guide for San Francisco City Guides, giving walking tours of San Francisco history. Additionally, she volunteers with Hands On Bay Area, focusing her time on public, outdoor space, and helps with different projects for Bay Area Wilderness Training, an organization dedicated to helping get youth outdoors.

Kathy has long been frustrated with the limited and limiting ways women are depicted in popular culture. She believes that our culture’s focus on physical appearance and consumerism has far-reaching negative implications for our society. She is also convinced that there is a profound relationship between our culture’s obsession with physical perfection and the decline in girls’ self-esteem as they reach puberty. It breaks her heart that at the moment girls develop the true characteristics of womanhood — hips, breasts, and rounded bottoms — they begin to hate their bodies. In the summer of 1995, she decided to do what she could to change that.

Using an image from a Calvin Klein ad, she created a spoof poster reading “Emaciation Stinks” and plastered it around San Francisco. About-Face was born. Her single act has grown well beyond what she could have imagined. For more than a decade About-Face, has been a leading voice in body-image issues — issues it helped bring to light. She is particularly proud that About-Face encourages women and girls to voice their own disenchantment, to make changes in their own lives, and to launch their own rebellions.

Kathy’s involvement with About-Face has been profoundly gratifying for her, and perhaps most importantly, it has taught her that all of us, as individuals, have the power to make significant societal change.

Marcella’s first reactions to the media glorification of the impossibly and unhealthy paradigm for women came after her recovery from a 10-year battle with anorexia nervosa. After years of therapy and becoming a complete person, seeing thin and emaciated female models in magazines shocked and angered Marcella. They had the body sizes and shapes that mimicked hers while she was in the throes of her eating disorder. She had spent so many years moving away from that unhealthy ideal, only to have it glamorized and prized in pop culture.

As a queer woman of color, Marcella struggled in her recovery because her symptoms and causation factors did not mirror those she read in mainstream eating disorder textbooks and biographies. Her dream is to open and run a clinic for multicultural populations dealing with eating disorders. She currently runs trainings for clinical staff (www.marcellaedtraining.com).

Marcella received her B.A. from UC Berkeley, and then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She now also holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

Marcella served as About-Face’s Media Literacy Director from 2001-2005. She currently does research for About-Face and is an advisor for About-Face’s Education into Action media-literacy workshops. Marcella feels About-Face brings out the spirited woman warrior in her. She currently serves as the lead Project Manager at the Behavioral Health Education department of Kaiser Permanante in Oakland, CA.

In her free time, she spends time with her partner and friends enjoying the many treasures of the Bay Area. She appreciates her healthy and strong body by training in Kajukenbo at Hand to Hand Martial Arts center in Oakland, enjoying the exploratory path her training gives her.

Stephanie Clowdus is a recent graduate of Sonoma State University with a B.A. in Human Development. She currently works for a substance abuse rehabilitation center in San Francisco. Returning to school for a Master’s in Social Work is in her near future, but she’s happy biking the streets of San Francisco in the meantime. A product of MTV, Stephanie is keen to pop culture’s influence on self-esteem in young women and men. She’s proud to be an About-Face workshop leader because she recognizes how important it is for young people to develop critical-thinking skills to navigate media imagery surrounding gender, race, sexuality, body image, and able-bodiedness.

Gracie is a recent college graduate and transplant to the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied sociology and anthropology in college, where she was first trained in visual literacy and to be critical of corporate media. Gracie sees mass media as one part of our culture that needs to be transformed. She is dedicated to empowering youth through teaching media literacy. As a birth doula, Gracie is interested in examining the media’s role in forming people’s lived experiences of childbirth. Someday, she’d like to launch a media campaign with other reproductive justice workers to help reconstruct the way people perceive and experience birth.

Nallaly Jimenez graduated from Sonoma State University with a degree in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Radio Broadcasting. Currently, she works as a Media Coordinator at a public relations firm in San Francisco. Nallaly is the first in her family to receive a high school diploma and pursue a higher education. Her involvement with About-Face is motivated in part by the desire to set a positive example to students who grew up with similar challenges. She enjoys being an About-Face workshop leader because she wants to enable students to be critical, analytical, media-savvy consumers. In her spare time, she takes pleasure in cooking delicious vegetarian meals, watching horror films, and spending time with friends.

Suzannah Tipermas Neufeld, M.A., MFT, has been a psychotherapist for women, girls, and families recovering from eating disorders and substance abuse since 2003. She received her B.A. with honors and distinction in Drama and Psychology from Stanford University in 2000. She went on to earn her M.A. in Counseling Psychology/Expressive Arts Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Suzannah is also a certified yoga instructor and loves incorporating body and breath awareness into a creative and strength-based therapy approach with recovering people. You can learn more about her work at www.suzannahtipermas.com.

Ivette Torres earned her MBA from Dominican University in 2011 with a concentration in sustainability. She very involved with many projects in her community. Ivette is the current fundraising chair for her Net Impact chapter and helps plan events all over the bay area. Although she has worked in sales and marketing in the corporate world for many years, she has recently had an awakening to her new passion planning events for local non-profits including Eco-Fair Marin, California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, and currently as events and marketing fellow at Investors Circle. She received her undergraduate degree in Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kjerstin Gruys, M.A., earned her undergraduate degree in Sociology, with a Certificate in the Study of Women and Gender, at Princeton University, where she wrote a senior thesis examining how sorority membership impacts women’s body image, body weight, and self-esteem. After a two-year stint working in the glamorous-but-scary fashion industry, Kjerstin returned to academia with a renewed commitment to making a (positive) difference in women’s and girl’s lives.

Today, Kjerstin is a Doctoral Candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. Her research broadly examines how cultural ideas about body size relate to social inequality, and her dissertation specifically compares body-size standards in the medical field with those in the fashion industry. Kjerstin’s writing has been published by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women, and in the scholarly journal Social Problems. You can learn more about her research and teaching at www.kjerstingruys.com.

Stacey earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University in May 2012. While she waits to discover her calling in life, she enjoys utilizing the tools she gained as a student of Women and Gender Studies to critique media and the world around her from a feminist perspective.

Marcella’s first reactions to the media glorification of the impossibly and unhealthy paradigm for women came after her recovery from a 10-year battle with anorexia nervosa. After years of therapy and becoming a complete person, seeing thin and emaciated female models in magazines shocked and angered Marcella. They had the body sizes and shapes that mimicked hers while she was in the throes of her eating disorder. She had spent so many years moving away from that unhealthy ideal, only to have it glamorized and prized in pop culture.

As a queer woman of color, Marcella struggled in her recovery because her symptoms and causation factors did not mirror those she read in mainstream eating disorder textbooks and biographies. Her dream is to open and run a clinic for multicultural populations dealing with eating disorders. She currently runs trainings for clinical staff (www.marcellaedtraining.com).

Marcella received her B.A. from UC Berkeley, and then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She now also holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

Marcella served as About-Face’s Media Literacy Director from 2001-2005. She currently does research for About-Face and is an advisor for About-Face’s Education into Action media-literacy workshops. Marcella feels About-Face brings out the spirited woman warrior in her. She currently serves as the lead Project Manager at the Behavioral Health Education department of Kaiser Permanante in Oakland, CA.

In her free time, she spends time with her partner and friends enjoying the many treasures of the Bay Area. She appreciates her healthy and strong body by training in Kajukenbo at Hand to Hand Martial Arts center in Oakland, enjoying the exploratory path her training gives her.

Katie Boyer is a blogger and social media expert living in Oakland, CA. Katie spends her free time analyzing the media, reading, writing, bicycling, and playing with her pet rabbit.

Audrey D. Brashich is the author of All Made Up: A Girl’s Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty, a body image guide for teens.

Larkin Callaghan is an epidemiology and health communication fellow at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where she also received her doctorate in Health Behavior and Education. She blogs regularly at her own site, I’m Not Tired Yet, about women’s and adolescent health issues.

Gretchen Edwards-Bodmer is a curvy grrrl from Virginia with a Master’s degree in Humanities and Women’s Studies. You can find her musings about raising two boys in this crazy world at www.grrrlwithboys.blogspot.com and follow her on Twitter @GrrrlWithBoys.

Sarah Hansel is a 23-year-old human female. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in Women and Gender Studies from UC Davis. In her free time she likes to read, play video games, draw, and garden.

Heather Klem is a media literacy and positive body image activist living in South Florida. She is a blogger, yoga enthusiast, and impassioned advocate for women’s rights. She works to call out companies on their irresponsible marketing and advertising practices and hold them accountable for ways in which they exploit marganialized groups. She believes the most dangerous media is the unexamined and that we must challenge our society’s limited definitions of beauty, gender, sexuality, and power by turning a critical lens on our culture. She supports empowering and educating our youth on harmful media messages and equipping them with tools that support healthy self-esteem, positive body image, and individuality. Heather spends her days working in the corporate business world, and can be found sharing her own experience, insights, and pop culture commentary at www.msmettle.com.

Tessa Needham finished her PhD in Performing Arts at the University of Western Sydney (Australia) in 2008. Her thesis explored the potential of performance to provoke change, and part of her research was Bodily, a solo theatrical performance about body image. She loves technology and the creative arts, and is passionate about the different cultural forces affecting the body image of girls and women. She teaches computers and does freelance creative work: www.tessaneedham.com.

David Pearson is a recent graduate of Brigham Young University in Media Arts. He studied media, religion, and gender and how they’re all related. When he’s not writing at www.experimentalcriticism.com, he’s trolling the Internet for discriminatory memes and wondering where the closest pizza place is.