Meet the Third Class of Progressive Women's Voices for 2009

ROSE AGUILAR (San Francisco, CA) is the host of "Your Call," a live call-in daily radio show on NPR-affiliates across the Bay Area featuring in-depth discussions ranging from the occupation of Iraq and poverty to the arts and the environment. Aguilar also writes about politics and social issues for Alternet and offers political analysis for the BBC. Aguilar is the author of Red Highways: A Liberal's Journey into the Heartland, based on a six-month road trip she took across the U.S. Her work also appeared in the book Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance In The Heartland. Aguilar serves as a board member for the Women's Intercultural Network, a non-profit that connects women and girls across cultures, and is currently working on a book about lifelong activists working for peace, equality, and social justice.

CHRISTINE AHN (Oakland, CA) is a policy analyst with the Korea Policy Institute and co-founder of Korean Americans for Fair Trade. She writes and speaks regularly on U.S.-Korea relations, including the nuclear crisis, human rights, free trade, and militarism. Ahn has addressed the United Nations, U.S. Congress, and the South Korean National Human Rights Commission and works with the Global Fund for Women, Women of Color Resource Center, Institute for Food and Development Policy, and Legal Aid of DC. Ahn is a fellow at the Oakland Institute and the Institute for Policy Studies' "Foreign Policy In Focus." Ahn has appeared on CNN, NBC, Al-Jazeera, NPR, Voice of America, and elsewhere and has published numerous op-eds. She is the editor of Shafted: Free Trade and Americas Working Poor, producer of Fashion Resistance to Militarism, and contributing author to The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex. Christine was inducted into the OMB Watch Public Interest Hall of Fame and recognized as Rising Peacemaker by the Agape Foundation. She has a Masters in public policy from Georgetown University.

TAINA BIEN-AIMÉ (New York, NY) is the Executive Director of Equality Now, an international human rights advocacy organization that works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls, with a focus on rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, reproductive rights, and trafficking. Previously, Bien-Aimé served as the Director of Business Affairs/Film Acquisitions at HBO and practiced international corporate law on Wall Street. Bien-Aimé has provided expert commentary for numerous national and international media outlets, including the New York Times, AP, Reuters, CNN, NPR, Huffington Post, and elsewhere. Bien-Aimé contributed essays to Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female and When You Need a Lift…Two Cups of Comfort and Support from Joy Behar and Friends. She holds a Juris Doctor from NYU School of Law and a License in Political Science from the University of Geneva and the Graduate School of International Studies, Switzerland.

SANDRA FINLEY (Chicago, IL) is President, CEO, and Board Chair of the League of Black Women, the premiere leadership organization for black women nationally. The League of Black Women has been commended for providing strategic resources to help Black women advance for their leadership ambitions, and is noted for its holistic approach and emphasis on sustainable, joyful living. A graduate of Loyola University, Sandra is active in her community. She is a member of the Union League of Chicago's Committee on Race and a past board member of the Illinois Health Maintenance Organization Guaranty Association. Finley presented at the EU Commission global summit on Women Stabilizing an Insecure World in Brussels, Belgium. Her firm, Sandra Finley Company, specializes in strategic diversity consulting.

SUJATHA JESUDASON (Oakland, CA), PhD, is the Executive Director and founder of Generations Ahead, a social justice organization that brings diverse communities together to promote policies on genetic technologies that protect human rights. Jesudason has worked at Asian Community for Reproductive Justice, Marin Abused Women's Shelter, Narika, and 9to5 National Association of Working Women. She currently serves as the Board Chair of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum and brings to her work a background in immigration, racial justice, domestic violence prevention, particularly in the South Asian community, and reproductive rights in communities of color. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in sociology.

ILEANA JIMENEZ (New York, NY) is an educator and activist for inclusive curriculum and diversity programming. In 2006, she founded the New York Independent Schools LGBT Educator Network and serves as the board Vice Chair and Secretary of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Jimenez also chairs the planning committee for the 2010 Women of Color Conference at Smith College, and serves as a judge for the Lambda Literary Awards, one of the nation's premier LGBT book awards. Currently a teacher at the Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI) in New York City, Jimenez offers courses on feminism, Latina/o literature, LGBT literature and film, and memoir writing. Jimenez received her MA in English Literature at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English and her BA in English Literature at Smith College.

MANA KASONGO (Albany, GA) Dr. Mana Lumumba-Kasongo is a board-certified emergency physician as well as a nationally published writer. Born in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Kasongo received a Master's degree from the Columbia School of Journalism, co-founded the Black Star News, and worked as a freelance reporter for many news venues including InStyle Magazine and Institutional Investor. Kasongo also received her medical degree from Rush Medical School and completed her residency in emergency medicine from New York University. She has recently had articles published with ABC news, Newsweek, Real Health Magazine. Kasongo has also been a featured speaker and serves on the advisory committee for the College of Communications. Kasongo currently serves as an attending physician at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Georgia and has an interest and expertise in emergency health care issues, African and African-American politics and women's health.

KIM KNOWLTON (New York, NY) P.H., is senior scientist with the Health and Environment Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), researching and publishing on links between global warming and health, specifically mortality in a changing climate; interactions between climate, ozone and pollen; and disease. A graduate of Cornell University and Hunter College/CUNY, Knowlton received a doctorate in public health from Columbia University, where she is also currently Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. She received a 2006-2007 Mellon Foundation Teaching Fellowship at Barnard College, and was among the researchers who participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 Fourth Assessment Report.

CRISTINA LÓPEZ (Washington DC) is President of the National Hispana Leadership Institute (NHLI), the premier non-profit organization developing Latina ethical leaders through training, relationship building and community activism. Prior to joining NHLI, López served as Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Community Change (CCC), serving as spokesperson on the immigrant rights movement. López has also served as Vice President of MOSAICA and as Vice President for Institutional Development at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and is an involved community activist who has served on numerous boards over the last two decades. She has worked in Latin America on education, health, and human trafficking programs. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of South Florida, Tampa, and a Masters in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Virginia.

TRACY VAN SLYKE (Chicago, IL) is the Program Director of The Media Consortium, a network of the nation's leading, independent progressive media outlets. Van Slyke's first book, Beyond the Echo Chamber: How a Networked Progressive Media Can Reshape American Politics will be published in Fall 2009. Van Slyke is the former publisher of In These Times magazine, and in 2005 and 2006, she co-authored several landmark articles on strengthening the progressive media landscape. Previously, Van Slyke served as the Communications Director for the National Training and Information Center and covered national politics in Knight Ridder's Washington, D.C. bureau. Van Slyke holds a double BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and Literature, Science and the Arts from the University of Iowa.