New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a sweeping vaccine mandate for all private employees to limit the spread of the Omicron variant. To discuss, we SPOTLIGHT Dr. Lipi Roy. Dr. Roy is an internal medicine physician board certified in addiction medicine. As Medical Director at Housing Works, Dr. Roy oversees medical services at COVID isolation and quarantine sites in New York City. She also serves as clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Health. Media includes: The New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Cooking Light. MSNBC, NBC News.
On Monday, new restrictions on travel to the U.S. went into effect. The new rules require international travelers to have a negative COVID-19 test 24 hours before their flight. To discuss, we FEATURE Saralyn Mark. Mark is COVID-19 Lead at the American Medical Women's Association. She is an endocrinologist, geriatrician, and world-renowned women's health specialist is the founder, president, and CEO of SolaMed Solutions, LLC, a precision innovations consulting firm. In this capacity, she has served as a medical and scientific policy advisor, providing strategic direction for organizations and federal agencies such as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Strategic Investment Fund, academia, industry, and non-governmental and professional society organizations. Media includes: The Independent, VeryWell Health, Good Morning America, CNN, NBC, ABC.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has agreed to remove a pedestal in Richmond that once supported a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. To discuss, we FEATURE Sarah Beetham. Beetham is an assistant professor of art history at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, specializing in American art and particularly the monuments erected to citizen soldiers after the Civil War. She is the author of Monumental Crisis: Accident, Vandalism, and the Civil War Citizen Soldier, which focuses on the ways in which post-Civil War soldier monuments have served as flashpoints for heated discussion of American life and culture in the 150 years since the end of the war. Beetham has been interviewed regarding her work on Civil War monuments and the current debate over the future of Confederate monuments in several outlets. Media includes: The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Architectural Digest, Mic.
Chris Cuomo, who was fired for his involvement in his brother’s, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, sexual harassment investigation, has now himself been accused of sexual harassment by a former junior colleague at another network. To discuss, we FEATURE Adrienne Lawrence. Lawrence is the author of Staying in the Game: The Playbook for Beating Workplace Sexual Harassment, a first-of-its-kind guidebook on sexual harassment. She spent two years as an anchor and legal analyst at ESPN and made headlines in December 2017 upon revealing that she left the network after reporting sexual harassment at the hands of a senior anchor. Lawrence also works with businesses in creating progressive sexual harassment and domestic violence policies, in addition to providing effective training, consultation and oversight. She also reaches thousands of employees across the world as the host of informative and impactful sexual harassment and retaliation training programs used by the majority of Fortune 100 companies. Media includes: Buzzfeed, The Young Turks, ESPN, CBS.
As the Supreme Court continues to consider the Mississippi abortion case, abortion rights established under Roe v. Wade is in danger of being overturned. To discuss, we FEATURE Kristyn Brandi. Dr. Brandi is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers - New Jersey Medical School. She is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist with a fellowship training in Family Planning (contraception and abortion services). She currently sits on the board of Physicians for Reproductive Health and the Ethics Committee for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She has published research on contraceptive coercion by doctors to patients seeking abortion. Her master's degree concentration focused on Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights, which she has focused her educational pursuits around abortion policy, contraceptive decision-making, and racial justice within medical education. Media includes: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Rewire News, Huffington Post, Elite Daily, Mother Jones, Newsweek.
The trial of Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and longetime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, continues this week. Maxwell is charged with multiple counts related to sexual abuse and trafficking. To discuss, we FEATURE Erin Williamson. Williamson serves as the US Programs Director for Love146, an international human rights organization working to end child trafficking and exploitation through survivor care and prevention. She also sits on the US Department of Health and Human Services National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children & Youth in the United States. Williamson has over 20 years of direct service, program management, and applied research experience in the fields of social service and criminal justice, with particular expertise in the areas of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Media includes: New York Post, WCNY, Fox News.
Last week, there was a school shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County, Michigan. Four students were killed. Days after the shooting, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie tweeted a Christmas photo with his family armed with guns. To discuss gun control in America, we FEATURE Amber Gustafson. Gustafson is the former Iowa Chapter Leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She joined Moms Demand Action in June of 2013 and served in many capacities including Chapter Leader from 2016-2017. Under her direction, the Iowa Chapter developed a highly successful rural outreach strategy that allowed Moms Demand Action to stop the portions of the 2017 Gun Omnibus Bill that would have eliminated Iowa’s handgun permitting system and pushed guns on to college campuses, and into hospitals and other public buildings. Her successful program has since been replicated by numerous other state chapters and used to beat bad gun bills in other states. Media includes: Politico, Refinery29, Des Moines Register, The Washington Post, CNBC, ABC.
As the cold weather approaches, many homeless people will be faced with dangerous conditions that could be fatal for those in particularly cold climates. To discuss, we FEATURE Mary Gable. Gable is a public policy analyst at the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. She is a policy analyst, advocate, researcher, and editor with two decades of experience helping labor-based and anti-poverty organizations to increase working-class power. Before AFSCME Gable was the Policy Analyst at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and prior to that at AFL-CIO. Earlier in her career, she was at the Economic Policy Institute from 2006 until 2013. She coordinated activities of state and local organizations through the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) and analyzed public policies affecting low-income people. Extensive media experience.
The Justice Department has sued Texas alleging that the state's new congressional maps discriminate against Latinos. To discuss, we FEATURE Lorella Praeli. Praeli is the Co-President of Community Change and Community Change Action. She is an expert on new voter engagement and relational organizing, electoral politics, changing demographics and expanding the electorate, democracy and voting rights, debates in Congress, the Biden administration, progressive politics, Latino politics. Praeli is available to speak about immigration policy, politics, the future of the American electorate and changing demographics, social justice, and the pocketbook issues that affect families trying to make ends meet (including child care, the safety net, and affordable housing). Media includes: The Washington Post, Associated Press, New York Times, MSNBC.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have held virtual talks to discuss Ukraine. To discuss, we FEATURE Nina L. Khrushcheva. Khrushcheva is a professor in the Graduate Program of International Affairs at the New School, where she teaches courses on International Media, Comparative Propaganda, Culture and Capitalism, Film and Empire, and Russia’s Contemporary Politics and History. She is also a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute, where she heads the Russia Projects, which examines the contours of the current national identity of Russians and its impact on Russian politics. Media includes: Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Times, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times.
The Justice Department has announced that they are closing the Emmett Till investigation without pursuing any charges. To discuss, we FEATURE Koritha Mitchell. Mitchell is an associate professor of English at Ohio State University. She is the author of From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture and the award-winning book Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890 - 1930. Her research centers on African American literature, racial violence in United States history and contemporary culture, and Black drama and performance. Media includes: Good Morning America, The Huffington Post, CNN, NBC, PBS, NPR.