On Sunday, a gunman interrupted a Taiwanese church congregation in Orange County, California, and shot at churchgoers. The shooter, who is Asian-American, has been identified and it is believed that he was motivated by tensions between China and Taiwan. To discuss, we FEATURE Amber Gustafson. Gustafson is the former Iowa Chapter Leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. In 2018 as a first-time candidate, she ran against the incumbent, NRA-backed Republican Iowa Senate Majority Leader and came within 3 points (1,000 votes) of winning in a district with a slight Republican registration advantage. Her opponent had run twice before unopposed. A farm girl at heart, who had grown up around guns and who had been a Republican until 2008, she knew she had a responsibility to come to the table and begin a conversation about ways to bring an end to gun violence in our nation. 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. Media includes: Politico, Refinery29, The Washington Post, CNBC, ABC.

If Roe v Wade is overturned, as the leaked Since the Supreme Court document revealed, abortion is likely to be illegal in 26 states by the fall. To discuss, we FEATURE Julie F. Kay. An experienced and passionate advocate for equality, attorney Kay is an expert on women's human rights domestically and internationally. Her initiatives include litigation, policy work and public speaking to increase support for access to reproductive rights and religious freedom. Kay is the co-author with Kathryn Kolbert of Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom. She helped lay the groundwork for the legalization of abortion in Ireland through designing and litigating the first direct challenge to the country's absolute ban before the European Court of Human Rights in ABC v. Ireland. Recently she launched ground-breaking legal reform to protect the parenting rights of people leaving ultra-religious communities. Media includes: The Los Angeles Times, Guardian, Irish Times, WNYC.

WMC SheSource has a list of additional experts on abortion and reproductive health.

The U.S. COVID death toll reached one million this week, according to the CDC. To discuss, we FEATURE Jessica Martinez. Martinez serves as co-executive director for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) where she has manages a dedicated team at National COSH for nine years. She is committed to protecting workers and continuously improving workplace safety and health, especially those most vulnerable to poor working conditions - low-wage workers of color, immigrants, women, and youth. Prior to her work at National COSH, Ms. Martinez served as the Program Coordinator for the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Program and the Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (SoCalCOSH), implementing education programs and advocating for worker safety and health. Media includes: Univision, MSNBC, CNN.

Finland and Sweden have announced that they will apply to join NATO as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. To discuss, we FEATURE Sally Painter. Painter is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Blue Star Strategies, LLC. She provides corporate, institutional, and public sector clients with external affairs, foreign and security policy guidance, and global business development strategies. Ms. Painter also serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council and as a senior advisor to its Future Europe Initiative. Painter's work focuses on supporting the democratic, economic development, and rule of law aspirations of countries around the world, particularly those undergoing transition. She is a key leader and trusted advisor in the European space, representing global businesses and governments on their most important investment and foreign policy issues, including NATO, EU, and OECD accession and the historic legislation passed by the U.S. Congress allowing their citizens to enter the U.S. visa-free. Media includes: Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Financial Times, Politico, Fox News.

Several independent groups are investigating the death of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqleh. The Palestinian-American journalist was killed last week while covering an Israeli military raid. At her funeral, Palestinian mourners were attacked with batons by Israeli police. To discuss, we FEATURE Noura Erakat. Erakat is a human rights attorney and an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick Department of Africana Studies. Her research interests include humanitarian law, refugee law, national security law, and critical race theory. Noura is the author of Justice for Some: Law As Politics in the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019). She is a Co-Founding Editor of Jadaliyya e-zine and an Editorial Committee member of the Journal of Palestine Studies. She has served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, as a Legal Advocate for the Badil Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights, and as the national grassroots organizer and legal advocate at the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Media includes: Foreign Policy, Al Jazeerea, The Hill, The Interdependent, The Huffington Post.

The U.S. Interior Department has released a study of Native American boarding schools that were set up by the U.S. government to assimilate indigenous children forcably separated from their families and communities into white society. More than 50 burial sites have been identified. To discuss, we FEATURE Gwen Leaffe Carr. Carr is an award-winning artist, musician, singer, writer, storyteller advocate and activist on American Indian and Social Justice issues. She is an enrolled member of the Cayuga Nation of New York, Heron Clan. She is currently serving as the executive director of the Carlisle Indian School Project, which honors the students of the first government-run boarding school for Native Americans. She is an alumni of Interlochen Arts Academy, the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University. She has over 30 years of experience in working with American Indian Tribes. Some of her achievements include; working in Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House in the Clinton Administration and being the first National Political Director for American Indians at the Democratic National Committee in Washington D.C. Carr also served as the Deputy Secretary for the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. Extensive media experience.

The American Law Institute will vote this week on a proposed code that suggests that a person’s inaction may be interpreted by another as permission to engage in sex. Their code is a blueprint for states in updating their own laws and could set back advances that understand consent as being a freely given agreement. To discuss, we FEATURE Deborah Tuerkheimer. Tuerkheimer is a Professor of Law at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law. She joined the Northwestern Law faculty in 2014 after serving as a professor at DePaul University College of Law since 2009 and the University of Maine School of Law since 2002. She is also a co-author of the casebook Feminist Jurisprudence: Cases and Materials and the author of numerous articles on sexual violence and domestic violence. In 2015, Tuerkheimer was elected to the American Law Institute, an esteemed group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars dedicated to the development of the law. Teurkheimer is the co-author of a New York Times op-ed “The Thinking About Consent Has Evolved Drastically. This Code May Turn the Clock Back.” Media includes: The Washington Post, The Economist, The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, CBS.

Title 42, which has been used to turn people away at the Mexican border – including those seeking asylum - as a way of decreasing the spread of COVID-19, was put in place by the Trump administration in 2020 and is due to terminate on May 23. Over 20 Republican state attorneys general are seeking to block Title 42 from ending. To discuss, we FEATURE Shannon K. O'Neil. O'Neil is the vice president, deputy director of studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an expert on Latin America, U.S.-Mexico relations, global trade, corruption, democracy, and immigration. She is the author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead (Oxford University Press, 2013), which analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations Mexico has undergone over the last three decades and why these changes matter for the United States. O’Neil has testified before Congress on U.S. policy toward Mexico and she is a frequent commentator on major television and radio programs. Media includes: Foreign Affairs, Foreign Affairs Latinoamerica, Americas Quarterly, Política Exterior, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today.

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. To commemorate, we FEATURE Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. Jetnil Kijiner is a Marshall Islander poet, spoken word artist, and teacher. She has used her poetry to highlight the struggles of her people including social justice issues such as the threat of climate change for her islands, the American legacy of nuclear testing in her country, and racism against Micronesians in Hawaii. She received international acclaim after performing at the United Nations Climate Summit where she performed a poem to her daughter entitled, “Dear Matafele Peinam” which moved hundreds of world leaders to tears and has since launched her into global conversations on climate change. She also co-founded the youth environmentalist ngo Jo-Jikum based in the Marshall Islands, and is currently the Pacific Studies faculty instructor at the College of the Marshall Islands. Media includes: The Guardian, Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, CNN.

WMC SheSource has a list of additional experts for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.