On Sunday, October 15, MERJ (Men for Equity and Reproductive Justice) Co-Founder Justin Haas, documentarian Diana Whitten, and artist-activist Amy Merrill co-hosted a nuanced panel discussion on the reproductive justice landscape from an artist’s point of view, with an emphasis on how men can enter the arena.  See below for the panelists’ bios!

We encourage all participants to watch Ms. Whitten’s award-winning film, Vessel. It can be found on multiple streaming services online.

Watch the recording of this fabulous webinar here!

Amy Merrill, artist, activist, web designer

Amy Merrill is an artist and activist working at the intersection of creative communications, technology and social change. In 2015, she co-founded Plan C to transform access to abortion pills by mail in the US, and under her leadership Plan C has grown to an annual audience of millions of website visitors, press reach in the billions, and nationwide partnerships in research, creative and tech. She and her partner run creative studio Eyes Open, specializing in websites and digital communications for purpose-driven individuals and organizations (eyesopendesign.com). Amy was recently named in Fast Company’s 2023 Most Creative People in Business, and she serves as advisor to new EC brand Julie (juliecare.co). She holds 20+ years navigating complex and unsolved social issues from human trafficking to economic injustice to gender equity: which her led to reproductive health and access as a current focus. As a futurist, Amy writes and performs music in post-apocalyptic space folk duo Formerly Alien (formerlyalien.com).

Diana Whitten, writer and director of Vessel

Diana Whitten premiered her feature documentary, VESSEL, at SXSW, winning the Audience Award and the Jury Prize for Political Courage. The film—about ground-breaking crusaders for self-managed abortion—was distributed worldwide by Netflix and screened for 400+ audiences as the centerpiece of an international audience engagement campaign. Prior to this she worked for 15 years in independent film, children’s television, and theater; and as the Director of Communications at Ford Foundation IFP. She currently writes, directs, and consults for nonfiction series and features, and is developing on two fiction series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Democracy Now, among other media outlets. Additional awards include the Sheffield Peter Wintonick Award, Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking, SIMA Lens to Action Jury Award, and a Fulbright Fellowship.

Justin Haas, co-founder of MERJ and discussion moderator

A child of civil rights attorneys and social justice advocates, and a professional educator in the Washington, D.C., public school system, Justin has been involved in social justice work, activism, and advocacy for his entire life.

On Sunday, March 12, MERJ (Men for Equity and Reproductive Justice) and The Business of Birth Control co-hosted a nuanced panel discussion on the reproductive justice landscape from Roe to its overturning, with an emphasis on how men can enter the arena.  The panelists included Abby Epstein, Sevonna Brown, and Dr. Nathan Riley, and was moderated by MERJ Co-Founder Justin Haas. See below for their bios!

Watch the recording of this fabulous webinar here!

Abby Epstein, Executive Producer, THE BUSINESS OF BIRTH CONTROL

Abby Epstein made her film directing debut at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival with the documentary, V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, featuring Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, and Rosie Perez. The film won the Audience Award at Vancouver’s Amnesty International Film Festival and premiered on Lifetime Television, receiving both an Emmy and a Gracie Allen Award. In 2007, she teamed up with Ricki Lake for their widely acclaimed documentary, The Business of Being Born, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released by New Line Cinema/Netflix and broadcast on Showtime. The film’s success led to their follow-up series, More Business of Being Born, featuring Cindy Crawford, Alanis Morissette, Gisele Bündchen and Christy Turlington plus a book, Your Best Birth, published by Hachette. Next, the duo teamed up for Weed the People, which premiered at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the Nashville Film Festival. Weed the People was acquired by Netflix for distribution. Under their company, BOBB Films, Ms. Epstein and Ms. Lake produced the documentaries Breastmilk and The Mama Sherpas and most recently, The Business of Birth Control. Prior to her film work, Ms. Epstein directed Broadway theater, helming national tours and international productions of RENT and The Vagina Monologues.

Sevonna Brown, National Director, BLACK WOMEN’S BLUEPRINT

Sevonna Brown is National Director of Black Women’s Blueprint. She leads the Safer Childbirth Cities Initiative through Merck for Mothers maternal health portfolio. She is also recognized as a Ms. Foundation Public Voices Fellow for her writing through the Op/Ed Project. Her work has been published in Ebony, TIME Magazine, ForHarriet, and Rewire News. She serves on the board of Children of Combahee, which mobilizes against child abuse in Black churches. She has been featured in the documentary The Business of Birth Control, directed by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein. She is also a recipient of the Mellon Mays fellowship for her research on Black maternal health. At Black Women’s Blueprint she oversees advocacy campaigns, co-chairing the NYC4CEDAW, addressing localized efforts to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. She has provided training and technical assistance to a number of organizations through the Institute for Gender and Culture (IGC) including but not limited to: Jackson State University, Tougaloo College, Florida Memorial University, Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault (LaFASA), the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Assault. Sevonna Brown is certified in the Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®),the premier cross-cultural assessment of intercultural competence that is used by thousands of individuals and organizations to build intercultural competence to achieve international and domestic diversity and inclusion goals and outcomes.

Dr. Nathan Riley, MD/OBGYN, FACOG, HOLISTIC OBGYN

Nathan Riley, MD, is a board-certified OBGYN and hospice and palliative care physician. Through his holistic OBGYN practice, Beloved Holistics, PCA, he serves women and their families who are dissatisfied with the conventional medical model. He also has a collaborator program for coaches and alternative health practitioners to provide easy, affordable access to an MD consultant on women’s health and primary care issues. He specializes in fertility, pelvic pain, home birth, and health optimization at all stages of life, from birth to death, working with nature rather than against Her. He is a staunch advocate for medical freedom and personal responsibility, and his podcast is called The Holistic OBGYN.

Justin Haas, moderator, CO-FOUNDER OF MERJ

A child of civil rights attorneys and social justice advocates, and a professional educator in the Washington, D.C., public school system, Justin has been involved in social justice work, activism, and advocacy for his entire life.