Season 5 Featured Voices:
Dr. Diana Greene Foster (she/her/hers) is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and director of research at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health. An internationally recognized expert on women's experiences with contraception and abortion, she is the principal investigator of the Turnaway Study.
Dr. Diana Greene Foster
Sophia Yen, M.D. MPH (she/her) is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pandia Health, birth control delivery. Dr. Yen graduated from MIT, UCSF Medical School, and UC Berkeley’s MPH program. With 20+ years in medicine, she is a Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford Medical School and on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’s Section On Adolescent Health. Her passion is Women’s Reproductive Health and she co-founded 3 non-profit projects to improve the lives of women: The Silver Ribbon Campaign to Trust Women, SheHeroes.org, and fffl.co (Female Founded, Female Led, B2C awareness campaign, by from a FFFL!)
Dr. Sophia Yen
Kara Laricks (she/her/hers) is the Natioanl LGBTQ+ Matchmaker at Three Day Rule. Kara's matchmaking and date coaching style is rooted in the deep desire for her LGBTQ+ community to experience love, happiness, and fulfillment in healthy, long-lasting relationships. She guides women, men and non-binary people to look within to discover what they bring to the dating and relationship table. When it comes to making lasting matches, Kara pairs those who share the same vision of a life together and often starts by asking her clients, “What qualities in another human feel good to your soul?” Kara thrives on helping people of diverse identities navigate the current dating scene. She's a fiercely loyal wingwoman and an eternal optimist who is always on the side of love.
Kara Laricks
Jerrica Kirkley (she/her/hers) is a trans woman, physician, mom, educator and lover of all things athletics and the outdoors. She started Plume, the first health technology company dedicated to the transgender community, to radically redefine the way healthcare is delivered and to ensure that every trans person in the US has access to gender-affirming care at the convenience of a smart phone. She grew up in North Carolina and now lives in Denver, Colorado. Jerrica loves anything to do with bicycles, hiking, yoga and spending time with her 3-year old. Fun fact - she used to own a bike shop!
Dr. Jerrica Kirkley
FREDDIE (they/them) is a Bay Area-based singer-songwriter, performer and digital activist. Their April, 2020 release of their debut EP Melanin Monroe has amassed over 300,000 streams and has been featured by Billboard, Grindr, them., and The Bay Bridged. FREDDIE is a genre- and gender-fluid artist, often incorporating their love of drag and hip-hop into their work.
FREDDIE
Dr Rebecca Levy-Gantt (she/her) is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, then moved to Northern California. She came from a family of teachers, and thought she might follow that same path until she took a serious interest medicine, especially in women's health care. Dr Levy-Gantt worked in various settings until finally settling in Napa, California after meeting her husband, Bill, a California native. She has three children and two step-children who have settled on both coasts, and loves spending time with family, running, traveling and writing. She owns her own solo Ob/Gyn practice and is devoted to her patients and to providing comprehensive reproductive health care to women of all ages. She has recently published a book, "Womb With A View" which is her first attempt at providing a true look into the life of an Ob/Gyn in training and in practice.
Dr Rebecca Levy-Gantt
M. Ellery (she/her) is the author of A Color Named Love, the first children's book with polyamorous parents represented. As traditional publishers wouldn't want to help her with it, M. Ellery took a leap and did a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter - and it was a success! 600 parents and 177% of the goal reached, all because of an amazing community that supports and respects non-traditional forms of love.
M. Ellery
Erica Garza (she/her) is the author of the memoir "Getting Off: One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction." Her writing has appeared in Time, Health, Glamour, Women's Health, and VICE. Born in Los Angeles, she currently lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Her website is www.ericagarza.com.
Erica Garza
Amy Gravino, M.A. (she/her) is an autism sexuality advocate and Relationship Coach in the Center for Adult Autism Services at Rutgers University. She is also the President of A.S.C.O.T Consulting, which offers autism consulting, college coaching, and mentoring services for organizations, schools, individuals on the autism spectrum, and their families. Amy is an international speaker who has given TED talks, spoken twice at the United Nations for World Autism Awareness Day, and presented worldwide to audiences on a variety of topics related to autism, with a dedicated special focus and research on the subject of autism and sexuality. Amy obtained her Masters degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Caldwell University in 2010 and currently serves on the Boards of Directors of several autism organizations. She is an award-winning writer whose work has been featured in Spectrum, the leading online news source for autism research, Reader’s Digest, special education textbooks, and other outlets. Follow Amy on Twitter (@AmyGravino) and Instagram (@amy.gravino) and visit www.amygravino.com to learn more.
Amy Gravino
Joe Vela (he/him) is the CEO and Founder of the Emojibator, international musician & producer, and a 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 finalist. With backgrounds in digital marketing and data science, he founded Emojibator as a side hustle in August 2016 to fund his music career. Since launch, Emojibator has been featured in over 300 media publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Buzzfeed, Playboy, and Cosmopolitan, sold in over 50 countries, and won countless adult-industry and professional awards. Joe, along with co-founder Kris, aims to use education and humor to promote sexual health and celebrate masturbation. He is currently pitching a Sex Tech TV show. Joe is based in Philadelphia, PA.
Joe Vela
Louie A. Ortiz-Fonseca (he/him) is the Director of LGBTQ Health & Rights at Advocates for Youth, where he works in partnership with young people living with HIV to combat stigma, and hosts a YouTube series for LGBTQ youth, Kikis with Louie. Outside of the organization, Louie is the creator of The Gran Varones, a digital storytelling project that amplifies queer history.
Louie A. Ortiz-Fonseca
Dr. Caricia Catalani (she/her) has a Masters in Public Health in Reproductive, Child, and Maternal Health from Columbia University and a Doctorate in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, focused on innovations to address health inequities. Her post-doctoral studies were with the National Institutes of Health, where she focused on using new media to address reproductive health crises. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. She is a Design Director at IDEO, where her work has focused on using public health best practices and human-centered design to tackle the world’s most complex health challenges. During the past 15 years, her work has focused on bringing new programs, technologies, and organizations to life that improve sexual and reproductive health around the globe. During this time, she has partnered with many of the organizations that now support Bloom, including Planned Parenthood, Power to Decide, and the Healthy Teen Network. She is the mom of two girls. Like her partner Anthony, she wants to help build a world where her little girls can expect love, kindness, and equity.
Dr. Caricia Catalani
Andrea Flynn (she/her) is a Senior Fellow at The Insight Center in Oakland, CA. Prior to joining The Insight Center, she spent eight years at the Roosevelt Institute, where she was most recently the Director of Health Equity. She is the co-author of The Hidden Rules of Race (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Andrea teaches courses on reproductive and sexual health, public policy and economic inequality at the Mailman School for Public Health at Columbia University. She received her MPA and MPH from Columbia University, and her BA in journalism and women’s studies from Syracuse University. You can follow Andrea on Twitter @dreaflynn.
Andrea Flynn
Simon Taylor (he/him) is a Melbourne-born comedian, who by the age of 24 became a writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles. Since then he has written for Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell on the ABC and Magic for Humans on Netflix. His one-hour comedy special was filmed at the famous Enmore Theatre in Sydney and went on to air on ABC and CBS Australia. Simon has also been featured on shows such as Comedy Up Late and Just for Laughs. His debut novel One-Night Stand was released early 2021.
Simon Taylor
Latishia James aka Rev. Pleasure (she/her) is working to create a culture of sanctity, pleasure and wholeness for Black femmes, girls, and womxn. Her social media features my advocacy, facilitation, chaplaincy, and pleasure activism work in addition to her writing and public speaking. As Rev. Pleasure, she works with individuals and communities to heal trauma as a result of patriarchal and religious violence. The modalities she specializes in are customized affirmations, guided meditations, and workshop creation to support folks in their spiritual and sacral development.
Latishia James
Steve Way (he/him) is a 29 year old substitute teacher by day and stand up comedian by night. He was born with Muscular Dystrophy and is an advocate for disability awareness. Steve performs stand up in the NJ/NY area, motivational speeches around the country, and can be seen in the Hulu show Ramy.
Steve Way
Leslie Lopez (she/her/ella) is a First-Generation, Black Mexican-American residing in North Texas. She is the host of Tejana Feminist Talks, a podcast centered on learning about social justice topics and unlearning harmful ways of thinking. Leslie is a reproductive justice educator and currently works in the communications and fundraising role at a national reproductive justice organization. You can find her on Instagram @tejanafeminist and the podcast @tftalkspodcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Leslie Lopez
Kris Fretz (she/her) is the founder and chief marketing officer of Emojibator, the emoji-shaped vibrator company. She launched Emojibator in 2016 as a viral marketing joke with her best friend, but they quickly realized a cheeky approach to sexual wellness was just what the world needed. At 23, Kris left her political organizing career behind to disrupt the female pleasure taboo with Emojibator as her first entrepreneurial side hustle. She continues to work full time in NYC leading revenue operations at a FinTech company.
Kris Fretz
Eleanor Grano (she/her) currently serves as the Program Manager at Jane’s Due Process, where she has significantly expanded a statewide text hotline to support young people navigating parental involvement laws for abortion and birth control. In 2018, she established a leadership program for young people forced to petition the court to get a judicial bypass for abortion in Texas. In 2020, Eleanor hosted a journalism workshop for high school students to write personal essays about their vision for a sex education curriculum that could better meet the needs of young people.
Eleanor Grano
Anthony Veneziale (he/him) has been performing and teaching play-based techniques for social change for over twenty years. He is a leader in teaching, performing, and advancing the scientific understanding of improvisation. Anthony is passionate about the use of improv for parenting. He is a founding member of Freestyle Love Supreme (sold out Broadway run in 2019) and he has used improv techniques to help create endeavors with Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights, The Electric Company), Daveed Diggs (The Freeze), numerous networks (HBO, TBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, PBS) and companies (Radical Media, Google, Salesforce). Veneziale co-founded Speechless, an improv thinking company based in San Francisco that is entirely devoted to designing play-based curriculum and leading research on the importance of play in creativity, communication and leadership. Anthony’s fully improvised TED Talk “Stumbling Towards Intimacy” has been viewed by over 430,000 people to date. A feature length documentary entitled We Are Freestyle Love Supreme will premiere July 17th, 2020 on Hulu. Most importantly, he is the dad of two girls, ages 6 and 9. He wants to help build a world where his little girls can expect love, kindness, and equity.
Anthony Veneziale
Sky Cubacub (they/them) is a non-binary queer and disabled Filipinx human from Chicago, IL. Rebirth Garments is their line of wearables for the full spectrum of gender, size, and ability. They maintain the notion of Radical Visibility, a movement based on claiming our bodies and, through the use of bright colors, exuberant fabrics, and innovative designs, they refuse to assimilate and are spearheading a Queer and Disabled dress reform movement. They are the editor of the Radical Visibility Zine, a magazine for Queer and Disabled teens based off of their manifesto.
Sky Cubacub
Ita O'Brien (she/her) is the UK’s leading Intimacy Coordinator and founder of Intimacy on Set, her company set up in 2018, which provides services to TV, film, and theatre when dealing with intimacy, sexual content, and nudity. O’Brien pioneered the role of the Intimacy Coordinator and since 2014 has been developing best practice Intimacy on Set Guidelines, which have been widely adopted in the industry and championed by the TIME’S UP movement and others, advocating for safe, fair and dignified work for everyone. O’Brien has worked on numerous high profile productions including Normal People (BBC3/Hulu), Sex Education Seasons 1&2 (Netflix), Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic), The Great (Hulu), I May Destroy You (BBC/HBO), Brave New World (Peacock/Sky One), It's A Sin (Channel 4) and has been widely covered in the national and international media as the leading spokesperson in this space.
Ita O’Brien
Dave Merheje (he/him) is a cast member on the tv show Ramy on Hulu. He is originally from Canada and lives in Los Angeles now. Dave has a comedy special on Netflix as part of a series called Comedians of the World (Canada) called The Beautifully Manic. His other special is on Amazon Prime USA/UK Good Friend Bad Grammar.
Dave Merheje
Devyn Simone (she/her) is a renowned dating expert and matchmaker who has been featured on Good Morning America, The Wendy Williams Show, The Rachael Ray Show, and Nightline. Her advice has been featured in The New York Post, Yahoo News, and The Huffington Post, and has served as the inspiration for the dating and makeover show Love At First Swipe on TLC.
Devyn Simone
Natasha Ramsey MD, MPH (she/her/hers) is a board certified pediatrician who is currently in training to become an adolescent medicine specialist. She has dedicated her career to serving diverse populations and expanding the adolescent medicine workforce both here and abroad in the areas of reproductive health, family planning, HIV and teen pregnancy prevention. She founded Gorjus Doc to provide guidance to up and coming health care professionals and has now expanded to providing health education and resources to youth through art. Gorjus Doc is also a successful online business where Dr.Ramsey sells her artwork centered around activism, diversity, and equity. She plans to continue her work in global adolescent medicine and commitment to diversity with the hopes of becoming a leader and advocate in the global community; fighting to improve the health of teens around the world.
Dr. Natasha Ramsey
Veronika Granado (she/her) is a Mechanical Engineer minoring in Math at UTSA, as well as a storyteller, activist, and organizer for Reproductive Justice. She is a Leo and a vegetarian!
Veronika Granado
Victoria Nelthropp (she/her) is the Brand Coordinator for Clone-A-Willy! Clone-A-Willy and Clone-A-Pussy allow anyone to make an exact replica of a penis or vulva into a high-quality, body-safe sex toy at home! She has worked in the Adult Novelty Industry for 5 years and lives in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Her favorite aspect of their products is the opportunity it gives anyone to get to know their bodies in a new way and practice self love and empowerment through creativity!
Victoria Nelthropp
Amy Baldwin (she/her) is a Sex and Relationship Coach, Certified Sex Educator, Lead Educator for Uberlube, and Co-Host of the Shameless Sex Podcast.
Amy Baldwin
Diandra Marizet (she/her) is a conscious curator, community builder, writer, and founding member of Intersectional Environmentalist, where she spearheads Business + Resource Development. Diandra uses her work to elevate intersectional sustainability through the lens of social impact + culture. With a background in fashion + community building, Diandra uses her ongoing study to unpack the importance of cultural preservation and eco-feminism.
Diandra Marizet