Lisa Maldonado, MA, MPH
Executive Director
Lisa Maldonado has devoted her career to working on reproductive health issues, especially as they affect women, adolescents and immigrants. She has worked with large family planning programs in Latin America and Africa and, for over 10 years, worked with local New York City primary care clinics providing health care to Latino women and adolescents. She is active within the American Public Health Association, currently serving as co-chair of the Association’s Abortion Task Force and as a Governing Councilor for the Population, Family Planning and Reproductive Health section. Ms. Maldonado was one of the original founders of the Reproductive Health Access Project and has served as the organization’s Executive Director since 2005. She graduated from the University of Miami in 1985, received a Masters in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1988 and a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University in 1995.
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Linda Prine, M.D.
Linda Prine
is a family practitioner at the Sidney Hillman Family Practice, and is on the faculty of the Beth Israel Residency Program in Urban Family Practice. Dr. Prine is also on the staff of Planned Parenthood, New York City as an abortion provider and as a trainer to other family medicine faculty and residents. She graduated from medical school at Cornell University Medical College in 1987 and completed her residency training at Montefiore Medical Center’s Residency in Social Medicine in 1990. She completed a faculty development fellowship at the Institute for Urban Family Health and a mini fellowship in Reproductive Health at Rochester University Department of Family Medicine. She is a board certified family physician.
Dr. Prine has presented at numerous grand rounds around the country, at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and American Public Health Association conferences, and American Academy Family Physician meetings on topics in Women’s Reproductive Health. Prior to coming to Beth Israel in 1994, she worked in Boston as a family physician at two urban community health centers – one in Dorchester and one in East Somerville. She has been with Planned Parenthood of New York City since 1998. She is currently the President of the New York County chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She is one of the founders of the Reproductive Health Access Project.
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Ruth Lesnewski, M.D.,
Ruth Lesnewski
graduated from the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco in 1987 and completed her residency in family medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in 1990. She is a Board Certified Family Physician. Currently, Ruth works both as an attending physician at Beth Israel Residency Program in Urban Family Practice and as medical director of East 13th Street Family Practice in Manhattan. Dr. Lesnewski has collaborated on multiple women’s health research projects and has presented at grand rounds around the country, at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and American Academy of Family Physician meetings. She is also active in the Clinical Director’s Network. She has worked with them to provide training to community health center staff on integrating evidenced based reproductive health services. Dr. Lesnewski is one of the founders of the Reproductive Health Access Project.
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Susan Yanow, MSW
Organizing Consultant
Susan Yanow
graduated from Social Work School at Boston College in 1977. Susan is a founder of the Abortion Access Project and from 1992 – 2006 served as AAP’s Executive Director and Director. Susan has strong organizing skills, in-depth knowledge of the issues facing primary care providers who want to provide comprehensive reproductive health care and an extensive network of national contacts that can be called upon to support the efforts of this project. Her work is fueled by her passion to ensure that every woman has access to an abortion when she needs one. She was a RHAP Advisory Board member from 2005-2006 and joined RHAP as a consultant in January 2007.
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Rebecca Simons, MD
Fellow
Rebecca Simons
graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1999 and obtained a Masters in Public Health at John Hopkins University in 2000, with an emphasis on community health and family planning/contraception. She completed her residency in family medicine at the Brown University Family medicine program. During her residency Rebecca did some elective work in abortion training.
Rebecca has long been committed to reproductive rights issues. One of her first jobs after college was at the Aradia Women’s Health Center in Seattle. There she worked in the lab and provided post-abortion counseling. During medical school she worked at the Elizabeth Blackwell Women's Health Center doing options counseling and was co-president of her medical school’s Medical Students for Choice chapter.
“It has always seemed logical for me to include abortion in my family practice; it's a part of women's primary care, and training more family doctors to do abortions is an integral part of increasing access--especially to lower-income women, and those living in urban/rural areas.”
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Molly Gaebe
Intern
Molly Gaebe
graduated from Wesleyan University in 2008 where she majored in Theater and American Studies. In college she got involved in women's health and reproductive rights issues. Molly volunteered with YMCA and the Big Sister Association because she is passionate about giving young women the tools and education they need to become independant and empowered individuals. She decided to continue working on these issues at Reproductive Health Access Project and joined in the growing effort to work for better reproductive health care for all women.
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Savitri Seupersad
Intern
Savitri Seupersad graduated from Hunter College in 2003 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Women’s Studies. During her senior year of college, Savitri started a pro-choice organization called VOX: Voices for Choice. After graduation, she volunteered for Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic where she was part of the Responsible Choices Speakers Bureau. Currently, she is a Graduate student studying Public Health at Hunter College. Savitri believes that the lack of access to reproductive choices may be the single most life-altering obstacle a woman can face, and her overall goal is to increase women’s reproductive autonomy. She feels that she can get closer to this goal by working with the Reproductive Health Access Project because it is revolutionizing the way women receive reproductive health care services.
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Liz Bodman
Intern
Liz Bodman graduated from Occidental College in 2007. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Social Work at Columbia University, where she is studying program development and advanced clinical practice. Liz has a long-standing interest in reproductive and sexual health, and hopes to build a career improving these areas of care. She joined the Reproductive Health Access Program in order to advocate on behalf of all women fighting for quality, affordable reproductive health services.
