Currently a master’s degree student at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Katie has a strong background in fundraising and a passion for women’s health. In the summer of 2009 she joined RHAP as an intern and stayed on to volunteer for the Women’s Health Free Clinic Fundraising Campaign. Katie joined the Board of Directors in 2010 and continues to support RHAP with her ongoing commitment to increasing access to contraception and abortion.
Rebecca Hart, JD
Rebecca is legislative counsel at the National Abortion Federation. Prior to working at NAF, she held legal fellowships at the National Congress of American Indians, where she worked to end domestic and sexual violence, and at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Rebecca became involved in RHAP in March of 2009 because she believes that training health care providers in contraception and abortion is a critical step in ensuring that all women have access to the full spectrum of reproductive health services.
Barbara Kancelbaum, MS President
Barbara is a writer and communications consultant for a variety of nonprofit organizations working in the areas of health care and education. She is formerly the communications director of the U.S. office of Doctors Without Borders. Barbara has been a proud member of the RHAP Board of Directors since 2005 and has served as chair of the board since 2007. She is deeply committed to the cause of reproductive freedom for women everywhere and believes strongly in RHAP’s revolutionary approach to the provision of contraception and abortion
Emily Kane-Lee, MA
Emily is the education & communications manager at the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association in Washington, DC. Previously, Emily worked at the National Abortion Federation managing the Clinicians for Choice program and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya where she taught HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health, and English literature at a rural high school. Emily joined RHAP because she believes that the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare should be accessible to every woman—regardless of her socioeconomic status or geographic location—and that primary care providers are those who are best able to provide this care.
Harlene Katzman, JD
A long time RHAP supporter, Harlene has been a member of the Board’s Finance Committee since 2010. She heads up the pro bono practice at the law firm Simpson Thachehr & Bartlett, LLP. Previously Harlene was dean of the Center for Public Interest Law at Columbia Law School, where she directed the school’s mandatory pro bono program as well as its public interest programming, counseling, and fellowship programs. Her public interest experience also includes an internship at the Center for Reproductive Rights and a year representing battered and immigrant women in Queens at Main Street Legal Services.
Eva Kolodner
Eva first became involved with RHAP as a volunteer in 2008, when she was making a transition from her career as a feature film producer to the world of nonprofit fundraising. Eva’s credits as a producer include numerous films from the heyday of New York independent production, most notably Boys Don’t Cry, which won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1999. Since leaving the film world, Eva has worked with the International Rescue Committee. She is currently senior leadership gifts officer there and manages a portfolio of individual donors who give at the six-figure level. Eva has been an activist on women’s health issues since the late 1980s, and is delighted to be helping establish a vision for and coordinate RHAP’s fundraising efforts.
Ruth Lesnewski, MD
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.
Honor MacNaughton
Honor is a family physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts and the director of women’s health at the Tufts University Family Medicine Residency Program. She joined RHAP in 2007 as the first fellow to complete RHAP’s Falenki Fellowship in Reproductive Health and Advocacy. During her fellowship, she helped launch the New York City Women’s Health Free Clinic. Since then, she has continued to work with RHAP, joining the Board of Directors in 2010, where she is working to ensure that other primary care providers receive the training and mentoring needed to provide their patients with comprehensive family planning services.
Ana Marin Secretary
Ana has been working for the Center for Community Health and Education (CCHE) for more than a decade. In the past seven years, she has also worked as a health educator at the school-based health center at George Washington High School, supervising a peer-education program and providing daily education and counseling to adolescents on reproductive health issues. Ana collaborates with medical and mental health providers to increase effective, comprehensive health care services at her site. She believes that providing adolescents with accurate information on pregnancy prevention and options empowers them to take control of their bodies and their futures. Ana supports RHAP in its mission because it embraces her ideals that all women should have easy access to reproductive health services in their primary, routine care setting.
Sandy Merrill, MPH Vice-President
Sandy has had a 25-year career as a health care executive and hospital administrator in New York City, and she has worked with family practice physicians for the past 17 years. From 2000 to 2009, she was the executive director of The Access Project, the precursor to RHAP, and then the executive director of the Center for Reproductive Health Education in Family Medicine. In 2009 Sandy trained to become a nutrition and wellness coach at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She now maintains a private practice in New York City, coaching individuals and groups to improve their health, energy, and well being by making diet and lifestyle changes. Sandy has a lifelong interest in women’s reproductive health and serves on the RHAP board to continue to work on this critical issue.
Danielle Pagano, MA Treasurer
Danielle is the global business manager for Nuveen Investments located in Chicago and is a founding partner of The Cardinal Partners, a strategic consulting firm. Prior to joining Nuveen, Danielle spent 16 years at AllianceBernstein serving in a number of senior business development and management roles. At AllianceBernstein, Danielle designed, built, and managed the firm’s international client-facing sales support and marketing teams located in 21 countries. Danielle joined the Board of RHAP in 2009 as a way of ensuring that all women who need reproductive care are able to access it how and when they want in a close and safe environment.
Linda Rosenthal, JD
Linda Rosenthal is a matrimonial attorney who has served on the RHAP Board of Directors for four years. She is formerly a staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she litigated numerous constitutional challenges against states seeking to curtail access to reproductive health care. She believes that RHAP’s mission of integrating contraception and abortion into family medical practice is essential to women's fundamental reproductive rights.
