Staff
Denise Hyater-Lindenmuth
Executive Director
Denise Hyater-Lindenmuth has worked in the Washington DC area in both nonprofit and for-profit industries for nearly 30 years. Her nonprofit leadership roles included creating ground-breaking community-based programs where her efforts were recognized internationally and led organizations such as Brain Injury Services and the American Cancer Society for the National Capital Region. She also served in leadership roles for national/international public relations firms representing healthcare clients and health interests. She has extensive experience serving as spokesperson in many of her leadership roles.
Denise’s leadership style is based on the philosophy of community service and is firmly driven by data and results. She has proven successes with leading boards and people through change and overcoming challenges while remaining mission focused. Critical areas of importance include mission and strategy, governance, financial management and development, operations, and marketing.
She earned her MBA at George Washington University in Washington D.C., a master’s degree in Community Health Education at Trinity Washington University, in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor’s in Public Relations/Marketing at Howard University, in Washington, D.C. Denise also received a certificate in strategic nonprofit management from Harvard University. As a fifth-generation Washingtonian, she lives with her husband, Philip, in the District of Columbia. They have three children who are successfully “adulting”.
Adele Scheiber
Director of Communications
Adele Scheiber graduated from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 2011 with degrees in English and History, and when she realized that wasn't going to feed her in the middle of a recession, she joined the U.S. Peace Corps. There she spent 2 years as a youth development coordinator in a small mountain village in Morocco, where she worked with young women on life skills and self-expression. She came back to the US in 2015, got her Masters in Public Administration, and spent five years working in NYS government in various policy and program positions in the human services sector. In 2020, she decided to stop dating writing and to marry it, which she did by starting her own copywriting business. She started consulting for the National Women's Health Network in September of 2020, and accepted the offer of Director of Communications in October 2021. Adele is honored to be able to get reliable, compelling health information into the hands of the people who need it most.
Carli De La Cruz
Social Media Manager
Carli is a copywriter and social media maven in Denver, CO. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and Legal Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 2011. She is passionate about women’s health and social justice issues. Through her work for the Network, she leverages various social media platforms to educate women of all ages on important health issues so they feel empowered to advocate for their health in medical settings.
Jordan Bachman
Development Associate
Jordan graduated from George Washington University with her Bachelor’s in Political Science in 2023. Prior to working with the Network, she worked in development for Turn Up Activism, a non-profit dedicated to increasing youth voter turnout. Growing up in Oklahoma, Jordan knows firsthand how a lack of education and access in women’s health care can harm a community, especially for girls and young women. She is a strong advocate for empowering local communities to achieve more accessible, more equitable healthcare for all.
Raaya Alim
Policy Associate
Raaya is the Network’s Policy Associate. She earned her undergraduate degrees in psychology and journalism in 2022, followed by her master’s degree in public policy in 2023, all from UMass Amherst. Driven by a strong commitment to social justice, Raaya is an outspoken advocate for gender justice and reproductive health. Raised in the South, she understands deeply the complexities of social justice issues and how they impact individuals across the board. Prior to joining the Network, Raaya worked in various aspects of Massachusetts state policy, gaining invaluable experience and insight into the intricacies of governance and policymaking.
Erin Evans
Director of Operations
Erin is the Director of Operations, responsible for managing the office’s daily functions and ensuring that everything runs smoothly. She is the main point of contact for vendors and also reaches out to them if anything goes wrong. She joins the NWHN after spending the last 10 years working in residential property management and commercial real estate, where she managed research teams and coordinated large projects. Erin attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she focused on History and Art History.
Laura Tucker
Director of Development
Laura Tucker has more than 25 years of nonprofit and for-profit experience working with national and international organizations to raise brand awareness and fundraising revenue. Laura’s expertise focuses on donor cultivation, building Fortune 500 public/private partnerships, and major gift development. Laura is a highly creative results-driven development strategist with entrepreneurial passion, drive, and vision. Laura has many years of professional experience generating revenue and increasing support bases for expanding national nonprofit organizations. Her experience includes executive and volunteer leadership roles particularly in the sciences and public safety sectors. Laura has spent the better part of her career focusing on creating innovative programs and disrupting how non-profit organizations and corporations engage in fundraising to drive meaningful change. Laura previously served as the Director of Development for the Weizmann Institute of Science in the San Francisco Bay Area and most recently served as the Head of Strategic Alliances for the National Emergency Number Association where she grew internal revenue streams by more than 50%. Laura is on the Board of 911derWomen and serves on the Steering Committee of the Washington D.C chapter of the Human Rights Campaign.
Carter Ringo
Multimedia Communications Lead
Carter Ringo (he/they) graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2022 with their Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Interactive, Game, and Sound Arts. Their expertise ranges in the multimedia field and have additional interests in Disability rights and accessibility advocacy. Prior to working for the Network, they completed two years of experience as a NASA 3D design intern at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
They currently serve as the Network’s Multimedia Communications Lead, and their work includes digital design, web and social media support, and audio-visual editing.
Board of Directors
Bindiya Patel, MPA
Co-Director, Global Leadership Forum
As Co-Director, Bindiya Patel leads strategy and fundraising for the Global Leadership Forum. She also serves as core faculty to develop globally-minded social purpose leaders.
Ms. Patel has more than 20 years of experience leading projects and initiatives in the global health sector. In her last role at PATH, Ms. Patel served as managing director for PATH’s largest division where she oversaw strategy, operations and integration. She also led the implementation of an innovative approach to equity in programming across the organization. Earlier in her career at PATH, she advocated for new HIV prevention options for women in the Global Campaign for Microbicides, managed US government funded projects on tuberculosis in Tanzania, served on PATH’s strategy team, and launched the PATH Center for Malaria Control and Elimination. In her roles with PATH’s strategy team and Global Health Programs division, Ms. Patel designed and led organization-wide change initiatives to enable structured collaboration across countries and programs to strengthen PATH’s impact. Prior to PATH, she oversaw child health and nutrition programming in multiple South African townships and managed grants to local organizations in the UK.
Ms. Patel earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from Cornell University and a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University. She serves on the board of directors for the National Women’s Health Network and the Civic Council for the Master of Arts in Applied International Studies at the University of Washington Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.
Carrie Kaya
Treasurer
Carrie is a Senior Associate at Susan Matlack Jones & Associates supporting nonprofits with specialized accounting and bookkeeping. She prides herself on providing useful, accurate financials that allow management and Boards to make decisions about their organization’s financial health. After a decade living outside the US, she is excited to bring her enthusiasm to work for women’s healthcare. Carrie’s focus on women’s healthcare was reinforced while dealing with a healthcare challenge in Morocco and Turkey and seeing the differences in care and treatment. She is excited to join the Board of the Network!
Yamini Oseguera-Bhatnagar
Yamini is a convener, strategist, and facilitator who has been working in HIV for over a decade. Yamini’s background ranges from youth development to women’s health, reproductive justice advocacy, health equity, racial & gender justice. She is passionate about supporting the resiliency of communities locally and worldwide. She is a UC Berkeley alum with an undergraduate degree in Ethnic Studies and is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Health at San Francisco State University with an emphasis in Health Education. She’s a first-generation immigrant and is raising her children in San Francisco, California
Carmita Padilla
Carmita Padilla is a health equity champion and an accomplished non-profit executive with 30+ years of experience building partnerships that innovate shared mission-oriented solutions.
She is currently the Chief Program & Sites Officer at the nonprofit Health Leads. She has also served as its Vice President of Partnerships and Initiatives, Executive Director for New York Operations, and National Director of Program Expansion, among other roles. Carmita started her career at AT&T and Deloitte Consulting before shifting her relationship, operations and business management expertise to the non-profit sector, as the Executive Director of Women’s Health & Counseling Center. She has also held Development roles at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Hunter College. Carmita holds a BA from Rutgers College and an MBA from Lehigh University. She lives in New York City and is fluent in Spanish.
Abigail Arons
Abigail Arons, MPH, is a project director at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Since 2001, she has led research and evaluation projects at UCSF focusing on reproductive and sexual health, including long-acting contraception, sexual health education, adolescent pregnancy prevention, cancer prevention and HIV. Currently, she leads an NIH-funded randomized controlled trial on the impact of guaranteed income for low-income Black youth.
In addition to her professional expertise in reproductive health, Abigail took a crash course in breast cancer when she was diagnosed at age 31. After completing active treatment, she joined the Board of Breast Cancer Action, a national watchdog organization for the breast cancer movement, to advocate for more effective, less toxic treatments, and for a greater focus on the root causes of cancer, including environmental factors. Abigail is thrilled to serve on the Board of the National Women’s Health Network.
Hillary M Stemple Esq.
Hillary M Stemple grew up in a rural town in West Virginia. She saw firsthand the impact the lack of access to health care resources could have, particularly on girls and women in her community. Through her work as a lawyer specializing in issues related to health care provision, she works with clients to address information gaps and access barriers to reproductive care. This work has also developed her understanding of how social disparities impact health care, particularly women's health care, and she takes every opportunity she can to counsel the government, providers, and advocacy organizations about the steps they can take to address such disparities. As a new NWHN Board member, she hopes to provide insights into the regulatory and legal issues that create barriers to care that must be addressed to help ensure women in all communities have the access to health care and health information that they need
Christie Vanhorne, M.Ed., MPH
Christie is the founder and president of CVH Consulting, LLC, a public health consulting firm focused on health education and instructional design. From her first foray as an HIV health educator in rural South Africa with the Peace Corps in 2004, Christie has been devoted to improving the lives of the most marginalized. She has dedicated her life to improving health outcomes through advocacy, education, and uplifting the voices of those with lived experiences. Throughout her career, she’s directed health education programs at a Planned Parenthood affiliate, designed reproductive health curricula for women with rare bleeding disorders for national health organizations, and advocated for reproductive health issues on the local, state, and national levels. Most recently, she was a co-host of a podcast about extreme periods and started teaching two public health courses at Vassar College. She holds two Master’s Degrees, one in Education and one in Public Health.
Meredith Field
Meredith P. Field, MSEd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Alfred University. Meredith’s research interests focus on bodies, reproduction, health, medicine, and development as they intersect with social movements, science, technology, and society. Her recent research projects explored topics related to reusable menstrual products and access to maternal health care in rural areas of Pennsylvania. She previously worked with the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network and studied how policy changes regarding access to contraceptives and abortion in rural parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia affect people’s lives. Meredith has been an activist since she was a child, beginning with local environmental issues and expanding to issues of women’s health, prisoners’ civil rights, and other human rights and social justice topics. She has worked in higher education for more than fourteen years. She earned her dual title PhD in Rural Sociology and Women’s Studies from The Pennsylvania State University.
Lacey Alexander
Lacey Alexander, PhD, RN, GERO-BC, is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research is focused on how bias and discrimination impact the clinician-patient relationship. Most recently, she is exploring how negative interactions between patients and clinicians about weight can create barriers to quality and timely care delivery. She also completed an Advanced Fellowship in Women’s Health at the VA Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Lacey continues to moonlight at the VA in hospice, serves as her hospital’s LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator, and intermittently teaches a large undergraduate course about gender and health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is excited to serve on the Board of Directors because she is passionate about creating resources to guide consumers in making safe decision about their health.
Marci Harris
Marci Harris, MPP, MPH, is currently working on her PHD in Public Health at the University of Utah. Her research is focused on hereditary genetic syndromes and the comorbidities that occur after cancer diagnosis. She previously worked with Planned Parenthood Action Council of Utah working towards better reproductive rights policy in Utah. She has helped advocate for policies that protect the quality of women’s health. She is passionate about public health and the value of complete and accurate health information for women.
Nichele Hoskins
Nichele Hoskins lives in Savannah, Georgia and serves as Healthy Savannah's Communication Manager for Covid/Flu. Under a CDC grant, her key duties are to build community health knowledge, and to increase access and understanding of Covid-19, the seasonal flu, and the vaccines that can help reduce the disproportionate burden they place on Black and Latiné communities in Chatham County.
A longtime health journalist, Hoskins earned an MA in Journalism from The University of Michigan and has worked as a senior editor at such national publications as Health and Heart & Soul magazines. Her journalism experience began at such daily newspapers as The Sacramento Bee, The Savannah Morning News, the Shreveport (La.) Journal and the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.
Hoskins, who has long championed women's health and racial health equity, is also a national spokeswoman for WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. She also serves on the board of the Forsyth Farmer's Market and is a member of the Links Inc., Savannah (Ga.) Chapter.
"I look forward to joining the board of NWHN in its important work informing, supporting, and advocating for women and women's health," says Hoskins.
Julie Thai, M.D.
Dr. Thai is a geriatric medicine physician based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She completed her medical school and residency training in family medicine at Michigan State University and her fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She also holds a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University and is currently a diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Dr. Thai has worked extensively in clinical research and has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in the areas of rapidly progressive dementia, end-of-life care preferences, public health policy, and more.
She is passionate about promoting health education, patient advocacy, and diagnostic excellence in the aging adult population.
Kimberly Robinson
Kimberly Robinson is an independent consultant on reproductive justice issues, including the health of Black women. Kimberly has worked in direct services at a variety of settings, including for many years as the Director of Health Services at Women’s Health Specialists, an independent feminist health center. While at Women’s Health Specialists, she oversaw the operations for multiple clinics and satellite services and was responsible for the training and recruitment of all clinical staff including residents and medical students, helping to train the next generation of abortion providers. As a women’s health activist, Kimberly works with colleagues, communities and allies to build constituencies that demand reproductive justice for all women. She is the northern California liaison for Black Women for Wellness.
Policy Advisory Committee
Martha Gulati
(MD, MS, FACC, FAHA, FASPC, FESC, FSCCT)
Martha Gulati (MD, MS, FACC, FAHA, FASPC, FESC, FSCCT)
Martha Gulati is the President of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology. She is a professor of cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and is the director of prevention as well as the associate director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and holds the Anita Dann Friedman Endowed Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Medicine and Research. She was formerly the inaugural Chief of Cardiology at the University of Arizona. She is the author of the best-seller, “Saving Women’s Hearts.” She served as the chair of the national chest pain guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology that were released in 2021.
Wendie A. Berg
(MD, PhD, FACR, FSBI)
Wendie A. Berg (MD, PhD, FACR, FSBI)
Wendie A. Berg is a Distinguished Professor of Radiology at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC and the Dr. Bernard F. Fisher Chair for Breast Cancer Clinical Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She led and designed a number of scientific trials and protocols, including ACRIN 6666, Screening Breast Ultrasound and MRI, DBTUST (DBT or Ultrasound Screening Trial). She also analyzed multicenter trials evaluating PEM vs. MRI and shear-wave elastography, and co-edited three editions of the textbook Diagnostic Imaging: Breast. She is currently leading trials of screening contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) vs. tomosynthesis in women with a personal history of breast cancer and recently completed a trial of screening CEM in women who meet Pennsylvania criteria for MRI screening, with an emphasis on those with dense breasts. Dr. Berg is voluntary Chief Scientific Advisor to DenseBreast-info.org and voluntary Associate Editor for Rad-Path correlation for the Journal of Breast Imaging.
Joyvina Evans
(PhD, MSPH, MSA)
Joyvina Evans (PhD, MSPH, MSA)
Joyvina Evans is Chair of the online Master of Health Administration program and an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences at Howard University. She earned a Ph.D. in Public Health, a Master of Public Health, and a Master of Administration. She completed the Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) Summer Intensive sponsored by California State University-Long Beach and is currently a CHER Scholar. Dr. Evans is a Leading Emerging and Diverse Scientists to Success (LEADS) Fellow in Translational Research sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Clinical Research Education and Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Due to lived experiences and family history, she is passionate about health equity and women's reproductive health. Her research focus areas are uterine fibroid treatment disparities, health literacy, and implicit bias. Dr. Evans is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, the American Public Health Association, and the Association of University Programs in Healthcare Administration.
Jocelyn J. Fitzgerald
(MD, FACOG, URPS)
Jocelyn J. Fitzgerald (MD, FACOG, URPS)
Jocelyn J. Fitzgerald is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She completed her Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship at Georgetown University/MedStar Health and her Gynecology and Obstetrics residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She attended medical school at the University of Pittsburgh and graduated from the Physician Scientist Training Program where she studied overlapping mechanisms of bowel and bladder pain. Before medical school, Dr. Fitzgerald attended The Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University and earned dual degrees in Neurobiology and Women’s Studies with a certificate in Women’s Health. She is the Social Media Editor of the Urogynecology Journal and the Chair of the SGS Social Media committee. Her research and advocacy is focused on mechanisms and misdiagnosis of female chronic pelvic and bladder pain, discriminatory reimbursement and funding disparities in gynecologic surgery and women’s health research, and the role of social and digital media in the online promotion of women’s health.
Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su
(MD, MSCE, MSCP)
Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su (MD, MSCE, MSCP)
Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su completed medical school, earned her Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology, and completed OBGYN residency at the University of Pennsylvania. She moved to Seattle in 2005 to take up the position of Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington. In 2013, she moved to the Swedish Medical Center, First Hill campus and started to build her menopause focused practice. In 2019, she transitioned to gynecology and menopause care full time, founding the Women’s Wellness and GYN Specialties Clinic at Swedish Medical Center, where she was Medical Director of Menopause services from 2019 to 2023. She joined Gennev.com in 2017 as Director of Health to help build it into the premier online clinic for women in midlife and menopause, and in 2019 became their Chief Medical Officer, transitioning to full-time in 2023. She is also a Medical Director at Seattle Clinical Research Center where she serves as primary investigator on many studies. She served a term as an editor for Obstetrics and Gynecology from 2016-2020. She is a Menopause Society certified menopause practitioner and a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Her focus in practice and research is on holistic, evidence-based care for women in midlife and menopause.
Volunteer Health Officers
Sophie Krensky
Sophie Krensky
Sophie Krensky (she/her) is a staff nurse at Oregon Health & Science University's Labor & Delivery and Mother Baby units, where she supports pregnancies of all kinds with many outcomes, specializing in nursing care for labor, birth, postpartum, antepartum, fetal demise, palliative delivery, and pregnancy termination. She has a background as a volunteer doula, a manager of a research project that investigated pharmaceutical influence on prescribing practices, and as a trainer for community health workers in the Peruvian Andes.
Katymay Malone
Katymay Malone
Katymay Malone holds a Ph.D. in Health Education with a cognate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and is a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES®). She has 15 years of professional experience as an educator and program director and coordinator in K-12 and higher education. She has collaborated with community-based organizations in the areas of health, education, research, and training. Currently, she serves as an Independent Contractor/Consultant working as a Grant Reviewer, Panel Chair, and Panel Facilitator for multiple federal and state agencies.
Grace Lee
Grace Lee
Grace Lee is a Senior Analyst on the Infectious Disease Infrastructure and Policy team at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). Her work focuses on healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance, and sexually transmitted infections. Outside of work, Grace is a board member for HopeLine, a crisis intervention and suicide prevention agency. In addition, she mentors undergraduate students at the University of Pittsburgh, her alma mater. Grace has her Master of Public Health in health policy from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and is based in Washington D.C. In her free time, she loves to travel, dance, bake, and powerlift.
Joselyn Lantigua
Joselyn Lantigua
Joselyn Lantigua is a Postpartum Nurse currently living in Houston, Texas. She graduated from an Accelerated Nursing school program in May 2021 earning her second bachelor's degree and certification. Joselyn was born and raised in Bronx, NY. After 5 years as an educator administrator, she switched careers to become a nurse in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Leah Juhle
Leah Juhle
Being a longtime health and wellness nerd led Leah to pursue training as a Registered Nurse, Family Nurse Practitioner, Yoga Teacher, and Certified Group Fitness Instructor. Whether providing hands-on care or researching and writing about new developments in medicine, she aims to help people understand their bodies in a way that maximizes health and wellness throughout their lives. When she’s not buried in medical literature and patient charts, you can find her in pursuit of every outdoor adventure on offer in the Pacific Northwest.