Rancho Gallina Spring 2020 Residents and Breather Bios
Janette Robinson Flint is Executive Director of Black Women for Wellness, a woman-centered, community-based organization for reproductive justice. Ms. Robinson Flint is also part of the Los Angeles Coalition for Reproductive Justice, California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, and In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. Janette began her work in the health field as an advocate during her own pregnancy. It gives Jan great pleasure to imagine a world with powerful women, at optimum physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and financial health leading us to justice and peace. As a researcher in Cuba, she witnessed the reality of what political will accomplishes with health for all. Her journey over the years includes: The Birthing Project USA, Great Beginnings for Black Babies, National Health Foundation, March of Dimes, California Primary Care Association, Inglewood Healthy Mothers & Babies, South Los Angeles Health Project, Women Infant and Children Programs, and community faculty member at Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science.
Jorge Mújica was born in Mexico City and participated in several popular movements in Mexico until he migrated to the US in 1987. He worked in several Spanish language newspapers and at Univision and Telemundo Spanish TV stations as a journalist, winning two “First Place” awards by the National Association of Hispanic Publishers. As an activist, Jorge has collaborated with many labor unions in organizing and election campaigns, picket lines, and strikes and is a member of several community organizations dealing with Mexico-USA issues, from remittances to the right to vote from abroad. He is one of the three conveners of the historic immigrant rights marches in Chicago in 2006, and ran for the US Congress in 2009, representing the immigration movement in the electoral arena. As Strategic Campaigns Organizer he works with large groups of workers who are organizing for long-term workplace improvements.
Juanita Lewis is the Hudson Valley Organizing Director for Community Voices Heard, a member-led, multi-racial organization, formed principally by women of color and low-income families in New York State that builds power to secure social, economic and racial justice for all. Juanita develops community members’ leadership through issue-based campaigns. She graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a B.A. in History and Political Science, and earned her Masters of Advocacy and Political Leadership Degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Juanita started as a community organizer with the Minnesota chapter of ACORN. Since 2004, she has worked on numerous electoral campaigns at the city, state and federal level in different capacities. Recently Juanita became an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service teaching Elections in Action.
Roberto Tijerina is a queer Latino first-generation child of immigrants, keeper of the heart-space, and closet diva. Since becoming politicized in his early adolescence around language as a tool of power and his emerging queerness, Roberto has worked as an activist focusing on LGBT, immigrant, and language rights. His experience includes working for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Highlander Research and Education Center, and the Audre Lorde Project. He currently serves as Co-Director of Southerners on New Ground (SONG). Roberto has worked for many years as a freelance interpreter and interpreter trainer. In his many years organizing, he has maintained close ties to the immigrant community in which he was raised, working on issues of literacy, second-language learning, and civil rights.
Brittany “Tru” Kellman is a mother of 3 boys, wife, activist, birth doula, Midwife, author, visionary, peer counselor, and Founder and Executive Director of the Jamaa Birth Village in Ferguson, MO. As a young teen mom, Tru experienced the disgraceful side of U.S. maternity care. After 2 unnecessary cesarean sections and debilitating postpartum depression, she took her health into her own hands during her third pregnancy with traditional midwifery care. After researching that her journey was similar for many women of color across the country, she began working with traditional midwives in Ghana. There she had a vision for what her own community needed to improve the lives of families of color. In 2015, she launched a community campaign to improve birth, maternal, and infant care in St. Louis that turned into Jamaa Birth Village. Tru became Missouri’s first black Certified Professional Midwife in 2019. She received the prestigious Corinne Walentik Leadership in Health Award in 2018 and has been featured in numerous national and international publications.