Speakers

Rebecca Traister is writer-at-large at New York Magazine, where she covers politics, media, and culture from a feminist perspective. Traister has written for The New Republic, Salon, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, the Washington Post, Elle, and other publications. Winner of a 2018 National Magazine Award and 2016 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, Traister is the author of Good and Mad, a New York Times bestseller and among the Washington Post and People’s ten best books of 2018; All the Single Ladies, a New York Times best seller and Notable Book of 2016; and Big Girls Don't Cry, a Times notable book of 2010. She is at work on a new book.

We are delighted to welcome Rebecca to Maine, and to offer copies of her book, “Good and Mad,” available to purchase in partnership with Back Cove Books in Portland.

René Goddess

Embodied Equity, Cultural Broker

René (Re) Goddess brings deep experience in embodiment work, community organizing, and cross-cultural relationship building. As founder of Embodied Equity, they specialize in supporting organizations and individuals in developing sustainable practices for social justice work through somatic awareness and intentional play. Their approach centers healing justice principles while maintaining focus on actionable strategies for systemic change.

Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy, co-editor of Home Is Where You Queer Your Heart, and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, the second book in the Fighting for Justice Series for young readers. In collaboration with composer Jessica Jones, Post Pardon: The Opera is Arisa’s librettist debut. Her poetry is widely published, and her collections have been nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Lambda Literary Award, and have won the Per Diem Poetry Prize, the Maine Literary Award, the Nautilus Book Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Airlie Press Prize. Her poetry is widely published, and the poem installation look after your heart is on permanent display at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She is a Cave Canem fellow and serves on the Community Advisory Board for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

Quinn Gormley previously served as the Executive Director of the Maine Transgender Network (MTN). Her work with MTN ranges from community-building initiatives, expanding health equity and access across the state, suicide prevention, policy advocacy, and violence prevention. Before MTN, Quinn worked in a variety of community organizing settings, including at the Health Equity Alliance managing a rural HIV testing program and building rural LGBTQ+ communities, and with the Maine People’s Alliance working on economic and health justice issues. Throughout her work, Quinn believes in centering the wellness of marginalized communities, and that the root of power and liberation can be found in communities that embrace their diversity and interdependence. She lives with her husband Ezra and a small menagerie of pets in Maine.

Elinor Higgins

Executive Director, Permanent Commission on the Status of Women

Elinor Higgins is the Executive Director of the Maine Permanent Commission on the Status of Women (MePCSW). In this role, she works with MePCSW Commissioners, lawmakers, researchers, advocates, and other partners, to advance the wellbeing of women and girls across the state through research, reporting, education, and advocacy. Recently, MePCSW has focused on threats to maternal and child health data as well as Maine women’s labor and economic security. Higgins has been working with cross-agency partners to advance worker safety for women in construction and the trades. Prior to joining the state, Higgins spearheaded efforts to track community health worker (CHW) policy across the country at the National Academy for State Health Policy and worked with states to advance partnerships, certification, and payment options for CHWs. She also worked on projects aiming to address the social drivers of health and to identify the intersection between climate and health policy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Higgins led one of the nation’s predominant efforts to track and analyze state-level contact tracing activity. Higgins holds a BA in biology and women and gender studies from Wellesley College and an MPH from the University of Southern Maine.