Shana Griffin
Shana is radical black feminist, mother of a fourteen year-old, social justice activist, and researcher. Shana grew up in a racially and economically segregated public housing development in downtown New Orleans, where she became acutely aware of economic, racial, and gender disparities fueled by violence and the over-policing of communities of color. Shana has been organizing locally with low-income communities of color for over 16 years. Her organizing and academic interests are located within radical black feminist thought and organizing traditions, which informs her local and national organizing with many organizations on issues pertaining to prison abolition, gender and racial justice, housing affordability, sexual health and reproductive justice, just sustainabilities, human and community development, and economic autonomy.
Shana received two undergraduate degrees in History and Sociology from the University of New Orleans in 2000 and is currently wrapping up her Masters degree in Sociology. Shana is a member of the national advisory collective of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and is an advisory member of “Painting Our Courage: A Revolution To End Gender-Based Violence and HIV and AIDS” a documentary project of Mehret Mandefro, Jacqueline Patterson, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons.
Shana griffin is co-founder and Board of Directors member of the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic, where she currently serves as the Clinic’s Interim Executive Director in a volunteer capacity. Shana is also the co-founder of the New Orleans Women’s Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI) – a multi-dimensional community-based organizing project centered on improving the social and economic health and well-being of women of color and low income women, while mobilizing communities to engage in reproductive and gender justice activism that challenge the violence of poverty, medical experimentation housing discrimination, forced sterilization, economic exploitation, partner abuse, incarceration, environmental racism, and punitive social policies. Shana is a recent 2009 Gulf Coast Fellow for Community Transformation and recipient of V-Day Leadership Award and the War Resisters League 43rd Peace Award.
Shana currently serves on the Boards of Women With A Vision, Inc., Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, and Nowe Miasto Limited Equity Housing Cooperative. Shana also serves as an Advisory Member of the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, and has recently joined the Strategy Team of EMERJ andCWPE’s Transitional Team representing the WHJI.