Esmé Bengtson is an intersectional feminist who’s passionate about harm reduction, community-centric fundraising, and destigmatizing sex work. She joins DSW after working in fundraising and communications for the Texas-based, youth-serving organization Girls Empowerment Network.

Originally from Rochester, MN, she moved to Austin, TX, after graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies. While in Iowa City, she interned with the Eastern Iowa Center for Worker Justice and the University of Iowa Labor Center, two organizations doing labor movement work in the Midwest. This work, coupled with her knowledge of the strip club industry in Iowa, led her to examine labor activism, wage theft, and union building in the sex industry for her senior thesis.

In her free time, she helps to organize the Community-Centric Fundraising movement in Texas, volunteers with mutual-aid organizations in Austin, and spends plenty of time with her two cats.

 

Melissa Sontag Broudo, JD, MPH, is the co-founder and co-director of the Sharmus Outlaw Advocacy and Rights (SOAR) Institute. She has been part of the sex-worker-rights and harm-reduction movements since the late 1990s, co-founding SOAR to further policy, advocacy, and capacity-building efforts that support the rights of sex workers and survivors of human trafficking.

Through her work at SOAR, Melissa has been featured extensively in the news media regarding sex work and #MeToo, the NYC Stripper Strike, and the criminalization of sex workers. She has also been able to push for policies that further a rights-based approach to the sex industry.

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Rebecca (Becca) Cleary, JD, is guided by the belief that a more equitable society is possible through comprehensive policy reform that creates access to justice and abolishes barriers to well-being. As a legal intern with the Legal Aid Society’s Exploitation Intervention Project (EIP), she provided criminal defense support to sex workers and trafficking survivors. She continued that work as a student at CUNY Law, writing about post-conviction relief and working on vacatur applications for EIP clients. After graduating, she joined DSW as an intern, providing research support before joining the team full time.

Crystal DeBoise is a licensed psychotherapist, a non-profit manager, and a lifelong community activist. Crystal is the co-founder and co-director of the Sharmus Outlaw Advocacy and Rights (SOAR) Institute in Brooklyn, New York, an organization focused on legislative policy and advocacy changes for sex workers and related communities.

For eight years, she was the Director of the Sex Workers Project (SWP) of the Urban Justice Center, where she managed a team of 15 lawyers and social workers, being responsible for raising over $1 million annually while supervising a national policy program.

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Ceyenne Doroshow is an author, activist, organizer, performer, and public figure in the trans and sex worker rights movements. She has appeared on numerous international media outlets and has presented at Desiree Alliance, Creating Change, Harm Reduction Coalition, International AIDS Conference, and many other events. A thought leader in the movement, Ceyenne shares her work and personal experiences as a Black trans woman and former sex worker.

Madelaine (Maddy) Kammeraad-Campbell is a Charleston, SC, native with nearly 10 years of experience in accounting and office management. She thrives in a fast-paced environment and enjoys ensuring that all administrative and operational aspects of DSW run smoothly. Maddy is an integral part of the DSW team.

Michael Kirshner co-founded the Marijuana Policy Project in 1995. Since 2004 he has been a consultant and served as a volunteer board member of the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative.

Ariela Moscowitz has a long history of working with marginalized groups and “a particular interest in working to promote access to justice for those who might otherwise be denied it.” She has worked at domestic violence shelters in Burlington, VT, and Miami, FL, in various capacities, and lived in Philadelphia, PA, for several years where she worked with unhoused women and children.

Ariela joins DSW from Americans for Immigrant Justice, where she served as the director of community relations. Americans for Immigrant Justice is a non-profit law firm based in Miami, dedicated to protecting the human and legal rights of immigrants. As director of community relations, she managed all of the organization’s development and communications related activities.

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Cecilia Otero is a writer, musician, and activist from El Paso, TX. A passionate creative at heart, Cecilia finds herself driven to advocate for marginalized communities through her knack for imaginative problem-solving.

After graduating from the University of Texas at El Paso with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Advertising, Cecilia went straight into the digital marketing world, where she spent five years learning the ins-and-outs of branding and social media. Meanwhile, she spent her free time volunteering for a number of local causes in the bordertown she calls home, including immigrant rights, reproductive justice, LGBT+ liberation, and environmental conservation in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Cecilia joined DSW after making the decision to leave the advertising industry and focus more seriously on social advocacy.

Joaquin Remora is a visionary, leader, and diplomat with more than ten years’ experience in bringing harm reduction principles, racial equity, and TLGBQIA+ cultural competency to public service entities. He has enjoyed working with more than 100 participants per day in various settings delivering highly nuanced expertise when working with marginalized populations. Joaquin is motivated by high demand and crisis intervention. Joaquin is wholeheartedly dedicated to inspiring and teaching empathy, and believes that together we can create momentum towards social change.