FRE Staff Team
November 18, 2019-- The Board of Directors of Funders for Reproductive Equity (FRE) announced today that Rocio Córdoba, J.D., (she/her/hers) will become the next Executive Director of FRE effective December 16, 2019. For the past 20 years, Rocio has worked in several leadership positions in the reproductive health, rights, and justice field as well as in the philanthropic sector. As the new Executive Director, Rocio will usher in an exciting new era of leadership that will advance FRE’s role in leading philanthropy to optimize resources for all people’s freedom over their sexual and reproductive lives.
“Rocio’s deep commitment to the field of reproductive equity, health, rights, and justice with insight into the intersectionality of reproductive equity across racial, gender, economic, LGBTQ, human rights, environmental justice, and international issues will be vital to leading FRE into the future,” said Surina Khan, Co-Chair of the Board of FRE and CEO of the Women’s Foundation of California.
“Rocio is a visionary leader who brings insight, understanding and experience that is critical to FRE’s future as a leading organization in philanthropy,” added Joanna Lauen, Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of FRE and a Senior Program Officer with the Irving Harris Foundation.
Rocio has over two decades of experience advancing sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice on behalf of women of color, low-income women, and young people. Since 2016, Rocio has been a Principal with Conway Strategic, a consulting firm advancing innovative communications strategies to change policy, mobilize the public, and transform culture for progressive causes. Prior to that, Rocio served as Program Officer with the Gender, Sexuality and Reproductive Justice Program at the Ford Foundation, where she managed the Youth Sexuality, Reproductive Health and Rights and Sexuality Research Initiatives. There, she focused on cultivating programs to advance youth sexual and reproductive rights through mobilization, advocacy, and groundbreaking community-informed research. Rocio’s innovative program design resulted in the integration of communications, digital media and original television content, while supporting young people’s leadership and voice to engage influential audiences and transform stigmatizing cultural narratives.
Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Rocio co-founded and was Executive Director of California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, where she spearheaded efforts to advance Latinas’ leadership in reproductive health, rights and justice policy from a community-based perspective. While in California, Rocio worked in coalition to defeat three parental notification ballot initiatives, highlighting the detrimental effect of these policies on young Latinas and their families. Her career includes over a decade of leading public interest and civil rights litigation, raising constitutional challenges and securing remedies to advance the rights of low-income women, communities of color, and young people.
“I’m excited to join FRE as its next Executive Director and look forward to engaging and supporting FRE’s membership to advance its vision of reproductive equity, rights and justice,” said Rocio Córdoba. “By working through coordinated and collaborative strategies, we have tremendous potential to increase support for all people’s freedom over their sexual and reproductive lives, in particular among the most underserved and marginalized communities.”
Rocio has been a longstanding leader and supporter of the reproductive justice movement on the national, state, and grassroots levels. Earlier in her career, Rocio served as a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California and NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund; staff attorney fellow with the ACLU’s National Reproductive Freedom Project; the Kennedy/Coleman Fellow with the ACLU of Illinois; and director of public affairs at UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access. Rocio’s research and writing have been published in numerous publications, including The Huffington Post and the Harvard Women’s Law Journal.
Rocio holds a J.D. from the University of California Hastings School of Law and B.A degrees from the University of Southern California.
Iris Brawley (she/they) has a nimble approach to organizing professional systems and a creative knack for problem-solving. She brings extensive administrative experience, having supported executives, staff teams, and boards in both U.S. and international contexts. Before joining the FRE team, Iris honed her skills across a diverse range of organizations in the non-profit and private sectors, including an international membership-serving health research society. Most recently, she worked at UltraViolet, virtually managing internal and external meetings, logistics, and planning for a team of nonprofit executives. Her professional background is complemented by a BA in Art History from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Iris has a people-first approach that proves invaluable when balancing complex virtual and onsite administrative support. She lives in Dallas, Texas, and in her free time enjoys trying local coffee shops, adding to her plant collection, reading, and learning creative processes. Although Iris doesn’t currently have any pets of her own, she enjoys fostering animals from her local shelter from time to time.
Jackie Nolley-Echegaray (she/her/ella) brings a lifelong passion for human rights and social justice—and 15 years of experience as a human rights grantmaker and advocate—to bear in conceptualizing, developing and implementing FRE programming. Her responsibilities include coordinating the International Funders and Youth Leadership and Engagement Working Groups; sharing the direction of FRE’s two annual conferences and fundraising. Prior to joining FRE, Jackie advocated for women’s rights and access to health services in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America at Catholics for Choice, where she also delighted in challenging the Catholic hierarchy and antichoice policymakers on television, radio, blogs and in print. Earlier in her career, Jackie contributed to women's rights movement building in Mesoamerica at Just Associates (JASS); provided financial support to human rights organizations in Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and the United States as a grantmaker at the Moriah Fund and supported a cross-national team of international human rights attorneys at the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). A proud Peruvian-Texan, Jackie makes her home in Washington, DC.
Lindsay Rodriguez (she/her) is a leading movement messenger. She brings a keen eye for building infrastructure and community support, developed through her background serving in leadership of Texas abortion funds through ongoing abortion crises, as the first San Antonio board member and board President of the Lilith Fund, and as Vice President of Fund Texas Choice. Prior to joining FRE, Lindsay served as the first full-time Communications staff, and most recently, Communications Director for the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), building a strategic team that supports NNAF and members in developing and implementing a values-forward voice at the intersection of racial, economic, and reproductive justice. She led the growth of NNAF's Fund-a-Thon into the largest annual grassroots abortion funding event, developing network fundraising infrastructure, communications resources, engaging outreach, and leadership coaching. Lindsay served as Narrative and Culture Change co-chair for Liberate Abortion, developing coalition strategies, creating abortion-forward communications for members, and representing the coalition at the 2022 Narrative Power Summit. Lindsay's been featured in local, regional, and national publications, including NPR, The Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the Hollywood Reporter, and is a member of Rockwood's 2019 Fellowship for Leaders in Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice. Though Lindsay still thinks of herself as a Texan, she lives in Denver with her husband, their dog, and their two cats. She loves to sit on patios and read, dabble in crafts, and talk at length about pop culture.
Nancy Sanchez (she/her) has over 19 years of experience in nonprofit management, finance, operations, and human resources, with a focus on reproductive justice and social justice organizations, and women-identified and BIPOC leaders. She has worked with both start-up and long-standing organizations on developing and successfully implementing mission-driven and values-based policies, procedures, practices, and tools. As Founder and President of Mitote, Consulting for Nonprofits, Nancy provided critical guidance and support to increase the capacity, effectiveness, and sustainability of various organizations, which led to several tangible milestones and positive impacts on staff. Before that, she served as the first Associate Director at California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ). In her role, Nancy provided critical oversight and management which contributed to the transformation of the organizational infrastructure, from start-up to a renowned and sustainable organization. While Nancy works “behind the scenes,” she is motivated by the tangible impacts on communities and people. Nancy is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, and Mami to curious twin toddlers. She was proudly born and raised in East Los Angeles, and currently lives in California’s Inland (Valley) Empire.