she // her // hers

About this talk

Mrinalini Chakraborty is an award-winning social justice and civil rights activist, political organizer, and movement-builder. Born and raised in Kolkata, India, she started organizing as a teenager, in the movement for sex workers rights and against human trafficking and gender-based violence. Over the past decade in this country, Mrinalini has been organizing in the movements for immigrants rights, racial justice, and women's rights, and focuses on intersectional coalition-building, political strategy, and distributed digital organizing and mobilization strategy.

Mrinalini is most renowned for her contribution to and leadership in building the Women's March movement and organization, since its inception in 2016. She served as the National Field and Mobilization Director for the 2017-2019 national Women's Marches, and played a key role in making the 2017 Women's March the largest single-day protest in US history. For her activism and leadership, Mrinalini has been recognized through several awards, including Glamour Magazine's "Woman of the Year" Award and PEN America’s "Free Expression Courage” Award in 2017, ADAPT Chicago's “Woman of the Year” Award and She has also been featured in numerous local and national publications, such as Glamour, W Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Woman, Bustle, the Journal of Feminist Studies, among others, and appeared on several local and national television networks.

Rachel O'Leary has helped to inspire, equip, and mobilize people to shape the actions and policies that affect their communities for well over a decade. Rachel is a first generation Mexican American from the Northside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A recognized expert on building transformational online and offline communities and networks, Rachel has held leadership positions with Women for Women International, Girl Scouts of the USA, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Wisconsin Public Television, and with the Mayors offices in Memphis, Tennessee and Somerville, Massachusetts. Most recently, Rachel served as the Deputy Executive Director for Membership with Amnesty International USA.

Rachel earned her Associates degree from Madison Area Technical College. She went on to earn her Bachelors degree in African American Studies from the University of Wisconsin and her Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she focused on leadership development and non-profit management. Rachel lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn with her puggle, Della J. Beanz.