Nancy L. Cohen, founding director of the Gender Equity Policy Institute, is an award-winning author, historian, and leading national expert on gender in the United States. She is the author of four books, including Delirium: The Politics of Sex in America, on anti-feminism and political polarization; Breakthrough: The Making of America’s First Woman President, on the history of women and political representation in contemporary America; and The Reconstruction of American Liberalism, 1865-1914, on social unrest and inequality in the formative years of contemporary America. Her reporting and commentary have been published in a wide range of outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.

Specializing in the intersection of gender, labor, and environmental policy, Cohen has served on local and state commissions and as a consultant on gender policy to elected officials, government agencies, and some of the nation’s leading labor, feminist, and environmental organizations. Previously she held teaching and research positions in history and political science at UCLA, Cal State Long Beach, CUNY, and elsewhere. She holds a PhD in U.S. history from Columbia University.

Chantel Johnson is the Senior Director of External Affairs at the Gender Equity Policy Institute where she oversees government affairs and community outreach. Johnson brings a wealth of experience to the position, having served as a public servant in the California State Senate, Assembly, and Lieutenant Governor’s Office. Most recently, she served as the Chief of Staff to the Senior Vice President of External Affairs at Blue Shield of California. Johnson has also held roles in human services, health care, and social justice advocacy that have resulted in significant policy, practice, and cultural changes.

Chantel is passionate about the empowerment of women and underserved populations. She is an active volunteer with Girl Scouts, mentors young professionals through She Shares, and serves on the board of the YMCA of Superior California. She had been a recipient of the Sacramento Observer “30 under 30” award, honored by the Sac Cultural Hub as an Exceptional Woman of Color, and named by Comstock’s magazine as a young professional to watch.

Chantel received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from California State University East Bay and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.

Natalia Vega Varela is Director of Policy at the Gender Equity Policy Institute. She has experience in international development, development policy, macroeconomics, and feminist economic analysis. She has collaborated with international institutions, non-profits and think tanks in the U.S. and Mexico. Vega holds an M.A in International Development from the New School, where she focused her research on inequality and gender in Latin America and Africa. She joined GEPI in 2021.

Michelle Adams is the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. She is a leading national expert on racial justice issues. She is the author of The Containment: Detroit, The Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North (forthcoming 2024). Her legal scholarship has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the California Law Review, and many other journals. She served as a Commissioner on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, and has served as a board member for the Innocence Project. Adams holds a JD from City University of New York Law School and an LLM from Harvard Law School.

Emily Alejos is Chief Investment Officer and a Senior Managing Director of Cartica, a majority women-owned investment firm focused on small and mid-cap companies in emerging markets. Alejos is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the Asia Society and the CFA Institute. She is a co-leader and member of the Women’s Circles at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and active in Stanford’s Scholars of Finance, which helps develop the next generation of leaders in finance to lead from a strong grounding in principles and ethics. Alejos holds an MBA and a Certificate in Public Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Stella Maloyan is principal of Stellar Strategies LLC. Prior to starting her own company, Maloyan served as Development Director at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) for 18 years, creating and overseeing the organization’s private fundraising programs and events. She has served as a mayoral appointee on the L.A. Convention and Tourism Development Board of Commissioners and on the boards of the Program for Torture Victims and the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Southern California District. Maloyan holds a Master of Public Administration from California State University, Northridge.

Victor Griego is the founder and board president of Water Education for Latino Leaders (WELL). He is also the producer of LA Alliance, a program that examines the relationships among Latino and Black southern Californians, and provides a forum for positive and constructive dialogue on common issues and concerns. Over the past 30 years, he has advised many California labor unions on community and political issues, and he previously held the position of staff director for the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union. Griego serves as vice president of the board of directors of the Miguel Contreras Foundation and chairs its Community and Business Council. He is also member of the executive council of AARP-California. He holds an MA in political science from Claremont Graduate University.

Myriam Shiran is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Computational Social Science Lab at Purdue University, focusing on the application of computational and quantitative methods to study mass and elite behavior. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Houston, where her research centered on women’s political participation, with a specific interest in conservative backlash against the entrance of women into politics, and environmental justice. Her work has been published in journals such as Energy Policy and Environmental Politics. Shiran is also a student fellow for the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP).

Norman Ornelas Jr. is a Research Fellow at the Gender Equity Policy Institute. He is currently pursuing a dual-title PhD in Geography and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University and has research interests in political economy, labor, and socioeconomic inequalities along the lines of race, gender, and sexuality. He previously worked as a planner in Los Angeles and has experience in project management and policy research on land use and urban economics. He holds a Masters in Urban Planning from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography with a Minor in Sociology from California State University, Long Beach.

Jennifer M. Piscopo is Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London. Her research on representation, gender quotas, and legislative institutions in Latin America has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and many other journals. She is co-editor of The Impact of Gender Quotas (Oxford University Press, 2012). Piscopo has extensive research experience in Latin America and has consulted for international organizations, such as UN Women and the Inter-parliamentary Union, as well as for national governments. Her op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, among other outlets. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.

Clare Weber is Professor of Sociology at California State University, San Bernardino. Her research has focused on international human rights, globalization, transnational feminism, and community organizing from a multicultural perspective. She is the author of Visions of Solidarity: US Peace Activists in Nicaragua, from War to Women’s Activism and Globalization and co-editor of Cultural Politics in the 21st Century: Global Resistance and Community based Social Movements in the Americas. Prior to her academic career, Weber worked as a community organizer. She was a human rights investigator in Central America during the civil wars of the 1980s, a Regional Coordinator for the international Human Rights Organization, Witness for Peace, and coordinator of a campaign to legalize street vending in Los Angeles. Weber holds a PhD in Social Relations from the University of California, Irvine.

Alec Clott is a social science researcher with a focus on data analysis and statistics, research design, and politics. Clott earned his PhD in Political Science from Ohio State University with a substantive focus on the politics of education in the Global South. His research has employed both quantitative (survey, large-N data analysis, modeling, and predictive analyses) and qualitative research methods. Previously, Clott served as GEPI’s first Director of Data Analysis. He is currently a Senior Principal at Gartner.