Media Contacts
Amaya Smith
Amaya Smith is vice president for marketing and communications at the National Partnership for Women & Families. In that role she oversees strategic messaging as well as digital and earned communications around issues important to women and families. These issues include reproductive justice, women’s health care and workplace fairness. Smith works to ensure that stakeholders and the public understand that women’s health and reproductive freedom is inextricably entwined with economic justice. Before joining National Partnership she served as Communications Director and Strategic Advisor to the President, at the AFL-CIO. Prior to joining the AFL-CIO Smith served as a Press Secretary for the American Association for Justice (AAJ). She also served as the South Carolina Press Secretary for the Obama for America campaign during the 2008 Democratic primary.
Smith developed experience working with diverse media outlets and constituencies as a Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic National Committee, where she handled press for the women’s, African American, labor, faith, college and youth communities. She got her start in legislative advocacy working for former Congressman Albert R. Wynn, her local representative. She served as a Communications Director for Congressman Wynn for four years and built relationships with Capitol Hill and Washington reporters. Smith is a graduate of American University and is originally from Silver Spring, Md. Her passion for social justice and women’s health comes from a mom who is a retired registered nurse and an eternal activist.
Amaya Smith
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
Dara Bean
Dara Bean is the senior director of experts and booking at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she works to publicize the work and research being done by the National Partnership by booking our president and experts on various platforms.
Prior to joining the National Partnership, Dara was an editorial producer for CNN “This Morning with Kasie Hunt,” where she curated compelling conversations, sourced diverse voices, and helped shape national narratives around today’s most pressing issues. Dara was also on the booking team for Chris Wallace’s CNN shows where she helped to facilitate the appearances of newsmakers, experts, and thought-leaders for both long-form interviews and weekly panel programming.
Before making the jump to CNN, she worked as a booking researcher for the NBC News centralized booking team with a focus on supporting breaking news coverage and discovering talent for the network’s landmark programming including the “TODAY” show, NBC “Nightly News,” and NBC News “NOW.” In addition to being a booking researcher researcher at NBC News, she also worked as a production assistant on “Stay Tuned,” the NBC News Snapchat program, and began her career as an NBC page at 30 Rock in New York City.
Dara has always had a passion for amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and providing platforms that showcase the range of human experience. She believes in the power of storytelling to encourage empathy and mutual understanding. Dara is a graduate of New York University and a native of Silver Spring, Maryland. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends and loved ones and keeping up with the latest pop culture craze.
Dara Bean
Senior Director of Experts and Booking
Llenda Jackson-Leslie
Llenda Jackson-Leslie is a senior communications specialist at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she works to showcase reproductive health and health care issues.
Prior to her work at the National Partnership, Llenda was a senior communications associate at McKinney & Associates, where she led campaigns on transformative justice, gender justice and health equity. Previously, she served as director of legislative communications for the American Civil Liberties Union where she managed communications initiatives to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.
A native Detroiter, Llenda served as communications director for Michigan’s largest trial court and marketing director for the Detroit Branch NAACP before moving to Washington, D.C.
Llenda Jackson-Leslie
Senior Communications Specialist, Health Justice
Gail Zuagar
Gail Zuagar is a senior communications specialist at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she works to amplify the organization’s economic justice work to a range of audiences. Prior to joining the National Partnership, Gail developed a passion for combining communications with advocacy and outreach in previous roles at The Education Trust and the National Women’s Law Center.
Gail earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University and her master’s degree in public relations and corporate communications from Georgetown University. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their children.
Gail Zuagar
Senior Communications Specialist, Economic Justice
For general inquiries, please email Emily Roe at eroe@nationalpartnership.org.
Press Statements
Virginia Paid Sick and Safe Leave Will Help Keep Workers Healthy and Thriving
"Today, we stand alongside Virginia’s hardworking advocates, workers and families to celebrate another historic and important win in the state, and to express deep gratitude to Governor Abigail Spanberger for signing paid sick and safe leave into law."
National Partnership for Women & Families Condemns EEOC’s Attempt To Eliminate Workforce Demographic Reporting Tied to Civil Rights Laws
"Today, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requested White House approval of a proposed rule to stop requiring many employers, contractors, unions, schools and governments to regularly report demographic workforce data to the federal government -- data that includes race, sex, and ethnicity of workers across certain categories."
More Than 18 Million Women Positively Impacted by Ability To Work From Home
"Telework can provide clear benefits for workers and employers, yet access to such opportunities is too often uneven and arbitrary," said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families and co-lead of The 75 Million.
New Analysis: More Than 30 Percent of Workers in the Most AI-Vulnerable Jobs Are Women of Color
A new report, “AI and Emerging Risks for Women Workers,” from the National Partnership for Women & Families finds that artificial intelligence is reshaping women’s jobs and working conditions.
National Partnership for Women & Families Congratulates Virginia as Paid Leave Becomes Law
"This week, the Virginia legislature gave final approval to a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program in the Commonwealth, making Virginia the 15th state, including Washington, D.C., to enact a paid leave law and marking a major step forward for working families in the state."
News Coverage
What’s Driving up Childbirth Costs and How Families Can Plan Ahead – InvestigateTV
“The estimated out-of-pocket costs for most mothers are $2,700 with insurance, according to Erin McKay, managing director of health justice at the National Partnership for Women & Families. Without insurance, those costs are typically $19,000.
“McKay said the financial challenges facing parents having a child is something many families are running into.
“’Nothing in the health care system is simple. But the two main reasons that I keep coming back to with regard to the high costs of childbirth are because we are paying for care that does not improve care for moms and babies, and a scarcity of reproductive and maternal health care drives up costs,’ McKay said.”
Once a Luxury for Moms, Doula Care Is Going Mainstream – Associated Press
“In 2006, 3% of women in the U.S. got care from a doula during labor, according to a survey conducted for the nonprofit Childbirth Connection, now a program of the National Partnership for Women & Families. That figure has doubled or tripled since then, researchers estimate.”
Paid Family Leave Receives Bipartisan Push in Ohio Senate – The Center Square
“Unlike the newly proposed benefits, FMLA’s primary purpose is job protection, allowing employees to take time off without fear of losing their jobs. Whether pay or short-term disability insurance is offered while eligible employees use FMLA varies by employer. The National Partnership for Women and Families says only about 60% of Ohioans are eligible for FMLA.
“The new bill would promise to deliver a benefit to the 77% of workers, or about 4.5 million people according to the organization, in Ohio who currently are not eligible for paid leave through their employers.
“’The lack of paid leave has devastating costs for Ohioans and their families and for the entire state’s economy by shrinking the workforce and lowering productivity, cutting workers’ incomes and harming public health amid a scarcity of reproductive and maternal health care,’ wrote the organization in February.”
Why Paid Sick Leave Is a DEI Issue – HR Dive
“More than 6 million Black women, or 57% of Black women in the workforce, live in ‘pre-emption states,’ according to a March report from the National Partnership for Women & Families, A Better Balance and the 75 Million. This term describes states where laws on the books don’t mandate paid sick leave and bar local governments from passing their own paid sick day laws.
“‘Instead, [Black women] are being forced to shoulder caregiving and breadwinning responsibilities without the most basic workplace safeguards,’ Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families and co-lead of The 75 Million said in a statement. Pre-emption states are harmful for Black women and harmful overall, because Black women have some of the highest rates of labor force participation in the U.S., Frye said.
“‘Black women are disproportionately suffering from a lack of access to paid sick days, and are often forced to make impossible choices between their health and paycheck as a result,’ she added.”
How Blue States Got Around the GOP’s Efforts to Ban Abortion in Red States – Mother Jones
“’So far, 22 states and Washington, DC, have created some version of shield protections; eight of those states, including New York and California, have adopted laws that explicitly protect people who provide or facilitate abortion care via telemedicine. The laws have proven to be ‘one of the strongest tools that reproductive freedom advocates have to protect abortion access in a post-Roe reality,’ says Ashley Kurzweil, a senior policy analyst at the National Partnership for Women & Families. ‘It’s painfully obvious that anti-abortion extremists are targeting shield laws because they are working.’”
