Marcela Howell is the Strategic Director for In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. She is a policy and communications consultant with Communications Consortium Media Center, a public interest media center dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations use media and new technologies as tools for public education and policy change. Ms. Howell works on domestic and international issues, including health care reform, CEDAW ratification, and a well-woman health standard. She also works on outreach to women of color and young women, and strategic communications analysis.

Ms. Howell has a wealth of expertise in public policy, grassroots organizing, public education, and communications. A long-time activist on reproductive health and rights issues, she has worked in government at the local, state, and federal levels. Her efforts to expand the women’s movement in California led to her serving in a number of leadership positions within the movement, including being elected to two terms as chair of the Women’s Caucus of the California Democratic Party, serving on the board of directors of NARAL, Women’s Campaign Fund, and the California Women’s Vote Project. As a political consultant in California for over ten years, Ms. Howell specialized in helping women run for elected office.

Ms. Howell is the author of Walk in My Shoes: A Black Activists Guide to Surviving the Women’s Movement.