The Ford/Hill Project

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 @ 7:30p
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 @ 3:00p

Scarlett Macías, Esq., MPH (she/her), is a public health attorney and serves as Director of Policy and External Affairs for the Bureau of Maternal, Infant, and Reproductive Health at the New York City Health Department. Grounded in a reproductive justice framework, her work focuses on advancing and protecting access to reproductive health care, including abortion, through policy development, legislative advocacy, and public communications. In her role, Scarlett monitors and analyzes legal and policy developments affecting reproductive health care and access at the local, state, and federal levels and helps shape the Bureau’s policy agenda and external affairs strategy.

Since joining the NYC Health Department in 2016, Scarlett has worked across HIV care policy, infectious disease policy, and emergency public communications during the COVID-19 response. She holds degrees from Columbia University and UC Irvine and earned her Juris Doctor from New York Law School while attending part-time evening courses and working full time at the NYC Health Department. She was admitted to practice law in New York in 2023 and previously served as a pro bono attorney with the Safe Passage Project, representing undocumented children in their asylum proceedings.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 @ 2:00p

Maryam Mohammed-Miller is a community development and government relations professional with over ten years of experience in advocacy and fighting for marginalized communities. Born and raised in the Bronx, NY to Nigerian & Ghanaian parents, Maryam has committed herself to advocacy work that grows resources for women and families throughout New York City. Additionally, Maryam is leading advocacy campaigns that are rooted in Reproductive Justice to highlight issues impacting Black women, marginalized genders, and their families. She holds a bachelor's degree in history and international studies from the City College of New York and a master's degree in public administration from Baruch College. Most recently, Maryam was the Advocacy Manager for the Vera Institute of Justice's Initiative to End Girls' Incarceration where she worked on state and national advocacy campaigns aimed at disrupting pathways to incarceration for girls and gender expansive youth. Maryam currently works at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York as the Director of Government Relations where she works to drive policy aimed at safeguarding reproductive freedom in New York state.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 @ 3:00p

Bobby Hodgson is the assistant legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, where he works on statewide civil rights and civil liberties impact litigation. He first joined the NYCLU in 2013 as a Skadden Fellow litigating and advocating on behalf of LGBTQ students, and he has worked extensively on advocacy related to LGBTQ rights. Other ongoing work includes litigation focused on immigrants’ rights, police misconduct, and transparency.

Prior to working at the NYCLU, Hodgson was a law clerk to Judge David O. Carter of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Harvard College.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 @ 7:30p

Erika Sasson is an attorney and practitioner who designs and facilitates restorative justice processes. Her work is focused on piloting restorative frameworks for complex harm, including for intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and homicide. She also consults on long-term projects with organizations in New York City and around the country who want to create restorative justice programming, or who need to navigate complex dynamics in pursuit of a healthier workplace. Erika’s work is anchored by her experiences learning directly from Native American peacemakers from across North America. Among her current projects, Erika is working with Violence Intervention Program—NYC’s only Latinx-led nonprofit focused on providing culturally-specific services to Latinx survivors of domestic and sexual violence—to create a localized restorative justice program tailored to the needs of their community. Erika is a 2023 recipient of The David Prize for extraordinary New Yorkers.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 @ 2:00p

Ilse Knecht is the Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Joyful Heart Foundation, one of the nation’s leading organizations working toward comprehensive rape kit reform. She is recognized across the country as an expert on ways to maximize the potential of DNA technology to solve and prevent crime. For the past 16 years, she has worked at the National Center for Victims of Crime in the public policy department and has long served as project manager for the National Center’s DNA education initiative. As part of this project, Ms Knecht led the Center’s efforts to reform policies and practices related to the testing of rape kits. She was the project director for a three-year Office on Violence Against Women Training and Technical Assistance grant to ensure a victim-centered response to the problem of backlogged and untested sexual assault kits (SAKs). The goal of the project was to give communities the tools they need to create a victim-sensitive approach to SAK backlog reduction. As part of this project, Ms Knecht hosted more than 12 webinars, organized trainings, and created resources for the field. She authored several brochures about the use of DNA in the criminal justice system, including a brochure for victims, “Sexual Assault Kit Testing: What Victims Need to Know,” and one for advocates and law enforcement, “Why Test Rape Kits After the Statute of Limitations Has Expired? A Victim‐Centric Approach.” She has served on several advisory committees for projects related to sexual assault, forensic exams, and sexual assault response teams and has spoken extensively in the media about these issues.