Dawn Laguens
Dawn Laguens | |
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| Occupation | LGBT rights activist  |
Dawn Laguens (born 1964) is the former executive vice president and chief brand officer of Planned Parenthood and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.[1][2][3][4] She is vice chair of LPAC, the LGBTQ+ social justice and women's equality super PAC.[5] She is strategic advisor at Redshift Leadership and the Vaid Group.[6] As of 2019, she is also the expert-in-residence at IDEO.[7] Additionally, she is a writer and filmmaker,[8] having served as executive producer of Across the Line, a virtual reality look at the personal experience of getting access to abortion, that debuted at Sundance in 2016. She has been published in Time,[9] New York,[10] the Anchorage Daily News,[11] and on Refinery29,[12] Medium,[13] The Daily Beast,[14] Salon.com,[15] the podcast Queery,[16] and other outlets. She has also appeared on CNN,[17] NPR,[18][19] CBS,[20][21] and other media.
Early life
[edit]Laguens grew up in a middle-class family in Louisiana. Lyndon B. Johnson happened to be at her baptism and held her briefly, a fact to which her family later jokingly attributed her Democratic affiliation. She has stated that she was "always pretty political" and "way more liberal than probably my whole family." Her early activism dates to when she was in third grade; she started a student council due to unfair playground rules that discriminated against the female pupils.[citation needed]
Career
[edit]Laguens was mentored early on by Ron Chisholm of the anti-racist, multicultural organization People's Institute for Survival and Beyond and Sister Helen Prejean, the Roman Catholic nun who was a leading advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.[22] During this time, Laguens helped run an organization while she learned on the job. She went on to manage the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism's campaign against Klansman David Duke.[23]
Through late 2010, Laguens ran a Democratic political consulting firm. She also served Planned Parenthood as a brand consultant for ten years before being recruited to serve full-time as executive vice president and chief brand officer,[24] a post she took in January 2011. She remained with the organization through 2018. During her tenure, she led the organization through numerous programs and initiatives, such as resisting 21 Trump-Pence congressional attacks to defund Planned Parenthood; growing the organization from 2 million to 12 million members; helping develop a period tracker app for the organization; promoting and expanding access to birth control across 50 states; developing the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the organization's political advocacy branch, and more.[25]
After her departure from Planned Parenthood, Laguens became strategic advisor at Redshift Leadership and the Vaid Group and the expert-in-residence at IDEO.
Laguens has been a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival,[26] Lesbians Who Tech,[7] the BE Conference,[27] and other events.
Personal life
[edit]Laguens is married to Jennifer Treat. The couple has triplet daughters, Katherine "Kate", Hallett, and Sydney Treat, who were born in 1998.[28][29][30]
Awards
[edit]- Boston University School of Public Health's Beyond Health Award (2018)[28]
- Clio Award[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ "Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood's Executive Vice President, Steps Down". HuffPost. November 13, 2018.
- ^ Future of StoryTelling
- ^ "Planned Parenthood executive on the future of Roe v. Wade". MSN. January 22, 2019. Archived December 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Abutaleb, Yasmeen; Humer, Caroline (January 19, 2018). "President Trump Revokes Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections". Time. Reuters.
- ^ "Who We Are".
- ^ "Dawn Laguens". Redshift Leadership.
- ^ a b "Dawn Laguens". Lesbians Who Tech + Allies. Archived from the original on April 25, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
- ^ "Dawn Laguens".
- ^ "Dawn Laguens". Time.
- ^ "Get Ready for the Next Phase in Planned Parenthood's Fight Against Trump". New York. February 14, 2018.
- ^ "Dawn Laguens". Anchorage Daily News. August 30, 2014.
- ^ "Dawn Laguens's Recent Articles". Refinery29.
- ^ "Tonight's Democratic debate: Stop overlooking LGBTQ women". Medium. October 10, 2019.
- ^ Laguens, Dawn (October 12, 2012). "Women, Don't be Fooled: Mitt Romney Will End Safe and Legal Abortion". The Daily Beast.
- ^ "Topic: Dawn Laguens". Salon.com.
- ^ "Dawn Laguens, episode #34 of Queery with Cameron Esposito on Earwolf".
- ^ "V.P. of Planned Parenthood defends organization". CNN. August 4, 2015.
- ^ "With Kavanaugh Confirmed, Both Sides of Abortion Debate Gear up for Battle". NPR.org. NPR.
- ^ Kelly, Amita (August 27, 2015). "Planned Parenthood Fights Back". NPR.
- ^ "Planned Parenthood VP: Concerned "hateful rhetoric" is contributing to violence". CBS.
- ^ "Planned Parenthood executive on the future of Roe v. Wade". CBS.
- ^ From the Network: Dawn Laguens's Couch Conversation, Alum News, Job Postings, and Much More – Rockwood Leadership Institute. Event occurs at 3:55.
- ^ "Politics / Ex-Klansman Targeted: Duke a Surprise Unifying Force in Louisiana Politics: A wide range of factions have joined together to oppose the ex-Ku Klux Klan leader's bid for the U.S. Senate". Los Angeles Times. July 24, 1990.
- ^ "Why Planned Parenthood's Executive Vice President is Fighting to Close the Gender Gap". Forbes.
- ^ "Dawn Laguens Stepping Down at Planned Parenthood". The Advocate. November 15, 2018.
- ^ "Dawn Laguens". Aspen Ideas Festival.
- ^ "The BE Conference: Dawn Laguens". TheWrap. 2018.
- ^ a b "'Every One of Those Fights Made Us Stronger'". Boston University School of Public Health. September 20, 2018.
- ^ "Museum banners turned into high art in the home". March 22, 2008.
- ^ "How a Planned Parenthood leader talks to her kids about sex". July 19, 2016.