Ep 07: Christian Nunes, NOW: 100 Years, Creating a Village of Equity

Meet Christian Nunes, President of NOW (National Organization for Women) the second African American president in the organization’s history, the youngest person of color, and the youngest president in more than 40 years the the organization.  ERA Coaltion partner, NOW, is dedicated to its multi-issue and multi-strategy approach to women’s rights, and is the largest organization of feminist grassroots activists in the United States.  This week marks the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Equal Rights Amendment at Seneca Falls

Host Elisa Parker speaks with Nunes about her work for gender equity, mental health, coalition building for social justice.  She shares her personal stories leading as a woman of color in America, living with joy and purpose, the truths and burdens communities face and how we can all engage in activism at the grassroots level.  

Hosted by nationally acclaimed radio host and Equal Voices/ERA Coalition, Elisa Parker, Equality Talks bridges the intersections of equality, justice, and social activism to unify as a collective and change the status quo.  

Equality Talks focuses on the key facets of equality across all communities, including everything from gender, racial, economic and reproductive justice, to labor, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ rights. Programming for the month of July highlights health and wellness, reproductive justice, liberty and freedom and members of the Congressional ERA Caucus.

For more information on Equality Talks go to www.ERACoaltion.org and www.EqualVoice.org. 

The ERA Coalition was founded in 2014 to bring concerted, organized action to the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA Coalition has a sister organization, the Fund for Women’s Equality, which promotes public education and outreach on the need for constitutional equality. Composed of more than 290 organizations across the country representing millions of people, the Coalition is a movement of movements focused on overall equality in the United States.  

While the effort to amend the constitution to include sex equality began nearly a century ago, our renewed efforts are centered on women of color (African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Latina, and Native American), gender-nonconforming and transgender women and girls, and nonbinary people – those who are most impacted by systemic inequities.  

 
www.eracoalition.org | www.fundforwomensequality.org

About Christian:

Christian F. Nunes, MBA, MS, LCSW,  became NOW president in August 2020. She was previously appointed Vice President by the board in May 2019. As the second African American president in the organization’s history, the youngest person of color, and the youngest president in more than 40 years, Nunes is leading the organization through an intersectional lens, bringing a diverse coalition of grassroots activists to work against structural sexism and racism.

Christian is a former NOW board member and committee chair, as well as a licensed clinical social worker, consultant, and woman-minority business owner. She is an active community organizer and public speaker, regularly featured at events such as the March for Black Women, Women’s March Events, and rallies around the country in support of the Equal Rights Amendment and immigration rights.  Along with her activism for mental health, Christian has more than 20 years of experience advocating for children’s and women’s issues.

Since assuming a leadership role at NOW, Christian has launched key initiatives such as the Unlock the Future campaign, which demands humane treatment for detained immigrant families, in particular women and girls seeking refuge from sexual violence, assault, and poverty. She led the creation of a Bill of Rights for Immigrant Women and Girls, which has been signed by thousands of supporters and cosponsors. She is also spearheading racial equity training for all levels of the organization, including NOW’s grassroots membership.

Christian launched NOW’s Racial Justice Summit in 2020 and has recently launched the 100 days of the Feminist Agenda Campaign in partnership with Black Women’s Blueprint and is planning webinar training institute for NOW members that will cover various topics.

Throughout her career, Christian has played an integral role in the drafting of policy positions with local and national coalition partners, including a recent collaboration with the National Coalition for the Homeless to draft legislation to provide housing, childcare, and supportive services for individuals in need, with a particular focus on homeless women and girls.

Christian is the founder of a behavioral health and consulting practice, where she assisted social service and behavioral health companies, as well as provided direct mental health services to individuals and families. Her expertise in mental health helps her to understand the direct experience of constituents and understand where policy and legislation is disconnected from the real experience of the people. “It helps me become a better activist and advocate, as well as understand the pieces that are often missing in policy and legislation,” Christian says.

As an advocate for social justice and mental health policy, she took up the role as Chair of the Mayor’s Commission on Disability Issues and co-authored a community survey on police response to crisis. Additionally, she has worked tirelessly to elect progressive candidates to school boards and local office positions.

Christian is often featured in media outlets including MSNBC, Business Insider, PRISM, Politico, the Huffington Post, Ebony, Black Enterprise magazine, Yahoo News, and many more national and local outlets. She received her bachelor’s degree in Social Work (BSW) from Northern Arizona University, her Master of Science degree from Columbia University, and her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Phoenix.

NOW (National Organization for Women)

As the grassroots arm of the women’s movement, the National Organization for Women is dedicated to its multi-issue and multi-strategy approach to women’s rights, and is the largest organization of feminist grassroots activists in the United States. NOW has hundreds of chapters and hundreds of thousands of members and activists in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since our founding in 1966, NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

Our priorities are winning economic equality and securing it with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will guarantee equal rights for women; championing abortion rights, reproductive freedom and other women’s health issues; opposing racism; fighting bigotry against the LGBTQIA community; and ending violence against women.

https://now.org